10 Tips for Buying a New Refrigerator

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Refrigerator repairs and failures never come at a good time. If you’re lucky, you can catch a problem before losing a refrigerator full of food. Also, you may just order refrigerator parts and conduct refrigerator repair to fix it instead of buying a new one. Those who use refrigerators for their business should also schedule regular commercial refrigeration maintenance services to avoid problems that will cause a delay in their business operations.

Unfortunately, we weren’t so lucky. We had previously bought our refrigerator on Craigslist and it worked for a while. Then one morning, I found a huge puddle of water under the front of it and everything inside was warm and melted. Thankfully, we had our soda and wine refrigerator as something to use. Trust me, it didn’t hold much at all, but we were able to fit a gallon of milk, some sticks of butter, eggs and cheese into it. We were without a refrigerator for about three weeks and it was terrible!!!!

After we decided to purchase a new refrigerator rather than a used one (didn’t take much persuading there after this experience) and doing some research for appliances online, we headed to a shop like Best Buy to purchase our refrigerator. I had no idea there were so many different options for refrigerators! After spending a lot of time online and in person, we found the one that would be perfect for our family – an LG – Door-in-Door 28.6 Cu. Ft. French Door Refrigerator with Thru-the-Door Ice and Water – Stainless steel. The LG refrigerator had french doors, was made of stainless steel and had a lot of room inside, as well as included a water and ice machine on the outside. We had our measurements and it appeared it would be an easy fit in our home. When we paid for it, we were told it would take two weeks – ugh! But we waited.

Then the day finally came when our brand new refrigerator was being delivered. The Geek Squad team unloaded the refrigerator, measured it, came inside to measure and then gave us the bad news. While the refrigerator would fit perfectly in the space in our kitchen, it wasn’t going to fit through the door because it had side brackets that couldn’t be removed and the measurement was too close to the size of the doorframe. It should be noted also that the refrigerator actually measured bigger than the box (and website) said it would be. We were going to have to do the process all over again!

Fortunately, we found another refrigerator that would meet our family‘s needs, looked nice and ended up costing more, but it was going to be an investment we were willing to make as we plan on having it for a long time. While buying a refrigerator may sound like an easy thing to do, there are actually a lot of factors to consider before making the purchase. It’s definitely a purchase you want to make right the first time. Here are 10 tips for buying a refrigerator or check out the LG refrigerators the best kitchen appliance in town.

10 Tips for Buying a New Refrigerator

1 – Measure – Something we learned when buying our new refrigerator was how important it was to measure…everywhere! The first refrigerator we ordered was gorgeous. I loved it and couldn’t wait to get it up and working. We measured the space where the refrigerator would fit (both height and width), as well as the doorway into the kitchen and the front door. While it did fit perfectly in the space for the refrigerator and measured less than the amount of space needed to get through the front door frame and kitchen door frame, the service crew could NOT get the refrigerator through the door frames because it had brackets that could not be removed. We also found that it measured wider than stated online (and also on the box). It was a huge disappointment. I just wanted a refrigerator to hold the food for my family!

4 – Features – When it comes time to choose a refrigerator, be sure it has the features you want. For instance, do you want it to have french doors? Do you want it to have an ice maker or water filter (on the inside of the fridge or the outside)? Do you want it to be stainless steel? Purchasing a refrigerator is a big investment, so don’t settle if you don’t have to.

5 – Pricing – We did a lot of research before purchasing our LG and then Samsung refrigerators. A big factor was the size, so we pretty much couldn’t look at anything else bigger than what would fit through our door frames, however, we still had a lot of options to go with. One thing I love about Best Buy is that they will price match. We have purchased a lot of our electronics, games and appliances through Best Buy because of this price matching feature, so I highly recommend you check out Best Buy when it comes to pricing. If you can wait, be sure to also check out the specials or deals that Best Buy has going on (sometimes you can get a gift card with purchase or receive an additional discount based on their specials).

6 – Financing – I mentioned earlier that buying a refrigerator is a big investment. It definitely is not a cheap one! Best Buy has a great financing program with the Best Buy credit card where you can get interest-free financing from 12 to 24 months, based on what you purchase. Other stores may offer the same kind of financing as well.

7 – Arrival time – Something you need to be prepared for is that your refrigerator will not be ready to take home that day in most circumstances. In fact, based on what’s in stock in the warehouse, it may take anywhere from a week to a few weeks (longer if you have a custom refrigerator).

8 – Warranty – When we purchased our refrigerator, we chose to add the Geek Squad warranty. We recommend you consider purchasing the extra warranty as the cost of parts and repairs can add up rather quickly. Better to be covered than sorry you didn’t make that extra purchase in the beginning.

9 – Prepare old refrigerator for removal – When we bought our refrigerator from Best Buy, they hauled away the old one. While you may have a working refrigerator and want to sell it, in our case, the refrigerator didn’t work and it made sense to have Best Buy haul it away for a small fee.

10 – Water line – Be sure to check your water line and confirm whether you need to replace the cable or whether you need to add an adaptor. Depending on the style and age of your home, you may consider having a plumber help you install the refrigerator and hook up the water line to the refrigerator.