Built-in fridge with ice dispenser

[Mr Punter]

3 minutes ago, puntloos said:

That said, an ice maker does take up a lot of space inside the fridge too.

 

Yes I don't like the layout of the American fridge freezers with ice makers.  I have a Samsung one and I would not have another.  If you do end up with one, get an extended guarantee.  We have a 5 year one and they have replaced loads of bits already.  New door because of faulty design causing it to rust, plastic surround on the glass shelves broke, so new shelves (we bought 5 of these for the development and they all had the same defect.  New ice maker.  We are 3 years in.  They look OK but are not reliable.

 

It used to be that fridges lasted for ages.

[Rob99]

We've had a Samsung american style fridge freezer with built in water and ice dispenser for about 6 years and the only failure we had was the ice maker mechanism which was replaced under warranty in the first year.

 

Since then no issues and it's survived being moved around several times by our heavy handed builders during our refurb a few years back.

 

My only gripe is that the freezer compartment has shelves and not drawers which I find means you can't always pack things in sensibly. As a result, when you open the door you have to be careful you don't get a frozen chicked exiting the freezer at some speed and landing on your toes!!

 

 

[puntloos]

I found one! https://www.us-appliance.com/srsxb2622s.html It's even for sale. 

Sadly it's $$$ and I mean literally, it's from the US, (also very very $$$$) probably 120V and nevermind..

 

Now I'm trawling the korean LG site  (since korea is 240V) - which has next level weirdness

https://www-noblesse-com.translate.goog/home/news/magazine/detail.php?no=8498&_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp

"The LG SIGNATURE washing machine floats like an island in the sea of Jeju.".. right in front of braille unreachable by any human. Unless you stand on top of the washing machine I guess.

 

But more seriously - searching for "ice maker" in korean  https://www.lge.co.kr/search/result?search=얼음정수&force=false

 

The pictures seem to indicate they are in fact built-in

 

j813sn35 (1341 GBP ex postage) - not plumbed in I think 

j813s35e (1242 GBP ex postage) - according to the manual I think it might just be plumbed in after all:

 

How do you guys handle importing stuff? Do you even consider it? Warranty? for 1242 this seems somewhat doable - just stash it in a shipping container and wait a few months..

 

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2022 by puntloos

[puntloos]

http://global.gmarket.co.kr/item?goodscode=2248433649- seems to even have international shipping available, although they are somewhat optimistic on how heavy the thing is..

Edited March 6, 2022 by puntloos

[Adam2]

On 05/03/2022 at 16:12, puntloos said:

Hmm. It's worth considering. It feels somewhat stupid to have 2 devices that basically make ice. That said, an ice maker does take up a lot of space inside the fridge too.

Interesting. Do you have a shortlist of devices you're considering? 

This looks like the best option so far but not looked that hard yet 

[puntloos]

9 minutes ago, Adam2 said:

This looks like the best option so far but not looked that hard yet 

Fair enough.. my counter space is at too much of a premium for storing such a device. (instead, I don't really need a ginormous amount of freezer space so it could work..)

 

I also found https://www.ivisitkorea.com/korean-buying-services/ e.g. https://koreabuyandship.com/how-it-works/ - if I don't have to worry about stores shipping internationally I already found the fridge indeed for about 1250 quid..

[puntloos]

Aaaaand my hope is dashed, nope my magic fridge manual:

 

If you build it in like the picture shows then the doors don't open. Perhaps not ideal.... 

[Neilthurso]

Did you ever find one to suit,  I have been looking for the same thing for a few years. Was told by many it did not exist but I was sure I had saw one in a magazine ended up settling for not getting what I wanted. The Neff fridge/freezer I went for has just to play up so now back on the hunt for what I really wanted.

Found this one today and is about as close as I can find. hoping I can get enough space behind that it will go flush and be able to bespoke the colour to match my existing.

Unless anyone can suggest any new ones like the original Miele one you first posted. Has been a few years since this thread kicked off so I was hoping they had what I was looking for available now.

 

https://www.samsung.com/uk/refrigerators/french-door/rf9000ac-647l-white-rf65a9676ap-eu/

[puntloos]

Sort of - the only one I could find if I recall correctly was a brand called Fisher/Paykel or something in that direction, and they didn't have a french door but they had 2 full height devices side by side.

Instead I went for a standard samsung one (not the one you picked, a really middle of the road one) and just accept it's sticking out somewhat. 

[oliwoodings]

16 hours ago, Neilthurso said:

Did you ever find one to suit,  I have been looking for the same thing for a few years. Was told by many it did not exist but I was sure I had saw one in a magazine ended up settling for not getting what I wanted. The Neff fridge/freezer I went for has just to play up so now back on the hunt for what I really wanted.

Found this one today and is about as close as I can find. hoping I can get enough space behind that it will go flush and be able to bespoke the colour to match my existing.

Unless anyone can suggest any new ones like the original Miele one you first posted. Has been a few years since this thread kicked off so I was hoping they had what I was looking for available now.

