I didn't want to rate with any stars, because I have a slightly different model, FR464, but
I think that refers to the color too. However, I can't leave a review without a star rating.
We bought an Igloo 4.9 cu ft fridge in black (FR464) from another website.
It is very, very close to this model, so I want to share our Igloo experience.

First off, the site had the wrong photos of the insides, so I didn't get the freezer I wanted.
While I suppose this was a site issue, it could have also been sent that way from Igloo.
I don't know, but I only got a 1/2-width freezer instead of one the full width of the fridge.

Pros:
Looks great in the room.
Plenty of door storage.
Reasonably quiet.

Cons:
Does not keep things very cold in a warm environment.
Shelves not very adjustable - you are stuck with a shallow shelf at the bottom.
It will hold a 16.9 oz bottle of water on its side, and that's it.
Freezer is not self-defrosting.

It is very disappointing that a company such as Igloo, who has been in the business
of keeping things cold for decades, could not do a better job on their small refrigerators.
We have ours cranked all the way to the top setting. It isn't in a hot garage - it is in the
upstairs bedroom. It still can't handle warm temps!

It has been very warm here this week. While we run the A/C endlessly, this little fridge
can't give us a cold drink. All we get are bottles that have a slight, well how should I say this,
a clammy feel to them. You can tell they were in a colder environment than the room, but
the drinks themselves (bottled water, 24 oz pepsi's and juice boxes) are NOT cold.

This has been a major disappointment. I had already thrown the packing material away as it had been
doing a pretty good job and I trusted the brand name. Who knew that it was so dependent on the temperature
in the room as to whether or not you would get a cold drink??

Seriously disappointing, and it will be my LAST Igloo purchase.

UPDATE 08/04/11:
Well, we've now had this three months.  So far, we've had lots of drinks that were barely colder
than room temperature. The freezer door (which was NOT the interior that was pictured with the listing
when we bought it - they had the interiors mixed up with a Haier) had so much frost build-up that the door
broke completely off a couple weeks ago. No, we didn't use the freezer - it didn't do anything but freeze that little
mini tray of ice cubes. The freezer pops (those tubes that look like they are filled with koolaid) don't even
freeze in there. I thought hey, maybe with that little freezer section open, the drinks will get colder. Nope!

We have it cranked all the way to 7, the highest this will go. The drinks are not cold by any means.
It does a nice job of keeping things like cheese or fruit, and not too bad on yogurt. However, I wanted
to have COLD drinks this summer, and I am not getting them. We have bottled water and Pepsi in the fridge.
Nothing in a plastic bottle gets very cold at all. We also have some cans of ginger ale in the can rack.
Because of the aluminum, they are a little bit colder than the bottles, but not a lot.

I was putting some more water in there this afternoon, and the inside was so warm and clammy that I checked to
see if it stopped working already. I checked the plugs to be sure it was still plugged in, and it was.
I turned it off for a few minutes to let it rest, then turned it back on. I did not hear a thing. So, I'll check
it tomorrow to see if it died completely. I don't think it did - I just think it cools very poorly and inefficiently.

I COMPLETELY regret this purchase. Steer clear of the Igloo models.
The other brands are a little more (some places, just $30-$50 more), but you might get something that
actually cools your drinks down. This model can't seem to do it. Big disappointment. This is the most
expensive thing I've bought online in a long time, and the joke was on me.

Shame on Igloo for making something so shabby. It looks great on the outside, but can't do the job
you hire it to do. I didn't need another thing taking up floor space - I needed a bedroom refrigerator.


This little gem is a workhorse at making ice.
I unboxed it and set it upright and cleaned parts an inside with vinegar and water and dried it good with paper towels after removing all tape.
I set it on a filing cabinet I had in my livingroom in my apartment.making sure the fan on the left side had at least 5 inches to blow out the hot air.
I made sure the rear of the unit had at least 5 inches clearance from wall to pull in air for the compressor cooling.
The manual says to let sit for 1 hour upright before plugging it in. The yellow placard that came with it said 2 hours upright.
I chose to let it sit upright for a min of 2 hours before I plugged it in.
Then I filled it with distilled water that I had chilled in my fridge to the fill line and turned it on.
I timed it to see how long before it made ice on medium cubes and it took 10 min after I turned it on to drop ice.
Then I changed it to large cubes and timed it and it dropped ice in 11 min.
I experimented with a timer and recorded different actions of the ice maker.

Time to first cubes from turning on -----  10 to 11 min.
Time to make large cubes-----10 to 11 min per cycle.
Time it takes to fill up the the ice tray------ approximately 1:45 min to full tray.
Weight of a full ice tray---- aproximately 2 lbs.
Time to add water light comes on from max fill line---- around 3 hours

Now that it has been running constantly since I turned it on it produces large cubes in about 10 to 11 min like clockwork.
If you set a timer or check your watch you will know that you need to go empty the ice tray in 1:45 min.
If you time it you will know that it is out of water in about 3 hours.
I fill it up to the full line around 8pm and I know it will run cout of water around 11pm and will be quiet for me to sleep.
.I also discovered that I could put some of the cubes of ice in the water tank and it helped keep the ice area colder and ice lasted longer in the bin.
I always used water that I had chilled in my fridge to fill it up.and this seems to help it stay cold longer.

I purchased a white waste basket with a touch lid on it at wallmart that would fit and set perfectly in my small chest freezer.
Every 1:45 min I check my ice bin and dump the ice into the basket in my freezer. This works out really well for me
I also learned that when the add water or empty ice red light comes on just add water or empty the ice bin and close the lid and the light will reset automatically in about 3 min. You don't have to do anything but wait 3 min.

I am very happy with this icemaker and it has been running for 3 days constantly and not slowed down a bit.

Update  3/21/2016
Making Ice With My Edgestar Ice Maker

Fillup Water Tank with 101 oz's of distilled water.
Or add 6 bottles of 16.9 oz of purified water.
Turn  on ice maker an set cube size.
I use the large cube size.
First cubes made in approx 10 min.
Ice will be made every 10 min.
Ice bin will be full in approx 2 hours.
Full ice bin is approx 2lbs of ice.
Takes approx 11 trays of ice to fill bin (10 min each)
Empty ice light will come on in approx 2 hours.
Empty water tank light comes on in approx 7 hours.
Full tank of water makes approx 6 lbs of ice.

These times are approx but very close to accurate.

I marked a 1 gal distilled water jug with a black marking pen for a fill line after i added 101 oz of water to the jug
You can use 6 bottles of 16.9 oz of water if you prefer to fill the tank that way

I purchased a tall 13 gal plastic waste basket with the push button lid to open for ice storage at wallmart.
I set the basket in my chest freezer and simply empty the ice bin into the waste basket when it is full. This stores a lot of ice for me and I stir or fluff the cubes to loosen them up. I use my chefs round knife sharpener for this task and it works very well.

When water or ice light comes on just empty ice or add water and the ice maker will restart in apx. 4 min. Just wait and don't turn the icemaker off and then back on. It is not necessary.


I bought this rather than pay a plumber to run a new water line to where I have my refrigerator.  When it arrived, my first impression was that it was a lot bigger than I had imagined looking at the photo.  While some have talked about using this for a party or a barbecue, I would not generally think of it as being "portable".  I realize that just about anything can be portable if one is willing to haul it around but this just seems kind of big and heavy to be putting away and then taking it out as needed -- for me, it makes more sense as something for which one reserves a section of counter-top, or a small table as its semi-permanent location.  YMMV.

When I bought it, I thought that I might be so disappointed in its performance that I'd wind up paying for the ice maker and the plumber but I decided to roll the dice.  I'm glad I did, because frankly, I'm impressed.  This thing makes ice pretty quickly -- it doesn't make a lot of ice quickly but from filling it with room temperature water until the first batch of ice drops (enough, perhaps, to cool one small glass of liquid) only takes something like 10 minutes, and it gets faster with subsequent batches, undoubtedly because it keeps circulating the water over the cooling "rods" so the temperature of all of the water drops to near freezing in time. If I fill the ice-maker with water, in a few hours it will produce enough ice to fill my refrigerator's ice-maker bin (I'm not sure exactly how long because I'm not typically near it when it shuts off and it will shut off when its bin is full.  Its bin is smaller than the one in the refrigerator and so, a full fill of water will require emptying the bin at least two or three times.  If one does not empty it, though the compartment is insulated, it is not refrigerated so, eventually the ice will melt, and when enough of it melts that none is touching the "bin full" sensor, the ice-maker will start up again and start making more ice.  So, it could run all day (off and on) but unless you empty the bin you'll never have more than one bin of ice.

I am very happy with the unit but there are a few minor cons worth mentioning (but not enough for me to downgrade my rating).

One negative is the drain plug.  Others have mentioned the fact that it is just a removable plastic plug which could be easily lost.  Another downside to the drain plug, however, is that it is on the side of the machine.  That's probably better than it being on the back, which I would not be surprised to find is true of many such devices, but I think it would have been much more convenient if it had been put on the front.  This thing is big so you are probably going to wind up sticking it on a counter to get it out of the way and unless you have access to the side with the drain plug, you'll be forced to turn the thing around 90 degrees so the drain plug is in front where you can get to it.  It's not so heavy that it is impossible to rotate but it'd sure be a lot easier if it wasn't necessary.

As some have mentioned, it is a bit noisy, though I don't find the noise all that objectionable even when I am sitting in the same room with it (which isn't usually true).  The main thing I notice about the noise is that I often wonder just what the heck the machine is programmed to do given the erratic operation sequence at times. The basic flow seems to be:
1. Begin circulating pump
2. Start the refrigeration unit to cool the circulating water.
3. Once the ice is ready, stop both the pump and the compressor, and heat the rods so the ice drops into the collection area.
4. Then a plastic blade pushes the ice into the bin and the whole process starts over.
It's a simple, reasonable work flow but in practice, for reasons I can't fathom, the refrigeration unit and/or the pump will start and stop at different points (most commonly when it first starts up) for no discernible reason which just seems weird. I don't know if my unit is malfunctioning or if it was intended to work that way, but it sure seems odd.

