I also own a Samsung French door fridge. It started acting up 3 months before my Costco warranty ran out, so I called to get it serviced. The warranty company told me to find my own service person, which is difficult, because many service companies won’t work on Samsung.
Anyways, that was over a year ago. Mine is better than many in that my icemaker is the only issue. I was having to manually defrost it with a steamer ever 2-3 weeks.
I followed the Facebook page until Facebook shut it down. I haven’t rejoined since they got the new group. In that year or so, Samsung did, after many weeks/hours of badgering, offer some refunds. There are specific instructions to follow to get your refund, but be prepared for endless frustration and hours and hours of your time. The icemaker is a known issue that has never been fixed. They are all defective. None can be fixed. Samsung considers their fridges to have a 10-year lifespan, so when they do offer a refund, it’s pro-rated 10% per year of ownership. It just wasn’t worth the EXTREME hassle and hours and hours of my time to maybe get an $800 refund in the end.
I started searching the local free classifieds until I found a 6-month old GE side-by-side that had a 5-year transferable extended warranty. I couldn’t give the lady my $600 fast enough. It’s SO NICE not to have to defrost my fridge every 2-3 weeks.
My Samsung is now in the garage, where it will hopefully serve as a spare. It’s not plugged in yet, since I need to spray-foam the refrigerant coil in the icemaker compartment so it hopefully won’t freeze up every three weeks. If that doesn’t work, it’ll go out to Stansbury Island where I’ll make a video of me filling it full of 5.56 and 7.62 holes.
I despise Samsung, but you’ll get the same runaround from any manufacturer. All refrigerators are garbage. ALL OF THEM (maybe with the exception of a genuine commercial version that I forget the brand name – Frost King?). The best thing you can do is buy the simplest model that suites your needs, and avoid any that have the icemaker in the refrigerated section. Pay as little as possible so when it needs to be replaced in 5 years (if you’re lucky), you won’t feel bad about how much money you spent. The more bells and whistles your fridge has, the more there is to go wrong with it.
I’m quite pleased with my GE. The icemaker is in the freezer section, (not in the door) and is a self-contained unit that is easily replaced for under $200.
This is true. The bypass device is allegedly free, but I haven’t contacted GE yet to get mine. Our water is fine without a filter. There are hacks on the Tube that show how to hack a generic filter, but I don’t dare buy generic filters – too many horror stories about the cannisters splitting – and they aren’t much cheaper anyway if you can get a couple years out of them.
My initial filter ran down to zero about 2 weeks ago. As long as it doesn’t shut off the water with that stupid chip, I’ll replace it when I notice it’s slowing the water flow. If it shuts off the water, I’ll use the free bypass.
I miss the days when a fridge would work until you poked a hole in the evaporator trying to defrost it. …but I do like frost-free too. We have an old Hotpoint side-by-side we bought used in 1990 that we still use in the garage. We had it outside for about 3 years before that, so it’s pretty ugly. …but it just keeps running.
Another thing I really miss is that crinkly finish on the doors so you don’t see smudges and fingerprints.
Don’t even get me started on car infotainment systems that can’t be replaced with aftermarket…