Overall, a poorly-made purchase.
Written: Jan 10 '05 (Updated Jan 25 '05)
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Pros: Attractive design; easy to clean, and to configure shelving.
Cons: Lots to list in 15 words; better since the repair.
The Bottom Line: Look at a different brand, because of poor durability and erratic behavior.
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| x002657's Full Review: KitchenAid KSCS25FKSS Stainless Steel (25.4 cu. ft... |
UPDATE AS OF 1/25/05:
This is another entry in my continuing saga concerning our side-by-side refrigerator/freezer.
Yesterday, the appliance repair technician arrived with our new freezer-side door. Upon arrival, the technician removed the door from it's rather substantial box and other packaging. While just a bit cumbersome, the door itself was not heavy, and he was able to carry in the new door, remove the old one, and install the new one all by himself; he needed no assistance from a helper. When reaching the kitchen, he commented that we were "lucky" because our door was in pristine condition, and he has received numerous others with scratches, dings, dents, etc, which were basically uninstallable and needed to be returned. I the4n proceeded to inspect the door myself and found it to be free from obvious defects.
Installation was rather quick - less than an hour, and I think closer to 45 mins. He even took the old door with him, as well as the box and packing material. While he worked quickly, he was friendly, but obviously looking to get done ASAP. (He said he had 6 more calls to make, and he did not leave our place until about 1:15 PM, so he may have been facing a very long workday).
The only things he needed to install the new door were his tool bag and a stepstool, in order to reach the upper hinge. (So, have a stepstool handy if you're facing a replacement). He did need to pull the unit slightly away from the wall, but only about 2 inches. (Ours is installed inside a large cabinet, and he needed just a couple inches of extra space to work).
Upon completion, he tested the water dispenser and it worked fine. However, he did not test the ice maker/dispenser.
In all fairness, he was unable to do that, because the freezer had to be emptied out in preparation for the work and in doing that I removed the large tray that houses the ice-crusher/dispenser. I placed all the frozen food in a picnic cooler along with some frozen ice-packs, and removed all freezer-side shelving, both within the main freezer compartment AND on the door, so he would have easy access to the entire unit. I then turned off the power to the entire unit.
I wrote the check for the labor ($138.80) and signed the repair order. Once he left, I returned all our frozen food to the freezer.
NOTE: Only the entire unit can be powered off - NOT JUST ONE SIDE. Consequently, there was no ice in the unit. Also, I had turned off the ice-maker the previous day, and had opened the unit so it would not be too cold to work with.
Now, the day after installation, everything seems to be working fine. The ice-maker works as well as ever, and both the water and ice dispensers within the new door work as expected. I had also turned off the ice-maker on the previous day, so there was no ice in the unit at all.
If you find yourself facing a similar replacement, note the following:
1) the new door does NOT arrive with handles; the handle(s) from your old door will be removed and used on the new door.
2) the new door does NOT arrive with door-shelving; you will need to remove all shelves and even the plastic fronts for the non-removable shelves. (It's a good occasion to clean the inside of the unit).
3) the door did arrive with a new light bulb above the water dispenser, though I saved the old one for future use.
4) Lastly, when questioned about the fronts of the doors being non-magnetic stainless steel or brushed aluminum, the tech said he was not sure what material the fronts were made of.
While I still believe the repair should not have been necessary, the resolution of the problem has certainly been done to my satisfaction.
UPDATE AS OF 1/20/2005:
I want to share some other things I've learned since my original review:
1) I've been told that there ARE grades/types of "stainless steel" that are non-magnetic. I wasn't aware of that when I wrote my original review, so my suspicion of the front doors being brushed aluminum may very well be wrong. That original observation was based entirely on my (apparently naive) expectation that all steel would be magnetic. Please excuse, and forgive, my error. (My thanks to another epinions member for that lesson).
