Meet the uber-fridge. While at a green building expo, we recently took a peek at this poster-boy for efficient, modern, home refrigeration. Pictured at right is the 30″ Liebherr Model #: CS1650. A few features:
- fully Energy Star compliant
- 11.3 cubic foot capacity
- full stainless steel cabinet and doors with ergonomic handle design and swing function
- 2 dual compressors designed for quiet, if not silent operation,variable speeds and energy efficiency
- thin wall construction – wider interior
- no false back wall – deeper interior
- precise digital controls to conserve energy and preserve food
- dual refrigerator systems to optimize control, save energy, and separate air flow
- BioFresh technology maintains fruits in vegetables in the storage drawers under optimal temp and humidity conditions
- SuperFrost System for quick freezing
- glass door shelves (glass holds cold much better than plastic)
- 2 one gallon storage spaces on the door
- factory icemaker
- doors are field reversible without a kit
- freezer’s FrostSafe System prevents cold air from escaping when door is open
- full 2 year warranty on all parts and labor and a full 5 year warranty on parts and labor for items in Sealed System
American refrigerator manufacturers should checkout the design features of this sleek, European challenger to Viking.
Update: see this post’s accompanying comments for customer complaints and notes.
as pictured $3,699 @ warners’ stellian
more info and dealer locations @ almo specialty products
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I have a Leibherr integrated refrigerator. It is now almost two years old but it has never worked properly and we have had more service engineers call than I can count. It is the very WORST appliance I have ever owned. Leibherr ought to be ashamed of their “Service Department”. A person called Josh is supposed to be the manager but he is never available to speak to and does not return either voice mail messages or emails. The other service people refuse to give out his last name. What company the size and reputation of Leibherr has only one service manager for the whole of the USA and that person has told his staff never to give out his full name? You have to wonder what they are hiding from…..
Currently the unit has not worked at all for over a week since their last service engineer was here. What does one have to do to get Leibherr to replace an appliance that is clearly faulty. This appliance cost us $4,400.00 and if Leibherr thinks that isn’t a lot of money I DO.
I have the 30″ bottom freezer built in and I HATE IT.
I had a sub zero for 16 yrs in the house I sold with no problems and am kicking myself for purchasing this refriderator
The doors do not close they are constantly hanging open.
I have had so many times that the food has defrosted in my freezer.
When I complained the company said I need to set the refriderator leaned slightly to the back on the top!!!!
This is a built in covered in cabinet and every line would be off with that solution!
I am so bummed I cook a lot and this is so irratiting. . I would get rid of it and purchase a sub zero but all cabinetry is built for this spec!!!! UGH
DO NOT BUY GET A SUB ZERO PLEASE!
My Liebherr has been fault free mechanically. Keeps everything at right temp and ice maker works well 4 years on. The ever breaking handle has been replaced with an improved version. The door shelf brackets were replaced with a redesigned part that has fixed that problem. The freezer drawer fronts need a redesign now as they aren’t up to the job. I’m disappointed the door seals only lasted 4 years. That’s a short life on a rubbish fridge! All the talk of “No built in obsolesence” and “will last 20 years” on the brochure seemed too good to be true but was worth paying the extra for IF ONLY IT WERE TRUE. I still have the brochure…sounds like false advertising if you’re all having this much trouble with your fridges.
Despite all comments we decided for the 24″ freestanding unit. There is simply nothing else comparable (energy star, price, size) out on the American market. A friend of ours has the 24″ unit and is satisfied with its performance apart from the noise level. When we listened to it however it was much calmer than our current model. I am sorry you guys had such a bad experience, but ‘beware of liebherr’ isn’t encouraging for customers or a company who makes an honest effort to deliver energy efficient refrigiators to the us. Moreover, to give a more balanced view, the other brands we looked at received equally bad reviews.
We have had our Leibherr for nearly four years, and we have had nothing but problems with the product, and we haven’t gotten ANY good customer service. We have the EXACT same freezer problems described above with the temperature being totally off, the back icing up, the ice maker NEVER worked from day one. This is hands down the WORST product I have ever owned, and I am telling everyone I know NEVER to buy one. It took me almost two years to get someone in to fix the door RECALL!! Then when the guy was here, he told me that I had to pay him half a service call and 35.00$ every fifteen minutes while he waited online with customer service to get someone to trouble shoot the problem. I waited online for 30 min myself until I finally hung up. I cannot believe there isn’t a class action suit against this company. They have NO customer service and their product is horrible broken from the first day of having it. Tell everyone you know NOT to buy this product!
We have had the unit for approximately two months and the ice maker has not produced ice since installation. Service Tech has been out three times, replaced incidental parts, and still not working. The customer service is horrible, dragging their feet, giving us the runaround. The product is defective. I am currently proceeding with legal action.
