Decontented - Kitchenaid French Door No Ice/Water in Door

11 years ago

We are shopping for a standard-depth french door fridge with no ice/water in the door, but the little water dispenser inside the fridge. We are considering the Samsung RF261BEAE or the KitchenAid Architect KBFS25EW. DH likes the American brands, and also we are very concerned with all the reports that if something goes wrong with the Samsung fridge, it is very difficult to source parts and that Samsung itself is completely uncooperative.

One store we went to did not have on the floor the KA FD without water/ice in the door, but did have several KA FDs with the water/ice in the door. We liked the interior of those, and the drawers and bins were better quality than the Whirlpool and Whirlpool Gold models on the floor. DH's pet peeve is when the drawers do not have rollers and the plastic is thin and seems easily breakable. The KA interior was nice, so our minds were made up, at least at that point.

Then we went to another store that did have the KA KBFS25EW on the floor. To our surprise, the interior was the same as the bottom-of-the-line Whirlpool. The freezer baskets were rickety too. It looks like KA completely de-contented for its standard-depth FD without ice/water in the door. What the hey?

We also like the Electrolux, but they do not offer a fridge that has an interior water dispenser. We will look at Kenmore - they appear to offer only one with interior water dispenser, the 72013 (looks to be a re-badged Whirlpool) to see if it has a nicer interior. Anyone know of a FD fridge without ice/water in the door, an interior water dispenser, and nice drawers/bins? (P.S. GE fridge is not in the running; been there, done that, never again)

Kitchenaid KBFS25EW FD Fridge

Kenmore 72013 FD Fridge

Comments (3)

mydreamhome
11 years ago
We have a Kenmore Elite badged Samsung fridge and love it. We needed a CD model, and at the time they didn't make the FD in CD so ours is a SxS. My grandparents have the FD full depth Samsung fridge with the dual freezer drawers. We have had 0 problems with our fridges and are very pleased with our purchase. Remember as you're reading reviews, that usually more people take the time to write negative reviews of products than people who are happy with their purchase. It's a way venting their frustration. Not to say that people who are happy with their purchase don't post reviews, just that unhappy people are more likely to post them. I would keep that in mind as you're reading reviews online.

I did a little research for you on the KA FD freezer drawers. It looks like they do offer the solid freezer drawers on the following model that includes your other specs. However, you lose some space as it's 19.6cuft vs the 24.8cuft you listed above (it's 30" wide vs. 36" wide).

KitchenAid Architect Series II KFFS20EY

These two models offer mats in the bottom of the wire freezer baskets-

KitchenAid Proline Series KFCP22EXMP

KitchenAid Architect Series II KFCS22EVMS

How important is the water dispenser to you? If you can live without it, you may want to consider this FD fridge from LG:

LG LFC25765

So it sounds like your choices are:
- Go with Samsung and get everything you want. On the off chance you need a repair you may have a delay.

-Go with a KA model with wire shelves in the freezer

-Go with the smaller KA fridge to get the solid shelves in the freezer, but sacrifice storage space

-Go with a KA model with in the door ice/water to get the solid freezer shelves without having to sacrifice space

-Go with a fridge like the LG to get the solid freezer shelves, but sacrifice the internal water dispenser

Hope this helps!
alwaysfixin
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you Mydreamhome for all your information, and insight. Two things we must have are 36" width (there is a cabinet surround), and interior water dispenser. That leaves us with the KA, Samsung and Kenmore.

I noticed that the Whirlpool Gold GX5FHTXVY is the only one that is 115V instead of 120V (noticed on ajmadison website). Wondering if it makes a difference in performance.
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dadoes
11 years ago
115v rating is no consequence. U.S. current is 120v standard. The electric circuit feeds voltage to the refrigerator (or whatever device is connected) at whatever voltage level is provided by the power company. There's no way for the device to "reject" the extra 5 volts and "take" only 115v on a 120v circuit.