Buying a fridge. Are in-the-door ice makers worth the money?

[A.Goldberg]

Honestly I would skip the in-door ice maker. Go with the automatic ice maker inside.

Typically, the in door ice makers are mostly found in side-by-side fridges, which look nice but unless you have the space to put in a very large one (aka nice big wide Subzero unit), you end up losing practice space width wise.

The door ice maker of course in a side by side then eats up depth space. I do think side by sides have a better aesthetic look, but functionally speaking a fridge with the freezer on the bottom and fridge on top is most practical. An interior ice maker works just as fine.

When my parents renovated the kitchen at their summer home, they put in a side-by-side (GE profile). With entertaining a lot and needing storage for food and left overs it became annoying. The ice maker in the door frequently clogged or an ice cube would spit out 3min after you used it. After a few years they moved it to the cellar and switched back to a conventional design.

The fridge in my place is a standard GE profile (freezer top fridge bottom), probably 10-15 years old, no issues in my time here. My parents house was finished in 00, with a subzero fridge top, freezer drawer bottom. No issues unless you don't know to vacuum the dust out of the top compressor area.

My grandparents house though, built in the 1950's, had the original appliances when they died in on the mid 2000's. Time warp right? I doubt anything today will hold up like that.

Personally, I think it best to invest in a quality unit first before jumping into fancy features. Granted, I don't use ice... like ever strangely enough. So the ice maker issue isn't a big deal with me.

 

[mattysmith118]

Out Bosch Fridge Freezer is 14 years old and never had any issues.
It doesn't have an ice maker, but we just use an ice tray. Sometimes the simplest solution is the best.
Mind you we don't have much need of ice with our climate.

I had a Bosch around 15 years ago. Gave it to a friend as we moved and needed smaller one. Still working till this day too!

Just what the title says. My wife and I are in the market for a refrigerator. (And boy, is it disillusioning how they've become such big-ticket commodities while simultaneously becoming less reliable. We had the last one for almost 30 years, while no salesman will tell us a new one will last past 10.)

Anyway, the two fridges I've owned in my life, the (interior) ice maker was the first thing to go. Like, early. In your experience, is this also true of in-the-door ice makers? If it is, I think we'll forgo the extra $400 or so it will add to the price of a new one.

Don't they sell the one you have now anymore? Would of made sense to buy the same again