Maytag Refrigerators - The Maytag Repairman is Not Lonely UPDATED!
Written: May 19 '00 (Updated Jul 16 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: easy clean up, lots of cool storage features
Cons: manufacturing flaws and chip problems
The Bottom Line: Design is great, except for the part where this refrigerator is a lemon. Avoid this model at all costs.
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| pluckyduck's Full Review: Maytag MSD2556 |
The Maytag 25 cubic foot Side by Side Refrigerator (MSD2556) that is cooling away in my kitchen right now is a fine product. This review would be sitting under at least four stars if it was the first Maytag (MSD2556) that had visited my kitchen.
Review originally written in year 2000
When my husband and I set up housekeeping two years ago, one of the first things I had to do was to buy a new refrigerator. With two kids and a dog, a nanny and a nanny's son, we had moved into his father's house, to take care of Dad in his last year of life. The ultra small 1970's fridge that graced the kitchen barely held two days worth of food for my entourage, so we were off to Best Buy to get the biggest fridge we could.
Unfortunately we were constrained by built in cabinets in the kitchen. We had just 34 1/2" width for the refrigerator spot, which meant getting just about 21 cubic feet of food room in virtually all models we looked at. This Maytag was a "no brainer" for me because it was deeper, providing extra cubic feet while taking up no more width. The door hinges were also designed well, meaning it didn't eat up precious width just to swing open.
We wanted the model with all the frills, and that we got:
* Cube/crushed ice, filtered water dispenser in the door
* Easily adjustable "spill catcher" shelves
* Elevator shelf, which lets you adjust the height of shelves without pulling everything out of the refrigerator
* Huge storage room on the door, including room for several gallons of milk
* Easy tilt freezer door baskets
* Textured doors that don't show fingerprints
When the refrigerator was delivered, I was in absolute heaven. A guy's idea of heaven is more power for his tools or lawn mower. A woman's idea of heaven is more room in the refrigerator (and of course lots of chocolate and many nail polish colors). My husband was proud of the new refrigerator too, because neither one of his two best friends could get crushed ice from their refrigerator doors. He showed off for at least a week.
The problems start
After about two weeks, the crushed ice stopped working. I learned later that there was a problem in the ice computer chip in this model. Yes, there is a little computer chip that serves your ice needs. It's kind of scary, isn't it? We had enough going on in life that we didn't call the Maytag Repairman for the minor inconvenience of not having crushed ice anymore. It really bugged my husband though, given how much showing off he'd done with The Crushed Ice Feature.
After a month, the refrigerator stopped making ice pretty much all together. If you talked to it nicely and turned the internal temperature to frigid, you could get some ice. (Of course, then everything in the refrigerator froze over too.) The day my husband had to run out to buy ice from the 7-11 was the day he called the Maytag Repairman.
In case you are wondering, the guy from the commercial doesn't really show up
He's also not nearly as lonely as he pretends to be. The gentleman who came to fix the refrigerator was very nice. He told us there was a problem with the ice computer chip in these models and switched the one in our fridge out. Given that it was just a month since we had bought the refrigerator, I had to wonder if Maytag and Best Buy had known there was a problem long before the fridge was delivered to our house.
The problems continue
We had better luck getting ice, but nothing about the refrigerator felt right. In order to keep my frozen things frozen, I had to jack the "cold" in the freezer way up. Even though the refrigerator and freezer have separate thermostats, it still seemed to affect the temperature in the refrigerator section. I got used to frozen lettuce as a way of life.
Then, not quite six months into Maytag MSD2556 ownership, the ice making stopped dead. All of my frozen stuff started to get sweaty and kind of warmish. The freezer hadn't quit entirely, but it was like an old man blowing his last breaths.
Another call to the Maytag Repairmen, and another visit from a service guy. A different, but again very nice, gentleman showed up to fix the refrigerator.
Turns out, there was also a problem with the condenser in this model. The repairman spent a few minutes on diagnostics and wrote us up for a complete switchout of refrigerators. This one is gone, he said. Again, I was left to wonder if Maytag, Best Buy and the last Maytag Repairman had known all along that I was going to have this problem.
The new refrigerator arrives
Within a day Maytag delivered us a new refrigerator. It looked exactly like the old refrigerator but instead of performing erratically, it performed beautifully. Ice on demand (crushed or cube?), frozen stuff frozen, lettuce the perfect temperature.
What I like about this refrigerator
My aforementioned problems aside, this is one very well designed fridge.
* Clean up is a dream. It takes me just a few minutes to clean the refrigerator, thanks to the spill catcher shelves. If the Nesquik Strawberry Syrup on the top shelf spills, it doesn't spill all over the refrigerator contents below. I can wipe up the mess in a second.
* Storage is planned exceedingly well. I just love the capacity for storage on the doors.
* All shelves (except the elevator shelf) slide out easily, letting you see and reach that stuff in the back you could never see or reach before. You can pack stuff in without fear of it being lost in the back forever.
* The elevator shelf sits in the middle and cranks up and down to adjust the height for all the shelves. This has been mightily handy on a number of occasions. Can you say Watermelon Storage?
* Having crushed ice and filtered water on the door is cool. You can show off to all your friends.
So, would I recommend that someone else buy one?
Oh, gosh, probably so, under certain conditions. After reading my review, you'd have to ask, point blank, about problems with the computer chip and the condenser. I think they have solved that problem in the current crop. My new one has been working fine for a year and a half. And while I am suspicious of exactly when Maytag discovered there was a problem with the chip and condenser, believing there is a good chance they should have known not to even deliver my first refrigerator, I have to give them a gold star for switching the model out so quickly. I bought a lemon, but right now I have lemonade.
UPDATE 9.08.02
We had to have a service call from the Maytag repairman on the new refrigerator about 6 months ago. The entire ice making unit had gone bad and had to be changed out. This was covered under the extended warranty that we had purchased from Best Buy, so our distress was minimal but, I repeat, the Maytag repairman is not lonely.
UPDATE 7.11.03
Two more service calls in the last year, two more times I had to throw everything in the refrigerator out. If I hadn't purchased the service contract through Best Buy (and renewed it!), I'd be out quite a bit of money. I can't wait to unload this lemon and will never ever purchase anything again from Maytag.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
pluckyduck
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Member: Andrea Barton Gurney
Location: Almost Philadelphia
Reviews written: 74
Trusted by: 295 members
About Me:
Gone fishing for awhile.
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