About to purchase my first ever new fridge.
Wanting advice specifically on the following points:
- Is there a particular brand to avoid?
- How to get a good deal from retailers? seems like listed price is what it is these days, do any places offer negotiation?
is there much difference in tech between models?
Looking at a max budget of 1.5k and bottom mount fridge freezer with dimensions of 630mm W x 1720mm H
Cheers :)
A few years back I did a lot of research on fridges and concluded Mitsubishi made the best french door style fridge.
I'ev seen a lot of info about samsung essentially being midea.
on '- How to get a good deal from retailers?'. Just ask. Some brands have fixed incentives with a price floor so I'd just go as close to that as I could as a salesperson without having to involve the manager. You WILL get it cheaper in store. At the very least it will be free delivery, and if you live in a slightly awkward place get that if you can haha.Frankly, if a salesperson isnt offering you a discount or something free then they're a waste of the stores time and you may as well order online.
Start with a gold card / csc card / n3 card / motorhome card at noel leeming and go from there. Nobody should ever pay the non discounted price, it's obviously going to be marked up like hell (comparing to sale price)
Extended warranty on whiteware is almost worthless at noel leeming, a little better at HN because it's a replacement afaik.
Yes your right if you get a good sales person he will explain you how much mark up they have and how mu h they can discount
I worked with a guy who would go down the minimum selling price + incentive list with customers and explain exactly how much he was getting paid per unit and the regular price.
End of the month every time. There may be a bonus if they meet or exceed their targets- that creates motivation for sales
I have LG 420 Litre Fridge Freezer since 4 years. No issues and great size.
Couple of my friends have samsung and no complaints as well.
Can vote for that LG fridge. Have the older version of that one (different model code but same form factor/size/shape?) since 2017. Working really well. The only downside (my fault anyway), is the plastic tray on the freezer section rely on the small indentation so broke when I overfilled my tray. But otherwise no complaints
Have same version of lg fridge, perhaps earlier model?
Its been running well for 6+ years.
Don't go for basic Haier they are horrible as in they are so called manual thermostats they are extremely inaccurate
Just like Fisher & Paykel, they are pretty much the same now.
One thing to keep in mind is that more features means more things to fail, fridge with no features are substantially more reliable than those with ice makers.
For me the most important thing was using the space I had well. The space for a fridge was pretty small and getting the most available volume in that space was the most important thing. For me that ended up being Mitsubishi and its been a good fridge so far (only 6 months old so cant comment too much.) Note that you do need space around the fridge for cooling and just to make it accessible so you cant just COMPLETELY fill the space.
I'd also look at energy efficiency ratings, better ratings likely mean that it's better built, efficiency isnt free and if they went to effort to engineer it to be more efficient they probably engineered to be reliable.
Extended warranties are a waste of money, CGA will cover you for anything an extended warranty will, specially with appliances where a reasonable expected life of appliances is >5 years
Extended warranties are a waste of money,
Here here,
… although the big thing they'll tell you is no-fault fees… But that's actually a pretty absurd selling point if you cut out the retailer entirely. Samsung DONT want to send someone to your house even if there's a chance it'd be billable as a no-fault-found especially if they're getting contracted guys out. The three faults then a replacement offer is there as well and does what it says on the tin but now that hoover stuff isnt available I dont think there are machines that unreliable at (say, Noel Leeming).
Another selling point for fridges and washers is laundry / food spoilage cover at noel leeming, but my understanding is that consequential loss is a cga thing anyway and I dont see how spoiled food due to a fridge failure doesnt fall under that umbrella (unless you know its failing and go put a whole deer in there or something)
I've seen some landlords get it to simplify the replacement process with tenants, I understand that I guess, but otherwise they prey on people not understanding why the CGA has grey areas, it's intentionally ambiguous as to not be gamed and to accommodate changes in products into the future.
Source : Worked for the 'cult of warranty' for a couple of years
How much space you need around fridge for cooling? Is it just the back or also the sides?
Iceland fridges are really power efficient I bought one just because of that, didnt actually need a new fridge. Because after working out the savings it would pay for itself in 4 years.
Check out the power rating efficiency stars.
Also I have a power measuring gadget for anyone curious the power star rating was spot on accurate, I'm guessing that applies to all appliances and their star rating
Iceland fridges are manual defrost ie it does not have a heating element to remove ice built up .
The most efficient fridge is from hisense 6 stars now also available in NZ but it's very expensive here compared to Australia
The F&P RF402 fridges are bombproof
I have them at work they last a life time
Had mine 8 years without issue before being destroyed in the cyclone flooding. Will probably buy the new version again when I get in to my new house.
Yes I have just got one, but they are a little over the budget of the OP. Although probably worth upping the budget to get one.
Farmers have the Stainless one on sale for $1800ish at the moment. You might still be able to find white ones out there for cheaper?
Mine is stainless. I thought they all were? They had it for $1699 a few weeks ago but pricespy show other retailers have it for $1699. Harvey Norman may price match too.
how much space do you have? for where you're putting it. (your dimensions misses depth, is that of the space where you are putting it?)
Also is that budget include a secondary freezer (if you really want to save money on groceries and have meal prep'd food available), is that something you'd like?
