Death of Whirlpool (was "Death of Amana")

[cowtime]

side-by-side.

Not as much usable space nor as energy efficient as a bottom drawer freezer...

[anniemcu]

Four years old and it dies?? Man, that sucks. I have to go home to check what Consumer Reports says about Amanas, but that would discourage me from buying one. And we are close to getting a new refer.

Amanas are highly rated by Consumer Reports. You know, this is more evidence to support this theory that's been shaping up in my head for some time now. Consumer Reports is, uh, overrated. Seriously, I can think of many, many examples of times I've gone with their recommendations and over time came to believe I could have done a lot better.

Yeah, but... this is the first time I've ever heard of an Amana failing when it isn't as old as dirt. Honestly, I've heard of them from waay long ago, and they are very highly regarded. Of course, I can't claim ultimate authority on appliances, , but I do pay attention.

[kkrell]

Yeah, but... this is the first time I've ever heard of an Amana failing when it isn't as old as dirt. Honestly, I've heard of them from waay long ago, and they are very highly regarded. Of course, I can't claim ultimate authority on appliances, , but I do pay attention.

Have you paid attention to the mergers and acquisitions? Now owned by Whirlpool (as is Maytag).

Kevin Krell

[kkrell]

side-by-side.

Not as much usable space nor as energy efficient as a bottom drawer freezer...

Still, Dale already has a side-by-side. BTW, that's all that would fit in our kitchen, unless we wanted to sit on the stove. And ours has quite a bit of usable space, and is energy efficient. Plus we were able to remove the icemaker (which we don't use) and gain a shelf, and because of the design, has more usable door shelves as well. Since we eat a lot of fresh food (not frozen pizzas, etc.), we especially wanted one with a lot of room in the refrigerator section, and deep drawers. Frigidaire was the closest in terms of internal size, but has a bad repair record. For that matter, our previous Frigidaire was none too reliable for frozen foods, despite service calls from the beginning. The Samsung has separate coils for the freezer and refrigerator sides, which makes temperatures stable and controls humidity. It's been well worth it to us.

Kevin Krell

[cowtime]

We had to finally special order what we wanted primarily because we did not want an ice maker. It seems like everyone I know who has one has had trouble with the ice maker. Anyway, I wanted no icemaker, bottom drawer freezer, one top door, the can rack and the drawer is under the veg/fruit drawers that is wide enough to hold a pizza or what ever big tray I might have.

In my dreams this is the fridge I really, really, really want-




or this one would do-



to go with my dream stove- I did leave room for one of these when we restored the kitchen-

[Daniel_Bingamon]

Well, I figured that the thread would have been something like, "C&F buys out Amana"

[I.D.10-t]

The thing I don't understand is that I looked for the definition of durable goods, and three years keeps popping up. I thought it was much longer than that. Heck, I thought that a refrigerator would come with a five year warranty.

[gonzo914]

Have you paid attention to the mergers and acquisitions? Now owned by Whirlpool (as is Maytag).

Yep. Maytag acquired Amana in 2001 and then in turn was acquired by Whirlpool in 2006. Whirlpool immediately started moving manufacturing to Mexico, effectively gutting the economies of places like Galesburg, Illinois, a town of 34,000 that saw 1600 jobs move south.

I'm afraid the days of the 20-year Maytag washers and Amana refrigerators is at an end. Many appliances with a Maytag label are now just rebranded Whirlpools, and you won't ever again see a Maytag or an Amana of the quality your parents and grandparents had.

I'd suggest you start checking the used furniture stores and estate sales. A five-year-old Maytag or Amana might be quite a bargain, lack of warranty notwithstanding.

Just one of a number of Maytag complaint sites

And let's not leave out Amana

[The Weekenders]

The thing I don't understand is that I looked for the definition of durable goods, and three years keeps popping up. I thought it was much longer than that. Heck, I thought that a refrigerator would come with a five year warranty.

I'm sure the appliance store would like to SELL you a five-year warranty, these days.

