Thread Number: 70568  /  Tag: Refrigerators
New fridge (or possible repair) and consumer reports test results
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Post# 935037   4/28/2017 at 00:01 (2,526 days old) by henene4 (Heidenheim a.d. Brenz (Germany))        

My mom called me yesterday evening, telling me that when she opend the door on our built-in AEG fridge, she heared a crack and couldn't close the door afterwards. She somehow manged to close it again, but suspects one of the hinges has broken.

I'm in my university dorm during the week, so I'll be abled to check that out this afternoon.
Don't know which exact fridge we have (just that it's AEG), not even wheather it has a fixed or sliding door mount, but I'm pretty sure its a 88cm or 34,7" cabinet.


Hinges go for anywhere between 20€ to 120€ from what I've seen, depending on which hinge (upper or lower) and which model. Hoping its just a hinge and not the front, cabinet or fridge chasi that is damaged. It's located on face-height over our freezer, so removal and installation aren't quite as easy.
If it is just a hinge I can get relativley cheaply, I should be abled to replace that without removing the fridge, just the front and door.


Should we go and replace it it will probably be an IKEA model, the follow-up to the one my grandma has. They aren't anything special (A+, just standard shelfes), but 5 years warranty and only 179€.
Alternativley we could go A+++ with either a BSH (Siemens) or Grundig, or maybe AEG. If that makes a lot of sense is questionable; the price difference is about 220-280€, they use about 60kWh per year less, which at 30 cents per kWh takes anywhere from 12-18 years to make up for the extra spendings. The Grundig however would be amazingly quiet (only 26dB) and quite big.

But I first have to check the door mounts.
(If you never encountered that: Built-in fridges here either have the front of your kitchen hinged to the kitchen cabinet and conect the fridge door to the front with a sliding conection OR the front is directly mounted to the fridge. You can easily switch from the first to the second by just removing the hinges from the front, in reverse it's not that easy as you have to add hinges to your kitchen cabinet.)
The AEG and IKEA have the sliding system, Grundig and BSH the solid system.



The german consumer reports just today (I think, it's in the new release for May) released a new test of build in fridges and tested the BSH models (why they still test Bosch, Siemens and Neff each is still a mystery to me), as well as the Grundig and the IKEA.
The BSH won with a 1.6 grade, followed by the Grundig with 1.8 and the IKEA at 2.3.
HOWEVER these tests show 2 strange things I send a question about to the consumer report people:

First, they test actual usable space with all the shelfes in place, compared to the label which states just total space. And there, the BSH models suddenly drop from 144l (5.1ft³) label size down to just 99l (3.5ft³) usable space, compared to 105l (3.7ft³) on the IKEA with the same label size or 120l (4.25ft³) on the 150l (5.3ft³) label Grundig. But no mention where all this space is lost, especially as the interior on all is of comparable structure.

Second, the Grundig is labled at A+++ with a usage of 64kWh/year. The BSH models are in the same range, the IKEA one is at 122kWh with A+.
The BSH did score a somewhat close to label usage with 56kWh/year.
The Grundig however supposedly used 117kWh/year in their tests, which would be even more then the IKEA at 113kWh/year. So it would be class A+, not A+++. They even make a little footnote about it, and give it the same grade in terms of usage as the IKEA model, but that its real usage is twice as much as advertised is neither emphasized nor explained.
I find that not only extremly weired, but am a little shocked that they do nothing about this blatent lie made to the customer and still grade it that good at just 0.2 grades below the winner. People sometimes spend twice as much to get better efficency and possibly end up using more than with a cheaper model.
Just incredibly unfair!

We will have decided by evening, so I'll keep you updated. If anybody got anything (tips, thoughts, recomendations), I'll be happy to hear them!

Hope you have a nice spring day!





Post# 935051 , Reply# 1   4/28/2017 at 02:44 (2,526 days old) by foraloysius (Leeuwarden, Friesland, the Netherlands)        

foraloysius's profile picture
Bosch has both models, with sliding door arrangement and with the solid doors.

Other brands may have both options too.

Hope it's an easy repair.


CLICK HERE TO GO TO foraloysius's LINK


Post# 935103 , Reply# 2   4/28/2017 at 08:12 (2,526 days old) by henene4 (Heidenheim a.d. Brenz (Germany))        
Bosch sliding door

True, but there is an AEG with A+++ and sliding door for 399€, but if we need to get a sliding door one, it will most certanly be the IKEA model, simply because its cheap and has a good warranty.

Writing this in my car infront of our house, just arrived, give me 2 or so hours and I'll know more...


Post# 935125 , Reply# 3   4/28/2017 at 09:46 (2,526 days old) by henene4 (Heidenheim a.d. Brenz (Germany))        
Decission pretty much made

So, we currently do have a solid door mount system and it apears to me that the fault in the hinges is some kind of tension spring that broke on both hinges. The door will close, but swing right back ajar. Further, there is no resitance in the door movement which has been there before. The hinges come in at 50€ each, plus shipping, and as we have zero clue how old this one is except for that we replaced the old one shortly before our vacuum, we will replace it.

Hunting fridges can be cruel, but after a few minutes we stumbled across a Beko solid door fridge with A++, 39dB, 150l label volume, and 5 year extended warranty for 330€ delivered.
I'll have to build it in, but that should be doable.
Basicly, the Grundig A+++ model in less efficent.


Post# 937238 , Reply# 4   5/9/2017 at 00:13 (2,515 days old) by henene4 (Heidenheim a.d. Brenz (Germany))        
Repaired

My mum scored a hinge for cheap, so I put it in.

Removed the front.
Removed the door.
Removed the hinge.
Replaced the door.
Replaced the front.
Works like a charm.

We only exchanged the upper hinge as that was the only one my mum could get that cheap (I think it was 20€ delivered), but the lower one turned out to be fine anyways.


The design weakpoint of those hinges is a little plastic clip that keeps the spring that provides the closing pressure in place. That seems to be designed to just snap after some time. So, I might hvae to replace the lower hinge soon, but if these survive as long as the first one (about 10 years), they certanly were a good investment.


Post# 937283 , Reply# 5   5/9/2017 at 05:03 (2,515 days old) by panthera (Rocky Mountains)        
Henrik,

panthera's profile picture

I was just about to write to you about it almost certainly being a nylon clip. Glad you found it.

I used to translate instruction manuals for some companies, including B/S/H in Gingen. You'd be amazed for how many different companies they make refrigerators - in those days even Miele.

And there's your answer - each brand has a different 'positioning' in the market.

I have relations who love the price point of Gorenje, others who would never consider anything but Gaggenau.

Still find it a bit weird that the Grundig name is on home appliances, but I imagine their Turkish masters chose the name well. Some irony there, really.

 

Useful space and empty volume are like apples and oranges, I've often thought it gave manufacturers wiggle room to improve their efficiency ratings. Given the enormously high cost of electricity in Germany, the difference between A and A+++ over the life of a refrigerator is tremendous.

 

Hope you took pictures. I miss those sliding rails on the cupboard doors of built in freezers and refrigerators something awful.

Not.

 

Oh - BOSCH Küchenstudio and Miele both have lots of these hinges in their local inventories. At least, they did in 2013, the last time I had to deal with one of these clips. Glad you were able to solve it.

 



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