Read this before you buy a retro fridge

What’s actually inside a $4,000 retro fridge, and is it worth the money?

One 154-page guide answers that question for every colored fridge, range, hood and dishwasher sold in the United States, from the premium retro brands to the budget ones.

Do they last 30-40 years like the originals did?A shopper, under a retro fridge ad on Facebook

Under retro fridge ads, the question shoppers keep asking is whether a $4,000 fridge will last. And no retro appliance brand answers that question on its own website.

A retro fridge at about $4,000 is not a small decision. The best-known American retro brand charges $4,495 for its main fridge and $6,295 for a matching range. Most people spend that kind of money only after reading everything they can find about the appliance. But there isn’t much to find. "These haven’t been discussed for a while here," one buyer wrote on Houzz, "and I can’t find much in the way of online reviews."

And underneath the question about how long it lasts is a worry about what the money is paying for. One buyer on Houzz put it in a single sentence:

We love the look of the blue 48inch Big Chill range but... worry we are paying for the look but sacraficing quality?A buyer, on Houzz

So buyers did the research themselves, in public. On Houzz, one buyer posted what these retro fridges really are underneath: "Elmira/Northstar uses an Amana Model ABB1922FEB... Big Chill uses the Whirlpool ET1FTEXSQ." Another Houzz thread about retro fridges started in 2015 and was still being read eight years later, by people "hoping there might have been an update."

Nobody ever posted that update. So we wrote this guide.

Everyone loves how colorful appliances look. Nobody tells you what’s under the paint.

Every argument about colorful appliances comes down to the same thing. Nobody disputes that they look good. The whole fight is about whether the appliance underneath is any good.

On one side: "I’ve done 4 full kitchens using big chill appliances and regret every bit of it," a buyer wrote on Reddit. Another Reddit poster wrote about a retro fridge: "DO NOT BUY Refrigerator! Looks amazing but terrible product." And on Elmira, another retro brand, one Reddit poster had "only heard the worst reviews... that they’re basically pieces of junk with pretty outsides."

On the other side, an owner who bought a full retro kitchen wrote: "I spent over 18K on these (I got a full kitchen; stove, hood, fridge & dishwasher) and they are fantastic. I have had zero issues. I get so many compliments and I smile every time I walk into my kitchen."

Both sides are real people who spent real money. But none of them can tell you why their appliances turned out so differently, because the brands don’t publish the answer.

What researching a colorful appliance is really like

If you are choosing a colorful appliance, the research usually goes like this:

• You can’t see one in person. "The only Big Chill dealers are about 3 hours away," one buyer wrote on Houzz. "I want to see one in person, too." The big home stores don’t have colored retro fridges on the floor.
• You can’t trust the photograph. "It was a major disappointment when I opened the box and it looked more purple than blue," one owner of a colored appliance wrote. A photograph lit for a catalog tells you nothing about how the color will look under your own kitchen lights.
• You can’t find honest reviews. "I can’t seem to find a whole lof of reviews on either," one buyer wrote about two retro brands. And the reviews that do exist argue about the same fear: is the appliance only beautiful on the outside?
• You can’t tell what the price is paying for. "For around $4,000 you can have one," someone replied under a Big Chill ad. But $4,000 for what, exactly?
• And you may not have time to wait. "I can’t wait 6 to 8 weeks for a fridge I might need one now," another shopper wrote under a Big Chill ad. "But I do love it."

What every colorful appliance buyer tries first

You do what anyone sensible would do. But none of it tells you what’s inside the appliance.

• The brand’s own website shows you the look beautifully. But it rarely tells you who builds the fridge, and it never tells you what the other brands offer.
• The forums are full of strangers arguing from reviews they read somewhere else. The threads are useful, they contradict each other, and many of them are years out of date.
• The star ratings mean little until you know where the ratings came from. Even Kucht, one of the brands we sell, has a 4.7 rating at Home Depot, but all 16 of those reviews were copied over from Kucht’s own website.
• The showroom is usually too far away. For most colored appliances there isn’t a showroom within a day’s drive. When one buyer finally found a store that stocked retro fridges, the verdict was: "The handles don’t make that satisfying clunk that original vintage handles do... The exterior feels mildly plasticy."
• Giving up and buying stainless steel is where many buyers end up. "Everyone says ’avoid stainless steel because you will be always cleaning it’... But like, that’s all the options I’m seeing?" one buyer wrote.

So people buy from the photograph and find out the rest after delivery. "I have one in Red.. but it quit working after two years," one owner wrote about a Big Chill fridge, under Big Chill’s own ad.

So we did the research on colorful appliances that nobody had done

We stopped reading opinions and read the public record instead.

We read every warranty document, word for word, and every recall filed with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. We read every delivery policy, down to the charge for carrying an appliance up the stairs. We read the energy labels, the Better Business Bureau files, the Trustpilot reviews and years of owners’ posts. And we did it for every colored fridge, range, hood, dishwasher and wall oven sold in the United States.

The answers to every question above had been public the whole time. Nobody had ever put them in one place.

What the public record shows about colorful appliances

Some of what we found surprised even us.