…..just an extra comment.
With reference to the flooding…….I’m a little OCD keeping the glass shelfs clean & I’ve already checked the drain hole (on several occasions) & have found no problem with food or ice blockage. I wouldn’t have thought it could be ice anyway as the fridge freezer is side by side…..that is unless someone can advise me otherwise.
We too fell for the stainless steel & designer look of the Liebherr SBSES7253 (side by side) fridge freezer four years ago. We’ve already had to replace the door handle hinges twice & frequently find pools of water on the kitchen floor & in the bottom of the fridge. The bio fridge draw also goes through periods of freezing the food in there…..as it is at the moment.
Any suggestions of solving these problems or have I missed them within this blog.
Sorry to see this many people having so many problems with such an expensive appliance……thought it was just us.
I thought it was just me! Since we have had the Liebherr I have found the doors don’t close properley and then the freezer frosts up. It always seems to start beeping in the middle of the night. luckily I have my 18 yr old Bosch in the garage so transfer food into that if there is room. The water pooling in the bottom and vegetable drawer means only one side of the bottom fridge is useable. I was trying to find out what code F4 means ( something to do with the evaporator sensor) Will try defrosting but looks like it might be a new part. I also had to buy new handles as the fridge one sheared of because the hunge is made of plastic! . My husband fell for the stainless steel and designer looks.
A couple of other hints. The doors of the Leibherrs are reversed easily according to the manufacturer. Yes, if the appropriate kit for reversing the handles is provided, the reversal is easily achieved. But, your contractor has to know to do this up front or it can take weeks at best.
Also others have been observed that the inserts and shelving components for the Leibherrs are easy to break and difficult to replace. Seems theoretically, that’s easy to remedy – just produce extra cheap replacement parts that you overcharge for. But, Leibherr still hasn’t figured this out.
My sympathies to all out there. Leibherr should be replacing a lot more than it’s “faulty 1650″ hinge out there. They should also be backing up their service and warranty with a competent outfit. What they have been getting away with is criminal.
Here are a few tips for all you out there.
1. Their icemaker on the 1650 is crap. It has no ionizer. If you are not feeding it distilled water it will likely fail within a year due to “impurities” (we know all about the Germans and their “impurities” – what is water? It has minerals in it – but not for this freezer/icemaker). Don’t run it and you will avoid lots of problems that aren’t worth fixing.
2. Their evaporation coil has a fan that burns out within 6-24 months. They will stall and lie and tell you it’s other things. The evaporation coil too will eventually fail sooner than it should. Then you will get the back freezing problem and the temperature controls for the freezer will be worthless.
3. The refrigerator will flood with water because the drain will clog. Some people have luck cleaning it with a cue tip. Good for them. Usually it is a combination of problems involving food particles and ice from the failure of the defrosting cycle in the freezer below causing the drain line to clog up. You can turn off and defrost your whole refrigerator, or, you can use a 48″ long piece of airplane cable as a catheter to thread through the drain line. Wiggle it around and thread it back and forth until it clears the rubber backstop valve and pushes whatever ice or obstructions are free from the line so it can drain out. Then your vegetable tray and the bottom of your fridge will stop accumulating water.
We should all file a class action suit against Leibherr internationally and place an ad in the Economist and in Huff Post. It’s the only thing that will get their attention, otherwise they’ll just “yes” us.
Taken in by its looks too, Bought our CS 2060 on Oct 26, 2012. Refrigerator stopped working on Saturday, Dec 22, two days before Christmas eve with 20 guests coming for dinner. Freezer still works. Was told the Leibherr service department had no holiday service and that I should call on the 26th. When I reached them we were given a date of Jan 14th for the service call — 24 days after the breakdown!!!! Don’t follow my example — do your homework before you buy!
Well, 6 month old fridge and ice cube maker quits, had a new one installed (only took 2 months), new ice cube make spits out ice but it freezes into one big chunk in the tray, so it is useless, now came home to a puddle on the floor in my kitchen. Am so frustrated with this expensive piece of crap. Haven’t had ice cubes since September and it is a brand new fridge. Also back wall of freezer is frosted over with ice. I am freaking out about the water on my brand new wood floors. I am located in Canada so obviously no matter where you are this fridge is an overpriced piece of junk.
Thanks for the info Karl pity the rest of you guys are in the states our fridge was insurred until the service company liebherr used in the uk went into administration and we couldnt get anyone to fix our fridge but we saw your comment and gave http://www.agsrefrigeration.co.uk. a call they were great arrive within twenty four hours and got our fridge up and running.