Overall it is a fine ice-maker which, though unlike the refrigerator's ice-maker, requires some involvement in the process, but that is just the trade-off for the convenience of the unit working without a water-line hookup being necessary and saving the expense of a larger refrigeration unit which would allow the ice to be stored in the unit itself until needed.


I knew going into this that the directions were not well written, but for the price - I figured I would give it a shot.  Once the fridge is up and running, it is fantastic - I haven't had any issues with it.  I have a keg in there now and it is hovering between 34 and 36 degrees without having to make any adjustments.

I am new to the kegerator game, so I wasn't sure how filling/exchanging CO2 tanks worked.  The fridge comes with a tiny 2.5 lb capacity (5.2 lb tare weight) aluminum CO2 canister, which is cute, but pretty much worthless.  I looked around in my area to find a place that re-fills CO2 tanks, but they all have to send them out to be refilled, and can't refill them at their shops.  That turnaround time is 1-2 days.  Not convenient.  The beer distributor where I bought my keg has 5 lb capacity steel CO2 canisters on hand that they will do exchanges with.  So rather than try to refill the little canister, I put down a deposit on one of their 5 lb canisters, and when its empty I just have to take it back and pay like $11 for a full one again.  No need to send my tank out to be filled and wait to get it back.  I was able to fit the 5 lb capacity steel CO2 tank and a keg in my kegerator without any issues.  You can't use the little included tank strap (because the tank is larger in diameter than the stock tank), but a bungee strap will suffice to hold it in place.

As far as the unit itself, it did take a bit to set up, as I found myself cross referencing the written directions, the exploded diagrams and what I had in front of me.  If I can offer any advice on assembly it would be this:

1 - Even though they are not well written, read the directions.  There are parts you must remove for some reason.  Not sure if that is because of packing for shipping, or because they are no longer used due to a redesign, but there are things in there that must come out for this unit to function properly.

2 - When in doubt, refer to the exploded diagrams in the directions.  They offer more info than any of the written directions, IMHO.

3 - Anywhere you have metal touching metal, and you have to twist those parts together, there should be a gasket or o-ring involved in that connection.  Most of my gaskets were pre-installed, however, I did need to install a few myself.  No gasket means air leak, which means you lose CO2 and/or pressure.

4 - If you have a "wobbly tower", you did not install it properly.  The unit comes with a "plug" that you can use if for some reason you want to remove the tap handle from the system - and make it into a normal fridge.  Now this is completely undocumented, but if you look at that plug in its fancy little bag, it has a large gasket packed with it.  You must remove that gasket from the plug and place that gasket between the top side of the fridge and the underside of the tap handle tower before you twist the tap handle tower into place.  If you do not do this, the fit of the tower is loose and wobbly and you will lose cold air through this gap which is probably why most people have cooling issues.  This part of assembly is not easy, and takes some force to get it twisted on correctly with the gasket in there.  You can apply some soap to the gasket to make it easier to turn the handle tower into place.  You will probably fail the first few times, the fridge will move around on its casters and hit you in the legs, and you will say to yourself that I have no idea what I am talking about - there is no way the tower will twist into place with that gasket in there.  Be persistent and get it on there.  Nobody likes a whiner.

Assembly aside, it works great.  And remember, you only ever assemble it once.  So once that is over with, you have a good product at a cheap price that works like a champ.


Be careful, NewAir will not stand by their products. Our NewAir broke within the first 4 hours of use.  The manufacturer will NOT cover the item under warranty. Just in case you're actually thinking of buying a NewAir product... think twice...

From: NewAir Sales <sales@newair.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 14, 2014 at 11:03 AM
Subject: Re: Icemaker return
To: Susan Ferguson <xxxxx@gwmail.gwu.edu>

Hi Susan,

The manufacturer warranty is void if the unit is purchased by a private seller who does not have our consent to sell our products. This is the same reason why we ask for a copy of your receipt upon requesting warranty claims because if it not from a valid authorized dealer we will not proceed with warranty work. We also list our authorized dealers on our web site for customer use. We stand behind our products, however when an item is purchased from a private seller the purchaser runs the risk of the item being used, open box, refurbished, and or a scratch and dent. Our one year limited manufacturer's warranty is only valid on new items sold by our authorized online dealers. It is unfortunate to see that you are in this situation, however you will need to contact the seller of the item for a replacement or refund.

Have a great day!

Mireya
Customer Support
NewAir | 3419 East Chapman Ave. #190 | Orange, CA 92869
Ph: 855-963-9247 Em: sales@newair.com
FB: facebook.com/NewAirUSA Twitter: @NewAirUSA
Pinterest: pinterest.com/NewAirUSA Instagram: NewAirUSA
Web: [...]
"Made by awesome"

On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 7:59 PM, Susan Ferguson <xxxxx@gwmail.gwu.edu> wrote:
Hello Mireya-

I'm sorry but I thought the manufacturer warranty was for the manufacturer, NewAir.  Please explain why the warranty is not valid in this case.  I don't see anywhere in the warranty exclusions that the warranty is not valid if not purchased from an authorized dealer.  In addition, a consumer would never know who "authorized dealers" are because if a company is selling your product doesn't that implicitly make them authorized to do so?

I sincerely hope that NewAir will reconsider this position and stand by the integrity of their products.  This ice machine was literally used for four hours before failing and it is, quite frankly egregious that your company is negating a warranty that explicitly states it will repair or replace defective materials or workmanship for up to one year.

Please let me know how I can talk to a dispute department regarding this matter.  I look forward to your response and I will refrain from giving any reviews of your product until this matter is resolved.

Thank you,
Susan Ferguson

On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 3:10 PM, NewAir Sales <sales@newair.com> wrote:
Hi Susan,

Unfortunately, the ice maker was not purchased from an authorized dealer. You will need to contact the seller "Mehadrin" through Amazon for any existing issues on your unit.

Have a great day!

Mireya
Customer Support
NewAir | 3419 East Chapman Ave. #190 | Orange, CA 92869
Ph: 855-963-9247 Em: sales@newair.com
FB: facebook.com/NewAirUSA Twitter: @NewAirUSA
Pinterest: pinterest.com/NewAirUSA Instagram: NewAirUSA
Web: [...]
"Made by awesome"

On Thu, Nov 13, 2014 at 12:32 PM, Susan Ferguson <xxxxxxxxx@gwmail.gwu.edu> wrote:
Hello-  I received an AI-100S icemaker in March 2014.  I used it one time and within 4 hours the cooling unit had shut down.  My best estimate is that the pump was still working (the water was getting pumped through) but the cooling mechanism was not.  When I plugged the unit back in to try it a few hours later, the cooling mechanism never turned on.

Since this product is still under warranty, I am hoping to acquire a new unit since this particular one has essentially never been used and is obviously faulty in some capacity.

I have attached the receipt for your reference.  It was purchased as a gift through Amazon Marketplace.  Thanks so much and I look forward to your response.

Susan Ferguson


This refrigerator ended up being the highlight of my new kitchen.  I was skeptical purcahsing a refrigerator unseen and off of Amazon.  Here is my experience:  I went to three appliance stores.  They all had large refrigerators on the floor for to look at.  None had the size I wanted on the floor for me to touch and see.  Therefore, I would be ordering sight unseen from any source.  Talk to your local appliance folks about their shipping.  Amazon was fast and with Amazon Prime definietly cheaper.  All three local stores would be ordering my fridge and I thought their wait times were a risk to my and keeping my kitchen reno on schedule (time equals money to a contractor).  As for this fridge, I needed the door swing changed.  I did hire a local handyman and it took him about 35 minutes.  The directions were in detailed/detail.  All the parts for changing the door swing were provided.  That was as smooth as it gets.  I needed specific dimensions, and Summit was the only manufacturer I could find that made these.  I am so happy I got the Summit.  I am a short 5'1" and I can get to everything on the top shelf.  The inside is small.  I thought I would not like this.  However, I found I only eat what I know is there, and with this fridge you can see everthing!  I love, love, love that.  I purchase some clear baskets for the inside, since they only come with two.  For the two drawers that come with the unit, they slide on their bottoms on the base of the refrigerator.  I purchased some super slick tape off Amazon (uselful throughout the house) and made two runners on the bottom of each drawer.  They slide like a dream.  I like this 100 times better than traditional drawers that slide by a rim at the top, because the kind I grew up with were always a trick to take out and wash and then get back into place on the rails provided.  The Summit solution with my slick tape rails on the bottom are a cinch and avoids frustration.  I must say that the feezer does have some ice formations due to humidity.  And, the freezer is not super cold.  That might be operator error.  I should be playing with the temperature settings.  There are no door shelves in the freezer.  I wasn't expecting that, since most freezers have shelves on the door.  However, this being a bottom freezer, I found that I would have hated shelves on the freezer door.  Instead I bought some clear shoe boxes from the dollar storeto corral my little stuff.  Now I just pull the box onto the counter where I can conveniently rumish through the contents.  That works out better.  The refrigerator has four full shelves.  My old fridge only had three, so I think this is a luxury.  I cannot hear my fridge at all.  I live in a small condo, so that was a concern.  Nope, cannot hear it.  To be fair, my kitchen reno has this fridge with cabinets built around it with room for air flow, and maybe that is why there is no noise.  I know it is on because the stuff id cold and the light comes on.  The other thing that I really like is how easily it slides.  I can easilly slide it (remember I am short) even when it is full of contents.  Seeeet!  I've never had that in a fridge.  And it looks great.  And having a cabinet depth fridge makes the kitchen appear bigger.  My friends and neighbors all swear that I changed the footprint of my kitchen (we know the secret was this fridge).  Lastly, this cabinet depth fridge did not go wide to make up for the space, but rather went tall.  That was genious and I am benefiting!  Who wants to conserve space above the fridge?  In a show of hands, not many.  However, any width eats into my counterspace, and I love counterspace.  Having a taller fridge rather than a wider one is awesome.  Believe me when I say that every shelf on this fridge, all the way to the top and back is accessible without having to stand on my toes.  I hightly recommend this fridge


We purchased this Bosch dishwasher SHX98M09UC after much Internet research 2 months ago and have used it every day since.