2) We got a phone call the day before yesterday from the appliance repair company. The new door for the freezer-side of the unit has arrived at the shop and we've been scheduled for its' installation early next week. Also, much to Kitchen-Aid's beneficence, the repair company confirmed that the cost of the door, i.e. the "parts," will be covered by Kitchen-Aid, while we only pay for labor. Thank you, Kitchen-Aid.
3) Lastly, while my original review mentioned that magnetic items will not stick to the doors, I want to include this warning about using, or even TRYING, magnetic items on stainless steel fronts: DON'T USE TYPICAL "DECORATIVE" KITCHEN MAGNETS. YOU MAY END UP SCRATCHING THE DOOR AND RUINING ITS' GOOD LOOKS. (Besides, they won't stick anyway, but even trying them may result in small, but unsightly scratches).
That's why my original review mentioned that I tried only "soft" or "flexible" magnets. Even before trying magnets, my spouse pointed out that, despite the collection of kitchen magnets we've accumulated over the years, we would not be able to use them on this fridge, for fear of scratches. (Now that I consider the fact that the doors are non-magnetic, I suppose Kitchen-Aid deserves credit for preventing us from damaging our fridge through scratches left by magnets...duh). Thanks, Kitchen-Aid...and please excuse my bout with "temporary insanity."
Based on the lessons I've recently learned, Kitchen-Aid's willingness to cover the cost of the replacement freezer door, and my realization that Kitchen-Aid actually prevents us from ruining the attractiveness of the unit through their foresight, I'm raising my rating from 2 to 3.
While Kitchen-Aid's response to our problem has been noteworthy, and has raised my opinion of them slightly, I still feel that 3 years is too short a time for such a costly unit to "break." That "breakage" has deprived us of the use of our water and ice dispensers for more than a month. And, while many folks may consider that trivial, those features were specific choices we made when shopping for a unit and which, I suspect, added dearly to the cost. A quick analogy might be to book a lengthy trans-Pacific flight, only to find out that the bathrooms on the plane broke after takeoff, or the movie screen(s) stopped working half-way through the movie.
ORIGINAL REVIEW FOLLOWS:
We bought this in summer of 2001 as part of a total kitchen renovation and major home expansion. Along with this, we also bought a matching dishwasher and double electric convection oven, all Kitchen-Aid products. Now, after 3+ years experience with the fridge, I have decided that I would probably never buy a Kitchen-Aid product again.
We make frequent use of the water filter/dispenser, and the ice dispenser, so we've put those through their paces. However, in November of '04 both stopped working, although the ice-maker has always been reliable. I contacted Customer Service and made an appointment through them for a qualified service company to come and check it out. Curiously, while explaining the condition to the Customer Service rep, she seemed at least familiar with our problem. She even stated that if the service technician confirmed that our problem was related to the issue she was aware of, that Kitchen-Aid "could provide some help to us" with the repair. She didn't elaborate, but it was clear that she meant that the total cost of the repair might be reduced.
The tech came and confirmed that it WAS the problem suspected by the Customer Service rep. He said we needed an entire new freezer-side door for the unit, something the Customer Service rep never mentioned. (The rubbing-wire problem related in other reviews here was the same problem we had).
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ADDENDUM AS OF 1/20/2005:
Thinking back, there were hints that something was amiss with the unit. On occasion, there were times when the water dispenser would just stop working for no apparent reason. Opening and closing the door a few times would inexplicably start it working again. Curiously, there seemed to be no discernible pattern regarding which door had to be opened to start the dispenser again; sometimes it was the freezer-side door, sometimes the fridge-side door. If you experience this situation, it may be a good sign that you're facing the same fate we did.
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ORIGINAL REVIEW CONTINUED:
I was appalled when the tech told me the cost of a new door was in the range of $ 800 just for the part. That's more than half the price of the entire unit. But, he made some calls, and it turns out that Kitchen-Aid will provide the door, while we only have to pay for the labor. The tech told us that would be about $ 150 - much better than $ 800 PLUS labor, but after only 3 years use, something that should not be necessary for such a major appliance. Having paid more than $ 1,000 for the unit, I expected considerably better durability. Now we have to wait for the door to arrive. The tech said that could be 4-8 weeks.