 

https://www.samsung.com/uk/refrigerators/french-door/rf9000ac-647l-white-rf65a9676ap-eu/

I don't think the one you linked can go flush, unless you left big gaps down the side. When the doors open fully they cut back across the corners, hence why in their in-situe photos it's still shown proud.

[puntloos]

5 hours ago, oliwoodings said:

I don't think the one you linked can go flush, unless you left big gaps down the side. When the doors open fully they cut back across the corners, hence why in their in-situe photos it's still shown proud.

That's (I think) correct, none of these go fully flush, but I found the 'sticking out part' wasn't bothering me enough to spend 3-4x the price on just addressing that issue.

[ProDave]

When we built the last house, we wanted a side by side Fridge Freezer.  We bought one as a package from the kitchen company.  When it arrived and we started fitting the kitchen there was a problem.  The FF was too deep.  In spite of even saying on the box "fits a standard 600mm deep unit" it did not, it was more like 700mm deep plus the thickness of the doors.  The solution was the kitchen company supplied the additional extra wide gable end panels to space a few of the kitchen units further out from the wall.

[saveasteading]

15 hours ago, puntloos said:

Fisher/Paykel 

I hadn't heard of the brand until reading the current Which magazine. Not good.

[Super_Paulie]

going through something similar, but different. My builder didnt leave a big enough return next to the bifolds so i need to get the slimmest possible due to the above that the doors need roughly 8cm protrusion to actually open. I found a Haier that was 66cm deep and a Beko that was 70.5cm but its frustrating that i cant just pick and choose which was going to be be initial intention. Even so id have to bang it up almost flush to the wall behind so id likely have to carve a recess out of the blockwork at the bottom and not plasterboard the whole area behind the fridge. Still probably blow up but got no real other option.

[Mike]

Think I'll stick to these

[PNAmble]

I’ve  had a fisherpaykal for 7 years. Cold filtered water and automatic ice in the freezer. Fridge doors not impacted in terms of space.  For me works brilliantly and for our current new build will have another.   The ability to have lots of ice for cooking is critical for me.  

Edited December 21, 2023 by PNAmble

[Kelvin]

Our original plan was to have a full height fridge and freezer side by side with built in water dispenser and ice maker. However, we ditched that idea early on for a few reasons, namely: 

 

1. They take up a lot of space and we would have lost a complete unit of cupboards/drawers which we valued more than ice on tap. 
2. It’s open plan so another device to make a noise. 
3. More bits in the fridge and freezer to go wrong and they do seem a bit unreliable. 
4. We don’t actually have a need for a big amount of freezer space. We also tend to buy fresh daily so not even a need for a full height fridge as there’s just two of us but we have fitted one. 
5. We wanted the appliances to be integrated anyway. 

6. We have a dedicated drinking water tap and our water comes from a borehole anyway. 

Our final plan was to just fit an integrated full height fridge in the kitchen and have an under counter freezer in the utility room. If we find we need more freezer space I’ll put one in the garage or in the utility room. 

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Kelvin

[puntloos]

16 hours ago, Mike said:

Think I'll stick to these

I know this sounds weird but I truly feel the outside ice maker (just rock up to fridge, get water, get ice without opening it) is one of the best things in this place I've been in compared to the old ones. Of course ha 'cozy' and 'dry' are needed but those are tablestakes for any house..

[Alan Ambrose]

Yeah agree, it’s a big quality of life thing for us, especially in the summer. And we buy much less bottled water because the simple inlet filter makes the water taste good. The ice machine gets clogged about once a year and I give the ice basket a quick shake. I change the filter once every 2 or 3 years. Even then, I can’t taste that the filter is past its best. This is a Samsung ‘American’ fridge about 20 or so years old.

[Mr Punter]

I have a Samsung and the ice maker needs attention about every 4-6 weeks.  Also, water from the ice / water runs down the outside of the door, which starts to rust.  This must be commonplace as when we reported this the engineer turned up with a complete new freezer door and swapped it out.

 

Also, out of 5 I bought for a development, they all had issues with the plastic surround on glass shelves cracking.  Annoyingly we got the same 3rd degree each one we reported, where clearly it was a manufacturing / product defect.

[Alan Ambrose]

FYI there are some standalone ice makers (bars & restaurants use them) - I don’t think I’ve seen one with ice and cold water but my search was fairly casual and a few years ago.

[puntloos]

7 hours ago, Mr Punter said:

I have a Samsung and the ice maker needs attention about every 4-6 weeks.  Also, water from the ice / water runs down the outside of the door, which starts to rust.  This must be commonplace as when we reported this the engineer turned up with a complete new freezer door and swapped it out.

 

Also, out of 5 I bought for a development, they all had issues with the plastic surround on glass shelves cracking.  Annoyingly we got the same 3rd degree each one we reported, where clearly it was a manufacturing / product defect.

I wonder if there are good and bad batches of fridges, or if eg Samsung have made a conscious choice to drop (or raise?) the build quality at some point. But this samsung fridge's ice maker has been flawless for 4+ years now (with indeed a very occasional cube jam that can be fixed by just shaking up the thing a bit).