The dishwasher is light enough to be maneuvred into place by one person and the installation was rather simple with the very complete instructions provided. The operation manual is also clear and the controls easy to understand.

The design is stunning: all stainless in the front, with a heavy-duty handle and very nice digital display on the facade, although the actual touch controls are hidden on top of the door. The inside is stainless steel also, great at retaining heat. All accessories are high grades and we appreciate the adjustable top rack and removable silverware holders. As with all stainless appliances, it's hard to keep it looking clean very long as it shows finger prints a lot more than painted appliances.
The drain is covered with an easy-to-remove filter basket that we have not had to empty yet in 2 months of use (I understand some cheaper dishwashers have small "garbage-disposal" instead of a collecting basket, and those can fail or not always work properly as well as being noisy)

It's energy efficient as I understand the drying is performed by the heat retained in the walls of the washer. So far, we have not observed any difference in our electric bill.
I believe it also uses small amounts of water (it's a very small water line going to the washer and a few seconds are always enough to pump enough water for the program. Emptying is also very quick)

The cleanliness of the dishes is good on the Auto Wash program, which we have been using most.
With the recommended drying agent, glasses and fine china come out looking very good with no water spot.
Heavy soiled pots may need a little rinse before the wash, especially with some caked-on food, such as eggs.
Plastic ware comes out OK from the top rack and, with the limited heat of this dishwasher, is not warped.

The main reason why we decided on this washer is the noise rating: the quietest we could find in our price range. And on this point, we were just blown away! The first time we turned it on, we had trouble believing it was running! Our kitchen is open to the living room and now, no need to turn up the volume on the TV when the dishwasher is running (big difference from the old Whirlpool we had before). To me, this only is worth the high price tag!
Even the water emptying into the sink pipes is very quiet.

Before buying, I had considered the equivalent Kenmore Elite (same price) but the noise rating was 4 dB more (3 dB= double the noise!) and the racks a tad flimsier at first look. The Kenmore Elite had more gadgets such as a "turbo wash" nozzle, knife holder and additional washing programs and options. In general, I prefer simpler systems that are reliable and of high quality so I am very happy with this Bosch choice.

I would warmly recommend this appliance if you need a new dishwasher that doesn't rattle and wake you up!
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
UPDATE 2010: We have been using the dishwasher for nearly a year now and it's as great as the first day we got it.
The drain basket rarely needs emptying, the dishes are clean and never damaged (especially plastics), the washer is very easy to operate and most of all, it's so quiet it still surprises us!
Don't hesitate: this is an excellent buy!
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
UPDATE 1/27/2012: I am surprised to see that so many reviewers report issues so I wanted to add a couple comments:
Here, the dishwasher is going strong and it still looks as good as when we received it.

We have had one hiccup when we moved to Costco's Kirkland liquid dishwasher detergent: the dishes were no longer as clean as expected and it took us a while to figure out that going back to the tablets Bosch recommends for their machine would bring back the perfect performance. In the meantime, another liquid detergent gave us very poor results too (can't remember the brand?): it seems that this dishwasher should be used with tablets only.
Since going back to the recommended (is it Finish? It's the ones with the red ball in the center) tablets, we couldn't be happier!

I also noticed comments about dishes not being dry. I wanted to mention that we always use a rinse/dry agent (the washer indicates when it runs out). We have been changing brands depending on availability/sales so it must not be as important as using tablets. The only time the dishes are not completely dry is if you open the washer before the end of the program: it's a bit tricky because it sounds like nothing is happening anymore when it is drying; it is totally quiet but the display gives you a drying time.

I wish all could be as satisfied as we are...


After about a week with this product, it certainly does what it is supposed to do: produce about 2 full bins of ice in 24 hours ( about 12 pounds).
It was shipped to Hawaii, and delivered without a scratch either on the unit or on the box.  Let it sit upright for 24 hours, so the refrigerant could expel any air bubbles.

Once you uncrate, check the door seal: you can look at all 4 sides and check that the door is not warped.  You can also check by closing the door on a dollar bill and attempting to "slide" the bill up and down: you should have moderate to hard resistance along the entire gasket.  If you do not, the unit may stay on excessively to compensate for the cold that is lost due to the door not properly sealing against the inner surface.

Installation:
If you have done some plumbing, but have little to no experience with compression type fittings, call a plumber "friend" or a licensed plumber for assistance with installing the water line. I have had experience installing compression fittings.
You will have to remove the back grate ( 4 screws-easy) to expose the 1/4" male thread, which sits at an angle protected by a splash guard.

Looking at some of the other reviews, I went to Home Depot, and purchased more 1/4" compression rings ( copper) as well as a copper fitting, only to find that those fittings do not fit the provided 1/4" tubing...well, they "fit", but way too tight, so I ended up using the parts provided: sleeve, female fitting and Delrin( plastic) compression ring.  Be SURE to point the NARROW end towards the end of the tube, and DO put your nut and plastic compression sleeve on the tube BEFORE you insert the metal sleeve inside the tube!  I used a small amount of pipe joint compound around the male threads on the ice maker.  Tighten to 5lbs or less torque ( gently), and no leaks occurred.
 I am using RO water from my Premier h2o RO-PURE RO unit, so I installed a push to connect Tee on the 3/8" plastic line, then a turn off valve, then uses the 1/4" tubing provided with the ice maker.  Give yourself a generous length: enough to be able to pull the unit OUT of your install space to service, if necessary.

Operation:
Once I verified no water leaks, I fired up the unit, and within 3 hours I had enough ice to cover the bottom of the bin. I followed the suggestion to discard that ice, and started from scratch.  12 hours later ( or a bit less) I had a full bin of ice!  I have found that, contrary to some other observations, this unit does NOT vent from the front!  While the compressor is on, you can put your hand to the back of the unit, and feel the fan exhausting air.  It does INTAKE from the front, so definitely keep that clear!  How often it goes on will depend on how many times you open and close the door, as it does with any freezer, refrigerator, or ice maker, and it will determine if it ices up, and how often you will need to defrost ( it has a drain on the lower righthand side of the unit.  You can turn OFF ice production manually by raising the sensor bar, or you can let the accumulated in the bin do that.  The unit temperature knob was set to halfway, and that's where I kept it.  It seems to keep the ice frozen: no water or defrosting from ice stuck together in the bin.

Conclusion:
The unit works very well, and imho, it is better to use it with filtered or RO water, as it will cut down maintenance over the long run.  I also sprung for the two year additional warranty: cheap for an appliance!
 If your needs are for more than 12 pounds of ice in 24 hours, better be ready to spend north of $1000, and have a floor drain installed!

 For two people in a high humidity (Hawaii) environment (No A/C), this unit produces MORE than enough ice in one bin for a day. I have turned off ice production, and the ice ( over two days) has stayed frozen: no sticking, but the ice produced is NOT clear, if that matters to you.
Most of the issues owners were having I have noticed occurred in units purchased a few years ago.  The "kit" comes with a metal(copper?) sleeve, metal (copper?) compression nut and a Delrin ( plastic) compression fitting, and it worked first time. Very Pleased!


This ice machine does what it promises, for about a year of daily use if you don't maintain it. It's sturdy, starts making ice in about 15 minutes, and can keep up with constant demand if you keep it topped up and store the ice in a location other than its ice basket (it stops producing ice once a certain level is reached to prevent overflowing, but the provided ice basket holds only enough ice to completely fill about 6 cups if you're lucky).  The 3 ice sizes aren't much different from each other, so which one you'll use will end up just being your personal preference. The small option produces ice a little more quickly, but the provided cubes melt faster and aren't very space-efficient. Larger cubes perform much better but are subject to diminishing returns for their production time.

Peel off and degunk the stickers on the inside of the lid ASAP. The moisture from condensation will have them fray and brown eventually, so nip that grossness in the bud back when it's easiest to peel all the stickers off.

I recommend against operating it in direct sunlight, anywhere with poor airflow, or areas with high temperatures. It will have to work harder, consume more electricity, and produce less-robust ice.

The life of the machine can be extended but that requires a little vigilance and frequent maintenance. For our corner coffee shop, it ran about 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is most likely heavier usage than most home situations. Here's what we found:

1. Never turn it on without enough water in the tank. It won't destroy it, but it does add extra wear to the pump. (And the pump ultimately determines its maximum lifetime, see #9.)

2. Make certain to plug it into an outlet with a working ground pin. Any shorts or built up charges will behave unexpectedly and possibly catastrophically if you don't.

3. Use canned air or other computer cleaners to dust the fan grate on the side, and the airflow grate on the back. How often you should do this unfortunately varies wildly depending on placement and your area's dust buildup. This also helps reduce electricity consumption.

4. If you use the machine as frequently as we did, it's a good idea to drain the water at least once a week and let it dry overnight. Prevents mold. If you use it less frequently, attempt to drain it after every session, so it never just sits with water in it.

5. Use distilled water to fill the machine if you can. Keeps the white interior looking nice longer, and prevents mineral buildup.

6. You have to clean the interior. Washing the ice basin out with kitchen cleaner and water is a regular occurrence, but after some months you'll need to unscrew the casing, take off the back shell, and remove the revealed screws under that white rim to get at the rest of the ice-making surfaces. Water buildup, possible mold, collected dust that was washed into crevices, etc.