Are you having the water piped in? (do you need ice maker etc)
Desikiwi is correct iceland fridges don't have a heating element one of the reasons they're so efficient. Had mine nearly 2 yrs and defosted it twice it's very easy just point a fan at it and put a couple of towels down to soak up the water, takes less than an hour and little effort
I highly recommend Mitsubishi - most importantly they are super reliable. I have had three Mitsubishi fridges in my life and have never had a problem with any of them (just had to upsize). Secondly my current one has two great features I couldn't live without - an automatic ice maker that doesn't need to be plumbed in (you fill up a tank of water and put it in a slot), and a third compartment for veggies between the main fridge and the freezer. This keeps veggies fresh for SOOOO LONG, lettuce lasts weeks, it's crazy. And you're not trying to somehow fit a whole cauliflower in your main compartment. At the upper end of your budget but worth it IMO: https://www.smithscity.co.nz/mitsubishi-electric-306l-two-dr…
I would agree Japanese style design is good for vegetables as in seperate drawer
I would try to avoid Midea or Iceland or Vogue brand.
yes they are cheaperrrrr to buy. but read the google reviews first before made your order. It will save you tons of trouble.
Agree with reading reviews totally. But something to be aware of is for example the trustpilot reviews of nz post and aramex are over 90% bad, but there's only a few hundred of each. The reason is everyone expects couriers to do the job and reviews only get posted when they don't, hence the terrible ratings. I suspect fridges could be similar but that's up to everyone to decide for themselves. Something to be aware of anyway
I got this one for $1700 which some retailers are selling it for. It however isn't the most efficient when comparing it to other brands. https://www.fisherpaykel.com/nz/cooling/refrigeration/contem…
F&P do tend to be pretty reliable and I have had others in the past, and it seems well made and looks good. A pity they are not made in NZ anymore. It has wifi and an app, but it is completely pointless because all it does is allow you to modify the temperatures anywhere in the world, but it doesn't actually tell you what the temperatures are.
Avoid Beko, ours has frosted up the back pretty much since day one. We only bought it because our flat had a tiny fridge space and it was the only one that would fit. Recently my partner left the freezer open over night and it stopped working - tried to find someone to fix it and and no one I could find fixes Beko. Luckily did some googling and ended up just turning the whole thing off for half an hour and it started working again, but yea if it breaks pretty sure we're just going to have to buy a new fridge
Get a Mitsubishi, they're the foremost experts in this stuff.
Also get a French Door instead of a side-by-side if you're going big. Space is actually a lot less in a side-by-side.
Ah, but their after sales service when things go wrong…never again for me!
Does anyone ever see good deals for fridges? I never see deals on fridges in the 300L range less than $800 among the good brands like LG.
I would recommend avoiding Midea. They seem to have a poor distribution of cold air, which means that some stuff in the fridge may be frozen, while others may become mouldy easily. Some fridges are quite loud as well, so it's best for you to test it in person if possible. Get a slightly bigger fridge than what you think you'd need.
I have brought many fridges/ freezers over the years- I would only buy a F & P nowadays- I had a Heier upright freezer that had 3 repairs in just over 2 years. Heier didn't see a problem with this. They eventually decided I was right and replaced it- after a lot of persuading- It lasted 3 years before failing, I then brought a second hand F & P the same day as I cant be bothered with the drama. So far, so good! Reliability in an appliance such as this for me is paramount.
Mitsubishi fridges are incredibly ugly in my opinion, but they have a very good track record.
I like F&P myself, even though they are owned by Haier, the brand is used as a higher-end offering, and the quality does reflect this. Solid build quality, great functional and aesthetic design, and they run very well.
A fridge that is easy to repair yourself, which means visible/ hidden screws which you can tell is "hidden" i.e behind a rubber seal and has youtube videos detailing how to take certain rails/ trim apart. So I'd stay away from any new F&P fridges as they have made it super hard to diy repair (coming from a mechanical engineer perspective - and I have also pointed this out at their job interviews).
I had a 2010 F&P fridge that was leaking water from behind - this was due to the condenser freezing and not dripping into the overflow, so I had to try get to the condenser behind the freezer trim (behind the draws) to flush the blockage (you can't flush it from the access panel at the back of the fridge). To get behind the plastic moulded body you need to take the freezer draws out, remove the rails and then remove the plastic freezer compartment mould but you cannot remove it without removing the draw rails. There are no screws on the rails. Ended up calling F&P service and a guy came out and said you have to push the trim outwards then grab it inwards and the rails come out with the trim? Super weird, but yeah wont recommend F&P
Older F&P fridges are okay. I'd recommend Samsung or Westinghouse as there are plenty of Youtube videos if something goes wrong and they don't hide their screws behind plastic trim as much as F&P (a subsidiary of Haier - so also dont go for Haier)
I guess im different regarding Midea. We have a stand up freezer that we got during lock down and its awesome. Never freezes over, never had 1 fault with it. Was so happy with it decided to get a midea washing machine and condenser dryer from Costco as our F&P crapped out after 5 years of service.
So far so good with the washer and dryer granted its only been 3 months but it gets used near daily in a 5 person house hold. Thankfully bought it at costco so if anything happens its going right back.
I bought a fridge this week and was able to negotiate a slightly better price but I also spent $4k so I think there's more wiggle room.
People seem to not rate Samsung appliances. I dislike the organisation of LG. I went with F&P.