Kenmore Refrigerators Reviews

Fire-melted componenats,spoiled food, loss of usage of fridge

I want to file this complaint because of possible defective merchandise being distributed. A fridge should not break within 3 yrs of purchase it has had completely normal use, never been moved since delivery etc... Have a cheap small fridge over 10 yrs no problem paid all the money and got 3 yrs, no warranty unless it is a seal broken.

By the third time I was so angry I told Sears that I wanted a new refrigerator. I was told that I had to have four or more instances where a technician had to come out and service my appliance. I let them know that I would NOT wait for another instance and that I WILL have another refrigerator within the week. After many phone calls and finally a visit to the Sears store, I was given another refrigerator. It was not really the refrigerator that I wanted but at this point I would take anything that worked. The "new" refrigerator has given me issues on and off now for 1.5 years with the ice maker.

However, to keep from dealing with Sears any further I have just dealt with it. Now two years after using my "new" refrigerator, the ice dispensor located in the door is broken and required a new door to be repaired - with a price of $600-$700 I might as well purchase I new refrigerator. I cannot just use ice trays because the shelves in my freezer are made up of a grid of tiny bars so the ice trays just slip through. I cannot use my ice maker because without the dispenser mechanism, the ice becomes frozen in a large chunk in the bottom of the ice bin. Eventually the very bottom piece begins to melt because it is getting air from the broken dispenser door. As it melts it drips out the door and floods the dispenser tray and leaks down the freezer door onto the floor.

They definately do not make refrigerators like they used to, which is evident because of the push from the sales people and technicians to purchase an additional warranty for $300 per year. The refrigerator in my garage has been in good working order for the past 15 years and is still going. I don't feel that I should have to purchase a warranty for a NEW refrigerator.

My next issue regarding Sears involved the delivery and set up of a new front end load HE washer and dryer. The first appointment was scheduled and they were so late I finally had to go to work. I called to reshceule and they could not come until the following week. We had to go wash clothes at a Washateria for the weekend.

When they finally came and delivered and set up my washer and dryer they set them up backwards. The dryer where the washer should go and vice versa. This would not have been a problem, except the cords and dryer vent hose did not reach. The water hose looked like it was about to pull the hookup from the wall is was stretched so tight and the dryer vent hose would not stay on because it was stretched too far. He set them up this way because he did not want the doors to hit one another when you had them open while doing laundry. Evidently the "technician" (I use this term loosely) did not realize that the door to the dryer could be turned around and attached on the right side of the dryer.

When I called them back to fix it, they sent another "technician" who did not do it properly and the door would not shut right. They had to order me another dryer because the door was messed up beyond repair. Now I had to schedule a third appointment and then fight with them over two weeks to refund my delivery fee, which I was not going to pay because I now had taken off three days from work so they could come resolve three issues they created in the first place. I think it is safe to say that I will NEVER purchase another Kenmore appliance again. Regarding my refrigerator/freezer: I will have to either purchase ice by the bag and keep it in a container in my freezer to keep it from melting and leaking out the dispenser door OR purchase another refrigerator for $1500-$1800 to replace a refrigerator that is 2 years old. Regarding the washer and dryer I missed three days of work for scheduled appointments for repair/service.

I then find that the plate on the bottom will not allow you to replace the wheels without placing refrigerator on its side which you are not supposed to do. I cant move the refrigerator to repair ice line or clean behind it because it has no wheel.

Gouges in linoleum due to wheel that literally fell into crumbled pieces.

Melted plastic glare shield and plastic frame around lights have been damaged. Now the fridge has a burnt smell inside it.

The refridgerator is basically not fixable without that part, however we can't buy it anywhere. The icemaker door will have to be permanently closed and we'll have to open it for ice dispensing. Due to our disguist, we'll not buy Kenmore again. Probably not shop at Sears and definitely not recommend them.