7. Last and certainly not least, if you are planning to use this for foodservice, or want to make sure that the ice is sanitary, you'll need ice machine-cleaning solution. Regular disinfectants and cleaners are too corrosive for the chilling surfaces. It's easy to find at restaurant supply stores and other specialty outlets, but that means you'll have to find those places first. Most ice machine manuals recommend you run it through about once a month.

8. If the cooling fan breaks or runs slowly, it's just a computer fan that can be replaced by somebody who's comfortable assembling their own PCs. It's also possible to oil the fan bearings with mineral/baby/fan oil by removing the sticker on the center and getting at the rotor.

9. Unfortunately, even if you do all of the above, the life of the machine is ultimately doomed by the water pump I mentioned in item #1. Eventually its bearings are going to give out. It's not impossible to replace, but finding the right pump model may be difficult. You can't really ask a repairman or the manufacturer to help with this if it's past its warranty; the repair cost would exceed buying a new machine. This is about the most serious problem that any non-defective individual machines could have; something is going to die way before the compressor or other refrigeration components could start developing problems. It's just not built to be repaired.

Also be careful about spilling beverages on it; you'll have to pop open the inner casing of the door to clean up any liquids that seeped through the cracks, otherwise you'll have to stare at stains through the viewing window forever.

* * * * * * * * * * *

All this sounds dire, I'm sure, but as long as it's alive it gives excellent, dependable service, especially for the price.


I have to say I like my L.G. we have had it for almost a year and no problems from HEAVY USE.I Don't scrape pre-rinse or anything and have no problems,I refuse to wash dishes before I wash dishes that is why it is called a dishwasher. Dishwasher's that are made
today are designed to last maybe 5 years if your lucky. We have a Whirlpool at our farm that runs 5 hours and has over-nite cycle that runs for 8 hours it's the new water and power savers.
The Kitchenaid by Hobart I grew up with lasted for over 20 years and was still running when Mom and Dad remodeled. That machines would wash and dry everything in a hour. It used about 11 gallons of water on heavy cycle and had a 1/3H.P. wash motor in it,it would push over 60 gallons a minute through the wash arms compared to 6 gallons per wash arm today. The machine also had a full blown disposer in the machine not a blender blade and I remember they had a demo glass machine and it said Hurricane in a box. The sales man would throw olive pits in the machine and uncooked pop corn and you could hear it chew it up and not even phase the machine. These new machines like this L.G. uses a 110 watt pancake motor and changes from top to bottom and it's pretty powerful if you watch the you tube videos,it's better than alot I have seen. Whirlpool uses a 55 watt drain pump motor for the main wash motor and is made my Askol. I have replaced these and it says on there 20 mins on max and 10 mins off..All dishwasher's for the most part alternate top and bottom arms now days because the motor's are so weak. In 2010 there were tons of dishwasher's going to the landfill because they were not cleaning. The Phosphates in the dishwasher detergent were removed and that is what sequesters calcium ions and so many other thing's that make your dishwasher work
well. That white stuff that I still see folks talking about is because of there detergent has been redone and it does not work unless you buy these 15 dollar for each wash all in one this and that and still does not work. I was adding S.T.T.P. to my detergent with mixed results. Then I found this detergent [...] it is called Bubble Bandit because it has 8.7% Phosphate's less fillers and it marketed as a commercial detergent but,you can read between the lines and before some tree hugger goes nut's. S.T.T.P. is a water softener/chealting agent and there is TONS more in human waste and the stuff they are using in place of phosphates there is alot of questions of safety. The manufacturers loved it when they dumped phosphates.

  People thought there machine was broke and got new ones. Millions dishwasher's were tossed in the landfill for nothing and were working just fine. I know of 5 relatives of mine who did they did not believe me. I have a 1984 Kitchenaid that was never used sitting in the garage waiting. With these all nite cycles and dishwasher's running all the time how is that going to do anything?They minds well just put a run the machine in the ground button on it. A dishwasher running and running will not last long..The secret is to use that detergent Bubble Bandit you can order 20 LBS for 60$$..There are some states that have banned the sell if you go to there site they can't ship it to you unless your a restaurant or something like that but, you can go on Ebay and get it from a private seller. The smell is gone and I don't use any rinse agent at all. I have done the three layer Cake test in this dishwasher with a full load of un-rinsed,scraped or anything I also dumped in some hard cat food just to give it a extreme test. I set the machine on Normal with Sani rinse and everything was spotless afterwards.. Try that detergent Carton of Bubble Bandit Dishwasher Detergent with Phosphate. Eliminates white film & water spots in hard water. Five 60 oz Bags (19 lbs)- FREE SHIPPING AT CHECKOUT!


Revised:
My opinion has changed after owning this range for +8 years.
We had some repairs during the warranty period and that was great.
After about 6 years of owning this range we had to do a major repair. The oven suddenly stopped working. The flame would stay on for about 2 minutes and then go out, or would not turn on at all.
To fix it, it required to change the thermostat and thermocouples. To get to the components the range needs to be disassembled by a professional. The whole repair cost about 20% of the original cost of the range.

OK...we went with the repair thinking we'd get another good 5-6 years without a problem. Not such luck. About 2 1/2 years after the repair we are having the same problem. I contacted Bertazzoni to see if they'd cover part of the cost of the parts, since they didn't last long (we'll have to cover the cost of labor anyway). No luck.

At this point, we will have paid almost half the cost of the stove in repairs in less than 9 years.

Unfortunately, as beautiful as this range is, we'll go with a different brand when we replace it.

___________________________________________

We looked for about a year, comparing ranges, and finally decided on the Bertazzoni. We couldn't be happier.

What we love:

Stove top - It has 4 different burners, which allow you to simmer, heat fast, use small or large pans, and really regulate the heat. The double burner (one burner inside the other) comes in handy to evenly heat larger pans -- I can hardly wait to try to make some paella.

One feature we really like is the "reverse" regulation with the knobs. If you want really low flame, you crank the knob to where it stops. In most ranges it works the other way around - the low flame is in the lowest position - with gas ranges it is really hard to find the precise spot between having a low flame, and having no flame. The way the Bertazzoni is designed, your burner is on and you are sure you have it at the lowest setting.

It is well built, and sturdy. The guy that installed it thought it was a Viking from the weight and way it feels -- but it is about 1/3 of the price of a Viking.

It has a 2 year warranty. We needed some adjustments and the lighting mechanism of two burners was failing a few weeks after it was delivered. I called Bertazzoni - the parts arrived in a few days, and the technician was here the day after the parts arrived. Excellent customer service.

No digital controls!!! When looking for ranges, we found most of them have digital controls. I had heard that some of these ranges (especially in the $1000-$3000 range) have very noisy fans. After talking to a few sales people, I found out that since the digital controls are not supposed to be exposed to the heat, these ranges need an additional cooling/fan element to keep the digital controls from getting too hot. At that point I was on a mission to find a good range with manual knobs.

It has a beautiful design! We didn't buy it for the looks, but it is certainly a bonus.

FEATURES WE LIKE, BUT MAY NOT BE FOR EVERYONE
The oven is relatively small, as ovens go. It is wide, but not very tall. You can fit 2 pyrex with no problem, but you probably wouldn't be able to fit a turkey and a pyrex. Since we seldomly need that big of a volume in an oven, we solved the problem by buying a convection-microwave for under $300 for the rare occassions when we need more oven volume.

On the positive, since it is a smaller oven, it takes less energy to heat up, saving up on gas usage.

When the oven is on, the sound of the fan is noticeable. We don't mind it, but it is something you may want to consider.

SOME LIMITATIONS
The minimum theoretical temperature of the oven is 275 degrees - so if you often cook or bake dishes that require much lower temperature, this may not be the oven for you. We recently made some dishes that required the oven to be 250 degrees. We found we could achieve this by having the oven at the lowest setting, and setting the trays in the top oven shelf.

Since the controls are not digital (see above), it takes a little getting used to the oven knob to get the precise temperature control. We have a $5 oven thermometer, and that works very well.

For the price and the quality, we couldn't be happier.


IN SHORT:  A tremendous improvement over my 5-year old LaCrosse indoor/outdoor temperature/humidity solar-powered station that finally, mercifully, died.

DESCRIPTION
> Both the sender and the receiver are powered by 2 ordinary AA batteries each, which are easy to replace.
> No complicated setup.  No on/off switch.  No clock to set.  No mode buttons.  No synchronization procedure.  Just insert the batteries in both units and they start working.
> Easy to read at a glance. Uncluttered display.  The outdoor temperature and humidity, and the indoor temperature and humidity (on the bottom in smaller lettering) are all displayed all the time..
> The only buttons are a  Fahrenheit/Centigrade selector switch; a maximum button, and a minimum button.  You can optionally use the minimum/maximum buttons to check the highest and lowest temperature and humidity, inside and out, since you last pushed the button.  Just release the button and the display returns to the current readings.
> Small arrows tell you whether the temperature/humidity is rising, falling, or remaining constant.
> The receiver (the display unit) sits at a slight angle (for optimal viewing) in a removable stand.  The receiver unit also has a cutout on the back which allows it to be mounted on a nail-head or screw-head on the wall if you like---albeit you have to supply the nail or screw.  You can carry it from room to room if you want.
> You can hang the sender unit from a hook or a string from the "handle" on top.  The also sender has a cutout on the back which allows it to be mounted on a nail-head or screw-head if you like---albeit you have to supply the nail or screw.  It might take a bit of thought, effort, and your own hardware to mount it on a masonry wall.  It will also stand up, or lie, on a table, etc.
> The sending unit has a good range.  I placed on a table in my screened patio, about 50' from the reciever.  You could use it to monitor the temperature in another section of a large house, in your attic or basement, or in a neighboring building---such as a detached garage.

