Joe's Rating: 1 of 5
Melissa's Rating: 1 of 5
Whirlpool 28.6-cu ft French Door Refrigerator
with Single Ice Maker (Stainless Steel) ENERGY STAR
Lowes: Item #: 397787 | Model #: WRF990SLAM
Home Depot: Model # WRF989SDAM Internet # 203491523 Store SKU #829099
This Refrigerator was picked out among a huge selection. Whirlpool because my grandmother used to be an appliance salesperson and in her (obviously biased, but still lovable) opinion, Whirlpool tended to have the least problems, rarely returned and the customer-base that were loyal to the brand was pretty significant. She loved selling Whirlpools because her commission would almost always make it to her bank account without any hiccups. She herself was fond of Whirlpool and would even often purchase the Kenmore (Sears brand) of a product if Whirlpool manufactured it, which was often the case with Kenmore appliances.The pro's are just completely in the description of the product, this thing has a lot of neat little features but the one that sold Melissa (and I was indifferent) was the in-door ice-maker system. This left a lot of room for items on the shelves. This was probably the selling feature, we moved this to the top of our list for that reason alone.
The con's weren't obvious at first. The problems being demonstrated as we use it. The filter needs to be replaced every 6 months, which isn't that big of a deal, but still obnoxious (I come from a simple fridge family :)) but the huge problem started about 3 months before our year warranty ran out, but we didn't consider a problem until 3 months after the warranty ran out. This problem being:
The compressor sounds like its going to explode. It is clearly working its ass off to generate enough pressure to do whatever happens inside of there to make things cold. I opened the back end, to maybe theorize a DIY solution (I am pretty well versed in physics and I have an engineer on standby at all times) but the internal organs of this beast look like I will definitely damage and ruin this $2500 fridge. So I contacted Whirlpool's customer service, who was beyond ridiculous to deal with, so I tweeted my grievances and they've contacted me since, but say they'll contact me again soon. Which is what I do when I'm flaking out on plans, so we'll see what happens here.
The outcome of the repair, including cost (free is what I want, of course) and hassle will be added to this review, so as to be complete, without the fact that the freezer has stopped working, the ice-maker is leaking and stopped working this fridge would get 5 stars, but with those things in mind, it gets a 1 star. These problems are so critical to the use of this machine that I wouldn't just score it low, I would passionately recommend against this product.
