LG pulls some refrigerators from Energy Star program

The U.S. Department of Energy announced on November 14 that some LG and Kenmore refrigerators are no longer part of the federal government's Energy Star program because of concerns over the energy use by these models.

The LG LFX25950, LFX25960, LFX25971, LFX23961, LFX21960, LFX21971, LFX21980, LFX25980, LMX21981, and LMX25981 (shown) models, as well as  Kenmore Trio refrigerators designed and made by LG with model numbers starting with 795 and through-the-door ice and water dispensers, are affected by LG's agreement with the DOE. Read more details in this DOE press release.

If you own one of the aforementioned refrigerators, you will get a free modification of your appliance to make it more energy efficient and receive a payment to cover the difference in how much you'll spend to run your refrigerator and what was indicated on the Energy Guide label; payments will continue up to the expected 14-year life span of the refrigerator.

To get more details from LG, call 888-848-1266 or go to the company's energy-offer Web site.

Look for our additional reporting on this news in the coming weeks.

Comments

[Gerald Behling]

Looking at various consumer reviews posted online at the Sears and Home Depot websites that there are frequent complaints about the ice makers in general not functioning properly leaving the consumer with an expensive dog for some of the $2000 plus refrigerator/freezers

I have not noticed any comments on your website about this issue. Are you planning on testing for this in the future. What can the consumer do to get the manufacturers to produce an acceptable product?

Gerald Behling

[Tom Conley]

Please check the consumer reports ratings that say that the refrigerators with icemakers and water through the door experience the most service calls in the first four years of the life of the refrigerator; it is the nature of the beast

[Nick]

I found a website to claim payment for LG refrigerators but can't find anything for Kenmores. How can I claim the settlement offer for Kenmore?

[marie harmon]

I have recently received a $75. check from LG. I have an appointment later in January with a Sears technician who will modify my 2 year old Trio refrigerator.

I have already had alot of trouble with this refrigerator: a door needed to be replaced because the black paint came off; the shelves needed adjusting as the vegetable bin froze the vegetables; the fruit and vegetable bin draws no longer click in; I have had the entire icemaker replaced as it stopped working with water forming in the icemaker.

I purchase a Sears warranty agreement after the door needed to be replaced when it was new. I thought that this might be a problem appliance.

[Thomas Mendez]

I recieved a letter in the mail along with a check. The consumer offer has 3 parts;

1. Cash payment for past enery usage
2. Modify the fridge to make it more energy efficient
3. Annual cash payments for future enery usage

The only thing that concerns me is the disclaimer; "By endorsing and cashing the enclosed check, payee forever releases LG, Sears and its affiliates, agents and representatives from any claims, whether or not presently known, relating to the sale, labeling or energy efficiency of the Kenmore refrigerator-freezer to which this payment relates."

[Jack Sabia]

I received a $68.98 check from LG. I have not cash it yet and am getting ready to call LG Customer Service to some specific questions.

1. I stopped at Home Depot in November where I purchased the refrigerator. They told me the LG repairmen had just come by to modify their floor models. The modifications consisted of replacing a seal at the top of the refrigerator (between the two doors) and replacing a circuit board in the back of the refrigerator. The Home Depot rep (who I trust) said that he was told these modifications would bring the refrigerator up to the energy standard. If true, that is fine. However, it means LG will not provide additional checks over the lifespan of the refrigerator.
2. The original manual (LFX25960SB) has a Display Power Saving Mode feature described on Page 19. According to this advertised feature, the user can set the refrigerator display so it is not lit ("on") 100% of the time. It would come on only when the door was opened. The CURRENT Manual for this refrigerator(on their web site) has deleted this section from the text. A year ago, I called LG Customer Service and asked about it. The individual I spoke with tried to convince me I was wrong. It was unresolved.

[John Hassell]

Do we have an answer to Nick's question? Is there a Sears website?

[Kelly L.]

