Buyer Beware

After having a Maytag clothes washer for 23 trouble free years we bought this new Maytag refrigerator with little thought about reliability. After only 8 months our $2,000+ refrigerator went belly-up last week.

I called for service through Maytag's warranty service and was pleased that they would be able to get someone out the next day. The following day the tech came out and was able to determine that there was a faulty printed circuit board located in the rear of the unit. The tech said that he has already replace a few of these.

The tech called his office and learned that the company that has the replacement board is located in Salt Lake City, Utah and that it would be several days until it would arrive. He added that the company records indicated that they originally had 24 of the boards on hand and that 22 of them have already been shipped to service companies. With only 2 left he ordered mine.

I just received a call from the service company to tell me that the part did not come in from St. Louis, MO(?) and that it would probably come in tomorrow. If it comes in tomorrow and they are able to replace the board next day then we will have been living out of coolers on the kitchen floor for 10 days. Eighty pounds of ice so far and several floating jar labels to reattach.

I sent an email to Maytag through their customer service webmail form several days ago expressing my disappointment (with a respectful tone) with their product. They never responded.

The tech advised me that the board is expensive ($150-200) so I'm glad that we purchased an extended warranty...it looks like we're going to need it.

Our model number is: MFI2568AEQ.

My wife loves the refrigerator by the way. We changed from a side by side (freezer on the left) because it was a hassle to get to frozen food that was buried in the back of the pull out drawers. The bottom drawer solves that problem. The water filter made a noticeable positive change in the taste of our water. The interior is extremely well lit and the glass shelves are easy to keep clean and move/remove.

One thing that you may need to keep in mind is the left side door needs a little extra room to open fully if it is next to a wall like ours is. If the freezer door doesn't open fully then the ice maker drawer can be difficult to remove. All things considered it's a great refrigerator but I can't recommend it because of the potential problem with the printed circuit board. If Maytag ever decides to answer my email and explain their side I'll update this review.

UPDATE: Maytag service (through Whirlpool) finally contacted us a few weeks later regarding my email. They claimed that they were unaware of the circuit board problem. After we told them that we had live out of coolers for 10 days they sent us a check for $50.00 to cover the cost of the food we lost. Nice touch, they didn't have to do that. The repaired refrigerator is back to working perfectly.