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French door, bottom freezer. Architect II series. Looks great. Try to put a cake in the fridge and a tall bottle and you've maxed out the fridge capacity. ( OK there is a LITTLE more room than that.) The fridge doors have to be shut with some " butt" in the push and so easy not to close completely...but that is OK because there is an alarm that peeps after a few minutes if door(s) ajar...BUT not so the freezer. That drawer is not the easiest to close and if the slightest crack is left...unseen since it is below the knee...the entire compartment ices up... With two feet of glistening ' snow,' ( OK 4 inches ----but it covers EVERYTHING...and I bet it would get to two feet if not discovered during an ice cream raid ) Yes, that is normal..warm air gets in = icing. Lesson learned...it happens...BUT there is NO WAY to clean out the ice! The drawers and shelf are fixed. No removing even with dynamite. Even the dividers in the bin is fixed. NO WAY to clean out the interior. I have to wrap towels around a stick and climb OVER the opened bottom freezer door to stand behind the outside front panel of the freezer drawer ( a very small space --an opening about the size of a laundry basket ) and blindly flail around with a towel- wrapped stick aiming at the sides and back of the compartment. It is a royal mess. How the heck ( and why) would Kitchenaid design a freezer without removable shelving and bins? Maybe if freezer located at the top I could reach into it and under and around fixed shelving, but how can I reach the back wall of the freezer if the trays and bins are in the way inside a freezer that is knee height? No bending into it when caught between the opening and the front panel. I was so careful when choosing...who would have thought to make sure the freezer could be emptied of the shelving. Today. ...if I were just a bit stronger...I would have wrestled that thing out the back door and pushed it off the deck. Regrets may have come later since it is brand new ...the stainless steel beauty could not have recovered... But life is waaay too short to go through that mess more than once in a lifetime. If I were larger, or had arthritis, bad back, or some other musculoskeletal issue...I could not have cleaned it. BEWARE if you are considering this model as purchase. Pretty is as pretty does and this fridge doesn't " do" anything worthwhile.
Well I'll cross that one of the list! (But, you did give me a chuckle for the day) LOL
I have several new appliances that have a few little nagging things that bother me, nothing on your scale, it would be interesting to have a thread with what features we would like in appliances.
For example, my new dishwasher has all the bells and whistles except a rinse cycle, I had used that one a lot in my old DW.
Thanks for posting...I was having regrets that I didn't purchase the KitchenAid when my old side-by-side KA went belly-up and I had to buy a new one. Bought the Jenn-Air french-door cabinet-depth at the time because it was in stock. I like it...sort of...but there is only two of us and we have a spare, cheap one in our storage/utility room (the beer/over-flow fridge) which helps A LOT! The problem with the Jenn Air is the teeny ice maker. An in-the-door ice and water dispenser is a must for me as I do not drink colas. Also the Jenn-Air doesn't dispense crushed ice like the Kitchen-Aid does, and I miss that. A minor thing, but when you need an ice-pack or just want some crushed ice is an inconvenience. The shelves are nicely adjustable and I do have some moveable shelves in the freezer. Also I get a beep when any of the doors are open.
I'm with you on the vacuum cord length! I'd like a coffee pot with a really HOT setting that stays hot.
so you get a beep when the freezer is open? I wish I had that. Would save a lot of problems.
There is a big deep main bin (angled) in the bottom drawer freezer --with fixed dividers... (that makes no sense to me - being fixed). I can pull that main bin up and out ---but the track on each side that holds that bin in place cannot be removed. Those rails are what I have to climb over and stand in the middle of and squat down between...sheessh... I am getting mad again!!. Over that top bin is another more shallow sliding bin extending across the entire width of the bottom bn. That shallow sliding tray is FIXED -- it slides but can't be removed. What if I don't want it there...what if I have a body I want to conceal in there and it is tall!!?? If the lower bin has ANYTHING that is remotely high..it stops the top bin from sliding properly over and across it. (sort of like the occasional utensil that jams up the dishwasher when it falls through the silverware holder.) Plus the entire freezer drawer is just so heavy that it is easy not to close it completely and if there is a crack...I don't know it and the bad stuff happens.
Our icemaker is in the bottom freezer and there is a lever ...that controls the flow. If the lever is pushed up - (easy to do by things stored in the freezer) no ice is made. I do not have a water dispenser in the front of the fridge (on the outside) Instead it is inside on the door and you hold the glass against it...I like that because those shelves that hold the glass in place yellow so bad etc. etc.