The Sears website is http://www.kenmoretriorefrigeratoroffer.com

[rob]

I have the Sears Trio and have had 4 icemakers in 18 months. The last ice maker was replaced because the grinding mechanism ground up the plastic inside parts into my glass. I was in the dark and who know how much of the plastic I ingested. I wrote Sears and the Consumer Products Safety Commission and neither thought it was worth doing anything about. Now that we know we are not being energy efficient, we are just about ready to take the frig and put it through the front glass of our local Sears store. Any takers in a class action lawsuit???? Any lawyers ready to take this on??

[Mike]

Wow...a lot of hostility here! Class action law suit? On what basis? Seems to me that LG is going to great lengths to make good on this. I was suprised to get a letter notifiying me about the erroneous energy rating, and the three step plan to rectify if. I never even sent in the registration card when I bought the fridge...not sure how they tracked me down.

Sorry to hear of the problems some of you folks have had. We've had ours for a bit over 2 years and no problems.

[mikefocke]

Have had our LG/Sears french door refrigerator for about 2 years. During that time I've had 2 circuit boards replaced, a light bulb cover overheat and melt and the left bottom vegetable keeper (the one on the ice maker side of the unit) freezes the vegetables (in a keeper that is supposed to only be refrigerated) no matter the setting with no fix in sight.

No issues with the ice maker other than it has frozen up several times enough so I have to remove it and let it defrost.

My Kenmore oven takes 20 minutes to warm up to a 350 oven temp and makes noises as if a fan is contacting something while it is heating.

My Kenmore front loader washing machine is full of mold in the rubber seal to the front door.

Dryer, cooktop and disposal all are fine.

Is it my imagination or have the quality of appliances gone down as their complexity has risen?

[David Shenker]

I just had the conversion done on the french doorrefrigerator and I am disappointed with the results. The original energy usage per year claimed on the energy star label was 547 kilowatt-hrs (KWH), the actual usage before modification was 843 KWH. After the modification, the usage is claimed to be 617 KWH. This is a reduction of nearly 25%. The LG Tech assured me the performace of the refrigerator would not change. How can you reduce energy usage 25% and not change performance. The unit runs much less, the contents do not cool as quickly and food appears to be warmer than before, especially milk and butter. The icemaker capacity was low enough before the mod; I can't imagine how much slower it will be since the icemaker cooling runs much less. My calls to LG have been a runaround and I am awaiting for a tech to return to check it. Per LG, this was a voluntary program and they refuse to replace the circuit board with the original. For all this grief, your only going to save around $25/yr. It isn't worth the lost performance.

[Tara]

I bought the LG French Door with ice/water in the door (LFX21980ST) and received the same notice about the Dept. of Energy stripping the Energy Star Cert. on approx. 10 fridges. I am declining the offer until I can get more info.

I'm sorry to hear of David Shenker's poor results with his conversion. And I understand that once you have received their reparations (cash the check) you have relinquished all future claims. I went back and checked my energy usage from when the fridge was installed, and electricity usage jumped a lot, and I suspect the actual usage may be far worse than what they are "estimating" at 843kw/yr. I wonder what David's actual energy usage is after the conversion--have you checked by chance?

I have called LG 4 times and the representatives have little actual info/facts--they are just there to enter you into the program. I want the details and requested a supervisor each time but I have had the same run-around and no one has called me back. I want an energy star compliant fridge--I never would have even looked at this one if it didn't advertize as Energy Star Certified. It uses nearly twice the energy it advertized!!

Does anyone have any idea what to do now?

[Jerry]

I have a 2 year old LG LFX25960SB that has broken white plastic parts in 4 places on the drawer holders (2 wheels broke off)AND the one drawer handle cracked the first year and is now showing diagonal stress cracks in it. I think there was faulty plastic used and the size was under engineered. "Not covered in the extended warranty" that we paid extra for. I've tried clear epoxy to no avail. Any suggestions or word of anyone else having this problem. It can't just be my unit.

[MSC]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to Consumer Union for protecting U.S. consumers. I am absolutely irate that LG lied about its Energy Star rating. I am also irate that the U.S. Department of Energy negotiated an agreement with LG without considering the global warming impacts of the LG fraud and without even consultign with those of us that were ripped off.

I have been in the green products business for 16-years of my professional life and I too was a victim of the LG fraud.

