I waited a month for this refrigerator in stainless steel to be made at the factory. At 6 weeks I placed my first service call. A valve underneath was faulty and flooded my new custom wood floor. The second service call came shortly after that with a new problem. The freezer drain froze and once again leaked all over the kitchen. The repairman took the door off, the ice maker out, to defrost the inch of ice on the walls. He also had to modify a grommet on the back side due to the factory flaw. It's 100-105 degrees in Kansas and I'm at the QT buying bags of ice with a new defective refrigerator in my kitchen. Now I have a Whirlpool claim for the floor damage. I also had to take off 4 days of work to wait for the repairman. Whirlpool's response is sorry, we repair, not replace. This refrigerator is not ready to be in the consumer's home. Don't buy it. A big disappointment at a big cost.
Its not often that when comparing new technology with old, and you find the old is a clear standout. On the positive side, it looks nice and there is a small water filter inside that has easy access. I gave up a working refrigerator with cold water as well as crushed ice or cubes through the door. Fearing my old refrigerator was nearing its useful life, I bought this sorry ice box.
Guaranteed to disappoint.
Whirlpool Model WRF560SEYM
Buy Whirlpool WRF560SEYM 19.5 Cu. Ft. Stainless Steel French Door Refrigerator - Energy Star Now
Overall this fridge looks great and has performed well (I've had it about a month). I do have some complaints though. If you are constrained to 30 inches, I think it's a great contender, but if not, look for something else.On the plus side, you get benefits of a French Door fridge in a 30 inch space, including
eye-level refrigerator compartment
better energy efficiency due to the door configuration
through the door water dispenser
more attractive styling (in my opinion)
In addition, it has good, modern fridge features like LED lighting, a shelf with a sliding part that can be moved away to accommodate taller items from the shelf below, an air filter that controls odors (no more baking soda!), moisture control (basically a heater which evaporates condensation on the door seal), humidity-controlled drawers, and some other things. Nothing unique or outstanding, but I'm glad it has them.
However, there are a number of things I'm not thrilled about:
Fridge space. I still can't get as much stuff in this unit as in my old top-freezer model, despite that they are both approximately the same advertised cubic feet. I'm sure this is partially because I have not yet figured out the optimal way to utilize the space, but there is also a significant gap between the front of the main shelves, and the door compartments (when closed). In my opinion, the shelves should be an inch or two longer so you could this space.
Freezer space. Same deal here there is nearly a 4 inch gap between the top of the sliding upper freezer shelf, and the the top of the freezer, creating a full cubic foot of difficult-to-use space. If you have a single tall item, you can put it there, but you can't pile multiple things all the way up, because the shelf's back does not come up that high so things will fall off, requiring you to squat down and retrieve them before you can close the freezer. Also, the ice-maker bucket is stupidly large given the size of this fridge. It's literally twice as big as it needs to be about 20% of the total freezer space. I'd much prefer to have half as much ice and 10% more space for food.
Water temperature. The water tubing that leads from the cool water in the reservoir to the dispenser is outside the fridge on the back, So the water in the tubing warms up to room temp as it sits there. Thus the first cup of water is warm to cool-ish depending on the size of your cup, and then the second cup is then colder. Whirlpool suggests discarding the first cup of water. Not only is this very wasteful, but it also take a long time since water already comes out relatively slowly from fridge dispensers (due to the 1/4" piping). Better to use some of that excessive ice in the freezer to cool down the first cup!
no butter compartment
the lighting strip has a bulge in the front, which blocks access to stuff in the center of the top shelf, making them hard to reach.
That said, these faults are all things I can live with and I do not regret the purchase. More than anything I wish I had more than 30 inches of width in my kitchen so I had more fridge choices!
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