Broken refrigerator: repair or replace?

[Tink-aholic]

I'm looking for advice and opinions, and my Budget Board friends have never let me down. On Saturday, my six year old refrigerator stopped working. The lights still work and the compressor fan still comes on (very frequently, actually). I just opened the freezer after not opening it all weekend and everything was thawed and warm (and dripping...yuck). It must have been warming up for a while, because I have lost power for days before and not opened the freezer and everything was still fine. The fridge was warm, too (all those leftovers -- gone!).

I called a local repair place and Sears repair yesterday, thinking that I would go with whomever could get to it sooner. Sears wanted to do a comprehensive appointment (check my stove and broken dishwasher, too), which would be December 10. Now, I have been handwashing dishes for a year and a half because I don't consider a dishwasher a necessity; but I DO consider a refrigerator one! We had to throw everything away and are living out of a cooler right now. The local guy left me a message stating that he could be at my house first thing this morning (he also had 214 great reviews online). So, I thanks Sears for their time and called the local guy back.

He left a message for me just after 11 on Sunday, but I was at the store buying ice and more milk and things and missed his call. I called him less than an hour later letting him know I wanted to make an appointment. I made arrangements to have someone else be available to go to the house and went to work. I hadn't heard from him by 9 this morning, so I left another message and another one at 11. By that time, I looked online and found another repair person (no reviews online) and got him over to take a look. He took one look, said it might be the emergency switch on the compressor, and left. That cost me $109.

My choices now are: order this emergency switch ($70 + labor costs to install) to see if that is the problem. If it isn't, this repair guy said there is nothing else to be done and the fridge needs to be replaced. I can call Sears and pay them to "diagnose" the problem, which may or may not be repairable. Or I can just go get another fridge. Ugh.

What would you do? Ironically, I work in a school that teaches HVAC, but I have no way to GET the fridge to work. And what happens to old refrigerators? Do they just go in landfills? That REALLY bothers me.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to try to give the whole picture. Any ideas or opinions are welcome. Thank you.

 

[scrapquitler]

A six year old fridge is not working...it already cost you $109. I wouldn't even bother having someone else come look at it...that will probably cost you another $100, which puts you probably past 25% of the price of a new one, with nothing done but looking at it.

 

[lisateaches]

We just had to get a new one after ten years and one repair. The guy selling them told us they are designed to only last 7 years regardless of make or model. Hope this helps.

 

[Tink-aholic]

Thanks for the replies. I have just spent an hour measuring my space and choosing another fridge on Home Depot's website and comparing and contrasting with everything on Lowes'. I was ready to place an order for one I liked (and just over $1K). Unfortunately, even though they have one in stock and the store is 2 miles from my house, the first delivery date is 4 weeks away.

I tried to "online chat" with a customer service rep, but was told it would be over 48 minutes to wait. I have been waiting on the phone with their customer service for over 30 minutes just to find out if it is such a long lead time because of THIS refrigerator or if it is ANY one.

Maybe I am wrong in thinking that a fridge is an "essential" item...

 

[disneybound31]

Could you just borrow a friends truck and a couple friends and pick it up yourself? Are fridges more than just get into house-plug in wall? Maybe a handy friend can hook up the ice maker feature if it has one?

 

[staceyhzoo]

Replace

Ours died last year and was ~$200 to fix (less than 4 yrs old). The same thing happened this spring (the day after a $300 shoping trip) and we replaced it. I went to Home Depot after seeing a 3 week deliv. date online and had my new fridge in 4 days!

The salesperson told me that if you come in and your current fridge is shot they can speed things along at not additional cost. If you order online they think you are upgrading and put you in line. May not be true of all Home Depots, but it was at mine.

HTHs!

edit to add that even if it's in stock it still maybe in a another state. Mine was in GA at the closest dist. center. Still 4 days.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

We just bought a fridge from Lowe's on Black Friday - on my dad's advice (he's usually right about this sort of thing) we didn't get the extended warrenty.