Chers Karl for the post arrive last week to find our fridge completely defrosted to contacted our insurance company only to find that the service company that liebherr use to subcontract their work out to has gone into administration and now one available to look at our fridge. I was telling a colleague at work our predictment and about your recommendation when he also mentioned that this was the same company http://www.agsrefrigeration.co.uk. who fixed his fridge in the past and how excellent they were we gave them a call and im glad to say they managed to rectify the problem ans so far so good. However i now understand that these appliance can be a problematic that why so many engineers refuse to work on them.
By the way I should point out that I’m in England, which suggests Europe and the United States seem to be suffering similar problems. More reason to steer clear I think.
I’m about to buy a Leibheer chest freezer, a premium GTP2356. I’d heard there were problems with their fridge-freezers, and I also know that what I’m buying isn’t quite the same species of animal, but if Liebherr sub-contract their work I think I’ll pass. I wondered why Which? magazine had Leibherr lower than half way down in the reliability table they publish. Now I – and you – know.
We moderate all comments. There’s a ton of spam out there.
Leibherr. Ugh!! We have a Leibherr frost-free integrated fridge. We bought it at great expensive when we installed a new kitchen about 5 years ago. I have hated it ever since. It leaks water constantly, blocks up and we have already had to replace two of the shelves in the door because the crappy plastic inserts have cracked. I am completely unimpressed and would never buy a Liebherr appliance again. I used to have a very inexpensive Whirlpool that lasted for at least 10 years (and is still going strong at my brother’s house). BE WARNED PEOPLE. Leibherr is expensive crap. Stay away.
Why do I have to moderate my comment?
I purchased my Liebherr CS1660 Nov. 9, 2012. It just stopped working on Thanksgiving. All of my food had to be thrown away. I called dealer,was referred to service department and was told that it only had a one year warranty. When I bought it I was told it came with a 5 year warrenty. Service man cannot show up until Monday. Four days without refrigeration. Arter reading thiese reviews I don’t have much faith that it will work. Can the person who emailed the corporate headquarters in Switzerland share the email with me as I would like to be prepared to contact them.
Thanks
Jean
I have had a Liebherr CS 1360 for about 3 years now. In the first 1.5 years, we had issues with the freezer section frosting (even though this is a No Frost appliance). We recently noticed that water was pooling in the ice drawer and freezing, resulting in the ice being unusable. After putting the ice maker into cleaning mode, I was able to determine that the ice tray is cracked, which is causing water to drip into the drawer. It is discouraging to read Terry’s post on June 14, 2012 that their ice trays were replaced 4 times and the ice maker twice. It seems to be a defect. I doubt we’ll ever get Liebherr to do anything about it.
Hello
Have my Liebherr fridge 12 years and wouldn’t just love it .. even moved it with me when moving house and no issues. Until that is on Friday evening I went to get a nice chilled glass of wine which was warm … fridge part not working freezer was …. anybody any ideas?? Would really really hate to have to ‘bin’ the fridge it has served us so well! Thank you.
Got to this site in hope of finding help for my own icemaker issues with my liebherr model cs1650
Stopped working for no apparent reason and is freezing the drawers and back of the walls
When I called the company searching for help, I realized the model was on a recall for door hinges which surprised me … absolutely no notifications prior to this.
The initial technician they referred me to kept on changing dates and times since the part wasn’t there on the expected date.
Got a different company that came after a week to fix the door hinges and to diagnose the issue with the icemaker . According to him it was the evaporator sensor and that he could repair iit rightt in there for $ 500.00 dollars plus he wanted to sell a service contract for an additional $ 300.00 dollars yearly since according to him liebherr refrigerators need constant service . Wow ! I was shocked since I atill have a 20 year old GE that never gave me issues. Unfortunately this one is built in and cannot be replaced unless I change cabinetry design. Awful situation for something we need total reliability in our lives.
I have a Liebherr and I got home this evening to find the fridge warm and the freezer defrosted. I have no idea why. The power is still on. It’s fairly new. Well new looking – it came with my new flat so I didn’t buy it.
Anyone know what to do that doesn’t involved spending a lot of money?
Thanks,
CM
I was COMPLETELY SOLD on Liebherr, its sexy unit as pictured above, etc., and I had even hired a contractor to hack out my cabinetry which would intrude on the height of this very tall refrigerator….he is poised with hammer and crow bar, ready to go….however, these comments and several others on other sites of a similar nature have now caused me to get COLD FEET (no pun intended) and I am starting to bail out on the love affair, and may end up buying another brand…it’s difficult, because appearance is so sexy, it’s like my old Alfa Romeo in that it is so
cool looking…..ARGH!
