In the Market for an Affordable Bottom Freezer Refrigerator

I'd stick with Amana, Whirlpool, etc, but for all I know Hisense in the same these days.

Our last bottom freezer unit was an Amana and it went along with the house when we sold it. That was a great fridge.

The one we've had for 10yrs or so is a Whirlpool I bought from BLowes as a scratch-n-dent. Had a small dent on the side. Don't like this fridge. Hate the shelving in it. Can't stand the pull-out freezer, where the bottom basket and all it's contents moves out with the door. Total waste of space and when my kids randomly toss stuff in there, it jambs up the works when you try to open the freezer.

I had to do the duck bill valve mod on the condensate drip tube about 6 months after we took delivery of it as well.
Good info.

I ordered the Amana ABB1921BRB from Best Buy @ $989. Best price I saw. Every other place was at least $200 more.

I did have to order an icemaker kit for it, as it did not come with one. That was another $109 with tax.

Looks like I won’t be getting the unit until September 8 at the earliest. Over a month. I am not sure if that is due to everything going on, because in the reviews, some customers that order there’s over a year ago from Best Buy, still did not receive their’s for a month.

I decided that it would be silly, to put a brand new refrigerator out in the garage. So, I am going to put the old one out there and put the new one in the kitchen.
 
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Good info.

I ordered the Amana ABB1921BRB from Best Buy @ $989. Best price I saw.

You did great.

To me, the only way to go is the conventional swing open freezer door like you got. You'll have the most usable freezer space with that setup since it's not being taken up by slide rails with pull out baskets, etc. that the pull out freezer doors have.
 
I'm cheap especially for garage Refrigerator. I would look at Craigslist in a close by safe neighborhood and visit during daylight and do due diligence.
 
I'm cheap especially for garage Refrigerator. I would look at Craigslist in a close by safe neighborhood and visit during daylight and do due diligence.

I started out with that idea, but got tired of looking through all the junk. And, like with everything I buy, it seems, I decided I had to have something out of the ordinary. That made it difficult to find what I wanted 2nd-Hand.
 
Not sure what market you are in but Dallas market is full of used appliances. Only thing new in appliances is Dish Washer & Front Load washer. I love it when I am paying .20 cent or less on a dollar.
 
Would the Ikea BETRODD fit your needs? No idea if it can be had cheaper, it's a Whirlpool fridge under it's Swedish skin.

Ikea BETRODD

Looks to be a copy of the Whirlpool WRB119WFBM, but at a decent discount at least as far as MSRP goes (we all know what that means).
 
Would the Ikea BETRODD fit your needs? No idea if it can be had cheaper, it's a Whirlpool fridge under it's Swedish skin.

Ikea BETRODD

Looks to be a copy of the Whirlpool WRB119WFBM, but at a decent discount at least as far as MSRP goes (we all know what that means).

That looks just like the Amana I just bought. Same total capacity - 18 ft/3. And I’ve heard that Amana is made by Whirlpool.

All 3 are probably basically the same, with slight differences. Many of the details look the same.
 
A few weeks ago our 3 door Kenmore Elite sounded louder. At 14 years old we ordered another and of course it went back to sounding normal. Swapped them out yesterday and that leaves 5 other stainless KE appliances (that age) still going.
just watched the neighbor take delivery of 3 LG appliances … Good luck with that …
 
2 and a half months after ordering from Best Buy, we still don’t have the Amana bottom-freezer refrigerator we paid for on August 1, and we have no indication of when we’ll get it, it ever.

We were originally told Sept. 8. Then, a day or two prior to that, we were told October 13. Got text messages from Best Buy, confirming delivery, etc. We moved our old refrigerator into the garage, in anticipation of receiving the new unit, only to receive a call from Best Buy on the morning of the day it was to be delivered, that it‘s back ordered and no guaranteed date that they’ll have it.

I called, and was transferred to a foreigner who, I could tell, was taking problem calls from home and really had no interest in resolving our problem satisfactorily. I asked to speak with a supervisor, manager, or ANYONE who could tell me something and help me with this, and could never get through.

I was promised that I would get a callback within 24 hrs, and never got a call, message, email, or anything.

Pretty disappointed in Best Buy, to say the least. They now have over a grand of our money and we have nothing to show for it, and no indication that they’ll ever have any more of that model.

Id just like to know for sure one way or the other, so I can make a decision on whether to get a refund and go somewhere else.
 
