Would you ever buy an $8,000 refrigerator?

Is it pretty basic - without a digital display panel? If so, your odds of it lasting are better. It's not the mechanical and/or electrical "refrigerating bits" that are the problem, it's all the electronic sensors and displays and whatnot that cause the units to break down. And because of the designs, those elements to aren't meant to be repaired and can't be replaced individually - it's more cost effective to get a whole new fridge. (I administer warranty on thousands of appliances a year and this is COMMON).

Nothing digital on mine. Ice makers always seem to be the weak link in my experience. A lot of mechanical stuff involved there. My brother ran a TV repair business for decades and before he closed down about 10 years ago his frustration was he couldn't even get parts. And we're in California where the law says all parts on appliances HAVE to be available for 8 years, but it isn't enforced.

A friend works for a guy who owns several hundred apartments. He always has new appliances in storage, and never fixes refrigerators. He usually buys 20 at a wack, and has never paid more than $125 for an 18 cubic foot refrigerator. That's about what the service call for a repair costs here. Or course, they are brands you may never of heard of. But his records show he gets about 10 years life on average in hard rental use.
 
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Honestly, we always buy a 5 year warranty on any appliance we purchase now.
They are not reliable, now we know we have at least 5 years with piece of mind.

You're scaring me. Mine is coming up on 7 years old. This Kenmore (made by LG) replaced a 27 year old Montgomery Ward (made by Frigidaire) that was still working, but was starting to sound like it was laboring. I have read that a lot of the energy saving tricks do shorten the overall life of refrigerators. To the point that the energy savings aren't enough to offset the shorter life.
 
My Hotpoint fridge is over 25 yrs old. It generally still works and I refuse to replace it even if there's a little rust around the freezer drain. Fancy electronics and ice maker means more things that are likely to fail.


We had the oven issue with our Fridgidare oven, they wanted $450 for the part and a new stove was $550.
We had the same issue with our Samsung fridge after 1 year as the woman in Vancouver, thankfully we had a 5 year warranty on it and they replaced the cooling board in the back for us.
Our Samsung dishwasher was 18 months old when the "motherboard" went out, again we had the warranty. We have sold that house and thankfully we were able to transfer the last 3 years of appliance warranties to the new owners.

We had a 4 month old Samsung top load washer that was recalled, they only reimbursed us $750, so a new LG top loader cost us another $150 out of pocket, because their crap was defective.

I hate appliances!!
That video was eye opening for sure.
 
Honestly, we always buy a 5 year warranty on any appliance we purchase now.
They are not reliable, now we know we have at least 5 years with piece of mind.
The warranty on the compressor is 10 years...it is an invertor compressor. So I think I am good for another 3 years
 


My friend has a sub-zero fridge/ freezer. It's huge and was put in by the previous owner who was a chef. She's also got the 6 burner Viking stove.
 
For $8,000 a fridge had better not only keep my food cold, but also cook my dinner and wash and put away the dishes too.
 
No doubt kitchen appliances are getting smarter with numerous smart features. But the question is if anyone needs any of these features considering that’s what has lead to this discussion about the $8,000 refrigerator here. Just buy it if you think it offers the kind of features you are interested in and can afford it.
 


No doubt kitchen appliances are getting smarter with numerous smart features. But the question is if anyone needs any of these features considering that’s what has lead to this discussion about the $8,000 refrigerator here. Just buy it if you think it offers the kind of features you are interested in and can afford it.

Understandably, for most people a refrigerator was just supposed to serve the most practical needs to do with food refrigeration. A refrigerator that can reliably store more food items and drinks for you could just be all you need. But times are changing and a refrigerator today finds itself going through an identity crisis of its own kind. Is it just going to keep its traditional functions with its place at the kitchen? When you have fridges with a wide range of cool features such as voice assistants, in-built wifi, energy monitoring controls, cameras that allow you to see inside the fridge from your phone, and many other smart features, you begin to wonder if that should still be consider as a kitchen appliance. With their refrigerator buying guide, CNET have done a great job explaining different things that people might consider important and also whether a smart refrigerator could be an option.

When you are looking at the $8,000 fridge, you have to be looking beyond the basics of refrigeration. “If you want to transform your kitchen with appliances that feature sleek designs and cool features, then you might see the worth of an expensive smart refrigerator,” said Robert Jones, a repair technician from OnSite Appliance. The issue of appliances that offer users great levels of convenience has always been worth considering, but now manufacturers of smart appliances have taken it to a whole new level. The internet of things will soon become a norm and most of us will change what we think appliances should do. A post on USA Today shows that we are almost there as the market for smart kitchen appliances like the $8,000 refrigerator is predicted to significantly grow over the next few years. The benefits of using such high end appliances may not be fully understood at the moment, but soon most consumers will begin to appreciate them especially for convenience and ease of use that could significantly help save time and money. But it would also be paramount for manufacturers to guarantee consumers that these smart appliances can last long enough.
 
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We were at Costco this weekend and they had one of the fancy ones where the door opens automatically and the lights come on so you can see inside, it think it was about $5000 there. It was pretty nice looking I have to say, and the space inside was insane. Freezer looked way bigger than my french door Samsung. It sure would be nice if it was in the budget.

All our appliances are 8 1/2, bought when we moved in. They all seem to be going strong, fingers crossed!
 
Only if I won the powerball and the private chef that worked in the kitchen of my multi million dollar home requested it.
 
Our home came with a Subzero built-in that I don't like. It's too shallow to fit a pizza box and some of the drawers keep getting stuck. Luckily we were able to put our old fridge in the garage. The fridge is quite old so I've been crossing my fingers that it doesn't have to be replaced. Anything that will fit in fridge hole will be expensive.
 
Well, my husband is a high-end cabinetmaker who often builds $75k+ kitchens and I have drooled over some gorgeous appliances over the years. I found us an old Subzero fridge on Craigslist that had been in a fire (had mild smoke damage) for $400. It was great for a few years, until it died.

I made a comment about it on FB and a mutual friend saw my post. He tagged a contractor my husband often worked for who just happened to have a newer one that he was replacing and he offered it to us for FREE. He refused to take anything for it!

I do love the Subzero but honestly it doesn't have a ton of storage space for produce which is super frustrating. Now if we could just find a cheap refrigerator drawer!
 
We're in the process of buying a house, and the fridge in there is HUGE. It's the kind that each side is as big as a whole regular fridge. We'd never purchase it ourselves, but it's there, so I'm sure I'll enjoy it.
 

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