Maytag Man Bought Another Brand
Written: Aug 04 '02
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Pros: Roomy and Quiet
Cons: Not Energy Star
The Bottom Line: A very affordable energy effiecient fridge with great tasting water!
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| chefjohnny5's Full Review: Whirlpool ET21PKXG |
I am a sucker for good advertising. I see all those Maytag commercials and then go to their website and just come away impressed with every single one of their products. I bought our new home and went out and bought a new Maytag washer and dryer. Several monthes later, I went out and replaced our old dishwasher with a top of the line Energy Star Maytag. Next on that list was a refrigerator.
Our old refrigerator was an FrigidAire with a General Motors advertised next to it. The thing was a beast. It was a side-by-side (didn't know they had those back then!) avocado green model. Not exactly the piece of art you might expect in a kitchen. But hey, it came free with the house and it still runs, so don't laugh! :) I did some research and found out that GM sold FrigidAire in 1979 to another company. So my fridge had to be older than me (I was born in 79). So I talked it over with my wife and we both agreed that its time to break down and get into the 21st generation (its the 21st right??). I had about $250 worth of Best Buy gift certificates so why not put them to good use. So we first did our research. I swore up and down that I was going to buy a Maytag. But before I let my thick head impair my better judgement, we both went to the local library and copied the current monthes Consumer Reports (which just had a big special with kitchen appliances). We take that information home and read it over real good. I first look at the Maytag. Not looking to bad. Some other brands were above the Maytags but overall not too shabby.
And then I look at the reliability reports about the various brands. I remember when I was out of town on business and someone was complaining that they had just bought a brand new Maytag refrigerator and it broke down the first week of use. It wasn't even getting cold. I just poo-pooed it and said to myself that you get a lemon every once in a while. But as I am looking at these reliablity reports I can see why this lady had problems. The Maytag side-by-sides had a 30% chance of having something major wrong with them! Thats amazing to me. Their top freezer models faired a little better but not by much. Whirlpools had been at the top of both the side-bys and standard models with a very small chance of problems. Less than a 5% chance of problems I believe. Thats a HUGE difference compared to Maytag.
So we take this information down to Best Buy and look at their models. We only really seen 3 brands that we really liked. Whirlpool, GE, and Frigidaire. We decide on the Whirlpool. The big decision factor for us was that we wanted the standard freezer on top models as they are more efficient but we also wanted an automatic icemaker. This one model we like did one better. Not only did it have the automatic icemaker, it also had a filtered water dispenser inside the fridge. Problem is that it only comes in White and Bisque. The new dishwasher we bought is black (as we like the black color) and the stove is old and is next on our list. So we were looking for a black fridge. The Best Buy salesman was great (I am lucky and have a GREAT Best Buy they just built about a year ago) and informed us that Corporate decides what colors they need to carry and Black is not a popular color. Whatever. We need to buy this fridge. Buy it, get it delivered.
Here is a tip for some of you. If the place you buy your fridge offers to take your old fridge for a small fee or even free, reconsider it. Cause when you receive your new fridge, it takes anywhere from 6-24 hours to completely cool down. So don't expect to just transfer food over and have them take your old fridge. And look in your phonebook as a lot of places buy your old one for re-sale or parts. And you should also wash out your new fridge and freezer before turning on.
Hook-up the water and put the included water filter where it goes. The water filter goes inside the fridge near the rear. It just screws in a quarter of a turn. And included is a sticker set with the monthes on them. As these are 6 month 300 gallon filters. So I put the January sticker on and closed the door. Turned on the ice maker and turned on the fridge. The freezer was ready within 20 minutes. This freezer means business! The first 4 or so batches of ice you should dispose of as to clean out the system. Also you need to run the water to fill a 2-3 gallon bucket up as to get the filter activated and to cleanse the system and purge it of air.
The fridge took a LONG time to cool down. The manual says wait 24 hours for it to be ready for food. Maybe it was because I kept opening the doors up (hey, its exciting when you get a new MODERN appliance). I have had this fridge for a while now and it still looks like brand new. The fridge definately is cold. We kept a thermometer in the freezer and the fridge and the freezer was at 0 degrees and the fridge at anywhere from 35-37 degrees.
My wife complained the other day as she put some beef in the fridge to defrost. She had it in their for 2 days and it was still frozen. We are used to our old fridge where the milk went bad before the experation date and the ice cream was frozen but easily scoopable. Our old fridge stayed at around 47 degrees and so its a HUGE difference.
The water out of the fridge is just awesome! We have one of those PUR water filter pitchers and it works rather well but has developed a funky taste after awhile of use. This filtered water out of the fridge is REALLY, REALLY good. It could easily pass as bottled water. I cannot say the same for my PUR pitcher. The PUR pitcher uses a charcoal filter where as the fridge uses a chemical filter. One thing we were concerned about was filter cost. Best Buy had filters for 13 bucks. Change it twice a year and you can see you will save bigtime when it comes to water. I believe the ice goes through the filter as well.
The door has a lot of different options on it but it can get rather cramped if you load it up. The shelves remove to be easily cleaned. Unfortunately you have to wash them buy hand with warm water and dish soap. No egg trays with this fridge but we never used them before and I don't think we would even use it now. But it does come with a clear box-like container that will hold the crate of eggs. Its nice cause you can put the crate of eggs in there and they are protected from getting bashed around since they are shielded by clear plastic. All of the shelves are adjustable. And the 2 crispers are clear top and bottom (no more mystery foods!) but they are not humidity controlled. But we have produce in one of them and they look as good as new. Don't know if its the temperature difference with our 2 fridges or what.
This model uses 514 kWh/year which is very low for a fridge (most side by sides use over 700) but it ranks on the high side according to the yellow EnergyGuide tag for similar size fridges. But hey, number one its still low and number 2, it has to be a million times better than our 1979 or older model side by side.
Its real quiet. You can barely hear it run but you can hear the ice machine working (which makes weird noises) and the water going through the fridge (again more noises).
Overall this has been the smartest purchase we have made in the last year that we have owned this home.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 655
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Epinions.com ID:
chefjohnny5
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Location: Clarksville, TN
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
I am pretty tough on products I spend money on.
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