CAVEATS
> The display is LCD, and easy to read, but unlit.  You need some light in order to read it.
> Since there is no clock, it doesn't tell you when the highs or lows occurred.
> The suggestion in the instruction manual to hang the sender unit by a string from a tree branch sounds like a very poor idea to me.  If it swings around violently, it could be damaged by impact.  Strings rot.
> The instruction manual claims that the sender unit is waterproof.  NOT so.  Maybe the electronics are weather resistant, but the battery compartment is not.  The sender is most likely to die by the battery contacts corroding.  I suggest placing the sender unit in a location that is protected from directly sunlight, wind, rain, and high humidity.  I suggest smearing the battery and battery compartment contacts with silicon grease to protect them Permatex 22058 Dielectric Tune-Up Grease, 3 oz. Tube
> Finding a good place for the sender unit is by far the most difficult part of the installation procedure.  Since the range is good, don't overlook the possibility of placing it inside an out-building such as a gazebo or tool shed.  But don't protect it too much, because enclosed areas can become humid, which isn't good for electronics.  The location should be "airy".
> You can use any type of AA batteries.  I suggest cheap ordinary alkalines.  In very cold weather situations, you might want to put lithium batteries in the sender unit.  Yeh, you can probably use rechargeables if you really want to, but doing so is rather pointless---even the best rechargeable will simply loose their charge in about 30 days---save your rechargeables for high-drain electronics, such as radios and toys.

> Click on Stoney just below the product title to see my other reviews, or leave a comment to ask a question.


I moved in to a new home recently and found that the existing disposer was in need of replacement.  Instead of replacing just the disposer, I decided to go ahead and completely replace the entire sink, including the faucet, flanges, and disposer.  I decided to purchase most of these items on Amazon due to the excellent prices and free Prime shipping.  However, I was troubled by the lack of documentation and details regarding the compatibility of the different parts.  I'm writing this review along with a review of the disposer I purchased in an effort to fill in these gaps for future purchasers.

For the disposer, I went with the Waste King L-1001 Legend Series 1/2 HP Continuous Feed Operation Waste Disposer; unfortunately, the flange that comes with the disposer has a highly reflective chrome finish which will not be suitable if you want to coordinate with faucet hardware that isn't also chrome.  Though there are many custom flanges to choose from, the Waste King will not be compatible with most of them since it utilizes the EZ Mount system for attaching the disposer to the sink.  This assembly is not compatible with the majority of the custom finish disposer flanges found on Amazon and in most other stores; most are intended for Insinkerator (ISE) disposers.

There is an adapter kit available (Waste King 3101 ISE Adapter Kit), but I would highly recommend only using this adapter if you are replacing an existing ISE disposer and want to use the hardware already attached to your sink; if you are starting from scratch you would still need to purchace the ISE mounting hardware in addition to the adapter.

I should also note that there are some Waste King branded flanges for sale, but the only ones I found that are compatible with the EZ Mount system have plastic finishes, like white, biscuit, etc.  Waste King flanges that offer a metal finish are only for Waste King disposers that use the very different 3-bolt mounting system, which are a bit more expensive than the EZ Mount variety.

If you plan to start from scratch with all new components as I did, using an EZ Mount disposer along with a suitable disposer flange like the Waste Maid will simplify your installation and help you avoid headaches and delays caused by ordering incompatible parts.  If you insist on a certain brand of disposer flange you will have to get the flange, ISE mounting hardware, and the adapter.  This should work, but at a much higher cost than the Waste Maid flange alone.

As far as the flange itself is concerned, I was impressed with the quality of its manufacture; it's quite heavy and solid, unlike some of the ISE flanges I've handled.  The machining of the threads is very smooth and I had no trouble screwing the disposer's mounting hardware onto the flange during installation.  So far the finish seems to be holding up well, but it should be expected that a disposer flange will take some abuse and may not look perfect forever; however, in this case there isn't much of a finish to worry about anyway, so I expect it will look nice for quite some time.

My only complaint is that the stopper had some minor nicks and dings, primarily on the "handle" portion; it looks as if it may have been dropped on a concrete floor.  Also, it does not seem to sit very tightly in the flange; it doesn't leak or anything, but it seems to fit so precisely that degradation in the rubber seal could cause a leak in the future.  These are very minor issues and aren't really noticeable, but they do make it seem like the stopper was used instead of new; that being said, I do not feel that they should reduce this product's rating.

In conclusion, I would not hesitate to buy this flange again.  If you're installing a new EZ Mount disposer and need a custom flange, this is the way to go.


My husband and I purchased this LG dishwasher (model # LDF7932ST), in December 2011 for over $900.  I have several elements I feel that are definite "pros."  The Lo-Decibel(tm) feature was great; it was so quiet you didn't even know the machine was on.  The Trusteam(tm) feature I did like, as it uses steam to dry the dishes, as opposed to a heating element on the bottom.  That eliminates accidentally melted plastic dishes that fall through.  Dishes usually came out very clean and dry, as long as rinse-aid was in the dispenser and liquid detergent was used.
  Next, I have more than several elements that I qualify as definite "cons" to this machine and to LG as well.  On the exterior, that beautiful stainless steel that cost us an extra $200, was very easily damaged.  If not quickly dried up, even a drop of water that had dripped down the front, left a permanent light-gray streak; it became a rather large pain to have to keep up with the high-maintenance exterior.  The racks inside, as well as the utensil's holder, were all made of flimsy plastic and broke quite easily.  Within six months my silverware were falling through holes the size of quarters, created by broken plastic pieces, and caused permanent scratches on the bottom of the interior.  Signalight(tm), by the way, is nothing to get excited about; it is merely a little blue light that illuminates for a brief period after the machine completed the cycle.  The biggest downfalls to this machine had to be its continued mechanical failures.  In fact, the mechanical malfunctions proved to be the only true aspect of this dishwasher that I could rely on.
  After only two months of ownership, the dishwasher would no longer work.  A piece from the inside of the motor area broke off and jammed it up.  At the six month mark the machine would not drain.  On the bright side, the one year manufacturer's warranty covered those two repairs.  On the dark side, repairs took weeks to complete while waiting for parts, and dealing with the customer service department was a nightmare.  Most of the times I called, the representatives had very strong accents; they could not understand what I was saying, and vice-versa.  Other times the representatives wanted me to take the machine apart myself and call them back after doing so.  Every time, however, my call to their help line resulted in LG telling me they needed to send a technician out for an "official" diagnosis.  These diagnoses by the way, cost $95 each and every time a technician arrives at your door once you are out of the warranty.  That cost does not even cover any repairs.
Our luck ran out really ran out when seven months later, while out at a party, the dishwasher's drain line burst and flooded our kitchen.  The warranty expired one month earlier, so we paid the $95 diagnosis fee, plus $105 for a new drain line, to Jorge the LG technician, whom we knew on a first name basis by that point.  LG offered no compensation whatsoever, for damage that my cabinets and walls sustained from the water the drain line had slowly leaked before it ultimately ruptured.  Finally, two short months after the drain line debacle, the demise of our not-so-fabulous dishwasher had finally come.  Once again Jorge paid us a visit, and this time informed us that the capacitor burned out and would cost nearly $350 to repair.  Devastated and furious, we threw in towel and refused to sink even one more penny into the mechanical money pit.  Consequently, we replaced our very expensive LG brand dishwasher with a used Maytag purchased for $50 at a yard sale. Until this very day, the fifty dollar used dishwasher remains problem free.
I cannot really put into words the disgust and disappointment I feel for my LG brand dishwasher and really for the LG company itself.  I would like to say that it was a fluke and we received a defective machine, but we had also purchased a matching stainless steel, over the counter LG microwave for $450 and a French door LG refrigerator for $2900.  Only one of which still works and both of which suffered multiple, costly mechanical malfunctions.  We put our faith and almost $5000 of our hard earned money into LG kitchen appliances, and all were complete disappointments.
  What good were all those luxuriously expensive features on my LG dishwasher, when the machine itself could not even function properly and even damaged my home?  I tell everyone I know who is looking to buy appliances, "Do not buy LG."  If you do, buy them at your own risk.  My husband came up with his own slogan for our dishwasher and this company, "Life sucks with LG."


UPDATE: As of 8/11, I would rate this unit at 1 Star (Can't change on edit function of review)
Original refrigerator was just replaced with the newly designed icemaker model due to the issues with the original icemaker. Electrolux has been good, but this refrigerator's icemaker has really been a huge problem. I would look for other lines before Electrolux, at least until they can improve thier designs and engineering.

Original review with some edits:
We have been on a journey to find a great, stylish and functional counter depth refrigerator. We are replacing a perfectly fine Kitchen Aid side by side that we put in a second home. First, we chose a Samsung side by side, but were not satisfied with it's refrigerator temperature. We set it at 34, but it never seemed cold enough. Milk was never "ice cold" as we were accustomed to. We started monitoring the temperatures, and it was typically around 38-43 degrees. Samsung was unable to remedy this issue, even after sending out a new replacement. Then we chose a GE Profile model, but it was a similar scenario, with wide temperature swings between the setting of 34, and 44 degrees, so a return of the GE was in order after service was unable to remedy it's large temperature swings.

Now, onto the Electrolux. This was a favorite from the start when we were shopping, but we were scared off by some reviews. We decided to go for it anyway, and are pleased with that decision, so far. However, the first one delivered did not cool at all. A service tech was dispatched immediately, and he found that there was a broken line from the compressor, due to damage in shipping, no fault of the unit, and all the refrigerant had escaped. The dealer brought the GE back until another Electrolux could be ordered and delivered.