Otherwise, the unit works decently well. It certainly is attractive-looking, but not functional for keeping large items, certainly not good for entertaining large parties requiring big platters of food. It's pretty easy to clean, but somehow the sliding shelves don't seem to be a good idea; as other reviews have stated, things tend to fall off of them. Also, the freezer shelves and compartments seem small. This unit is certainly not for use by a large family. With 20/20 hindsight, I think I would have preferred a wider, but shallower unit; I think that would have been more functional.
We have not experienced noise problems, and the cost of water filter cartridges seems a bit pricey ($ 30-35 each), but even with frequent use of the water dispenser, we get about 6-8 months before we have to replace a filter cartridge. (But, I suspect that depends on your local water supply; we have "city water" - not well water). I've found that the cartridges are available at a Sears Service Center, and we're lucky enough to have one within about 5 miles of our home in Northern NJ.
One other point that I find interesting: even though the unit is labeled "stainless steel", I suspect it is really brushed aluminum. I've tried sticking various soft/flexible magnetic items to it, such as one of those flexible, magnetic calendars, but it won't stick. If it were really steel, I would expect a magnet to take hold; mine just fell off without a hint of sticking.
As for only the front being "stainless" metal and the sides black, that metal front also shows every single fingerprint that touches it. If you're someone who demands their kitchen always look neat and clean, you have 3 choices: be prepared to always clean those fingerprints off, don't touch the doors anywhere except on the handles, or wear gloves when opening either door; fingerprints show up as easily as spaghetti sauce on a white shirt. Our unit happens to be within a large cabinet, so we never see the black sides or top.
While the unit can be configured to your liking, i.e. shelf and drawer placement, we have all the drawers at the bottom of the unit. (Given the narrowness of the opening, any other configuration seems to be too inconvenient. So while the configuration of shelves and drawers seems like a benefit, functionality seems limited to only 1 or 2 configurations; other configurations, e.g. putting the drawers at the top, seem "dysfunctional"). From time to time, even with trying to adjust the temp settings, things in those drawers develop ice crystals. We've lost a few heads of lettuce, bunches of parsley, and other things if they aren't used within a couple of days. Even grapes have frozen in there.
There IS one feature that both my spouse and I especially like - ours came with a single, white-plastic wine-bottle shelf that hangs from one of the main shelves. We can at least keep a bottle of wine chilled by laying it down rather than standing it up. (Not a big deal, but a "cute" extra feature). That little "shelf is curved to keep the bottle in place, and is pretty unobtrusive if you allow room for it when configuring the shelving.
One last comment about dealing with Customer Service: while the people I've spoken to have always been polite, patient, and even-tempered, I always sense some disturbing attitude, as if they are thinking to themself "Well, you bought this product, and even though you paid dearly for it, you also bought the problems that come with it, so don't expect us to own up to and cover the cost of mistakes we made in design or manufacture." It's almost as if any problems are the customer's fault AND the customer's responsibility. However, I HAVE been impressed with the service techs. They have been here 3 times thus far, twice for our dishwasher, (once to determine a problem and once to install the part to fix that problem), and once for our fridge, which we're waiting to be resolved. Of course, they get paid a minimum of $ 50 for each visit, and they've never been here more than 40 mins. If I made that kind of money, I doubt I'd have much to complain about, too.
In summary, I think Kitchen-Aid is still benefitting from their reputation of old. Before being bought by Westinghouse, I think the line was made by Hobart, the same company that makes (or used to make) supermarket and other commercial appliances. That was when its reputation for high-quality was made, but it certainly seems to have become an afterthought ever since Westinghouse bought the name. They'd have to do an enormous turnaround in quality before I'd even consider purchasing another one of their appliances, despite the attractive styling and their yet-to-be-realized "help" with the cost of this repair we're waiting on.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): $ 1,100 /-
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Epinions.com ID:
x002657
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Location: Northern NJ
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 7 members
About Me:
Mere belief in something doesn't make it so.
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