Cookaholics Bulletin Board

DD had been told her SubZero fridge needed to be replaced before summer. They started researching fridges and life intervened. We got back from a weekend in Vermont Memorial Day Sunday. and found water on the floor by the fridge. The freezer must have just died since most of the stuff was still frozen but starting to thaw. Thank goodness the fridge compressor was working fine. My son in law went out on Monday and came home with a 5 cft chest freezer and moved all the saveable stuff to it. They quickly decided that they wanted another SubZero, picked a model and I started calling dealers.

I quickly found there prices did not change. The only savings to be had are on delivery and installation which varied from zero to $500.00. Custom paneled fridges are pretty, but a pita to replace since models change and old panels don't fit without adaptor kits. Finally found someone who really understood the problem, explained ways around it and could deliver it that week with delivery and installation free (Ken at Boston Appliance).

Delivery meant that all the food needed to come out of the fridge. Of course, this was the day of the end of the year party my son in law was giving for his students and staff. So out came all the soft drinks, extra wine bottles and kids drinks out of the small drinks fridge and in went all the perishables. No room for beer, etc. so ice in coolers did the trick. Not a fun process.

One set of guys uninstalled the old and hauled it away and installed the new. Another guy came to install the retrofitted custom panels. Looks a bit funky, but they are living with it for a while to see if worth spending the money on new panels.

The refrigerator is gorgeous. I love the fridge part with 3 huge across the fridge drawers, all separately controlled. The freezer is pretty much the same as the old with 2 drawers and the ice-maker drawer.

Lesson learned: Be careful in customizing panels to match cabinets. Cutouts, specialty handles, etc. make it difficult to do an across the board replacement. Two compressors earn their keep. Now I have all this wonderful SubZero expertise that will be wasted. Oh well, fun while it lasted.

not wasted at all Alina as you shared with us! Glad they didn't lose anything.

Hi,

Retail price controls only apply to the cost of the appliance. When we last purchased a stove with price controls, we got a huge discount on a refrigerator. A local hardware store sells Weber grills at the factory list and doesn't charge for sales tax or set up. There are always ways to negotiate something.

tim

Yeah, I figured this out. We saved a bundle on delivery, installation and removal. Also got an extra warranty year and $300.00 rebate. Still way out of my budget, but very happy for my daughter.

Good info. Thanks Alina.