I recommend that you cancel the sale with Best Buy and get your money back. Go to an actual locally owned appliance store and see what they can get. I did that two weeks ago and had a new fridge in three days. It may be next year before what you ordered is available.
 
As you know, USA production of major appliances has taken a bit hit from the pandemic. Many are backordered. We have a 22.6 cubic foot Amana bottom freezer that's 17 years old. It cost $1,800 in 2003 because they were relatively new on the market then. It's only needed one minor repair in 17 years (knock on wood). But that doesn't mean today's Amana is made as well as 15-20 years ago. Consumers complain about recent problems with many Whirlpool and Maytag appliances, which like Amana are made by Whirlpool. Good luck with your decision. Like walterjay said, buy local. I'd tell Best Buy to stick it.
 
It was 6 weeks to get the stainless French door unit from our Sears … we checked several brands and designs and that was about as good as it gets …
 
Well, we finally got a bottom-freezer refrigerator...but it’s not an Amana.

Best Buy kept giving us the ole run-around, and would never actually tell us when or IF we’d ever get that Amana.

Ive noticed that many online retailers will conveniently lower the prices on items that are discontinued or otherwise unavailable for whatever reason. This has the effect of getting you lured onto their site, and they hope that even though they don’t have the item you came there for, maybe you’ll stay and buy something else. The old bait-and-switch.

So, we ended up with a Hisense. And we actually really like it.

The cabinet seems to be fairly well-built. I needed to switch the hinges to the other side for our kitchen, and that was pretty easy to do, and came with all the hardware to do so.

Being a Chinese-made, value-oriented brand, it does, of course, have a few cost-cutting measures (no ice maker, stainless steel finish on the handles is a little rough, shelves on door are cheap, thin plastic). But, overall, it actually seems like a pretty good unit. It is the quietest refrigerator I’ve ever been around. It really is whisper-quiet.

It maintains temperature very well (we bought a thermometer), and the digital temp control that has separate controls for the fridge and freezer with temp readout is a nice touch.

The freezer can be set all the way to -11°F. I think that’s quite a bit lower than most home freezers will go. Which is cool, but we have it set to -2°F. And the fridge to 39°F. If we leave it closed all night it actually gets down to about 35°F on that setting.

It’s an attractive unit, has more room than our old one, and we love the top-fridge configuration.

The only thing that remains to be seen is the longevity!

My understanding of Chinese-made stuff like this is that it can be hit-or-miss. Maybe you’ll get a good one that lasts a long time, or you may get a lemon.

We paid $982. So, not as good of a deal as the Amana would have been. But I actually don’t think BB EVER had that Amana.

We‘ll see how she does!
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Well, we finally got a bottom-freezer refrigerator...but it’s not an Amana.

Best Buy kept giving us the ole run-around...
Great info. Thanks for your homework! I currently have a Whirlpool "Designer Series" fridge bottom freezer with two doors I bought in 1997. Only thing that's been done to it is an occasional cleaning of the condenser coil underneath with a brush made for the purpose and a vacuum cleaner. No repairs, but I know the day will likely come I will need to replace it. BTW I bought this at Circuit City back then. Tried Best Buy on several appliances, washer, dryer, a couple of TVs, and always ended up at CC. Was sorry to see CC go.
 
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Be careful with the freezer part of the garage fridge. Depending on the temps during winter the freezer part might not stay below freezing. My ~12 year old Kenmore garage fridge keeps the fridge cold but the freezer will get above freezing during cold outside temps where my garage is in the high 40s.
 
No gallon jug storage in the door, or can the door storage be rearranged to accommodate gallon jugs?
Good question. With the door shelves it came with, there is no gallon jug storage on the door.

Whether there are shelves available that could be swapped in, I don’t know.
 
Be careful with the freezer part of the garage fridge. Depending on the temps during winter the freezer part might not stay below freezing. My ~12 year old Kenmore garage fridge keeps the fridge cold but the freezer will get above freezing during cold outside temps where my garage is in the high 40s.
Why is that?
 
Why is that?
A refrigerator is like an AC, they don't work well in the winter. You have to look at the specs for the fridge and see what the lowest temperature it will operate at. I had a tenant complain about a non working fridge once. Turned out they went away and shut the heat off in the winter and when it got too cold, the refrigerator didn't operate.
 
A refrigerator is like an AC, they don't work well in the winter. You have to look at the specs for the fridge and see what the lowest temperature it will operate at. I had a tenant complain about a non working fridge once. Turned out they went away and shut the heat off in the winter and when it got too cold, the refrigerator didn't operate.
Good to know.

Thanks.
 
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