It has been trouble since day one.
As soon as it was installed, the water dispenser refused to work. Ice would dispense, but no water. We figured out that it could dispense water one time if you popped out the water filter, but then it would stop again. There were many tedious phone calls with Whirlpool and three different appliance repair companies out to look at it. We even had to contact our water company to get confirmation that water pressure in our neighborhood is within a normal range. Around October we finally got it fixed--four months after install.
The fridge worked fine for about a year after that. Then, the week after Thanksgiving 2020, it completely died. (The manufacturer's warranty had just barely expired, of course) We had the pleasure of making an appointment with a repair company once again. When the technician looked at it, he determined that either the control board or the compressor needed to be replaced. They wanted to start with the control board, since it was the cheaper part. Unfortunately, it was on backorder, so he wasn't back until several weeks later. When it finally came, he arrived to swap out the control board and announced that the compressor had responded favorably and that the fridge should be cool in a few hours.
Not the case.
We called the company again and they determined that the compressor must be the issue. The part was also on backorder. Several more weeks passed. This whole time, we had been blessed with a second fridge in the garage and it had been cold enough outside to store produce in coolers, also kept in the garage. So we still had the ability to chill our perishable groceries and only had a few issues with temperature fluctuations because of weather. But we were losing our patience with the situation, constantly going in and out of the garage for every refrigerated item, so we broke down and bought a mini fridge to put across from the washing machine at the end of February.
In March, it had been a full three months since the fridge quit. Forest got on the phone with Whirlpool, and after being on the call for an eternity, got them to put us at the front of the line for a compressor, and they also mailed us a $150 prepaid visa card for our troubles. Eventually, the compressor showed up at our house and we booked an appointment with the appliance company. They had mentioned previously that we were responsible for the cost of labor, which would total about $800. However, when I scheduled the appointment, I was told the cost of labor appeared to be covered by Whirlpool. I was told this again over the phone when the appointment was confirmed. I asked them to look into this and get back to me. I was told the recent communications had been incorrect, and that we were in fact responsible for labor charges. When I asked for an estimate, the woman on the phone said she would have the technician contact me with that information.
While I waited for his call, I grew uneasy about working with an appliance company that didn't seem to be able to communicate accurate information about billing, and my distrust of the technician was growing. He had come to look at our water dispenser in 2019 and failed to fix it. When the fridge completely quit, he had given me no diagnosis for the cause, and seemed to believe the problem was solved after replacing the control board.
I decided to call a different appliance company and cut ties with the previous one. A woman named Abby with a reassuring voice and thick English accent listened to my story and helped me schedule a service call with one of their technicians. Last Friday, Paul the appliance technician came to take a look at our troublesome fridge and made no effort to sugarcoat the truth: this fridge was in bad shape.
The original compressor was hot to the touch, which was an immediate warning sign. Either the compressor had seized independently, or a refrigerant leak could have triggered its failure. Regardless of which caused the problem, he did not have the appropriate tools to do any further investigation, because this fridge ran on an "oil-free" compressor, and required "virgin" tools that had not been used on standard compressors. An additional appointment would be needed to diagnose the exact cause, although he saw other indications that the refrigerant leak was probably the problem. After that appointment, a second appointment would be needed to do the actual repair. Replacing the compressor would not be enough to solve the problem--another control board would need to be installed so it could sync with the new compressor, and associated tubes and valves would need to be replaced. If a refrigerant leak had caused all of this, the evaporator would also need to be swapped out. Wait time on delivery of parts would cause a delay. This would all cost at least $800 even if Whirlpool covered the cost of parts.
I asked Paul if I should just get a new refrigerator. Perhaps not the most tactful question to ask an appliance repair professional. But can you blame me? He admitted that the repair we were looking at was like open-heart surgery. Often, problems can appear down the road as a result of such a big operation, even if life is temporarily extended. I asked him if he had ever done a repair like this before, and he told me honestly that he had never seen anything like it.
The Whirlpool refrigerator was beautiful. But it was quite obviously a piece of junk, and I was ready to say goodbye. Yesterday, Forest and I picked out a new LG fridge from Lowe's and it was installed this morning. The water dispenser worked right away and the air inside is already cooling. After four months without a working fridge in the kitchen, this will feel like such a luxury. The kids will be so excited to have ice cubes again.
The delivery men hauled away the old fridge and I don't miss it.
We bought a protection plan for the LG. Hopefully this refrigerator saga has come to an end and we can turn our attention to other first-world problems.