I'm still trying to get things resolved, but I am not having much luck. I have, however, started a website to help others. Check out www.lgfridgefury.org

Good luck to everyone trying to get this fixed and a huge thank you to consumer union to protecting us. I just wish folks had to have their products tested by Consumer Union or other folks before they could use the Energy Star label in the first place.

[Cass]

I would be leery of cashing that check. These refrigerators have so many problems, some of which are very serious. There are numerous message boards detailing how the the fan and the light bulb issues mentioned above have caused fires. The ice makers and freezers break repeatedly - they are basically unfixable. Repairmen in my area won't service LG's any longer and my repairman's "fix" was to "get a new fridge." He said these are the worst, and they can't be fixed permanently.

By cashing the check, you can't benefit from any future lawsuit, and I could see one coming. I cashed my check; and two weeks later I experienced my first (of many) ERR FF errors in which the fan breaks down and the refrigerator stops working. Two year old, $2500 fridge. I remember my parents had their Frigidaire (sp?) for ~25 years with not a day of maintenance.

[Penn]

Model LFX25960ST
I also have one of these garbage cans. Hostility! you bet! Nothing but problems with this POS! ER FF errors constantly! Let's see, you spend all day working only to come home to a melt down. I have been doing some research and like others have said, all you have to do is google "lg er ff" and you will have plenty of reading material. Oh yea, and of course mine is about 4 months out of warranty! The energy star rating problem is the icing on the cake. No more LG anything for me!

[Betty Hussong]

I registered to receive the rebate, but I have not receive any information at all. There is no way on the web site where I registered to complain.

[Ray]

I had my hunk of junk Kenmore Trio 795.77564 for about 3 years. and I've had nothing but problems with this thing. I'm with alot of you. Class Action Lawsuit!!! ER IF errors all the time. I jsut turned off my ice maker.. $3000K for a nice LCD that gives me false hopes of cold water and Ice and does nothing else...

[JC in Boston Area]

Same problems as many others here.... Melted light moldings because the lights don't turn off, spoiled food on the top shelf (actually WARM in the fridge from the lights), broken drawer guides, cracked plastic shelves, freezing vegetables in the left drawer. Not to mention this $2500+ stainless refrigerator takes "dings" more easily than a piece of tin foil.

Pathetic -- I will NEVER, EVER buy another LG appliance as long as I live. This thing is only 2 years old and I am seriously considering just flat out replacing it. What a piece of junk.

[Ed]

I have an LG 21960ST trio door that is now 2 years old. On the first year anniversary I came home and thought that someone had started a Harley in my kitchen. Turns out it was the fan hitting some ice. The service people had to come out 3 times before they got the fan with the right connector. Now its the second anniversary and the refrigerator quit again with an ER FF. Over the past several weeks, we'd hear a clunk or two, which was probably the fan knocking some ice away. I called LG and they are useless. I called Home Depot where I purchased it and we'll see how they react. Almost 3K for a piece of junk. I recently purchased a flat screen TV and there was no way I was purchasing an LG.

[michael harvell]

I bought an LG model LFX 25960 St at Best Buy in April 08. It was delivered in July 08 due to remodeling. Three months later the icemaker quit working. LG sent repairman to repair. LG came out in July 09 to replace circuit board to make refrigerator more energy efficient. The refrigerator did not work after repairman left. LG had sent wrong circuit board. Another circuit board sent out three days later after all food in freezer had thawed. Lg said they were not responsible since our year was up and we did not buy an extended warranty. LG did replace another circuit board. When repairman left we had no water from icemaker. The repairman called LG and told them it was there fault and the part needed replacing. after another week that repair was done. Today we received an energy check from Lg for $31.87. We will never again buy an LG product. We spent over $7,000 on LG appliances in April of 08. This is the kind of service we get as a consumer.

[lg trio]

we had both a trio fridge know they want to replace a part for energie safe we dont want that i spoke to sears to see if they can replace for a new one they are saying no we dont want to put a new parts and plus lg send us a check 3.46 to pay the energie we had spend if any one going to the same problem or already did let me know. thank you

[Scott]

Glad I am not alone in this LG issue. DONT stop! if we keep climbing the ladder at LG someone will listen. I bought an extended warranty from HD and will not stop till I get a replacement frig! this Is AMERICA and THIS is my castle! hang in there and keep fighting!

