This will be a short yet interesting post about French door refrigerators and the appliance industry in general. About 10 years ago, Whirlpool finished absorbing their once great rival Maytag in a now regrettable deal. Maytag had been mismanaged and was a shell of the 100 year old iconic brand.
However, the only bright spot for Whirlpool was their access to the french door refrigeration market. Whirlpool is a great manufacturer, but has been late to every trend from stainless steel to induction to even front load laundry. Maytag actually had decent French door refrigerators and some decent brands like Jenn-Air, Hoover and Amana as well as their own name.
Whirlpool has had trouble segmenting the names, and they now actually compete as much with each other as other brands. As an illustration, let's look at the differences between their popular 25 cubic foot French door refrigerators.
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KitchenAid KBFS25EWMS - $1719 |
Whirlpool GX5FHTXVY - $1829 |
Amana AFD2535FES - $1199 |
So what really is the difference?
Not much as it turns out. The only real difference are different shaped handles, a door alarm and $520. The product itself is identical. Whirlpool will usually discount the Amana or their own Whirlpool name a couple times a year. GE will do the same with their GE, GE Profile and GE Cafe lines. Often the difference is the handle.
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