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When we bought our Amana AFI2538AEB french door refrigerator we thought it was a top of the line unit since the reviews were great. However, that has not turned out to be the case.

The refrigerator was only 2 1/2 years old when it died. Guess what? We hauled out the sales slip and called the number for extended warranty which we thought was with Amana/Maytag/Whirlpool only to discover that it was with an after market warranty provider.

We called the Amana folks again and were told the refrigerator is only warranted for one year even though we paid a premium for it.

To make a long story short, we finally ended up calling the repair division from the same company who sold us the refrigerator as they are still on the Amana approved service list as the after market company kept stalling us.

The repairman discovered that some kind of contaminant inside the refrigerant lines ate through and allowed the refrigerant to escape. In the process, it contaminated the moisture collector so it had to be cut out and replaced as well as the corroded section of the line. The repairman serviced the refrigerant system and we thought we were on our way $268 later. He did not charge for the parts, just the labor or we would really have been hard hit.

The doors in the area where the electronic display unit is located were extremely hot to the touch. I later discovered that several series of Amana refrigerators overheated and caught fire due to an overheated circuit board.

In retrospect, I have to wonder if the loss of refrigerant may have led to the overheating situation. I am seriously thinking of filing a report with the Federal Consumer Safety Board as this may indeed turn out to be the root cause of the component overheating problem in the other units. I have observed that the areas which were extremely hot before are no longer even warm.

Now, three weeks later, there is a loud hum in some part of the system inside the refrigerator. It looks like we will need to call the repair service again next week, assuming it makes it through the weekend.

By the way, when I contacted Amana/Maytag/Whirlpool, or whatever they are calling themselves these days, they basically blew me off and said they would graciously extend us a 50% discount on any parts that we had to purchase.

I think my wife and I learned a valuable lesson from all of this. Don’t assume that because the reviews are great, and it is an American product that you are purchasing great quality products these days.

I stopped by some appliance stores and looked at the sealed system components warranty for competitor products. They have a 7 year warranty on the sealed system VS the 1 year for Whirlpool products. If I have any more issues, I will dump my $2,000 Amana product and buy an LG or Samsung refrigerator.

I certainly hope other Amana owners have better success with their products. Incidentally, the old Hotpoint refrigerator we had previously, perked along for 20 years before my wife got the urge to buy the French door model.