Realized how much I miss older refrigerators after fighting a modern one all afternoon

I had a call last Tuesday over on Maple Street, a 2022 Samsung fridge with a bad ice maker. Three years ago I could have swapped a simple relay and been done in 15 minutes, but this thing took me almost 4 hours just to access the board. You have to pull the whole back panel, unscrew a baffle, and then there's a ribbon cable tucked behind a foam block. I get that they're trying to make them efficient, but it feels like they design these things to be impossible to fix. Has anyone else noticed newer fridges are way harder to work on than the old Whirlpool or GE models from 10 years ago?

2 comments

2 Comments

lopez.karen2h ago

Did you have to deal with those little plastic clips that snap off the second you look at them wrong? I had a similar fight with a 2019 LG last month where the ice maker lines kept freezing up, and the service manual said to "check the defrost sensor" but didn't tell you it was buried behind the compressor with three different harnesses zip-tied over it. My brother-in-law still runs a 1998 Kenmore in his garage and I swear that thing could survive a nuclear blast.

kai_park2h ago

@lopez.karen nailed it with those plastic clips, I've busted at least 3 on different Samsung boards and now just keep a bag of generic replacements in my van lol. Honestly on those new fridges I'll bypass the ice maker entirely if the customer is cool with it, saves everyone the headache.