I did order a new one, but now after speaking with several other persons I'm questioning the right for them to charge me for a replacement of an obviously defective piece of glass. I want them to ship this to me at now cost. I've been waiting for a call from someone in repair and have yet to hear from them.

cuts on my fingers and one piece of glass still in my finger.

i called sears to find out that the warranty is out and i didn't purchase the ex warranty *i usually do. so i ask them to come out they informed it will be 65 hour. we'll i open it up and started to look at it and the light fixture melted and i took it off and then the lights have brown marks on them signs that it was about to catch on fire. might i add that the drawers on the unit all broke piece of plastic. so i take the light bulbs out and frig is cool again. we'll now i am getting water leaking on hte floor now. now i check the freezer and thats not keeping anything frozen. what can i say piece of junk.

lost over $800 in food in frig now the freezer going had to throw out like $400 all plastic drawers are broken including the lunch meat drawer ice maker hardly ever makes ice.

Well while waiting for the big day to arrive I had time to do a little investigating and found out that a circuit board that controls the lights might be faulty and that if I just unplugged the fridge for five minutes or so the board would reset itself , so I did and guess what, the light went when the doors were closed. Problem solved and I cancelled the service call. Okay now its June and one morning I open the fridge and wham, another blast of HOT air. This time the lighting unit is hanging by the wires, the plastic surrounding it looks like the inside of a cave, the sockets are scorched brown and again everything on the top shelf is ruined. Push in the switches and the lights stay on so back on the phone with the friendly sears service rep. A service tech could be here in a week any time between 8 and 5. So at 5:30 on the scheduled day we get a call from the tech saying he would be here shortly, must be a very busy man.

So he arrives , reminds me of the $65.00 just for showing up fee(even though I had just waited all day long and he shows up a half hour later than promised), opens the fridge door and tells me Yeah every things melted, its a the circuit board. So he gets on his lap-top and after a few minutes says he has bad news. Your warranty is up and its going to cost me over $500.00 for a new board and labor. wearing out only 18 months is a little absurd. Seems expensive sears Kenmore ELITE fridges are being constructed with pretty cheap parts. So I decline the repairs, who needs a light in a refrigerator any how, pay the $65.00 just to show up and tell me what I all ready knew fee and call sears.

Of course its after six oclock in the p.m. now and what sears manager is still in his office. So Ill wait till Monday to see if I can get some satisfaction in solving the problem. Now Ive purchased a number of sears products through the years , appliances, TVs, tools, shop-vacs etc. but I will never set foot in another sears store, and neither will anyone I know, if I have to pay over $500.00 to repair a 18 month old refrigerator.

the heat from the 2 light bulbs being on for hours ruined approximately $100.00 worth of food, paid a lot of money for a refrigerator only to have it go bad after only 18 months and to have sears want that much to repair what seems to be a known defective part

Several months later - same problem with temperature. Third call was placed to Sears. Tech came out & replaced the whole electronic mother board at a cost of $400.00. I refused to pay & he took out the new piece & put the old one back in. After several phone calls to Sears & all of the chains of command the refrigerator was replaced in 2003. So, I had it for 2 years.

Now, 5 years later, the compressor is shot. When my husband called the Sears service dept. they transferred him to some other country, to a person who had difficulty speaking English, let alone understanding English, and they wanted to sell my husband a service contract. Needless to say, I am not buying a service contract. I am buying a new frige but it won't be from Sears & it won't be a Kenmore.

Economic damages: The cost of service contracts that don't cover parts, service calls (generally it's $100.00 for the guy to come out); lost time from my job-someone has to be home when the tech comes out; food spoilage (the meager amount sears gives does not cover half the actual cost of food); Lost confidence in Sears & any products they sell. Believe me, I never refer people to sears.

Well now we have a freezer full of food that is going bad and now look forward to the refrigerator food going bad also and they won't replace the food because the service man feels he would take the chance and eat it. Furthermore, we paid over $3,000 for this refrigerator less then 6 months ago and it should not be defecting already. I would like for sears to replace the entire refrigerator.

I have a 5 year warranty on the compressor, if the compressor is leaking freon, why should I have to pay this? If consumers can not go and buy a reliable product like Sears/Kenmore, what do we buy? I will never buy ANYTHING from Sears or Kenmore if they product such an inferior product.

