Maybe you love your fridge or (more likely) don’t think about it much. Consider yourself lucky. More than a few people (some of whom work here) hate their refrigerators with the white-hot rage of a thousand suns. Here are a few (okay, a lot of) reasons fridges get deservedly bad raps.
1. Stuff Gets Lost
If you have a big fridge, congratulations! Stuff will be lost for ages in there! Yes, groceries can hide underneath layers and layers of stuff, especially in that low-down freezer you got because you were so enamored with French doors. Your back will give out before you find that leftover lasagna or lost wheel of brie.
2. You Have to Bend Down to Open the Freezer
French door fridges were a hot commodity when they first came out. You could open the doors to your fridge so wide! What you didn’t notice at the store was that the freezer was now a drawer at the bottom that would require bending over whenever you opened it. This was not ideal in the best of circumstances, but if your back bothered you? Kiss that frozen pizza goodbye.
3. Bugs Thrive in the Water Maker
The ice maker is a pain, but the water maker can create drippy messes outside and inside your fridge. And, according to our Executive Editor Kris Scott, it’s a breeding ground for bacteria growth. She’s not wrong — if you don’t replace your fridge water filter often enough (and most people don’t), you can end up drinking mold, fungus, or bacteria. Yum.
4. You Have to Deal With Bad Customer Service
When your fridge does give out (probably well after the too-short warranty period), you’ll either need an expensive repair or a whole new fridge. And if you want to complain to the company? Read one Redditor’s tale of woe, which continues through five posts, each worse than the last.
5. Shelves Aren’t Adjustable
In theory you can put the shelves in any configuration you want — but that’s only in theory. Your choices are usually too close together to store anything, bigger than you need, and just useless. Chances are you’ll need to buy some sort of system to keep order in your fridge, as if you need to throw more money at this appliance.
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6. Your Fridge Can Be Loud
If you notice your fridge humming (or worse) away, it’s probably a problem. Writer Rachel Schneider says that in her experience, every fridge is too loud. “Sometimes the humming is so loud that people who are sensitive to sound will go crazy trying to block out the noise (ahem, every refrigerator I’ve ever had),” she says.
7. It Won’t Last Long Enough
According to our Executive Editor Kris Scott, “They only last 5-10 years and typically cost from $1,000 and up.” The idea we willingly pay this much for an appliance that dies faster than your clothes go out of fashion is infuriating.
8. It Ices Up
According to one Redditor, his Samsung fridge is so poorly designed that the evaporator builds up ice — a flaw that demands that the whole refridgerator be thawed out. Worse, this problem has existed in the brand for more than a decade. Fail.
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9. The Stainless Steel Finish Smudges
This is a problem for more than just refrigerators, but any appliance with a stainless steel finish. Still, you may become more aware of it because you touch your fridge many times a day — and add smudges unintentionally.
10. The Ice Dispenser Is Garbage
While not everyone has problems with their ice maker, it’s a frequent complaint, either for freezing over or dumping water in other parts of the fridge, according to some Redditors.
11. The Water Dispenser Sucks, Too
If you have ever had a water dispenser in your fridge, you’ve likely had problems with the water dispenser in your fridge. Yours probably dribbles and leaks, which you can figure out easily if there’s a trail of hard water stains down the front of your fridge.
12. It Lacks Handles
If your landord is replacing your fridge, you can bet he’s not getting a nice one — or even a decent one. Writer Lacey Muszynski says, “The landlord replaced my old one with the cheapest, smallest one he could find (seriously, it doesn’t even have handles, just finger slots).” We can bet that the new one requires regular thawing just to use the freezer, too.
13. It Costs As Much to Repair As to Buy New
Calling a refrigerator repairman can be a depressing experience. It can take a while to get serviced, and once you do you usually discover your money was probably better spent on a new fridge — because the price of repair will be uncomfortably close to the cost of a new model. If the repairman seems reluctant to make the fix, it’s not always because he doesn’t want to do the job — he just knows you’re wasting money.
14. It’s a Pain to Clean
Yes, you can wipe spills when you see them, but to truly clean the fridge you have to get the glass shelves out of the fridge without breaking them, find some way to clean them (they’ll fit in the bathtub, FYI), and, after you’ve washed down the interior of the fridge, jam them back inside — all while the fridge probably beeps to let you know food is thawing out.
15. There Isn’t Enough Space Under the Water Dispenser
You may be one of the many, many people who bought enormous water bottles recentry (I blame Stanley and Yeti), filling them up from your fridge is pretty much impossible. The bottles are too long, too wide, and just won’t get close to the dispenser no matter how you try. It’s not the worst thing, but it’s a daily irritant.
