Just looking for a new fridge for our house move. We currently have a tall larder freezer which is pretty rammed although one drawer is reserved for my work stuff and a small under counter fridge. New place we have room for a normal upright free standing in the kitchen.

I was set out to buy a stainless Bosch fridge freezer (found a cracking deal of £365 after cashback) and maybe pick up a small chest freezer to go in the utility for when we need to freeze a whole lamb and to store stuff from Costco trips but I spotted some cheap American style fridge freezers (Beko, Daewoo etc) and am wondering if they are too good to be true?

My head says a Bosch + a small chest freezer will be better (but take up more room) as all the american ones I looked at had 2 star freezers and not as fugly. But the increase in fridge area is very appealing.

Please tell me horror stories of cheap american fridge freezers…

Hi, we have had a Daewoo one for about 6 years. its been brilliant. we went for the version that doesn’t have an ice cube maker, and it doesn’t have the piped chilled water option. These options take up room. It did come with 2 trays for ice cubes, and if we want chilled water we use a jug :-).

The only problem we had was getting it into the kitchen. We took off both doors from the fridge/freezer, and the kitchen door to get it in.

It is similar to this – http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/household-appliances/refrigeration/american-style-fridge-freezers/daewoo-drs30smi-american-style-fridge-freezer-silver-12424922-pdt.html

We’ve got a Samsung US style. The freezers on a lot of these style units aren’t as big as you’d expect as they often have space taken away for cooled water + ice dispenser. The large fridge is great though.

There was one in the flat I bought. After a while it broke and it was a bugger to get out again. As above – had to take the doors off. Also the ice cube / chilled water thing wasted a load of space in the freezer half, and the drawers were too small for large items like pizzas. Probably there are better ones available, but I am very happy with the replacement (tall fridge/freezer) !!

We inherited ours too. My bet is that the previous owners of our house couldn’t be bothered trying to get it out.

As above, freezer space can be compromised but I think the newer models are overcoming this and certainly the replacement one we have is much better than the old one that packed up.
Do you’re homework and check out the capacity of fridge and freezer and work from that.
Like anything else you can get cheap or uber expensive.

yeah I keep checking the capacities. There was a huge normal style Beko and Hotpoint on offer in Currys – 70cm wide but conventional style. We were tempted but the freezer was actually the same as the Bosch 60cm wide. If anything the fridge made more sense than an american one as the shelves were so wide you could put trays on them.

Running costs are not to be ignored though as the quoted figures are more than double for the American ones and I normally take them with a pinch of salt and expect the real running cost to be 1.5-2x to factor in lots of real life opening and closing, leaving the door open every now and then and so.

I was expecting lots of stories of woe to be honest so quite surprised.

Take a look at the Beko tall fridge-black £399, there’s a matching freezer for £379, energy rating A+, they seem good for the money as I’ve been looking at the Samsung ones which were double the price and only have the same storage and energy ratings.

Where abouts are you Andy? I can tell you where John Lewis auction all of their damaged stock if you fancy a decent one cheap instead(top tip being get one with a damaged panel and cover with calendar as you know why its there then)

Down in Bristol. Have seen a place on gumtree selling damaged new stock, the stainless stuff seems to be suffering a lot of dents.

Currently winning is a deal on a silver Bosch conventional fridge freezer and a bosch 8kg, 1400 spin washing machine for £724 delivered which seems like a good deal really.