I have bought a new ref. and now I'm out the cost of another ref. I have lost everything in my freezer and ref because they sold me a defective product and will not back it up. I probaly lost 300.00 in frozen meats,eggs,milk etc.

I called the repair line and the earliest they said they can come out to look at it is in a week. What am I supposed to do until then? Now after having read through all of the complaints I think that I might go to the store and see if it can be replaced with a different model. I have never really had problems with Sears in the past and have generally purchased my home appliances with them so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they will do the right thing.

The only consequences so far have been the inconvenience and the loss of food. That is particularly sad since food costs have been skyrocketing lately and the consumer is always paying the consequences.

I spoke to the technician Eugenio. He said that he replaced a 'start device'. I quickly looked up the part on the searspartsdirect.com website. I saw that the part was a simple plug in relay switch. It listed for $46. I asked the technician why the repair was $275? He replied that the part was $68 and the labor was $203!! I questioned the validity of the labor charges, as the instructions for the replacement part was simply a plug-n-play transaction. Eugenio told me that this is what the charges where and any complaints were to be made back to Sears.

I asked Eugenio if he had written an estimate that itemized the part and labor. He did not. He said that He gave a verbal estimate of $275. He demanded payment or he wouldn't leave my home. The problem with this is that the labor to plug in the relay was an exorbitant $203. The fact that this was not itemized on the estimate is a huge problem. If the labor was itemized, my wife would have not approved the repair. It was a complete misrepresentation to state that the compressor would not start and that he would fix it for $275 when in reality it was a simple replacement of a relay.

Economic Damage: 1.Unreasonable charges 2. Those charges not itemized on the estimate. Consumer is tricked into an overpriced transaction.

Last week the refrigerator began making the same rattling sound and running constantly--the same problem as last year. I called customer service to see if they would make repairs as I believe this unit is a lemon. Two customer service reps (they should be called customer disservice reps) would not connect me with a supervisor and tried to make me schedule a service call, which I refused to do. I then went to the local Sears store where I bought the appliance. The GM was not in and the appliance manager was on vacation. The very sympathetic and helpful saleswomen called customer service on my behalf and got the same runaround I had received.

I will be contacting the appliance department manager when she returns as the saleswomen encouraged me to do so. I am not optimistic about getting any satisfaction as the last customer disservice rep was curt, telling me I had the opportunity to buy the service agreement after the original warranty expired. Since the agreement was almost the same as having the appliance fixed again, I declined. He also refused to give me his last name (a good sign, yes?).

I really don't think Sears will do the right thing in this case, even though the appliance is clearly substandard. I will end up having to fix the fridge myself again, paying the price to have it fixed, or buying a new one. I am tempted to dump it in the door at the local Sears but am sure I would be charged for that. I believe this is an example of why Sears and other American companies are in such financial straits. I tried to Buy American and lost money. I do intend to write the CEO just to vent and will call the Better Business Bureau--any other suggestions? Thanks!

This time the repair person says that he can not fix the door because the refrigerator frame is bent and with the stress fractures in the inside wall of the refrigerator he was sure the refrigerator was dropped or damaged before or during the delivery? He said there is nothing he could do to fix the door. Basically the refrigerator useless after 6 years. I will never spend another dime in Sears.

Sears said there is nothing they could do and that these things happen. Had we bought more service agreements they maybe we could do something? So we spent $2800 for a refrigerator that lasted 5 1/2 years.

That next delivery we seemed to have finally received a good unit. We had the unit for roughly three months and the freezer was full of snow. We called service and requested they come out (we purchased a warranty for 3 years for 300.00). They scheduled us for 4 days out, in the meantime the freezer kept getting warm, partly defrosting food and re-freezing it again. The service tech was there for about 5 minutes, told us that the motherboard was bad and he would order a new one, it would be there in 3 days then on the forth day they would come back and install it. In the meantime he told us that the food in the refrigerator part was probably bad as well as the freezer cools the refrigerator, he showed us condesation in our containers to prove the temp was getting to high. The part arrived as expected and the next day a new service tech came over. He informed us that the wrong part was sent to us and in addition we needed a new track system for the pull out freezer and a new seal. The parts should be there in 3 days and a tech would come on the forth to install.

