Fridge is dying again. I am caught in the warranty shuffle...

[cyclonefence]

7. Oh, man--an LG?

We had a nightmare year with a Samsung refrigerator (ice problem, too) that couldn't be fixed. We gave up and bought an LG because our LG washer and dryer have worked so well for 10+ years. I thought we'd found a reliable brand, and so far it's worked well for us.

I'm beginning to think you can't rely on brand name--or on Consumer Reports or cnet.com, both of which recommend Samsung as the best. Both our Samsung refrigerator and big TV broke down in maddening ways during their first years of service. The Samsung repair guy literally rebuilt our TV over six months or so, and it still didn't work. We got our money back (they wanted to replace the set with the same model--no thanks) and bought a Sony, which has been excellent.

We've had three unsatisfactory KitchenAid dishwashers--they did not clean well after a couple of months, and to get to the filter you had to take the damn thing apart. We got reimbursement from PECO after a power surge knocked it out; replaced it with a Bosch, which is a dream but has a smaller capacity.

Our lah-di-dah dual fuel KitchenAid range had a bad burner, which was replaced three or four times before we replaced that sucker with a GE Cafe, which has been great.

Internet investigation proved that both KA and Samsung had historic problems with the two problems we had, and we joined lawsuits against both, for all the good that's going to do.