Cheaply made and noisy--ice maker is disfunctional. November 01, 2009

I bought the refrigerator online and believed Kenmore Elite meant super good quality.  Found that this particular refrigerator is not what I was expecting.  We called the first week because of what appeared to be missing covers on the hinges at the bottom of the front. The hinge front facing is just plain metal and not the color of the refrigerator.   Then again we called about the ice maker making a loud noise occasionally when it churns throught a process (wakes us up at night).  I don't know the process and cannot tie it to either being  off or on.  Even when the machine is off, it makes ice and the clunking battering sound.  We cannot get the ice catcher to set firmly down on the door where it is placed.  It won't catch on the levers.  Although the service man was able to put it on firmly, we have not been able to replicate that any more than he could replicate the clunky bashing noise we complained about.  We would like to exchange this with one without the icemaker just to be able to sleep at night.

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contstantly cleaning ice cubes from the floor! September 25, 2009

The ice dispenses on it's own and falls to the floor!.  We have had this for about 2 months and rarely used the the ice maker.  It is dangerous when you have small children.  It is very easy for them to slip and fall.  The technician told us that the motor is broken on the ice dispenser and needs to be replaced.  We are going to replace the refrigerator with an other brand since we do not have time to keep replacing parts.  Plus water leaks from the outside dispenser.  The technican also told us that since the ice dispenser motor is broken, this causes the freezer door to not close properly.  This then leads to food melting and not holding the proper temperature.

58703 Side by Side Refrigerator-Nice, but Some Quirks August 26, 2009

So many problems, and them not being fixable. I had Sears take it back, and I chose another model. Sears has been great about that.

Thanks Sears for making it all OK!

Having had this refrigerator now for over 4 months, I have to revise my review on it, and it all concerns the ice maker again. This time it may be a health concern related to MOLD.

As I said below in my original report, every day for no apparent reason, the ice-maker makes a brief, perhaps 1/2 second grinding noise. I believe the designers may have this happen on purpose to break up any ice cubes that have frozen together. However, when this occurs, the dispenser rotates in the direction that it would to crush ice instead of dispense ice cubes. this causes about 1/2 teaspoon of crushed ice to fall on the plastic trap door that opens to dispense ice when you want it; when this automatic noise occurs, the crushed ice falls on to the trap door, but the trap door is not given the command to open. The ice sitting on the trap door, which on the other side is exposed to room temperature, melts, but the water just sits on top of it until you manually call for ice to be dispensed. If you don't take any ice for some period of time, it seems to grow some black mold in the area where the trap door sits on the mating part of the housing. I did not realize this at first, but after hearing the noise every day, I just looked to see if any ice or whatever was coming down from the ice maker, and was shocked to see mold there!

Some people are very sensitive to any mold and can become seriously ill from it.

I will be contacting Sears on this and hope they can address this issue.

At this time, I have to drop my rating to 1 star.

UPDATE 12/09 : Sears unable to fix problem, as it is a design problem from Whirlpool's engineers. It was my decision to keep it after coming to satisfactory money compensations from Sears. Got to give Sears kudos on that.

Sears service tech came, checked it out, contacted Sears' stac ( service tech assistance) and it was decided that the refrigerator is operating as designed. The tech replaced the chute trap door, as it had mold on it, but was otherwise OK. The smart electronics on this unit needs to be reprogrammed, in my opinion, to not grind ice every 23 hours and 55 minutes! I video taped the problem and offered it to Sears to see. Down to one star!

First of all, let me mention the quirks and get them out of the way. Several other reviewers have mentioned annoyances with the ice-maker dropping some ice cubes inside the freezer, as if they missed the ice basket. In the 3 weeks we have had this machine, we did have this happen 2 or 3 times with the freezer door closed. I don't know how that would happen, but it did those few times. The ice basket has NOT frozen up at all, even though we have had the freezer door open several times for a few minutes each while stocking up the freezer or looking for something in the freezer. Also, a few times, for no reason at all, we have heard the ice-maker sound like it was going to dispense some ice by itself! No ice ever came out during those episodes, but it seemed rather odd. I have not had any problems with ice getting on to the kitchen floor; it seems that if you do not hold your glass or cup fully up to the ice dispenser discharge opening, it could happen that the ice would miss the glass, especially if you were getting crushed or shaved ice, as these smaller particles seem to bounce all over the place if you leave a space between your glass and the discharge opening. They say that ice-makers are the number one "problem" with refrigerators, and this model seems to keep with that tradition.

Having the choice of cubed, crushed or shaved ice is very nice. When you get crushed or shaved ice, the ice cubes in the basket really get used up fast, as the crushed or shaved ice wastes little space in the glass like cubes do.

Enough on the ice-maker!

This refrigerator seems to be laid out very nicely, and the outside electronic control panel allows all settings and selections to be made without opening either door. The freezer and the refrigerator compartments both seem to have excellent temperature control.

I don't understand why there seems to be a trend in making new refrigerators taller than they used to be, but this one is 2 inches taller than the Kenmore we replaced, and it was the same 25 cu ft. size. When we went shopping, one of the considerations in choosing a unit was how tall it was. This one is about one inch shorter  in height than many other refrigerators we looked at of any brand, and still, I had to plane off about one quarter of an inch off the bottom of the cabinet it went under. Our old refrigerator had inches to spare. Keep this in mind if your kitchen and its cabinets are not very new.

The refrigerator we chose is stainless steel (the sides and top are a "leather" textured steel painted grey. It looks really good in our kitchen along with our new Kenmore Elite 98023 Electric Range and Kenmore Elite 13193 Dishwasher, all in stainless steel. They all look really good as an ensemble.

The freezer door lower hinge started making a grinding noise after a few days, and we are waiting for Sears service to come fix it. It is probably something minor or needs an adjustment, but I do not like to do anything that may void the warranty, so we will wait for service. Sears could not schedule an appointment sooner than one month due to Summer being the busy season on refrigeration units, and a noise is not an emergency.

A major concern is that this refrigerator lasts as long as our 1997 Kenmore did (which we donated to a charity, as it still runs and looks great). Wife just wanted all new Stainless steel kitchen appliances.

Poor design for ice maker on door. August 13, 2009

 Have had this for 2 weeks. Going back. Scratches on door from factory, not delivery guys. Every time use the ice dispenser, ice cube falls on the floor an hour later. Looks like it gets stuck in the tube, melts some and then falls. When the mechanism is pushed, doesn't push all the ice into your glass so stays stuck and when melts it is falling out the door to my hardwood floor. I can't trust when this will happen especially with a busy schedule not being home to clean up. It is also very noisy when drops ice into the door. The doors are very heavy and when closed it "sucks" it close and sounds like I am slamming the door. Woke me up the first few days. Good babysitter to know when kids are in the refrigerator.