We bought a Liebherr CS1611. It is just over a year old. Firstly, one of the plastic trays fell out, hit the floor and brook. OK, perhaps I didn’t put it in quite right. Then the plastic trim on the door handle failed. It’s really cheap. The door has a habit of not shutting all the way. Now it has just inexplicably stopped working. I dutifully called the service center and they told me that it would probably be next week. Not at all helpfull and seems poorly made.
Thanks to all who have posted on Leibherr. Fell in love with the design and size and was set to buy till I started reading the reviews. Very disappointed that these are such poor performers and that Leibherr has such shoddy service. Will take your advice and pass on this one!
Thanks for the post Niko we had many issues with our fridge until we saw you post and gave http://www.agsrefrigeration a call the engineer replaced faulty part however he explained that these fridges can be a pain in the arse because of all the various sensors and components which is why its hard to find many companies or engineers compitent enough to work on them its been a few weeks now and everything seems to be working ok.
We have a brand new fully integrated Liebherr HC2062. It was installed in May 2012. It has been 3 months and we have only been able to use the freezer for less than 2 weeks. We have had 6 service calls, had leaks, recharged freon, have evaporator replaced, and the freezer is broken again. DO NOT BUY LEIBHERR!!
Finally, a place to vent about the LIEBHERR CS1650. I thought I was the only one going crazy with all the beeping. How many times do they have to replace all my Control Boards and sensors before they deem it a LEMON and send me a new one.
I never thought I would be on a first name basis with so many “techs”. They are all very nice but its time to get some action from the TOP
DO NOT BUY LIEBHERR. I have a CS1650 and just came with a brand new unit I bought. The refrigerator was bought buy the developer in 2009, but I am the first owner to use the fridge. After they change the hinge due to recall issues, the fridge has been beeping non-stop and it’s been randomly shutting on and off. When I called LIebherr they old me that they been having this problem and it MIGHT be caused by either the Control Panel Computer Board or the Main Power Control Computer Board. They asked me to replace both because “THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS CAUSING THIS”. I found this ridiculous as the price tag on this fridge is extremely expensive. And when asked them how can a manufacturer not stand by their product, the representative simply told me…”We are just a phone service that is Outsourced by Liebherr”. PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS FRIDGE, ESPECIALLY CS1650. I heard numerous people having problem with it,!
Bought a Liebherr for our small condo kitchen. Very expensive but my husband wanted a German/Swiss-made product, hence the purchase. Love the looks of the unit, but the temperature controls are out-of-control! What is worse is Liebherr’s non-existent customer (?) service in USA. The freezer section went out of whack on Friday, called Arizona where Liebherr’s US customer service is located. Of course it was the start of the weekend, so had to wait till Monday. No response from Liebherr and after numerous calls to Arizona we got a lukewarm response from Liebherr that it was “trying” to locate a technician to inspect the unit. At this point, whatever sanity and patience we had disappeared, so we called corporate HQ in Switzerland. They were sympathetic but said an email would be the best way to go!! The next day got a call from a Liebherr rep who said the unit would be replaced. Well it is now six days–still no refrigerator. I could go on and on but I WILL NEVER BUY THIS BRAND AGAIN. We fell for the looks and had the disadvantage of fitting a suitable machine in our limited space. To those who want to buy a LIEBHERR–think, think, and think again before you buy.
What can i say about liebherr except beware they do not have there own engineers and they contract their work out to a service company who then subcontract it on to someone else, anyway spent the last year trying to have mine fix and numerous telephone calls and different service engineers trying to rectify the problem by changing pcb and sensors all i want is for my very expensive fridge to give me some water and stop freezing my food. I was on my knees when behold a colleague of mine had work pass me the number of a guy who use to work directly for the manufacturer he came and diagnose the fault their was a connection or faulty wiring to the main circuit board finally i have a fridge which looks good and works. Excellent give him a try only if you are in London area. http://www.agsrefrigeration.co.uk
We purchased a Liebherr CS1650 refrigerator in 2008. The refrigerator is VERY EXPENSIVE, German (so you think it would be well-engineered) and has an icemaker.
The refrigerator seems to do a good job at preserving fresh food. THE ICEMAKER, HOWEVER, IS A PIECE OF CRAP!!!!! The design is abysmal; it uses a plastic tray that the mechanics CRACK! We’ve had the ice tray crack 4 times; and the ice maker replaced 2 times. Just an annoying and AWFUL design. You would think if you spend a fortune on an appliance, you expect it to work. I had a Sub Zero for almost 20 years that worked great until we did a complete renovation of the kitchen and went with the Liebherr based on the recommendation of the contractor.
You would think a company that can make heavy duty construction machines can figure out how to make an icemaker that works, wouldn’t you?!?
STAY AWAY FROM BUYING A LIEBHERR!!!