• TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I’ve heard that in the US fridges are generally different, with stuff like active fans and nonsense like that. Is that true?

    Because every fridge I’ve seen in Europe is mechanically extremely basic and I’ve literally never seen or even heard of one breaking. In my experience fridges are one of the only things that have remained phenomenally simple in design and extremely unlikely to break.

    If someone told me their fridge broke, I’d genuinely assume they were lying. That’s how reliable they are.

    • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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      5 months ago

      Well there are evaporator fans in modern refrigerators in the US. They serve an important role though helping with defrosting, improving cooling efficiency, and evenness of cooling throughout the fridge.

      https://refrigeratorguide.net/maximize-cooling-efficiency-best-refrigerator-evaporator/

      Usually only very small refrigerators are without them now.

      It is another point of failure though, but should be pretty easily repairable. I mean it’ll still be able to cool without the fan, but it’ll be running much more to try and compensate and keep things cool though.

      If you know the YouTube channel technology connections, here’s a fun video of him messing around with a fanless style refrigerator:

      https://youtube.com/watch?v=8PTjPzw9VhY

    • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      Every LG and Samsung major appliance I’ve had has broken within 5 years.

      Refrigerators, washing machines, and dryers.

      Prior, I only ever had 80s era American tank energy hogs. Switched back to American brands in the last few years, so too soon to tell if they’ll work out better…

      Here’s to hoping.

      Oh, and having dealt with LG warranty for both electronics and major appliances, I’ll never buy another LG product that isn’t a monitor.

      LG monitors are the only higher end LG product’s I’ve owned that have survived well past the warranty date.

      • barsquid@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I think Samsung is generally considered trash now. I certainly will never buy any of their “smart” objects either, especially not an ad-ridden TV.

        • orclev@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I can confirm Samsung appliances are complete trash. Every single one I’ve owned has either died or had a non-replaceable part fail within a couple years. We had a Samsung fridge at one point and one of the door switches failed. No big deal right, easy to replace? No, apparently Samsung used some kind of custom switch instead of the bog standard cherry contact switch that basically everything and everyone has used for decades, and it’s no longer being manufactured.

        • Tower@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          My dad bought me a ridiculously expensive (like $400) Samsung vacuum that I loved. It was strong, it came apart in really cool ways to make it versatile, etc.

          It failed in less than a year.

          The $60 Walmart special Bissell that I went and bought to replace it lasted for 8.5 years before the motor burned out (I screwed up and it got too much pet hair in it). I bought the same one again and it’s going on 5+ years with no issues.

          • barsquid@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Samsung certainly seem very aware of return window timing. 8.5 years is much better!

            I wish some of this stuff was more standardized. In an ideal world one should be able to just replace a motor and keep on going. (Like without needing to learn any wiring and so on.)

        • daellat@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          That is extremely unlucky but also sucks that the us won’t enforce bigger warranty windows for products meant to last much longer than a year.

    • freebee@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      After some decades they just become so incredibly gross no one without a hazmat suit would try cleaning it again, so they’re replaced.