Upon recieving the second Electrolux, it is performing nicely. Internal temperature is as stated on the Wave Touch Panel at 34 and -4 degrees for the freezer (which, by the way, you can set to show the refrigerator and freezer temps at all times). The units appearance is of good quality, being stainless steel on all sides, sturdy handles, and a modern appearance with Wave Touch Controls, which are easy to use. The doors are simple to align or adjust if needed.

The interior of this unit is 22.6 cu/ft, so as counter depth goes, it is decent. With edgeless glass shelves, ball bearing glides on all drawers, a large temperature controlled drawer with digital programmed settings, 2 good sized slide out bins, and exceptionaly well done LED lighting, this unit's interior is impressive.

We especially like the temperature controlled drawer, which can be adjusted from 28 to 40+ degrees. The drawer is large enough for party platters, and can keep fresh meats at near freezing, or beer can be kept at a very nice 28 degrees, or wines at a favorite selected temperature. The ice maker does take up a fair amount of space, but for ice and water in the door, it is a worth while sacrifice.

The icemaker has had some negative reviews, but so far ours is fine. The cubes are rounded, with a divit. I'm not sure why this is considered "Drink Friendly", but they are nice. One issue is that the cubes seem to come out with some vengence. However, by simply putting your glass or ice bucket close to the dispensing chute...problem solved. We have seen no melted ice puddles in the catch basin. Water dispensing is simple, and functional. We have only had this unit for a few days, so I can't comment on ice production quantity, but it is supposed to be better than most, per Electrolux specifications.

The freezer has 2 deep slide out bins, and 1 shallow one, with dividers and smooth ball bearing slides. One of our wire dividers does not stay in place, but that is no big issue at all. Space is good, and well utilized. Lighting in the freezer is excellent.

If I listen closely, I can hear the unit running, but sound is not obtrusive or noticably louder than any of the other units we have had recently. I would say it is quiet.

Pros: Operates at accurate temperatures set, huge slide out temperature controlled drawer, Exceptionally well done LED lighting and appearance, Wave Touch Controlls, functional use of space. Looks and feels high quality. We finally have really cold milk again.

Cons: High end of price scale, Ice maker takes up some refrigerator space, and some door storage.


EDITED to add comments after 6 months of use:

People continue to curse at the stupid design of the water dispenser, and continue to spill water all over the place.  Reducing the star rating from original 3 stars to 2.  I would NOT recommend this unit, especially for the asking price.  If you can find one on clearance, maybe, but again, there is NOTHING special about this that qualifies it to be priced above $1K imo.

ONE year warranty people...that should tell you something right there.

**********

Replaced a GE fridge with this model:

Due to my space limitations, I narrowed it down to the similar Kitchenaid model (kind of wish I had gone for this), and the Whirlpool at the same level.  Bought online sight unseen fwiw.

Honestly, I don't see why the "PROFESSIONAL" designation on this.  Nothing about the quality makes me think it's anything other than a very average refrigerator.  Cheap, plastic bins just like every other average unit I have seen.

PROS:
- Best thing about this is the good looking AND practical stainless steel finish.  It's great really - NO smudging (except on the handles) AND it's magnetic (something rare in SS models).

- "theater" lighting...when you open the doors at night, supposedly it doesn't blind you immediately, but rather gradually, as the lights ramp up

- Has a changeable air filter.  I like this...no more arm and hammer boxes taking up space and tipping over.  OTOH, another filter to replace.

- External, digital temp controls for both sides.  I like the idea of this...but in reality, how often are you going to be changing the temperature?  If you have to change it a lot, maybe there is a problem with the thermostat?

- this is a small thing, but I really like that some of the side compartments in the fridge have a non slip surface.  Very nice touch.  Instead of your jars of jelly sliding around and clanking into each other (except when the door closes, see below), things stay nicely in place.

CONS:
- OMG THE DOOR SLAM.  This one kills me, and for such a small thing, makes such a big negative impression because it's EVERY time you deal with the fridge.  When you close the door, there is NO "cushion" for lack of a better or more technical word.  On my very low end GE (and most every fridge out there for that matter), there is a built in governor I guess that slows the speed of the door so it doesn't just slam closed.  I think what happens is that the resistance is just greater as you approach the closed position.  Whatever that feature is, WP for some reason decided to leave it out on this fridge (maybe none of theirs have this, no idea).  It is sooo annoying.  We have gotten used to it more or less, and most of the time we carefully and slowly close the door so it doesn't rattle the whole kitchen.  But anybody else (who of course is also used to the normal, slower fridge door behavior) closing the fridge door is always startled and usually jumps when the door SLAMS shut with a huge rattle.  This is just piss poor design imo, and is a big negative.  I am sure we will eventually get used to it, but shouldn't have to.

- another horrible, non standard design implementation re: water dispener.  Unless you have an extremely wide cup (think wide coffee mug or even soup bowl/mug, you can't just push your glass into the unit expecting water to hit.  Nooooo.  Because of the design, any normal rim sized glass will be overshot by the water squirter, so you have to wrap your hand around the glass and then insert, to make up for the space.  Never seen another fridge with this problem, and like the door slam issue, because it's so unusual, every time someone not living in our house goes for water, they end up getting it all over them and the floor.  That tells you right there it's not just me being picky.  I swear they designed the thing and never actually tested it in a real live situation.  Inexcusable imo.

Because these two things have relatively easy workarounds, I am not going to go into below average territory.  I doubt there is a perfect fridge out there, but I do wish I had gone for the Kitchenaid.  I wonder if their engineers made similar mistakes.

3 stars, barely, and that is assuming that this unit will last many years w/o probs.

IMO, look at the Kitchenaid before buying this one.


We did a lot of research 15 months ago and selected this Bosch dishwasher.  Consumer reports rated it high and the key drawbacks we saw were the smaller interior size compared to our previous dishwashers and the lack of a food "disposal" system.  Many of the high efficiency washers have a filter basket that has to be removed periodically and cleaned out.  That is the case with this one.

Shortly after our first use with the dishwasher we were smelling a lingering egg smell on the glassware.  At first it was lingering and then it became strong and gross - like rotten eggs.  We called Bosch.  They told us to change detergents.  Same problem.  Talked to Bosch - they said we needed to turn our water heater temp up.  Same problem.  Talked to Bosch - we needed to remount the drain hose an extra 6 inches higher than the instructions stated.  Same problem.  Talked to Bosch - we should rinse our dishes better (what?!!). Same problem. Talked to Bosch - our water must be too hard... Huh? We never had that problem before.  Same problem.  Bosch said we cook with too much oil.  $%@$^@$%@$????  Every time we called to get help they told us some other goofy thing to blame something other than their dishwasher.  The one solution we found was to put white vinegar in the washer when it was in the middle of the cycle - that made things liveable.  We would go through a gallon of white vinegar every two weeks.

Something we saw all the time was a gross, gooey sludge developed on the filter and the water that was left in the bottom of the dishwasher was dirty (high efficiency units leave a little water in the bottom under the cover).  I would clean gooey yellow-orange-brown-sludge-butter-muck off the filter 3 times each week.  Gross.  No wonder the dishes smelled.

About 6 months into the ordeal (mind you, we are eating on dishes that smell awful but appear clean) we call Bosch and tell them we have had it and we request that they replace the dishwasher.  We have a one year warranty, right, and clearly there is some type of defect with this dishwasher.  What did Bosch say?  "Oh, I am sorry to hear of your problem, but we don't have any record of you having any concerns with this dishwasher."  What?!!!  All the calls from our home, that they logged our home number with and provided us a log number - yet none of that was in their system.  So what now?  We need to start a process with a service call to get things in order.  Great! In my mind, another delay tactic.

First service call:  The repair man finds no problems - mechanically everything works (yep, we know).  It took us 2 months to convince the service person there was a problem.  At 10 months we were getting concerned that we were going to be stuck with this awful dishwasher so we called the reputable dealer where we purchased it.  They told us "good luck, Bosch will never replace it."  They were nice about it, but it was clear that others have had issues with Bosch and the company doesn't take care of their appliances under warranty.

The good news - we did buy an extended warranty at the time of purchase.  On the day the extended warranty kicked in we started a 3 month process to show the dishwasher was defective/unfixable.  The repairman was helpful and within 3 visits noted that the unit was unrepairable.  We received a check to replace the unit.  We purchased and installed an LG dishwasher and all is well.  Smell is gone, dishes are clean.  The dishwasher has more space and has a soft food disposer (no more filter cleaning).  Turns out it wasn't my water heater or hard water or too much oil or too little rinsing or the detergent....  All that stuff is the same and the LG cleans well and doesn't leave a rotten egg smell on the dishes.

The reason I bought the LG washer was I read a review where a guy talked about researching appliance companies from the standpoint of how they treat their customers after the sale.  His research showed that LG treats their product owners great.  I researched the LG web site and found a lot of great resources and confirmed several of the points this gentlemen made.  Then I contrasted that to the ridiculous way Bosch treated my family and me.

In a nutshell - the Bosch dishwasher I purchased was defective and the bigger issue was Bosch as a company treated me and my family horribly as we were trying to fix and resolve the problem.  My experience causes me to stay well clear of Bosch appliances.


I am regretting that I bought this Bosch B26FT70 French door refrigerator with bottom freezer from a non-amazon.com seller (appliancesconnection.com).  This expensive appliance started making a loud humming noise intermittently, within 1 week after installation.  When I called the warranty service the tech takes a whole 8 days to arrive just to tell me that he cannot hear anything wrong with the fridge and leaves.  Called back for warranty service and was told that a specialist would look at it.  Meanwhile the steel trim on the large shelve came off due to shoddy manufacturing.
By now it is almost another week later and the specialist comes in and validates that the evaporator motor is defective.  He is going to order the part and put it in when it arrives.  And he said that the shelf has to be replaced because of the trim problem.
This whole experience tells me that Bosch is just resting on its laurels.  Their product is simply shoddy with multiple problems.  Bosch's service is slow and unresponsive.  They should not be expecting a customer of a premium appliance, specially a refrigerator that is so essential for today's household, to wait for weeks for warranty repairs on a brand new appliance.
I will update this and let you know how long it finally took to get these issues resolved.
My advice is to AVOID, AVOID, AVOID this shoddy product.  My old inexpensive GE worked better for years, just threw it out only because we wanted matching appliances.

