Fridge Freezer

[Kacey Profile]

I've been looking at fridge freezers over the past couple of days as I need to replace mine. I want a 70/30 split and I was looking for something with a depth of no more than 65cm. What a minefield, does anyone have a Zanussi fridge freezer? I'd narrowed down my choice to a Zanussi as it ticks most of the required boxes, its mostly well reviewed but Zanussi itself seems to have some bad reviews on their customer service levels. Any advice or recommendations?

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

Mine is an Electrolux but it's a built in one. It is a 70/30 split, but I wanted freezer drawers rather than shelves and mine is no more than 60cm deep..

[Earthmaiden Profile]

It may be standard on all fridges but last time I bought one I was able to choose on which side the door opened. Worth considering. Also, consider the width and height.

I don't remember ever needing customer service for a fridge. Perhaps I've been lucky. I lived in a house with a huge Zanussi in the 80s, it was lovely. Rather a long time ago though!

[Gillthepainter Profile Website]

Having rented for years, I decided not buy either Beko, or Zanussi. Both brands didn't cut it for us, and we had to "make do".
The Zanussi needed defrosting every 4 months or the drawers would block up.

In our new house, we've bought an excellent Stoves fridge freezer - it's 63cms deep.
And love it. The fridge has oodles of room for the 2 of us.
It's tall. And the freezer doesn't freeze up one little bit.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I’ve no experience of Zanussi

Hopefully you won’t need customer service, and if you need parts it’s often simpler to go to one of these, both of whom I’ve used several times for various appliances, large and small

4ourhouse
https://www.4ourhouse.co.uk/

eSpares
https://www.espares.co.uk/

Get the supplier to change the side the door opens, most aren’t difficult but there’s a knack

Don’t consider anything that isn’t frost free, it’s a game changer

I’m going to do a bit of digging and come back

[aero280 Profile]

We have a Hotpoint fridge freezer. We have had it nearly 2 years. It’s not been defrosted and it’s still frost free. It’s quite tall and OH has trouble with stuff on the top shelf. That’s OK with me because I didn’t see a lot of stuff in the old fridge which sat on the floor and was the same height as the worktop! the shelves are glass and you can see what’s on them by looking up through the shelf.

Looks like this one: https://www.hotpoint.co.uk/h/hotpoint-h ... ck/f161293

The door and body have plastic plugs and blanks which cover the fixings for swapping the door hanging and handles from one side to the other.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I have an older Hoptpoint, ad I'm not impressed with the quality of drawers etc, it's held together with Gorilla tape (tip: Gorilla tape holds well in a freezer, not all duct tape does!)

There is a Right to Repair coming in, manufacturers have to make parts availble that can quite easily be fitted as replacement, this will be law
However be aware that appliances currently on sale are mostly not built to this standard, I wanted to fit new door seals to mine but the doors are designed so it is not possible to remove the original seal without completely destroying the door, It is possible to replace the door I think but probably not worth it, the nice appliance repair man showed me how to bodge the old seal

https://conversation.which.co.uk/sustai ... /#comments

[Suelle Profile Website]

I have a Beko fridge freezer in the garage (Beko were the only manufacturer producing models guaranteed to work in low temperatures at the time) and a Bosch in the kitchen - I can't remember why that was chosen in preference to other makes.

Both are frost-free. I don't know if that's standard now, but it's certainly worth paying for if it's not! Neither have had any problems. I think fridge freezers are one of those appliances that either work or don't work, with not much that is servicable in between.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

We have got a Zanussi freezer. We unhesitatingly chose Zanussi as a thank you for the previous one, which I inherited from Dad in 1990. It started playing up a little bit last September. Clearly this isn't relevant because it's not a fridge freezer, the previous one was a completely different design with a (presumably now banned) different refrigerant and the new one was made in a different country from the first. In our case the decision was also helped by the need for it to go into the shed, where its predecessor lived. Our new model is suitable for use in outbuildings, not all are.

Our white goods in the kitchen are Bosch, at least the fridge and washing machine. I suspect the reason for that is that MIL used Bosch. The cooking stuff and dishwasher are Neff, which I understand is made in the same factory with some common components. We could do with a new fridge. The door is starting to fall off ours as the bearing on the lower hinge has disintegrated, the handle is broken and the spares are no longer available.

