From: "lpogoda" 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.frugal-living misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Any suggestion for best buy for fridge, washer and dryer ?
Date: Sun, 27 Jul 2003 10:30:35 -0400


chris wrote in message <2f193fe2.0307261717.502cbec7@posting.google.com>...
>
>> As for refrigerators, buy what you want, but know that you'll very
>> likely have more problems with any refrigerator that supplies water
>> and continuous ice.  Side by side refrigerators also seem to have more
>> problems, plus they are not nearly as energy efficient as the top
>> freezer models, plus they cost a lot more.
>
>May I ask why the side by side is less energy efficient and have more
>problem ? What kind of problem ? I have heard the door may not seal
>perfectly after a while, but I figure this should be the same with
>other model ?

Does the reason why really make any difference?  Is it not sufficient that
such is the case?  It's not like you could do anything that would make some
particular model more enerby efficient, after all.

I've never had a side by side, partly because everyone I've ever known who
had one said they didn't like it, and no one I've known has ever bought a
second one when the old one needed to be replaced.

A dozen years ago when I was shopping for appliances for my then new house,
I couldn't help but notice that the fancier the refrigerator the less energy
efficient it was.  It seemed reasonable that features like through the door
(which let you get a milk bottle out without opening the door and letting
all the cold air spill out), ice and water dispensers (ditto) and ice makers
(you don't have to open the freezer compartment to put in the ice cube
trays) would save energy, but according to the energy guide labels, the
opposite was true - models with this stuff consistently used more energy
than similarly sized models without these features.

It seems odd that you'd consider spending double or triple what you need to
on a washer and dryer in the interests of saving energy and water even
though the payback period is longer than the expected life of the appliance,
and then turn around and spend extra money on a refrigerator that is not
only not energy effiicient, but is that way specifically because of the
features you're spending the extra money on.

Sounds like the worst of all possible worlds to me.