I had my first experience with sidebyside bottom drawer freezer whilst on my East Coast vacation. The other Weekender's son has a new GE Profile stainless model. What I found very disturbing about the bottom drawer is that there is no gravity induced way that the drawer slides shut and you can't see the seal when it's closed. Consequently, the drawer was not quite closed and the ice cream got soft. You have to pile everything carefully or its just like a dresser drawer, stuff gets jammed at the top and interuppts the smooth closure.

I don't know about other brands but the lack of a positive feel for closing that drawer was a turn-off for me. Typically with a door, you set the hinge or chassis slightly askew so that doors want to fall closed and that helps retain the seals. i do like the side by side door feature, especially as we have a 70s galley kitchen and the shorter doors actually would allow another person to pass if open. We'll probably get one.

We have a freezer in the garage. Frankly, I wish I could get just a refrigerator without a freezer but all seem to be of the commercial models, big and noisy. I don't use the freezer in our refer much because its frostless and degrades the food quickly (with its heat cycle).

[anniemcu]

Yeah, but... this is the first time I've ever heard of an Amana failing when it isn't as old as dirt. Honestly, I've heard of them from waay long ago, and they are very highly regarded. Of course, I can't claim ultimate authority on appliances, , but I do pay attention.

Have you paid attention to the mergers and acquisitions? Now owned by Whirlpool (as is Maytag).

Kevin Krell

Obviously, I shut my eyes that day. OK... I'll drop the defense of Amana, since it no longer *is* Amana...

[Dale]

First of all, in spite of the appearance of a prominent logo on the front that says "Whirlpool," my mind tricked me into believing that it was an Amana. It is a Whirlpool. Normally, I'm sure my lawyer (Dr. Paul Busman--not a licensed attorney, but a whistlemaker, podiatrist, AND R.N., and all of that adds up to some serious street cred) would advise me to apologize to the Amana people, but since the Amana people and the Maytag people and the Whirlpool people are All One, I'll just let it go.

Called Mr. Appliance (DBA The Appliance Doctor). I must say I had a fine experience with them. They arrived early, quickly diagnosed the problem "Sir, you have a bad current relay.") and repaired it on the spot for $187. Yeah, yeah, I know. The part cost them a fraction of that but, all-in-all, in today's market, I'm pleasantly surprised.


This device cost me $187, not counting all the food I had to throw out. And having to endure, needlessly, a series of "Amana" jokes.

The tech told me that refrigerators of late vintage have a life expectancy of 10 to 15 years with an average of 1.5 service calls.

So, there you go.

It is 105 degrees Fahrenheit in Birmingham, Alabama.

[Jack]

It is 105 degrees Fahrenheit in Birmingham, Alabama.

It's 107 in central Kentucky. How'd that happen?

[The Weekenders]

Maytag people and the Whirlpool people are All One, I'll just let it go.

Called Mr. Appliance (DBA The Appliance Doctor). I must say I had a fine experience with them. They arrived early, quickly diagnosed the problem "Sir, you have a bad current relay.") and repaired it on the spot for $187. Yeah, yeah, I know. The part cost them a fraction of that but, all-in-all, in today's market, I'm pleasantly surprised.

.

Isn't it weird that we have reached the point that paying that kind of money, but knowing what it supposedly was, is somehow comforting compared to the alternatives??

The other Weekender has a a fairly new 07 Subaru which has a mysterious power drain that left her with a dead battery. She took it in, the dealer claimed it was a bad certain expensive part, that required authorization (and a day's wait) to replace from Subaru USA. But then, they charged the battery, and couldn't duplicate the power drain so, after three days sitting on it, decided not to do the replacement. They ended up giving her a new battery, but there is no guarantee that it won't happen again, just that, if it does, she will be inconvenienced some more. That is the kind of scenario that hopefully you avoided. But it's all too common and often you are at the mercy of the factory-authorized locals and all that implies.

[Alan]

As to appliance repairs I think you Maytag them as just a Whirlpool of deceit for Amana these times.

[kkrell]

As to appliance repairs I think you Maytag them as just a Whirlpool of deceit for Amana these times.

One small step for...