My circa 2006 secondary/beer fridge wants to retire. The freezer is cold at ~2 but the fridge has decided that cycling between 38 & 45 is good enough. Wrong. It has a couple other issues that are minor by themselves but add up to I'm buying a new fridge.

What's y'all's best route to a new secondary fridge these days? I'm leaning new at Costco.

Anybody want a nominally functional fridge in the north Dallas area?

My garage beer fridge is doing the same thing. Freezer works fine but fridge slowly warms up over time. Had a guy come out and was able to find parts for the 28 year old Kenmore. About $300 in parts plus labor.

Deciding on what to do. In the meantime, I've been emptying the freezer, unplugging it and letting the ice completely melt off the freezer coils for 5-6 hours. Plug it back in and the fridge stays cold for 2-3 weeks.

I've considered tuning it up a few times. Unfortunately, it has a number of other issues that've each made me consider replacing it on their own. This is a last straw kind of deal.

I recently bought a new Frigidaire for the garage, that came as "Garage Ready" from Home Depot. It's done very well for its first Texas summer in a very hot garage.

Bought one on Craig's list for $55 in 2008. It lasted a few years and a move before it died. Because we were in the house for less than a year we had an active home warranty which replaced it with the one that's still going strong.

OnlyForNow said:

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$300 will get you a very decent one from big box stores

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Home Depot's website has exactly 1 full size fridge under $650.

This is how I got my current setup. It might be an option.

SanAntoneAg said:

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My garage beer fridge is doing the same thing. Freezer works fine but fridge slowly warms up over time. Had a guy come out and was able to find parts for the 28 year old Kenmore. About $300 in parts plus labor.

Deciding on what to do. In the meantime, I've been emptying the freezer, unplugging it and letting the ice completely melt off the freezer coils for 5-6 hours. Plug it back in and the fridge stays cold for 2-3 weeks.

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Same here but I stick a fan in there and it's thawed in about an hour. Good for 2 weeks.
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Milwaukees Best Light said:

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Facebook market has plenty. No sense buying a fancy one just for the garage.

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This is your answer. Facebook Market Place will have a ton of options, most of them close. Also there are several of the "Liquidator" type places that post on there. Unlike craigslist which is full of scammers, you can see the profile and history of people selling on Marketplace.

Another good option in Dallas is the Best Buy Outlet store at Midway and 635. They have deep discounts on scratch and dent, returns and floor models. It is sourced from all the other stores in the metroplex. There is also one in Arlington

Facebook Market Place is the way to go here as mentioned.

Had a break room fridge go out at my shop. Got a nice stainless steel one. The ice maker stopped working so the lady wanted a new one. She sold it to me for $175 and me basically taking it away for her! Win/Win!

The in-laws (in their upper 70's) just got a new fridge for the hell of it, everything worked fine. I asked what they did with the old one, Lowe's has a service that they'll haul the old one away when the deliver the new one. Makes me wonder how many appliances they get that are in perfect working order, and what do they do with them? Seems like that would be the code to crack for a cheaper used beer fridge.

The haul away guys drop them off for themselves.

I'm sure that happens, but I'm as big a beer drinker as there is, and at some point you don't need any more fridges, so it seems like they would try to sell it on the side for cheap (I'm sure Lowe's has a policy not to do that).

They could easily drop them somewhere, along their return route, to pick up later.

TxAG-010 said:

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For what it's worth my beer fridge was doing the same thing. Took the cover off the back and found the fan motor was working intermittently. Got online bought a new motor for $40 and took 10 minutes to change it out…now that thing will make snowballs if you're not careful!

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It could even be easier than that. Mine was doing the same thing. I noticed no air was coming through the vent from the freezer to the fridge. I just put a screw driver in and popped the vent open. Keeping my stash cold again. I'd hate to have to drink all the beer I did to acquire all of those stickers again.

Thank you, I had to find something to do with those $400 pieces of plastic.

I coulda sworn we got a nice GE from Costco, fridge bottom Freezer top, 2 years ago for about $300.

I bought mine from a Texagger cash cheap. The ice maker didn't work but the fridge itself was in great shape. Had it over two years now and its perfect. Lots of people are looking to get a little bit of money for the indoor fridge that stops working right or when they re-do their kitchen. Just look at FB or Classifieds on here.

Hwy30East said:

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I recently bought a new Frigidaire for the garage, that came as "Garage Ready" from Home Depot. It's done very well for its first Texas summer in a very hot garage.

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I'm looking for a new larger beer fridge for the garage and Home Depot adds started popping up for "Garage Ready" fridges that looked just like a 10yo fridge that used to sell for $300, that now sell for >$1000

Are ice makers that difficult to replace? The one on my fridge sprung a leak and would create an ice dam in the ice container. The replacement part cost $40, and it involved removing two screws and unplugging it.

OnlyForNow said:

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$300 will get you a very decent one from big box stores

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Not sure about under $300.....

I got this one for $450 in June. Seems to be up significantly now.

Not full size, but more than big enough for a beer/water fridge.

Home Depot 13.9 cu ft Frigidaire

EFE said:

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Hwy30East said:

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I recently bought a new Frigidaire for the garage, that came as "Garage Ready" from Home Depot. It's done very well for its first Texas summer in a very hot garage.

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I'm looking for a new larger beer fridge for the garage and Home Depot adds started popping up for "Garage Ready" fridges that looked just like a 10yo fridge that used to sell for $300, that now sell for >$1000

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I got mine on sale, and with tax and delivery it was a little over $700.

Welp, pulled the fridge out from the wall this morning to do some vacuuming and one last check on any obvious/cheap repairs. The fridge components had some dust but weren't in terrible shape. Opened both doors to get it to cycle and see if the fan kicked on like it should and nothing happened. Freezer that had been running in the low single digits shot up to low 20s and then started to climb. Never kicked on until we were loading the frozen stuff in a cooler to swap out for the new one. And then it sounded like a death rattle.

We went with a 21 cu. ft. Maytag from Costco at $599. No ice maker increasing the freezer capacity and I don't have a water line plumbed there anyway.

HTownAg98 said:

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Are ice makers that difficult to replace? The one on my fridge sprung a leak and would create an ice dam in the ice container. The replacement part cost $40, and it involved removing two screws and unplugging it.

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Depends on the fridge. I replaced the ice maker on my old one 3 times, the new ones were $95 each. When the last one broke, the replacement ice makers had jumped to $350. I didn't want to drop $350 on an ice maker that would last less than 2 years. I bought a new fridge, no problems in the past 5 or 6 years.