The day we were supposed to receive the parts we did not, my husbad called to find out why and we were told that the parts were on back order and would not be sent out for another week, then once we receive them we can schedule service. By this time we have been without a fridge and freezer for 1 week and we had a minimum of 1 1/2 weeks yet to wait to get this fixed. We contacted sorce one' at Sears to request one of the following: 1.) Parts delivered and installed sooner - we were told that was impossible. 2.) a new refrigerator - we were told that this model has been discontinued and that was impossbile. 3.) a refund so that we can get a working refrigerator - were told that we cannot have a refund as it has been over 90 days, keep in mind it took almost 30 days to originally get a working fridge delivered in the first place. My husband spoke to A.J. at the Racine Sears who found another Kenmore to trade out for our broken unit.

The delivery was scheduled for Monday. On Saturday source one called and told us they need our credit card number because we owe an additional $500 for our new fridge. We refused to pay more money as we wanted an even trade. We were told that Sears does not make a sister model. After two long days of arguing with Sears,my husband asked if we could downgrade and take a less expensive model. He was told we can do that but Sears will not refund the difference in price. (Yet they want an additional amount to upgrade??) Sears does not back the products they sell, they do not care that we spent 1800.00 on a new fridge that lasted for 3 months and cannot be fixed for at least a couple of weeks and they will not refund our money, even to the point of us downgrading our unit, they want to keep that difference. I view this as theft, as bad business and very dishonest.

We still do not have the parts, a fridge to replace this one or a refund. We have lost about 250.00 of food which they say is our limit so if this fridge breaks again if it is ever fixed we are out the price of food. I am pregnant and it is even more important that I do not eat bad food, I will need a place to store breast milk and cannot trust the product we have at home. We do not have another 1500 - 2000 to go out an buy another unit. We are not asking for anything free, we want a product we can trust or our money back, at the very least, we wanted Sears to fix the one we has with some sense of urgency, and they have none. I want to note that the people at the Sears store in Racine have been trying to help us, it is the sorce one and service center that are refusing to make this right. The people at the store have not been able to get these other people to help us at all.

Now, about 3.5 years in, the cooling stopped again. The repairman had to call diagnostics, and they finally decided that I need a new high voltage board--not a warranty item. The repairman told me that it would cost almost as much as a new appliance, that he would not spend the money on it since this model has problems, and that I should buy a new fridge. Numerous calls to Sears have resulted in very little. They were going to give me a 10% coupon to buy another fridge from them, but I do not trust them and do not want to give them my business ever again. I spent $1200 on a refrigerator that lasted about 3 years. Do yourself a favor and stay away from Sears and Kenmore.

I wasted $1200 on this refrigerator, threw away $200 in food over the two times that it stopped working, paid $100 for diagnostics and parts, and missed many hours of work waiting for repairmen to show up on multiple occasions.

Now it is March 2008, and another sensor is gone. The freezer is full of frost, and the top of the unit isn't keeping the food cold enough. We have had to throw out costly food. The repair technician again informed us that the unit is flawed and that we should buy a service contract immediately. This is Sears Kenmore Elite Refrigerator should be recalled. Sear appears to be in the business of selling service contracts to cover it's faulty appliances.

The refrigerator is a safety hazard by not keeping food at a safe temperature. It is a fire hazard when the sensors allows the plastic to heat to a level that can burn unprotected skin.

So AGAIN I called Sears and told them I wanted to get the refrigerator back that I had purchased; this little fridge was not even close to the quality. But, sure enough, in a short time the ice maker messed up again, so this time the repairman replaced some parts, and it appeared to work fine. Again, it would freeze up and not produce ice; now it froze, so I defrosted it (like I was told), and now the unit will not produce ice at all. There is no need to contact Sears again; they are not going to do anything. What alternative do I have now? I would NEVER EVER buy anything from Sears again.