[Wanda Corn]

I purchased the LG refrigerator model # LFX25960st. I had no problem at all until I had the upgrade done and the bottom left drawer contents started freezin and now everything is freezing even with the temperature set at 40 degrees. My electric bill has gone way up the last two months. LG's tech said that my refrigerator needed to be replace because it was unfixable on August 12th. The compressor runs nonstop. The resolution person called on August 18th and said it would be 7-10 days before the freight company could deliver another refrigerator. Today I threw away 3 pounds of apples, 2 pounds of grapes, a watermelon, dozen eggs, and a pound of baby carrots. LG will not refund me for any food or the extra electric for the last two months. They did send me a check for $44 because of the energy rating. If you are not having any problems do not get the upgrade done. I also have a top load LG washer that has had the door replaced once because the bleach runs under the pan onto the door and rust forms. It has rusted again but LG will not replace it because the warranty is up and they say I am putting in to much bleach. I will never buy another LG product because of the bad quality and the customer service is lousy.

[Steve]

I bought a LFX 25971ST for almost $ 3000,- believing that I would get a top of the line product and the ultimate technology. I believe it was the most expensive fridge that was available and I also believed that I was buying an Energy Star compliant product. One day LG called me and told me that they would send out a technician to make the product even better. Until now they never told me the truth in regards to the fact that the product was mislabeled and not Energy Star compliant. i would not have bought this product if they had labeled it correctly. Obviously even after the modification it is not Energy Star compliant.

LG sent me one of their $ 30,- checks that would say in the fine printed that I would accept this as a final settlement: at this point in time I started to do some research and found out what this was about. It is a shame that even after the hearing with the Department of Energy LG continued to deceive customers. At this point they should have made it clear what happened. It is also a shame that people who make a buying decision based on their consciousness about the environment have to settle with a $ 30,- check.

What about if my gas guzzling and smoking car would not pass emissions -- can I just offer a $ 30,- annual payment in order to continue to pollute the environment ? Probably everybody would laugh about it, even if the readings are just barely above the limits.

This is typical for the hypocracy of the american government: its all about money, the environment is just a pretext.

[grossmike]

I also bought a Kenmore Trio fridge about 2 years ago. In Jan '09 received a mail notice that promised to upgrade the fridge and pay for extra energy usage. I don't recall any mention that it was not EnergyStar nor that it still wouldn't be EnergyStar after the upgrade. I went ahead and ordered the upgrade, the part for which didn't arrive at my home until June. At that time I called Sears for installation. In the meantime the icemaker stopped working. Sears told me my 1 year warranty had expired and independent repair people gave me a $500 estimate to replace ("can't fix it"). Luckily the Sears repairman identified the problem as a design flaw in the icemaker where water would spill out into an area with the gear and freeze the gear. He fixed it with a hair dryer. I've since had the problem again but haven't been successful in fixing it myself. I am now also having problems with uneven temperatures in the fridge: food freezes in some parts, ok in other parts. I hate this fridge! Has anyone had success with getting a replacement with current model which is truly "EnergyStar"?

[veryunhappyfrigeowner]

My mom bought the LG LFX21960 frige last year. As with others, a representative called about the non-energy efficient part to be replaced, which she accepted. Several months later her kitchen was flooded; she had to pay thousands of dollars to fix all of the damage, which included reparations in the basement because of damage. Apparently, when the individual installed this brilliant new part some part of a water connector was knicked and the water had been building up. Well, now after the kitchen and rest of the area have been fixed, the motor started making awful noises. They came back out again and informed her that there was a huge buildup of ice in some part that would likely end up flooding the place again, and that this time she needed to have more parts fixed. The serviceman informed her that the new motherboard they had previously installed was not compatible with this refrigerator and the old one should be put back in. All attempts to contact LG to remedy this nightmare have been met unsuccessful. She unfortunately did cash the check. I am hoping she can find the paperwork that came with that notice so I can examine it for any alternative means of holding this rediculous company accountable. If not, has anyone else figured any other ideas out?