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[yogi]

Today's adventure involves the refrigerator, the brand new one that was bought six weeks ago to the day. It looks just like this one from GE. It's not just a fridge that dispenses ice (cubed or crushed). It also makes hot water and will brew a cup of coffee for you. They built in a Keurig® K-Cup® coffee maker next to the ice dispenser. There is a small smart phone size screen with instructions, either written or spoken, to help you along. The coffee can be made for any of three sized cups. Just pull out the module, insert the coffee into the machine, and plug it back into the door. The refrigerator will announce when the water is hot enough and it will dispense exactly the amount you want -- unless it's broken. Then it only heats the water half way and dribbles hot water down the front door and inside the cooling compartment.

We called the serviceman who informed us that this is the first time he's ever seen one of these models. After giving it a cursory check he unscrewed a panel to reveal at least a dozen solenoids and relays mixed in with some circuit boards. He reached to his service bag for a green box about the size of a deck of cards. It had a familiar looking cord (USB cable?) that plugged into a hidden port atop of the fridge door. The other end went to his laptop computer. He ran through the cycle of making coffee and got a diagnosis on his computer. It seems the "software" in our refrigerator needed to be updated. So ... he did that. He then made a cup of coffee that did not leak and was the proper temperature. Not one hardware part was replaced.

It turns out that we don't have the latest generation of refrigerators. The best ones these days are connected to the Internet. The software can be downloaded and installed remotely on those babies. I'm still not sure why software made it malfunction mechanically, but apparently it did. GE has never been my favorite brand for appliances, and the fact that this one crashed in six weeks time didn't leave a good impression. The only good news here is that it was all done under warranty and didn't cost me a cent.

[Kellemora]

When we redid our kitchen we went with all LG appliances because we had such good luck with their other electronics.
EVERY SINGLE ITEM delivered had one or more defects, and it took nearly two years to get a couple of them working.
No Sooner than our Extended Warranty ran out, we have had problems with three of the five items. Some of these problems started long before the warranty ran out, but we were given the bums rush for months. Waiting for parts, which never came. Then we learned the contracted repair company went out of business and our repair orders were never forwarded to the company who replaced them.
We have internal leaks inside the refrigerator and have to remove ice from the floor of the freezer every week.
Service estimates by repair folks who think they know what it is over the phone are all over 250 bucks, plus whatever parts they will need to get.
All I can say is you are lucky they fixed your problem with only a software upgrade.
Or at least that is what they said. They probably rerouted the drivers to the solenoids through to other solenoids.

[Icey]

Well, gentlemen, I don't know what solenoids are, but your new appliance looks very nice Yogi. It's the first I'd heard of being able to make a coffee from them though! Shows how backward we are over here!

[yogi]

Well Icey, if you can believe it our new fridge is old technology and has been replaced by something even better. The newest refrigerators have computers with keyboards and screens built into their doors. They will talk to you, play music for you, send text messages, and take pictures of the inside of your fridge so that you can use your smart phone app to see what you got while you are shopping at the store. It's all done over the Internet, and when you hear talk of the Internet of Things (IoT), this is what they are talking about. Quite a few appliances are going that route and it's going to be an interesting future when you have to install antivirus software into your toaster.

The bleeding edge refrigerator technology is from LG with whom I also have a good relationship regarding their computer devices. The fridge we had at the old house was a GE that never dispensed water properly and the ice maker would jam whenever the tray was half filled. After nearly three years and well beyond the warranty contract ended (we never did get an extended warranty), we called in the repair man. All the ice making hardware modules had to be replaced as well as most of the cooling system. It was not able to remove the moisture from the main compartment because the cooling fins on the condenser were solid ice. It was around $700 for parts alone and a tad over a grand in total. We probably could have gotten a new fridge for what we paid to repair the old one. I swore at the time that I'd never buy GE again. But, before we moved here to Missouri I did some research. The GE Cafe line of products got high reviews from almost everyone. The ability of this machine to keep foods fresh by having independent temperature zones is amazing. I'm really impressed with whatever it is they are doing. However, I make my coffee on a counter top machine, and I don't think I will ever resort to refrigerator coffee going forward.

[yogi]

Well, gentlemen, I don't know what solenoids are, but your new appliance looks very nice Yogi. It's the first I'd heard of being able to make a coffee from them though! Shows how backward we are over here!

Solenoids come in an infinite variety of shapes and sizes. The above picture is typical. Inside the canister is a coil into which you can direct electric current. When you do that, the rod at the end moves forward. Take away the current and the rod goes back to it's resting position. This is the equivalent of a mechanical finger. Those fingers come in handy when you want to move water around inside a refrigerator, for example. It presses buttons which starts motors and closes valves and all sorts of things you could do with your finger. In the case of my fridge there is a computer chip in there pressing all the buttons by using solenoids.

[Kellemora]

I had a fridge once with a TV in the door. We didn't want the one with the TV in the door, but it was on sale cheaper than the same model without the TV. We already had a hidden TV in a kitchen cabinet that faced the dining area. The one in the fridge did not face any direction one would use it for watching TV. However, the frau tuned it to a music station and left it running almost all day. The TV part outlasted the fridge, hi hi...

[Icey]

My post disappeared Yogi, so after having a look at these coffee-dispensing fridges, I hope you have a good few trouble-free years with yours.

