I have a Hotpoint refrigerator and can’t find a factory model number on it anywhere, back, front, inside or door. It’s like a CTX18 or 20 which is from about 1987.
I’m thinking of getting a Maytag type 5 18.5cuft Model EB9SHKXV which is speced at a Yearly cost of $48 at an estimated usage of 448kWh.
The Maytag is a low end bottom freezer which I think I’d like but I’m not unhappy with my current refrigerator other than it’s electric useage which I’m not sure about.
The Maytag has an energy star and the Hotpoint too have one. I coud not find any usage numbers in the CTX18 manual. Would there be a significant difference between the two in energy usage?
Also, the cost of Maytag currently at Lowes with discounts is $615 which seems like a decent price.
When I’m away from the house just about the only thing using electricity is he fridge. This year I was away from the house quite a bit from the last part of May through the beginning of October.
Going over the bills and comparing them to the ratings of the new fridge show a considerable usage difference. Even if the energy rating of the new fridge is off by 100% and doubled the new fridge savings will pay for the new fridge in 4-6 years.
I would stick with the old one it will probably outlast a new unit.
The Maytag has a one year warranty where your old one probably had a 15 year sealed system warranty. they reduced the warranty to save money but they did not improve the quality of the units if anything the new units are worse.
As to the pay back time you have to check your bill as many utilities have a standing charge that you have to pay even if you use zero power. This cannot be factored into the cost you have to use the KWH only.
To improve the efficiency of your fridge:
Make sure that the front kick plate and the rear cover vents are clean.
Clean the condenser coils under the unit. I blow mine out with a compressor but then I can move mine to an open kitchen door and blow most of the dust outside.
Clean the condenser/compressor fan blades. Dirty blades can drastically reduce air flow.
You could raise the temperature of the unit when you are away for long periods. Check the temperatures, the suggested set points are 0 to 5 degrees F in the freezer and about 40 degrees F in the fresh food.
I am not a big fan of energy star ratings as often they are not accurate.
It has become a marketing tool for companies.
Also it does not take into account the energy wasted in manufacturing and recycling when the units have a shorter lifetime.
PS: Also I am cheap so am biased towards saving money for sure and not perhaps.
Your fridg was made before the 1995 Montreol protical the banned R12. The refigerators before that time cost about $20 a month in power. Compressors where much less efficient runing about 2- 4 amps, and the insulation was inferior. Also the new adaptive defrost computers and very efficient evaporator and condensing motors saved more energy.
Amazon has a neat plug in power checker you can buy to confim this.
Denman>>>I would stick with the old one it will probably outlast a new unit.
You’re probably right on the old one outlasting the new one. At least the build of the old one is substantial and I’ve never had a problem with it other than being a bit noisy and running quite bit in the summer.
Denman>>>they did not improve the quality of the units if anything the new units are worse.
I tried to find out what the compressor was and insulation and no one knew anything about the build of the showroom models (Lowes and HD).
Denman>>>As to the pay back time you have to check your bill as many utilities have a standing charge that you have to pay even if you use zero power. This cannot be factored into the cost you have to use the KWH only.
The figuring on payback was done using KWH usage figures from my bills and I also have records of meter readings going back 4 years. So the comparison was KWH hours then using those for my KWH rate which is .14. Guessing that the ratings on the refrigerators might be off I doubled them to use as the base line cost of running the new fridge. Even with doubling those numbers the new one would use significantly less juice than the old one.
Denman>>> To improve the efficiency of your fridge:
Several years ago I became aware of the dust and crud in the coils and since then clean them on a regular basis.
Denman>>>when the units have a shorter lifetime.
The old one has certainly provide good service as it just ran without problems and would probably continue to run well. The issue was efficiency of usage but nagging in the background is will it last and is it really as efficient as claimed. ? No telling.
Going mostly on the hope the energy ratings are not off by more than 100% I bought one yesterday. A bottom freezer 21.9 Cu Ft, Whirlpool GB2FHDXWQ. This one was an energy usage rating a notch or two better than most of the bottom freezer models and not far off from the better rated top freezers. It’s got an internal ice maker which can be disabled and no other energy consumption features.
Being a bottom freezer and having the regular part higher was also a factor. Another factor in wanting to get rid of the old one was it’s weight. It’s a big model and very heavy. I’m doing a lot of updating to the house and it had to be moved to another room which was very difficult and I marred the floor. Over the next couple of months it’s got to be move a few more times and those moves will be on a new oak floor I just put in and I did not want to be moving the old on that floor. The new one is as bulky but I can manage moving that one around without damaging the floors.
I’ll be monitoring the usage and if it does not come close to it’s ratings will return it.
Richappy,
If a summary might be between your comments and denman might be the following:
The insulation is probably better.
The compressor possibly less robustly built but more efficitnt.
Better controls leading to more efficiency.
I’ll have to hope that the seemingly less substantially built new one will be built well enough to last long enough to get the efficiency payback.