Good news is that the oven (convection and regular) is great to clean. (I am not speaking of automatic cleaning) --If I want to spot clean spills...the spills come right up off of the bright blue porcelain finish on the interior of the oven. The microwave / convection works well too. The trays in both microwave and the main oven slide up and out real easily and have stoppers etc., very sturdy and so happy with the oven and microwave. Happy with the dishwasher too.
I hear ya!! But I'm laughing at the visuals!! I have 2 sliding trays but I really haven't checked to see if they can be removed...after 2 years you'd think I'd check this. Well, yeah, if it doesn't have to be removed, I just don't do it.
Yeah, I love my double convection/regular KA oven too. It's 12 years old now and I'm replacing everything eventually with stainless, but I still have my white oven for now. Replacement will be a KA again. Have a Bosch dishwasher. Quietest thing ever, and I do mean ever. Love it.
yes - we have to look to see if the dishwasher is actually running. The lights / controls are not visible from the outside...runs along the top edge of the door. Very quite. Takes a long time to clean tho as they all do and must use a rinsing agent as they all do. Times they are 'a changin.
I would not know about the tray issue either to tell you the truth -- it would be discovered during cleaning or the dead body concealment. BUT -- as I mentioned the drawer was left open a crack and I had the arctic build up. People say the polar ice is disappearing... well, I know where it went.
OMG, the visual of you in the freezer is hysterical!
We had a Bosch DW for 12 years and changed it out a few weeks ago for a KA. Chose the KA because the racks are 2" larger. It is quiet, 46 dba, you cannot hear it running. I miss the old Bosch though, those smaller racks held my china in place. While there is more room in the new one, the larger spaces between the tines in the KA leaves dinner plates flopping around as you slide the racks in and out.
My new favorite appliance is this hand held wee mixer. I mix the soup right in the pot. Two little 'buzzes' and it's pureed. Cleans up real well. Sure beats the big ole heavy KA food processor.
Ardesia, I'm glad I gave you a chuckle! Trying hard to use humor to control my frustration with the situation.
Ardesia, Now you know that bigger is not always better for you, so some of thos specs are meaningless.
MIssingrosie, I have a suggestion that might help although it may not seem to make sense to you. It may be a little bit annoying, and I know the refrigerator/freezer is self defrosting, but I am suggesting that you defrost it manually. I know you are trying to get the frost out, but if you completely defrost it (by having it off and warming to room temp), any vestiges of ice will be gone. You can tell that the freezer is completely defrosted when you touch the back wall and it is warm. This may not be doable for you before the holiday, but I'd give a try as soon as possible. There may be a piece of ice that you cannot see that is impeding closing the drawer properly. These refrigerators, which are upscale, are not manufactured to be difficult or impossible to close.
If removing all the ice does not help, it may be that one of your rails is bent as a result of shoving through the "snow." What are the model and serial # of this refrigerator?
Worst part is I have learned that my favorite service person, one I can really trust, will no longer work on KA's or any of the others made by Whirlpool, he says they do not pay enough to make it worth his while. Aggghhhh
Cathy
The freezer stays frost free. I don't have problems with frost/ ice build up during normal operation. The problem occurs when the freezer drawer is not closed properly. It can happen too easily with the bottom freezer drawers - the drawers are heavy to slide shut. It isn't a matter of shutting a door on a hinge like with a top freezer or a side by side. The entire filled freezer must be shut and it is 'weighty'. It can get hung up by anything that falls through the top sliding bin -- or -- by any items piled too high in the bottom bin that prevents the top bin from sliding properly. Ours evidently was not pushed closed completely and it was not noticed. No beeps to warn like with the refridgerator section. An ajar top freezer door is noticable--but not so the new bottom drawer (below the knee height) freezer drawers. By the time it is noticed( at least here at our house because we don't go into freezer more than few times a week) there is so much ice/frost nothing else to do but shut the thing down and wait for the big melt because no way to access the compartment for the reasons I mentioned above. TherevIS NO TOUCHING the back wall...can't reach it. I'd have to be Gumby-- elastic limbs.
I'm guessing that the shelves (baskets) move with the door, and that's the reason for the weight. That's why I asked for the model and serial. I know the freezer is frost free, but sometimes there is ice in an area not consumer accessible. If the contents of the freezer move every time you pull that drawer, I can understand the difficulty. We have worked on a lot of these bottom freezer units, and they are all a bit different.
