Panasonic or Samsung are better buy.

Somehow I find the Korean brands, offer more usable space for the freezer section ( bottom freezer type)

Its the defrost water drip pan. Your fridge will auto defrost once it detects frost which is caused by ambient temperature coming in contact with the evaporator (cooling coil) located inside the freezer or fridge compartment (not visible)

The water you see is part of normal operation and will evaporate off as the fridge cycles through cooling and defrost cycle.

Better to save the installment amount and reduce your overall purchase expenditure by offsetting with cash.

Reason being, newer models will come out and December will have many discounts as well for Christmas. Electronics and appliance purchase; are not worthy to make early purchase. Senheng or Harvey Norman can hold the item for you, but warranty start from date of purchase if I'm not mistaken

For Sharp, I think the center door rubber you can check using torch light; as one forumer informed previously and can be solved by service centre. Generally Sharp, Panasonic and Samsung service personnel are quite emphatehic

Since you said fridge is over stuffed, most likely the air vents at the rear side inside the fridge is blocked causing air flow to be reduced, thus, forming ice near the air vent. When the ice melts, you have water collection.

Other possibility is that the defrost water drainage tube is blocked or issue with the defrost sensor and/or thermostat; but this will have constant water discharge.

This post has been edited by dayalan86: Oct 18 2019, 11:52 AM

Hitachi fridge is known for compressor issues and the customer service is next to useless. Fridge are household items with at least a 10 year lifespan, some minor repairs is to be expected but in Hitachi's case; there will be fatal breakdown within 5 to 8 years due to internal refrigerant tubing is of poor quality(this are for Thailand made fridge, not sure about their Japan made fridge)

Before you recoup the initial investment from all those energy saving, the fridge will be dead beyond repair. I would still go for other Japanese brand like Panasonic or Sharp

This post has been edited by dayalan86: Nov 6 2019, 06:28 PM

Good luck if this fridge last beyond 6 years without suffering any internal leak or clogging issues which will require you to replace the whole fridge with a new unit.

Not all Japanese fridge are made equal. This one ticks all the right boxes on the showroom floor but reliability wise is as good if not worst than a China brand.

This post has been edited by dayalan86: Nov 6 2019, 06:26 PM

Hitachi?

The glass panel of the fridge can break over time after a very microscopic fracture or impact during delivery. Usually happens after a few months or so.

Full steel is a better option

I have no experience using Toshiba fridge, but from what I understand; Toshiba is no longer manufacturing their own fridge and appliances.

From what I saw at the sales floor display, Toshiba fridge overall quality is questionable.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/...h-China-s-Midea

So far so good, the digital display did kaput last month but I'm impressed with their customer service because Samsung CS works 24/7 and the issue was resolved within 48hrs.

I have also installed the air cond filter thing from Daiso as the Samsung fridge has an active cooling system (air drawn to the compressor section by a fan); to reduce dust accumulation on the condenser coil.

Based on my experience with Panasonic warranty is that, they only work 5 day week 9 to 5pm and will need at least 2 visits before they resolve the issue (1st to diagnose and then get parts and repair). This is based on our experience with Panasonic Washing machine

Mitsubishi I have a feeling after sales support maybe lacking as the fridge itself is so hard to be found.

This post has been edited by dayalan86: Nov 20 2019, 08:33 AM

Twin cooling system on Samsung fridge means it has two evaporator Coil to cool each part (refrigerator + freezer) of the fridge independently. This is why only on Samsung you can change the whole fridge to become refrigerator or the whole thing to become freezer.

The twin cooling system is fairly new technology and there are many internal active parts which are involved in controlling the refrigerant flow between both the evaporator coil. There are numerous online reviews on Samsung twin cooling system having failed and beyond repair due to internal fault.

Hence, I went with this model which doesn't have twin cooling fancy feature + the refrigerator section and freezer section is very spacious; due to Samsung's flat interior design.

The no odour transfer effect of a twin cooling system is not present here but nevertheless there is no odour transfer from freezer section to fridge section due to the chest drawer design.

Overall we like this fridge better then the Hitachi replacement which was given to us after our RW750FPMX failed. The Samsung has better odour control compared to the Hitachi, even though the Hitachi is equipped with state of the art ion deodorising system whereas this Samsung model is only equipped with an active charcoal deodoriser.

Vegetables marginally lasts longer in the Hitachi due to the catalyst and sealed vegetable compartment which retain moisture.

Not really, one fan breakdown will still have issues with cooling as frost will form eventually blocking the airway.

Ask your friend to file to consumer tribunal, our Hitachi fridge died after 5 years due to internal clogging and compressor failure. Initially Hitachi was adamant we pay 50% of the factory RRP for the exact same fridge until we took them to consumer court; where they agreed to give us a new fridge with a different model at no cost.

I'm happy with the Samsung fridge though I do miss the old Hitachi fridge auto ice maker convenience but not the pain of going through Hitachi useless customer service

Samsung noise level is lower compared to both the original Hitachi model RW750FPMX which died, and the replacement which Hitachi gave us.

This post has been edited by dayalan86: Nov 21 2019, 08:58 PM

Buy from Samsung approved dealer and you can get 2 years warranty. Cheapest offer I got was from TBM, 2599 or 2699 including extended warranty for 5 years but I was rushing; so we paid about RM 2899 from ESH; as they could delivery to us urgently.

Peace of mind for my parents although the Hitachi died just 2 weeks after the extended warranty; and we had to file a case at consumer court against Hitachi as they didn't want to budge from allowing us to get a different model from them.

Just be sure to check the compressor origin, some "Europe" brands are using low quality China made compressors. Cost is higher but the quality and reliability might be similar or worst than Midea.

Is it a French door inverter fridge? As far as I know, Hitachi dual fan cooling inverter only came out in 2012 to 2013. Do you have photo of your fridge?

Yup, the non inverter fridge can go and on for a long life. Inverter fridge comes with electronics to regulate the compressor at different speed; usually this fails or the compressor itself fails.

In our case, the compressor was progressively failing and some tiny bits probably got stuck inside the system; causing block within the internal refrigerant line. It is more common only in one particular Japanese branded fridge compared to the rest. Though, LG is also known for their linear inverter compressor issues in America.

Your Samsung fridge probably needs a new thermostat and defrost timer and will be good to go; ice forming at the back seems to show that the defrost timer is not working. ( stuck in cooling mode).

These models use mechanical timer which is reasonable to be repaired ( except that after 15 years, most fridge starts drawing more electricity)

This post has been edited by dayalan86: Dec 9 2019, 01:24 PM

We are using this model, Samsung Bottom Mount Freezer with Digital Inverter Technology - RL4323RBABS

So far happy with it, very spacious freezer and no odor transfer from Freezer to fridge even though using conventional cooling system (One cooling fan)

Went with this to avoid reliability issues with dual cooling system which is a fairly new technology.

Since August this year, so far so good.

We had an issue with the LED display after 2 month of use, but Samsung Customer Service & really impressed at the speed our issue was resolved. Their customer service works on weekend too.

Personally find the interior much brighter compared to Panasonic models; as the LED light is on both the right and left hand side of the fridge, focused towards the back of the fridge. Some brands, like Hitachi only have lights above and can be quite dim.

Freezer doesn't have lights.

This post has been edited by dayalan86: Dec 28 2019, 11:38 PM