A fridge with a TV in the door, Gary??? Good grief ... we ARE backward! Loads of folk over here haven't even used a frost-free machine yet!

[pilvikki]

oh dear gods! it has to be frost-free!

which reminds me of my first husband getting a bit impatient with our few months old fridge that had collected major frost. yea, he took a filleting knife to it and sliced clean through the coils.

the end.

[Icey]

OMG!!!!!! There must've been some ice build-up there!!

I wouldn't dream of buying a fridge-freezer that wasn't frost-free though. I remember seeing one leak all over a kitchen floor. The water pooled, and in the morning, it'd stained the floor tiles forever.

Whatever, all this talk of ones which dispense coffee, or have TVs in the doors .... they make mine look obsolete! I'm sure that it also looks puny in comparison to everyone else's, because it's not a huge walk-in type. This is the one we have in our kitchen, and then we have a second freezer to store fresh fruit and veg.

http://ao.com/product/kfn14947sdeedcs1- ... 56-28.aspx

[yogi]

One of the coolest things (pun intended) about our refrigerator is the lighting. There are LED lights inside and along the hinged side of the doors. LED's are brighter for one, but they also lend themselves to digital control. When a door is opened the lighting gradually ramps up to full brightness. It takes about two seconds and looks stunning. It's totally useless as a function, but it looks pretty. I'd say the LED's are cheaper to use than the old incandescent lights, but any advantage there is overridden by the excess power it takes to heat up a cuppa coffee.

[Icey]

Not content with being able to get a cup of coffee from the fridge, or watch TV from one - you now have special lighting effects as well! LOL - it sounds brilliant Yogi.

[pilvikki]

good grief! the fridges here are so very mundane! but, but... £2500! ours cost 700 euros + extended warranty, which came handy when it croaked a month ago in the middle of the lengthy heat wave. it's huge, but also has the freezer section on top, which I find daft, for by comparison, how often do you rummage around in the freezer, compared to the veggie drawer?

the only extra feature we have is a temp readout and a warning light on the door.

I would like the coffee making option, were it something else than the pods, which i'm really disliking now for the incredible amount of plastic they use... but that would free some counter space. year, can you imagine a drip coffee maker in the door? the door'd have to be the size of one for a Zurich vault.

the neighbours here have the freezer on bottom. it's getting long in the tooth and emits a star trek hum, with occasional clunks and thuds making you wonder what it's doing.

[pilvikki]

oh yeah, forgot to add that we didn't want a plumbed-in water/ice dispenser as the water here is a bit thick, so we just got a reservoir for the door one has to fill. it's a pain to use, but works...

[Icey]

The disadvantage of having the coffee maker in your fridge, is that you can't carry the appliance into another room. I have a kettle in here, for if I ever want to make an instant coffee - or a cup of tea - if I'm busy. It saves traipsing to the kitchen (or it's supposed to!) - and yet I always go to the kitchen anyway ......

Yes, Miele goods're expensive, but, they're tested to last for at least 20 years. Our last fridge-freezer started to go wrong straight after the guarantee'd run out. Ditto another make before it. It was only little things at first, but which necessitated an engineer to come and take a look. Then the last one started issuing nasty fumes, so enough was enough.

Funny, I don't need an ice dispenser. I prefer drinks at room temperature. Nobody else bothers about it either.

[pilvikki]

I use ice when it gets over 26°. :)

[yogi]

I love iced coffee in the summer. This fridge is awesome just for that reason alone.

The GE fridge is way over-priced considering the quality it does not have. It's like using Apple phones instead of the no-name brands. One pays for the design and not for what it actually costs to market. Icey is right about the coffee maker not being portable, but it is programmable. I bought some imported tea that wants 6 oz of water to be brewed at 180F for three minutes. Of all things you would think this baby would have, there is no clock on the fridge. But, it dispenses exactly what I tell it to at exactly the temperature I need. Two out of three isn't bad.

[Kellemora]

You can get refillable coffee and tea holders for cartridge type coffee makers. Saves a bundle of money and with no plastic to throw away.

[Icey]

We rarely experience temperatures of 25 or above, but I've never liked ice cold drinks. We have bottles of wine in a chiller, but I don't care for that much, either.

Yogi - when you can programme a fridge to have your breakfast ready, hot or cold, at a set time, I'll start looking into these wonderful appliances, but tbh, I don't think the day's too far ahead. We soon won't need to lift a finger, apart from tapping a few buttons from the comfort of wherever we choose to be.

Our coffee machine's an enigma. A) I don't know how to use it, so B) I don't!
It produces 6 or so cups of different coffees. You can have 2 of the same kind at any one time. It uses beans or grinds, and I'm in awe of it. That's why I don't care for these wonderful gadgets, because using them's a pain in the rear. : (

[pilvikki]

oh gary, that sounds great! where does one get them?

[Kellemora]

You can order them direct from the coffee maker company, or like the frau, got some at WalMart first, then got some better ones through an on-line dealer for her coffee maker. She uses it more to make tea than coffee, since I don't drink coffee and she only has perhaps one cup per week. She won the coffee maker or we wouldn't have it at all.

Here is a link to Keurig so you see what I mean.
http://www.keurig.com/content/reusable-coffee-filter