If you are thinking of buying a KAN58A55GB Bosch American fridge freezer – think again.
It is likely to break down often, and the Bosch repair people will become a regular feature in your home. In fact, you may as well allocate them their own coffee mug you will see them so often.
We expected that being a well-respected German brand, and the over £1000 price tag it carried, that a Bosch American fridge freezer would be a good buy that would give trouble free service for many years.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. What a piece of junk it has turned out to be.
Where to start………
The guys who delivered it on behalf of Bosch were somewhat slapdash. In order to connect the water supply, a small panel must be unscrewed from the back – maybe six screws.
These guys couldn’t be bothered and instead undid three of them and bent the panel back. How lazy is that?
The first problem was the water connection. There is a tiny bore pipe that is fed from a washing machine tap. To connect the two is a crappy push fit fitting – that leaks.
This meant water pissing all over the floor.
A replacement leaked too. In the end, I turned the water off as other problems were developing anyway.
The fridge started to get warm. So out they came again and diagnosed a fan it needed. They replaced that and went away. But the problem didn’t go away – the fridge was still warm.
Out they came again, and diagnosed a defrost heater. But claimed they couldn’t fit it as the (ice free) freezer was iced up inside and needed to defrost – but they didn’t have one anyway and had to order it from Germany.
Back they came and replaced the defrost heater, and the main circuit board on top to be on the safe side.
At last it seemed to work, but they had been out to it four times already, and as they only send one guy, him keep yanking it in and out left scratches on the side and a dent on the door.
I decided enough was enough, and started harassing Dixons (who it was sourced through) for a replacement unit. This one was clearly duff, and having been repaired four times and dented and scratched not new any more.
But maybe a one off? Perhaps a new one would be better. Eventually after MUCH argy bargy, Dixons agreed to replace it.
But guess what? Yes, there wasn’t another in the country and we must wait ONE MONTH for another to come from Germany. *sigh*
Then the transport company Bosch use called to collect the old one – but without bringing the new one. (That wasn’t even in the country.) So they got told to wait…..
Eventually, five weeks later, the new one arrived. It was delivered and installed and all seemed well.
But one week later, the fridge became warm and the freezer iced up. AGAIN!
So out come Bosch again, and the engineer is a bit shy about rubbishing the product during conversation. But I got enough out of him to understand that he has fixed many of the same faults on many of these machines.
He declared that some of the PC boards “seem to be faulty” and changed it.
Two days later, the ice in the ice compartment is melting, water is dripping out of the front and the fridge is going warm again.
Funny that I tend to book them for Wednesdays when I am free. As the guy was leaving this last Wednesday, I said to him, “I’ll probably see you next Wednesday then”. He didn’t really get my joke……
I just booked them again, for next Wednesday, to come out for what is the sixth time across two machines, within 2 months.
This will no doubt take another two or three visits before they actually fix the problem and the machine works properly. So this will be an ongoing saga……..
We also have a new Bosch WAE244B1GB washing machine, that is also a couple of months old. As the fridge is currently leaking water out of the front, it came out in sympathy and decided to do the same. So they are coming out to that as well.
The moral of the story is that if you are intending to buy a Bosch appliance, certainly a fridge freezer or a washing machine, think again. Unless you happen to like spending one day a week waiting for repairmen.
Comments are welcome.
Can you please give me an update are you still struggling with this fridge after two years?
Thanks!
Steve
Actually, since the last update, it has worked relatively OK. A kitchen redesign is forcing us to semi-retire it early in February and it will go to the garage as a back up fridge.
The washer has behaved since, but they did come out to the dishwasher at less than a year old and had to replace it.
It took a long time and some aftermarket plumbing fittings to get the water working and not leaking.
I will comment that some of the internal plastic on the door shelves is pretty crap and prone to breakage.
And design wise, when all said and done, they are not as spacious as you might imagine.
That all said though, we still use Bosch appliances. Because unless you want to fork out for Miele or Neff, there isn’t much above them in the market.
But for me, the weak points in the Bosch range were the fridge and dishwasher. So in the new kitchen that has integrated, we are trying Hotpoint fridges and a Smeg dishwasher. The rest (bar a Miele extractor and Delonghi coffee machine) is Bosch.
Are you thinking of buying one Steve or do you have one already?
Bosch Fridge/Freezers. I will never buy another. I don’t know the motive behind this terrible manufacturing / marketing practice but the two door seals went a long time ago and instead of being able to replace them, which I believe is normal, we are told by Bosch that the seals are part of the door and that therefore we have to buy two new doors at a cost not far off the price of some fridges!
Ours was a KSV-2429-GB/01, but I will never trust them again.