Update on Feb 18, 2013,
*********************
The saga continues, as per my previous review, this refrigerator started failing almost from the get-go.

After numerous problems with loud rattles and falling off trim continued, now the fridge stopped cooling and is completely dead. I used to be a fan of Bosch, but I honestly cannot recommend this "top of the line" fridge to even my worst enemy.

Bosch's service is another story, this fridge spoiled my food thrice due to misdiagnosis and refusal to take care of the issue. The fridge is currently non-operational for over a week. It takes several days for Bosch's service reps to even come and misdiagnose the issue. These so called experts have repeatedly misdiagnosed the problems. At this point I have an expensive boat anchor in my kitchen.

Feel free to buy it if you can afford to live without your primary fridge for weeks at a time. I used to be a fan of Bosch, but I honestly cannot recommend this "top of the line" fridge to even my worst enemy.

It takes several days for Bosch's service reps to even come and diagnose the issue. These so called experts have repeatedly misdiagnosed the problems. At this point I have an expensive boat anchor in my kitchen.

Bosch's service is another story, this fridge spoiled my food thrice due to misdiagnosis and refusal to take care of the issue. The fridge is currently non-operational for over a week.

Feel free to buy it if you can afford to live without your primary fridge for weeks at a time.

Update on June 8, 2013
************************

The nightmare continues.  This expensive mistake stopped working again.  Our first clue to a problem was the big puddle of water in the refrigerator trays and shelves.  The puddles were from the melting ice from the ice maker.  We soon realized that the refrigerator is not cooling and not operational.  Another $150 of spilt food, thanks to Bosch!
 Called Bosch service again and went through the rigmarole of providing a dated receipt for the 3rd time -based on the number of times I had to call Bosch, I think they should know me and my fridge on a first name basis by now!
The Bosch agent gave the contact information of local Bosch authorized service companies.  Frankly I am dreading this call to the local service companies based on my previous experience with these guys.  In my opinion the technicians are incompetent and unprofessional since it takes them multiple attempts to identify the real problem all the while I am sitting without a fridge and forced to pay high bills for restaurant food.  Also, in my previous attempt to repair the fridge, the tech neglected to order the necessary part making us sit with this boat anchor for an additional few days.
During my previous repair incident in Feb 2013, I asked Bosch to replace or refund the cost of the fridge since.  Bosch was very unsympathetic to my request.  Today,  I have requested Bosch to replace my dead fridge again and I am waiting to hear from them.  Question for the consumer lawyers amongst you:  I feel cheated by Bosch, what are my options, legal and otherwise?

Update on June 15, 2013
************************

Week 2 and the fridge still not fixed. Bosch does not even bother!


I've had this fridge for about two weeks now and it's been really great. I bought it for my office and mostly to prevent me from eating out, so I had a few criteria. First, it had to be fairly small footprint, but large enough to store a good amount of real food, such as leftovers, some fruit & veg, and materials to make snacks with such as PB&J. Second, it had to have a real compressor, one that will cool well below the ambient temperature as the office building gets quite warm in the summer and I really hate when food goes bad. Third, I didn't want the unit to give up a bunch of space to a can delivery system, since I don't drink usually have canned drinks around. So, that's how I ended up at the SPT, it's the only one I found that fits all these criteria. I'd never heard of SPT before buying this fridge and quite honestly, if it had the same features as all the other fridges I'd seen (researched for two weeks), I probably wouldn't have bought it. However, given that it had everything I was looking for, I decided to take a chance and I'm glad I did.

First, the aesthetics; it's a vertical rectangular shape, modestly attractive looking, basically it looks like a small black fridge with a stainless door. I was a bit surprised at the size, it's quite a bit taller than I was expecting and the black does makes it look a little monolithic. The unit actually looks bigger than it really is, I was shocked to find that it fits nicely under my desk. The Stainless Steel finish on the door isn't quite as polished as the vastly more expensive full-size GE fridge I've got at home, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good it looked, especially considering the price! This unit is solidly built and is surprisingly lightweight, which was great for moving it around the first day, figuring out where it should go. The door, as shipped, opens on the left, but it looked like a fairly simple job to switch sides (haven't needed to) and SPT included extra plastic inserts for covering up the holes should this be required, a nice touch. Door was protected with plastic film and all three shelves and the ice maker were taped down to prevent them sliding around.

On to functionality; the fridge works! It got the four iced teas I put in it ice cold within only a few hours of being plugged in and I've got the unit set at 4, the factory preset median setting and it works great. Stuff down low in the fridge was kept nicely cold, the ham I put up near the icemaker had frost in the package, but the meat wasn't frozen. Note to self, meat goes lower in the fridge. The lower door shelf holds four Honest Tea bottles, but the wire holder swings out to hold bigger items. The top door shelf is a little shorter and has a fixed bar, so PB & J go up there. Inside shelves are made of white plastic-coated wire and well spaced. The freezer holds at least a trio of standard sized juice boxes; it's wide, but not very tall, so low items work best. One other extremely cool thing is, the energy consumption rating for this fridge is actually below the lowest range on the chart. This makes it extremely efficient, which isn't a factor for me, but I can see this being a plus for someone being challenged about its power consumption. Given how well it keeps my food cold, it must be very well insulated to achieve such low consumption.

Things of note:
1) This unit only has one leveling foot, at the front right corner. This is probably not a problem for most people, but my office floor is as flat as a Ruffles potato chip, so levelling the fridge required shims under the front left foot.
2) Power cord is only about 5Ft long, once again, not a problem in most offices, but I would really have liked a longer one. Extension cord to the rescue.
3) Unit isn't silent, but it's not loud either. Some people have complained about other fridges being loud, I don't find this one to be unpleasant, it's like low-level white noise in the background. If I get in early, I can hear the fridge, but once the office wakes up, it's inaudible.
4) Unit came very well packed in an enormous box, strapped and taped closed. I was impressed, but I did have to lie the fridge on its side to get it out of the box.
5) This hasn't been a problem, but the manual says that should the fridge lose power, it won't come back on automatically.


We purchased an electric Bosch Vision series washer & dryer set(with pedestals) from Lowe's because it was a very good deal. I don't know if I have enough room here to express all the exasperating things about these machines, but will hit some of the low points for us. They are probably okay if you are a complete Nimrod, and want the standard settings on the machine to do the thinking for you, but I have been doing laundry many years now, and I know what temperature, cycle, etc. that I need to get certain clothes clean without ruining them- but with these units, you don't have options such as temp control (except on 2 cycle selections) or length of cycle. It does however, think that a choice of spin speed is vitally important, because you can change that on every cycle. It has a choice of several cycles which are pre-labeled for certain types of materials (e.g jeans, comforter) and a generic "Quick Full" and "Quick Light" cycles. I don't really know what temperature these wash in-(and unless you refer to the graph in the manual, you won't), so I only use them for those things that have been washed 1000 times before. Many cycles seem extra long-the Xtra Sanitary cycle is about 3 hours long when you add a stain cycle. And you may think I am kidding on this next thing, but the minutes during the countdown of a wash cycle are sometimes much longer than a minute. One time, a cycle had one minute left for 5 minutes- and this is not the same everytime- Seriously.
Now, let me be straight, I have found nothing seriously adverse about the way they clean the clothes. That's pretty standard. The drying on the otherhand, takes some creativity on which cycle (usually cycles) to choose to get the stuff dry in the least amount of time.
The end cycle signals are the MOST annoying feature. They ring incessently (okay, that's a lie...they do stop after sometime longer than 20 minutes of beeping about every 6 seconds). I haven't let the beep go on much longer than that, because it drives us crazy- but if you are trying to sleep or just can't get to the washer right away- it will drive your whole household insane until someone rushes in and opens the washer door to stop it. How many times do you have to be reminded that the wash cycle is finished? Once or twice would suffice, right? The dryer also has its own annoying cycle beeps- which can be changed if you want to. I am still figuring this out.
Rinsing well seems to be a problem, and I only use 1-2 tablespoons of detergent, as recommended, even if you add the Allergy Rinse. Sometimes I set it for another "Quick" cycle just to rinse it. There is not a choice for rinse only. There is, however a Drain & Spin Only- which is useful if you feel you need it.
This leads me to vibration mode. On Max Spin our whole house vibrates- sounds like a helicopter is hovering overhead. We have now opted to choose a lower spin speed each time we start another load, if we actually remember to do it.
Tonight, the new irritant was this:
Most washers/dryers have the option of changing the door opening based on how you have them arranged. We, after wrenching these two monster units into place in our newly remodeled laundry room, erroneously assumed we could switch the washer door opening, as we could on the dryer. Uh-uh. So now we have a washer that opens to the wrong side.
Umm, what else?  Oh, yes...the drying cycles (on the dryer of course) restart their time ALL OVER AGAIN if you happen to want to open the door to check on how your load is doing, or add another item.  For example, if you have chosen a cycle that takes 60 minutes, and it's been running for 40 minutes- and you are wondering if your shirt is dry enough yet so you open the door to check on that shirt- and no, it's not dry enough so you throw it back in and close the door. The timer then automatically re-sets back to 60 minutes- (no kidding).You get to start all over again, or choose another cycle entirely.
So, if I had enough money to give these away, and get another brand (like my old LG's), I would.  If this helps someone else avoid some angst, then it has been worth my time.