After reading these posts I"m wondering if we should have....I have 30 days from purchase to add it - thoughts?

 

[malibuconlee]

Thanks for the replies. I have just spent an hour measuring my space and choosing another fridge on Home Depot's website and comparing and contrasting with everything on Lowes'. I was ready to place an order for one I liked (and just over $1K). Unfortunately, even though they have one in stock and the store is 2 miles from my house, the first delivery date is 4 weeks away.

I tried to "online chat" with a customer service rep, but was told it would be over 48 minutes to wait. I have been waiting on the phone with their customer service for over 30 minutes just to find out if it is such a long lead time because of THIS refrigerator or if it is ANY one.

Maybe I am wrong in thinking that a fridge is an "essential" item...

4 weeks? Go into the store and see a real person. Maybe they can look at the schedule and get you a delivery before then. I got a dryer and while i"m in a small town, had it the next day!

 

[Theta]

We just bought a fridge from Lowe's on Black Friday - on my dad's advice (he's usually right about this sort of thing) we didn't get the extended warrenty.

After reading these posts I"m wondering if we should have....I have 30 days from purchase to add it - thoughts?

We just purchased one on Black Friday too. The $900 Maytag french door one from Home Depot. I am wondering if we should have bought the extended warranty too.

 

[timmac]

Regarding extended warranties, I always ask myself how long will the warranty cover, and what does it cost, compared with the cost of a new (whatever)? For fun, there are various consumer reports you can check that will list estimated failure rates within various timeframes (e.g. 1, 2 or 3 years).

It should come as no surprise that, on the long haul, extended warranties are a bad deal... assuming you have sufficient funds saved for emergencies should an appliance die. Yes, you might end up taking a bath on replacing a fridge every now and again, but averaged over the long haul, the money saved by not (ever) buying an extended warranty is greater than what you pay to replace things in the off chance that they die.

 

[Lewisc]

Many (most?) Home Depots rent a truck. Something like $19 for 75 minutes.

 

[RooRach0906]

It sound what happen to our fridge, we replaced the part our sevles and it was only $20, this was 3 months ago and its working great now.
I forget what the part was called I Google what was going on and hubbie fixed
Wish you the best of luck.

 

[Tink-aholic]

Thanks again for all of the wonderful replies. I DID think about the Home Depot truck, but I am a single mom and I don't know a lot of people who could help; plus we have a lot of stairs to get the new fridge up and the other one down. I also wouldn't know what to do with the other refrigerator. I don't think I can take it to the dump because of the refrigerant in it (and our dump is closed until spring here). I would really prefer to have the people who move and set up appliances all day long do it instead and take my old one away.

So, I went to the B&M Home Depot today after work and explained that I am not simply upgrading my refrigerator -- that we are living out of a cooler right now. They said they have openings for deliveries for this weekend!

I whipped out the printout from my computer with the fridge I tried to buy last night and asked if that would be available to be shipped this weekend (it is!). Of course, the fridge is over $200 more today than yesterday. But, I figure it never hurts to ask for what you want, and after I explained that I would have bought it last night online if 1) I could get a reasonable delivery or 2) I could speak to a live person (I gave up after 40 minutes on hold)...so would he consider selling it to me at yesterday's price? The salesperson asked his manager, and he agreed!

I'm still out the thousand dollars right before Christmas and I lost probably around $300-$400 in food, but it makes me smile knowing that I don't have to pay an ADDITIONAL $200+ dollars today. And I don't even want to think about the post where the woman replaced the part herself for $20. Nope, I made this decision and I'm okay with it.

Now I just hope I get more than six years out of this one.

 

[Fyrefly]

I can't offer advice about the fridge, but I have a renter's insurance policy and when I was sending in my check for the next year, I noticed something interesting. I'm apparently covered in the event of a major appliance failure that involves the loss of lots of food.

Your policy will definitely vary, but if you have homeowner's insurance and are in a tight spot as far as replacing the food goes, you might want to look into what your policy says.