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It's increasingly difficult to get high-end performance with a simple device with a good user interface. Incidentally, I happen to have almost the same refrige

It's increasingly difficult to get high-end performance with a simple device with a good user interface. Incidentally, I happen to have almost the same refrigerator as the author (same thing, but without the hot water dispenser). My only failure so far has been the condenser fan after seven years of operation. It was clearly an electronic failure of the onboard motor controller, which honestly has no excuse to fail. I also have a more-recent Kitchenaid 48-inch-wide side-by-side purchased in 2020. It's a remarkably simple appliance given the year of manufacture. Yet the interior lighting is horribly unreliable. The freezer killed three lighting modules in its first three years. They inevitably go high impedance, usually emitting zero light. One of the three was still emitting a tiny amount of light post-failure. The lights are all in series, so when one fails the entire chamber goes dark. I've even had one of the replacement lighting modules fail already. This component is clearly flawed and I'm tempted to design my own replacement.

mlrtime 3y ago
> It's increasingly difficult to get high-end performance with a simple device with a good user interface. It's actually not at all, but people [in general, not here] want Cheap + Features. There are expensive "prosumer/consumer" level no-feature refrigerators but people don't want to pay for them.
- alwa 3y ago
  Are there particular brands or manufacturers that you look to for this quality, or do you look more to the price or “commercial-grade” positioning as a signal?
  - mlrtime 3y ago
    You need to do your research. Because a manufacturer/brand can make one product (sometimes just one item in a lineup) very well, but the rest of the products not so much. So a well designed kitchen with "prosumer" appliances will be a mix/match from a bunch of different brands. I've stated earlier here that I've had Sub Zero refrigerators last 10-15+ years with mostly no maintenance, however you will spend around $7k at the low end. For kitchen appliances talk to chefs who work with these brands daily or read around their forums. Most people don't want to do this or will vote with their wallet by buying something cheap that needs replacing in ~5 years.

mlrtime 3y ago

> It's increasingly difficult to get high-end performance with a simple device with a good user interface. It's actually not at all, but people [in general, not here] want Cheap + Features. There are expensive "prosumer/consumer" level no-feature refrigerators but people don't want to pay for them.

alwa 3y ago
Are there particular brands or manufacturers that you look to for this quality, or do you look more to the price or “commercial-grade” positioning as a signal?
- mlrtime 3y ago
  You need to do your research. Because a manufacturer/brand can make one product (sometimes just one item in a lineup) very well, but the rest of the products not so much. So a well designed kitchen with "prosumer" appliances will be a mix/match from a bunch of different brands. I've stated earlier here that I've had Sub Zero refrigerators last 10-15+ years with mostly no maintenance, however you will spend around $7k at the low end. For kitchen appliances talk to chefs who work with these brands daily or read around their forums. Most people don't want to do this or will vote with their wallet by buying something cheap that needs replacing in ~5 years.