I'm assuming mine is an earlier version of this one.  It looks just like it except I don't have the pretty lights on the front (bummer).  It certainly looks beautiful but it does have pluses & minuses.

Pluses:  love the adjustable racks and open spaces for large items; like the "bins" on the silverware holder so I can put small items in it & close the lid and not have them end up on the floor of the unit (to credit it - I've never had a single item end up on the floor of the machine); nice heavy duty stainless interior; quiet operation (although it seems louder now than when I purchased it, this may just be because the transition from my old machine was so noticeable, whereas, now I'm used to this one); unlike others, I love the way it dries, nothing warps or melts.

Minuses: I don't know if it is the way my Pfaltzgraf dishes are made but they don't fit in the unit as well as in my old GE, the plates and bowls only stand up well on the rear rack/row of the machine, on the front side they roll out of position and then lean forward; similar problem with the glasses & cups, they only fit well on the first/outside rack, when I put them on the second row I have to hook them on prongs to fit them at all and then they are sort of staggered so it doesn't hold as many as it could; I have also had where the soap did not dispense correctly on a couple of occasions - I opened the door and the soap was globbed all around the dispenser, I do not know what caused this issue, I guessed maybe putting too much soap in, but I really don't know, I cleaned it up (the stainless interior cleans beautifully, btw) and re-ran it, a little aggravating, but I'm guessing it was something I did.  My recommendation is to take your dishes into a showroom and test fit them before you make a purchase (hard to do on Amazon, lol), that's what I'm going to do when I buy another dishwasher.  The salesman may think you're crazy but if it causes you to switch choices you will be glad you did.

Update Sep 2012 - I've downgraded from 3 to 2 stars. I had some weird sensor message like E9 and the machine wouldn't work at all. I had to get a tech out, who then had to order a part and come back and install it. I had my old cheapy GE for almost 25 years and it never broke down. It even still worked when we replaced it so I'm extremely disappointed to have this one break down after less than 2 years.

Update March 2013 - I'm downgrading this again. I'm sick and tired of having to rewash dishes that this machine doesn't clean. I realize rings dried on mugs from tea are more difficult to clean but my old cheap dishwasher managed, this one doesn't. I went without this machine for months (primarily because I didn't bother to call that's how little I missed it) while I waited for it to be fixed, and truthfully handwashing the dishes wasn't much different than using this dishwasher because I have so much prewash prep to do. I have to make sure there are no rings or debris on anything before I put it in or I have to do it by hand afterwards anyway. I make certain all of my silverware has a space between it and the next piece, and even then, if it had been used to slice a banana or for peanut butter the chances are it will need to be rewashed, and this is after washing for 3 hrs and 2 mins (I rarely ever use the regular wash which is 2 hrs 14 mins because it washes so poorly I figure it needs all the help it can get), so now I wipe my silverware before I put it in as well!

Update Sep 2013 - It's been broken down for at least 3 months now and I haven't even bothered to call to get it fixed even though I bought an extended warranty.  I'm probably secretly hoping the warranty runs out so I can buy another dishwasher.  It really is less aggravating to just wash the dishes by hand than deal with the frustration of having to check each piece after washing for over 3 hours.  If they had a zero rating I'd give it to this item, that's how bad it is.  It really is a poorly designed/made machine. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!


First of all my attempt to purchase this was a challenge. One national retailer had an excellent price but although not mentioned on the web site as such it was a WEB only deal and the starting price of $629 was actually $699 in the store.  The additional special savings to reduce it to $535 only worked if you had their credit card although they said it would also work if you applied for one....that was a bait and switch as it came with no price guaranty. While I have purchased from this retailer often in the past this will be my last purchase.  Dealing with the mafia would have been easier.  I got the $629 price walking in the door at Lowes.

While I have only washed two loads they were both challenges and I am very happy with the results.  To those who have criticized this washer in other reviews, one suggestion, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!!!

This is a new technology washer and it works different. The cycles operate in a manner that you have not heard before and they will seem strange.  For example the tub seems to drain after a cycle but then the pump seems to run afterward.  The tub is suspended differently so when it spins the washer moves around a lot as if it were slightly out of balance so put it on a solid floor and not pushed up tight against something. The tub does not fill with water but that doesn't matter if you follow the instructions and load it right, because the agitator plate seems to roll the clothes up, down and around.  It does tend to knot things up a little, live with it.  Does it cause wrinkles? Yes, especially if you set it to the highest spin cycle to get it the driest. I had no wrinkles that didn't smooth out in the dryer. As far as lint,another complaint of others, I never found my old washer did a very good job of that either but the dryer took care of it just fine always, that's why a dryer has a lint filter.

I have only ran two loads and both were tests. I also have not used IE detergent yet as I still have a little cold water liquid Tide left.  Since the cautions against using regular detergent deal with over sudsing I simply used less and had no problems.  The first load was a medium load and it violated the Maytag suggestions as it mixed clothing types.  The load included Dockers, blue jeans, dress shirts, socks and under garments. Nothing was overly soiled and all came out just fine.  The Dockers, blue jeans and dress shirts were wrinkled and the shirts were twisted but all came out fine in the dryer. I ran the load at "Normal" setting and reduced the temperature to "Cold".

My second load was a queen sized, quilt/comforter that was about 2 years old and had not been washed as it would not fit in my old washer and I hadn't taken it to a laundromat.  I ran it as a bulky load and set the temperature to "cool", it came out great. While large and bulky I checked the load part way through due to all those reviews that suggested that some items never even got wet.  When I checked the load part way through the cycle it was completely soaked!

I had a couple of concerns after reading all of the comments on the WEB and reading the manual online at the Maytag site but I figured I could move it to a rental if it didn't work for me.  One of my biggest concerns is that I have lots of iron in my water and if I wash in anything other than "Cold" water I can get massive rust stains on my clothes.  Someplace in the manual I read that even with "Cold" settings the washer my add hot water.  While that may be true I kept checking the hot hose during the cold load and it never warmed, so if you wash "Cold" like I do I can offer that in the "Normal" setting manually adjusted to "Cold" I used no hot water.  When I ran the second load with the quilt I used the "Bulky" setting and adjusted the temperature to "Cool" and the soil setting to "Light".  I was trying to determine if I could use this as an alternative solution to my iron stain problem.  I checked the tub part way through the wash cycle and the water temperature was not warm enough to cause the iron oxidization that I had experienced even in the warm settings on my old washer.

While two loads isn't a long history, both of these loads were out of the norm and I was very pleased with the results.  Unless future loads uncover problems not yet apparent I give this washer a definite thumbs up. One last thing....READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!


YES!! Our dryer works again! And now it dries better than before. :)

We moved a few years back, and the dryer here we don't know if it is 5 yrs. or 18 yrs. old. It seemed to take longer and longer to dry the clothes on the 'energy saver' moisture sensing (low-temp) cycle. Then one day, it stopped drying. I woke up in the early a.m. and heard the dryer running and thought my wife had done some early morning laundry? But later that day she said no, that was the load she put in around 9 p.m. the night before. So basically we had a nice 8 hrs. + of dry time, no heat. The lack of heat on that sensing cycle made the timer fail to advance.

That is why at first I thought it might be the "high limit thermostat" so I ordered that. Then I figured it could help to have more parts. I then ordered this igniter, and some valve coils. I remember our furnace had the igniter wear out in the past, it is a sparkly electrical element that glows bright orange and gets HOT!! to ignite the gas. I figured if I had the dryer opened up, I might as well replace the coils too, to save labor later.

Well, the parts came, so I was eager (sort of) to get it fixed. The starting is the hardest part, for sure. I watched a couple videos before about gas dryer repair, unplugged the wall outlet, unscrewed 2 screws by the lint trap, lifted off the top and unscrewed 2 more screws to take off the front. Holy cow, it had a lot of dust in there, so I did a lot of vacuuming. I couldn't find any gas shutoff on the flexible line coming into the dryer, so I moved everything carefully and didn't unhook any gas connections, obviously. I saw an internal shutoff screw on the gas control valve once I was in there, or I could have shut off the main house gas line too.

I couldn't loosen the screw on the side of the igniter since it is close to the left side of the box, even with some channel locks, so I unhooked the belt and took the drum out. Then I vacuumed more. Oh, I also cleaned out the exhaust ducts and the top lint screen housing with brushes I bought in the past.

By taking the drum out I could reach the gas control stuff in the front lower left side. I unscrewed the bracket for the igniter, and changed it to the new one, exact match. I also changed out the valve coils, they are easy, unplug the wire/clip thing from each one, unscrew the metal bracket holding them in, swap out with new ones, reconnect clips.

It was a little tricky getting the drum back on, had to make sure the seal was not folded or overlapped wrong, then put the belt on and put it back on the rollers in back and the lower Z-roller/bracket thing in front. I rotated it around to get everything to seat properly, propped it up with a dumbbell. Then reinstalled the front, screws, the electrical wire harness clip to the housing, then the lid, the screws for the lint trap, then slid the whole thing carefully back onto the ductwork and laid on the floor to wiggle it nice and snug to seal well.

Then I plugged it back in, and now it WORKS! Hallelujah. And now the clothes dry better, we can set it for at least 1 line less dry time versus before.  So if your gas Whirlpool dryer is not working/heating I'd recommend buying all 3 parts, but be sure to NOT TOUCH the igniter - your skin oils will make it fail/wear out rapidly.

I am not an expert, I watched a couple videos (thank you repair clinic dot com!! ), reviewed setup info, prayed for wisdom and safety, and I'd guess it took me about 1.5 hrs. to get the whole process done, this included setting up tools, lights, labor, a lot of vacuuming up dust and crud. :) I also took my time to be sure to everything correctly.

 OH - and I used my camera to take several pics to be sure I'd 'reinstall' things just like they were before, as a 'backup precaution.'