[Kacey Profile]

I've looked at the Hotpoint Aero, its on my little spreadsheet of possibles. I hadn't realised there would be so many different sized depths, I'd assumed it would be as standard as the widths. My current one is 62cms deep which is a perfect fit. It's just inside the doorway, the light switch is on the wall it stands against. Anything over 65cm will obscure the switch - though there would be clearance for fingers. OH has suggested blanking off the light switch if I want to for aesthetic reasons and moving it to the outside wall (my kitchen doesn't have a door just a doorway)

My current broken fridge freezer has the perfect split for me 285 for the fridge and 78 for the freezer. I have a large upright freezer in the garage so prefer a greater space for fresh food. I had no idea it would be so difficult!

[Pampy Profile]

Have you actually checked whether stocks are available on the one(s) that you're considering? I bought a new fridge freezer towards the end of last year and quite a number of those on my long-list were not in stock. This was due to both a big increase in sales due to people wanting store more food during the pandemic and manufacturing slowing down, or stopping completely, again due to the pandemic. I eventually found one but it was expensive (approx. £1000). The one I got is an LG and I have a Beko freezer in the garage, that - for the same reason as others have said - it's suitable for use in low temperatures. I definitely concur with Sue - go for frost free.

[Kacey Profile]

A Bosch one had been my no one choice but I discounted it because of the depth, but to be honest, if I'm going to obscure the light switch anyway, another cm or two won't make much difference.

Yes Pampy, the ones I'm looking at are all available for next day delivery ....... assuming they're not telling porkies!

[Pampy Profile]

The one that I bought was deeper by about 3 cm than the previous one and I was worried that it would look odd but it doesn't.

[KeenCook2 Profile]

Hello everyone, sun shining but very windy.

PP, glad your son was able to fix your bed adequately.

EM, glad your self-test covid kit thing worked well

Kacey, we had to replace our built-in fridge freezer quite soon in the first lockdown last year and found an AEG that precisely fitted into the Zanussi gap that was left. I'm glad the ones you're considering are quite definitely available. Last year we ended up having to buy a more expensive model because that was the only one they had left that could be fitted. They said they hadn't had any deliveries because of covid.

Have a good day everyone, for DS Suffs

[KeenCook2 Profile]

OOps, just realised I thought I was sitting round the campfire, sorry! Most of this post wasn't meant for this thread

[Wic Profile]

We had to replace our Miele FF about 18months ago. We’d forgotten how old it was - going on for 20 years - and had grumbled about supermarkets and how their milk went off very quickly for a long time before one day we put a thermometer into it. We then found that it wasn’t so much a fridge as a cupboard with a light inside it, heaven knows how long it hadn’t actually been cooling things properly.

We got a Bosch, it was the only one that seemed anywhere near the same internal capacity, but it’s rather disappointing. The space is poorly arranged and you can’t move the shelves more than an inch or two. I had to dispense with a door shelf to allow us to put a milk carton into it. However, it does keep things cold!

[Stokey Sue Profile]

The space is poorly arranged and you can’t move the shelves more than an inch or two. I had to dispense with a door shelf to allow us to put a milk carton into it. However, it does keep things cold!

That's another thing to look out for, my Hotpoint has "removable shelves" which I misinterpreted as "repositionable", since I'd never come across any other kind - there is no choice of position, the shelf is either in it's spot or out

It also came with a fancy wine rack apparently designed to make 2 bottles take up the space usually occupied by 4 not sure if it is in the attic or I chucked it

[Kacey Profile]

I've done some more digging, OH has pointed out various bad reviews of some of the models I was looking at, some compromising has had to be done and I think I'm going for the Miele https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/household ... 6-pdt.html OH uses industrial Miele appliances in his lab and I like the look of it, and the reviews are good

[KeenCook2 Profile]

Kacey, that looks terrific.
I really don't think you can go wrong with Miele. Everyone I know who has something - dishwasher, washing machine, dryer etc - only has positive comments.

[Kacey Profile]

All ordered, delivery on Saturday, just missed the cut off for next day delivery. The only Miele item we have at home is one of their Cat & Dog vacuum cleaners https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/home-appl ... 9-pdt.html and its absolutely brilliant. Can't comment on pet hair though as we have no pets.