I have just about reached my limit of patience with Sears, it is obvious they could care less.

This is the first time I have purchased a Sears major appliance and will be the last time I ever shop at Sears or K-mart. We have lost food, and it is a major problem with no refrigerator. I think Sears should pay for the repairs and issue us at least a $50.00 gift certificate for loss of food, inconvenience and our labor. I have called their corporate office to no avail.

I am very upset that I spent good money on a product that SHOULD have lasted many years, yet lasted less than 2 years. I will never again purchase a Kenmore appliance, nor shop at Sears. Shoddy workmanship, poor customer service. I am on disability, so my income is not only fixed, it is also barely above the poverty level. So any major expense is one that I think long and hard about before doing. I am now left without an ice maker. I can not afford to purchase a new one.

We have lost all the food in the fridge each time it breaks down, and what a hassle it is to try to feed three kids for two weeks without a fridge!

The tech said he had seen the same problem in this model before. Sears knows about this, but they won't do anything and keep selling these refrigerators to consumers since they don't have a new model to replace them. After the warranty is up, then the consumer is stuck with refrigerator. If we can get more people complain to Consumeraffairs.com, hopefully, Sears will stop selling these pieces of junk.

I have slipped several times on water from ice I failed to pick up because I didn't see it; however, after 3 visits by a Sears repairman, Sears replaced the refrigerator for free.

Sears will gladly sell me a warranty for $220 but what ends up happening is they offer a $500 credit toward another fridge because the repair isn't worth doing. Net, I get $280 credit that I have to spend at Sears to keep the machine going. Yes, $280 is better than nothing but why support the company that sells $1200 throw aways and charges more than some of the competitors for the same product and warranty. As the wise Sears salesman told me they don't make 'em like they use to. No kidding! Like others before me....I've spent lots of cash at Sears on tools and appliances over the years but not one penny more!

Food loss $300, refrigerator $1200.

We bought a new filter but still no ice...we decided to live without the ice since it was more trouble than it was worth. The refigerator is no longer under warranty but seems to be giving out...it is starting to make noise and leak water. This refrigerator has been horrible from the begining...the customer service from sears has been equally terrible and so is their extra warranty.

Sears will NOT replace anything unlike what the sales representatives CONTINOUSLY EMPHASIZE in order to make the sale for both the appliance and the extra warranty. In addition to the refrigerator, I had purchased a KENNMORE stove, vacuum, washer and dryer (I had just move to a new house and needed new appliances). NONE OF THESE APPLIANCE ARE IN WORKING ORDER.

The washer and dryer lasted less than 3 years. The $400 vacuum had the motor replaced twice (only once while under warranty). The oven's electronic controls (which the repair technician told us that were all defective) were replaced once...the new ones don't work either...when we asked sears to replace the oven since the controls are defective they refused. We gave up on trying to get it repaired and now have to pray that it turns on after pressing the button about 15-20 times and hope that we don't need to cook anything on a temperature higher than the default 350 degrees or else we don't know for how long we will have to press those buttons to increase the temperature.

The only thing that I have to say is that we will never shop from sears again nor buy any kennmore products...I don't know how consumer reports claims that kenmore appliance can be well rated???

This is the second problem encoutered with the water dispenser unit - the first was a broken dispenser switch. The technician who repaired that item said the manufacturer, LG, used cheap, fragile plastic parts and as a result he has repaired many broken dispenser switches. I suspect the same situation (leaking water dispenser units) is being encountered by many other unfortunate Kenmore Elite Trio owners for the same reason. Buyer beware!

Our kitchen floors are Brazilian Mahogany (wood) and I can feel some buckling of the floor underneath the refrigerator due to water damage. I do not yet know the extent of this damage. Also, leaked water has frozen onto the rubber seal of the freezer door which will likely compromise the seal. The total damage to our floor and the refrigerator will be determined when (if?) the water dispenser unit is repaired, and a repair is presently no where in sight.

