“I even remember thinking about the KISS principle at the time, but somehow thought switching brands and spending 3x the amount would save us from the complexity.”
A scratch-and-dent Kenmore side-by-side from 2004 has outlived two French-door fridges in the same house. The GE Café that replaced them came with a touch screen and RFID-chipped water filters to lock owners into $50 cartridges. Two dead evaporator fans, a failed condenser fan and a $300 screen later, it went out the door at six years old. Every feature on that fridge was built to sell it, not to keep food cold.