380-500 litre fridge

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  GreatWhiteHunter on 14/05/2011 - 18:43

  A couple of likely looking contenders:

  F&P e381trt
  F&P e442brx
  Electrolux EBM5100SC-R
  Bosch KDN45X00AU

  • 

    StewBalls on 14/05/2011 - 23:14

    Check my reply to you other question too…I would be extremely wary of buying an upside down job, particularly F&Pos! Mine won't die, but it needs a new $100 10cm fan every year or two, I can replace it myself but it's a PITA!

    When I called a repair guy to fix mine when it first died a couple of months out of warranty, he knew exactly what the problem was before I even described it, and to my knowledge they haven't changed the flawed design! He told me how to fix it basically coz he was so sick of them & busy anyway! He hated F&P stuff, & said don't bother with it…nobody liked to repair it.

    Plus they are noisy as hell, it honestly sounds like it's got an icemaker in it going all night…that's part of the design flaw of the bottom-freezer models, ice forms & falls down the channel at the back, and often stops the fan spinning - et voila, burnt out fan motor! :(

    I can't really speak to many other brands, but I've had a great run out of any Westinghouse I've ever had in my family, still got a 30yo one in the shed as a beer fridge! :)

    My two cents, go the old standard top-freezer models & you'll have no dramas! The SBS models are pretty useless too, the design makes them narrow so you can't fit stuff all in! ;)

    • 

      llama on 14/05/2011 - 23:17

      Our bottom-freezer F&P is about 15 years old and the fan's never failed. And it doesn't make any noise and no ice ever forms inside it. Strange that you have had problems.

      • 

        StewBalls on 14/05/2011 - 23:30

        The ice forms when the fan blows the freezer air up the internal cold air channel to cool the fridge. It forms ice sheets, you can hear them break off & fall internally, just google it, it's really common & as said, why they fail! ;)

        Maybe yours is old enough to have a different design, but mine is only 6-8yrs old, and the biggest waste of $1600 in my life.

        When I first got it, I'd moved to a new house & honestly thought someone was breaking in, but eventually realised most burglars aren't that noisy! :p

• 

  llama on 14/05/2011 - 23:15

  Buy on Energy Rating, rather than initial cost. But remember that a 4-star 400 litre will probably use less power than a 5-star 500 litre, since the rating is adjusted by storage capacity.

  We have an older model 500 litre F&P with smallish bottom-mount freezer. I reckon it's too small - we have another fridge and another freezer too, and we're just a couple plus 1 kid!

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  GreatWhiteHunter on 14/05/2011 - 23:52

  Well Stewballs has got me seriously worried about the e442brx - the last thing I want to do is have noise and reliability issues.

  The E381TRT is an old school style white fridge that is a lot cheaper and might be a better bet for me. It seems Fisher and Paykel command a price premium over the other brands - hard to understand why if they are making POS that break down too quickly.

  Most FIsher and Paykel stuff is made in Thailand now but according to Choice the E381TRT is still made in NZ - not sure if that makes it better/worse or the same.

  My current fridge in a shared home is a E331TRT and it goes OK but tends to get everything in the freezer compartment very icy.

  Stewballs when your fan breaks, what happens - does the fridge stop being cool inside?

  • 

    StewBalls on 15/05/2011 - 02:46

    Stewballs when your fan breaks, what happens - does the fridge stop being cool inside?

    Basically, yep. The freezer still works fine but the fridge part doesn't really get cool at all. Once you get the fan out you'll be filthy too, it's like a $5 10cm PC fan, but F&P charge upwards of $100 for it…just coz it's got funny little rubber mounts! :(

    There's heaps of reviews online for these models, this is mine:
    http://www.productreview.com.au/p/fisher-paykel-e522brx-e522…

    Also check fixya, that's where I got the detailed instructions after my repair dude gave me the skinny on what was happening! Another great thing to do for advice is call a couple of service people before you buy, ask them what they reckon is good, they're the ones that see them day-in-day-out, they know what's a POS! ;)

    FWIW, icing up in the freezer just means the seals aren't working properly & it's sucking in moist air…spend a coupla hunnert on some new seals & she'll be right as rain; and both fridge & freezer will chew less power! ;)

    P.S. Upside down is a PITA anyway, the stuff in the fridge is always easy to get at in any fridge, esp coz you know where it is; it's the frozen bits of meat & stuff you've gotta dig around in the freezer for that make life hard…esp if you're crawling on your knees to conduct your dinnertime arctic archaeology! :p

    • 

      llama on 17/05/2011 - 12:03

      Mine is a model N500B and it has completely separate "coolers" for the fridge and freezer. There is no connection between the 2 at all, and the fridge has a separate cooling coils. The freezer has a fan (still working perfectly) and never ices up whatsoever, even after at least 15 years continuous operation.

• 

  wiz187 on 17/05/2011 - 01:18

  You will also find that a upside down will have a larger freezer than a tradition freezer top unit of the same total gross volume, for example - if unit is 4oolt total, traditional will be approx a 125lt freezer, where upside down will be more….

  • 

    StewBalls on 17/05/2011 - 01:41

    Not necessarily, that is not inherent in U/D fridge design; but often by necessity. Most people forget that those slide-out wire basket mechanisms actually take up quite a bit of your freezer real estate!

    No prize for guessing how they offset that loss! :)

    Here's a nice link for fridge buyers:
    http://www.choice.com.au/reviews-and-tests/household/kitchen…

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  TScott on 17/05/2011 - 17:57

  I think Samsung refrigerators made in Korea, are the best to go. I have had my last one for 20 years (yes 2 years older than me). So after it decided to break down (defrost problem, fridge will not cool, but freezer will ice up), I went out and bought another Samsung. The SR434MNP. FYI, that model is made in Korea. So far, it looks very stylish, clean (platinum finish so no hand prints on the steel finish) and smick. It's a little louder than my older fridge. But so far its LED lights, shelving and space has made it very welcoming to use. And has not given me the slightest problem from the start.

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  [Deactivated] on 17/05/2011 - 18:48

  +1

  I would suggest avoiding LG refrigerators at all costs, as there was an article last year by Choice highlighting a discrepancy in energy ratings, and they were later fined as a result for using illegal devices to try to improve their energy rating. The devices in the fridge detects subtle temperature changes, then runs them in some conservative energy mode, resulting in your food being spoiled.