A service technician showed up on the day scheduled and worked in the unit for over an hour. When he was done he explained that it should be 10-12 hours and things should be back to normal. Unfortunately, the next day the whole unit was over 70 degrees and what little I had in it was lost. Again I had to stick it out for 2 weeks for a follow up service call.

I pleaded to the manager of my local store, sent an email to customer service onine, but nothing moved up the 2 weeks wait. The real pain was that no one showed up on the subsequently scheduled day and when I called in the late afternoon I was told there had been a scheduling error and I would have to reschedule. I had to wait almost another week...only to have the man look at it for 10 mins and declare it was in fact not fixable and would need to be replaced! So I have been without a refrigerator for 3 wks and have to wait one more for a new one to be delivered!

Unfortunately for us, the system is now out of warranty and we have to pay to have it fixed. The irony here is we have a 10-yr old second-hand refrigerator that we paid $50 for and sits out in the hot garage. It still works beautifully - never a problem! This one we paid $1600+ for and nothing but trouble. What is happening to American-made products and retailer accountability?

The refrigerator continued to make the knocking noise. We called the for repair a second time. The same service person came out and sain he had called the tech line at Frigidaire. He talked with technician Jeff, ID 926DC. The frigidiare technican said knocking sounds are normal for this refrigerator and there is nothing that can be done. The service person left. I then called sears. The customer care person I talked to told me there is nothing that can be done until the refirgerator has four service calls for four different failures, each of which cannot be repaired. She told me I was out of luck....very sorry sir....

Unwilling to accept this, I called the local Sears to see if there was something they could do to help me out. I talked to Dorris. She told me since the refrigerator was still under warranty, I could bring it back and they would charge me a 20% usage fee. I would have to deliver the refrigerator to Sears myself or hire somebody to pick it up.

When I went to the store to tell them I think a new refrigerator is in order due to all the problems I have had with this one, I was told, after being shifted from one person to another, that if it can't be repaired then they will replace it. How many times must this lemon be fixed..Guess they are waiting for the warrenty to run out.

I have now lost another day of work waiting around for Sears to show up. I lost over $100 in food and medication. I have had to eat out as I can't keep food cold because this lemon doesn't work. The mental stress is not needed as I have cancer and need my medications to be taken with food.

The computer went out in my stove and since it was replaced I have to cook everything to death to try and get in done. I can't even bake a cake anymore because they won't get done in the middle even if I allow extra cooking time!! The timer has stuck on my diswasher several times. To put it lightly I've been very dissatified with Kenmore appliances and based on the service I have received from Sears ; I wouldn't buy anymore.

The service man came out and told us the compressor was broken, the evaporator was broken and there was a "restriction" in the cooling unit. He said basically that the refrigerator never worked properly since we bought it. We went to Sears and spoke to the manager, Jim, who finally agreed to replacing the refrigerator in 6 days, even though we told him our food was going bad and the freezer food was defrosting and we didn't know what to do to stop it from spoiling. His suggestion......"Can't you ask your neighbors to store your food in their refrigerator?" He told us that Sears would pay for the food loss up to $250. When I called him to ask about the food loss re-imbursement a few days later, he said that he checked and there would be NO re-imbursement even though the refrigerator was only now 3 weeks old because we hadn't purchased the extended warranty at time of purchase!

When the tech came out and he didn't have the part. Sears would have the part overnighted and come back to repair it. The part never showed up so I called and asked them to track it.

13 months later the inside temperature of the refrigerator was in mid 20-degree range. Numerous phone calls to Sears Repair Center. (Sears was aware of this problem because I saw an Alert on this product dated June 2005.) It took appointment after appointment just to get a repairman out to the house, and a part sent.

They knew this was a problem and yet the part was sent by regular mail and took more than a week.

Finally, after at least 3 weeks a repairman came out to fix the problem. The temperature inside the frigerator now reads 18 degrees.

I am still waiting for it to be fixed. I have seen a recall for the trio Elite refrigerators but not this model. It is listed as a potential fire hazard. This one also needs to be recalled.