• Two appliances with different names can be the same machine. Big Chill’s dishwasher is made by Arcelik, the Turkish company that makes Beko. Arcelik’s name is on Big Chill’s own energy label, and the dishwasher has the same barcode as BlueStar’s. It’s the same machine, yet Big Chill’s comes with half the warranty.
• A colored range is often a stainless range with a colored door. Several brands put a colored door and kickplate on their ordinary stainless steel range. From the front, it looks like a colored range. From the side, you can see the stainless steel. There is an upside: Kucht sells a $600 kit of door and kickplate, so you can change your range’s color later.
• The warranty is rarely as simple as the brochure makes it sound. Big Chill gives you 24 hours from delivery to report any cosmetic damage. BlueStar gives two years of cover only if you register within 90 days, and one year if you don’t. BlueStar also makes you pay for the repair technician’s travel beyond a 100-mile round trip.
• Repair is the cost nobody prices in. ILVE’s US distributor went bankrupt in February 2024, and the new distributor says in writing that it has no records and no liability for appliances sold before then. And one Smeg owner wrote that ten local repair companies refused to work on the Smeg fridge.

The most common colorful kitchen mistake happens before you choose a brand

Most people choose a brand first, then a color, and only then discover that the rest of the kitchen doesn’t come in that color.

Smeg no longer sells its pastel dishwasher in the United States, so a pastel Smeg fridge has no dishwasher to match it. Kucht sells no colored hood at all, so a colored Kucht range comes with a stainless hood. And the brands with the most colors on a fridge or a range rarely offer those colors across the whole kitchen.

The kitchens that look right are chosen the other way around. First the color. Then the fridge, because it’s the biggest block of color in the room. Then every other appliance in the same color family. The rule is one color and one neutral. A $4,700 kitchen in one turquoise looks more expensive than a $15,000 kitchen in three colors.

Where every word in the guide comes from

Every fact in the guide comes from a public record, a primary source or the owners themselves: the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recall database, each maker’s own warranty terms, the energy labels, the Better Business Bureau, Trustpilot, and thousands of words written by people who bought these appliances.

Every brand is scored out of 10 on the same nine measures, exactly as they appear on our public Scorecard at colorfulbrands.co: who builds it, the warranty, repairs, safety, what owners say, the colors, the price, delivery, and how the appliance arrives at your home. There is deliberately no overall score for each brand, because the right fridge for a family of five is the wrong fridge for a beach house.

We called it The Essential 2027 Guide to Your Dream Colorful Kitchen

The guide is one book that does all the research a colorful kitchen needs, so you can:

• Choose a color you will still love in ten years, knowing which appliance colors go out of date and which never do.
• Know who really builds each appliance before you pay extra for the brand name.
• Read the warranty terms before you need them: the registration deadlines, the deadlines for reporting damage, and the distance limits on repairs.
• Find out who will actually repair each appliance where you live, before anything breaks.
• Price the whole kitchen honestly, delivery and installation included, at three different budgets.

What readers say about the guide

A look inside the guide

Every appliance chapter in the guide works the same way. It starts with the question buyers ask, in their own words, and explains the different kinds of appliance you’re choosing between. Then it puts every brand side by side on the nine measures, tells you what the scores mean for your kind of kitchen, shows every color each brand sells, and lists the checks to make before you order.

Here are three of the nine scores from Big Chill’s entry in the fridge chapter, printed exactly as they appear in the guide:

The guide also says where each brand does well. The same Big Chill entry scores 10 out of 10 for color: seven standard colors, six premium colors, more than two hundred custom colors, and a $5 paint swatch you can hold up in your own kitchen. If the exact shade is what matters most to you, the guide says Big Chill is the brand for it.

Three kitchens, three budgets, three different trade-offs

The last chapter of the guide puts everything together as three complete kitchens. Each one has a fridge, a range, a hood and a dishwasher, with every price taken from the record and what you give up at each budget.

The $4,700 kitchen: the retro look, in stock. A Galanz fridge at $700, a Unique 30-inch range at $1,836, the matching Unique hood at $799 and dishwasher at $1,399. Every appliance has a one-year warranty, the fridge has plastic handles, and delivery goes no further than inside your front door. But the whole set is a real retro shape in a real retro color, for the price of one Big Chill hood.

The $6,300 kitchen: the kitchen we sell. Our own Del Mar fridge at $1,899, a Kucht 30-inch range with a colored door at $3,029 (or a ZLINE range at $2,465), a ZLINE hood at $486 and a ZLINE dishwasher at $910. It’s the only one of the three kitchens with a five-year warranty on the fridge, and with delivery that installs the fridge and takes the old one away, all included in the price. The Kucht range carries four years of parts and labor; the ZLINE range carries one.

The $15,000 kitchen: built to order. A Big Chill fridge at $4,495, range at $6,295, hood at $2,095 and dishwasher at $1,895. You get seven standard colors, six premium colors and more than two hundred custom colors, with every appliance matching. But each appliance takes three to nine weeks to build, carries one year of warranty and has no published repair network, and it costs $199 to $399 per appliance to get it past the curb.

None of the three is the best kitchen overall. Each one is the best kitchen for that budget, and the guide tells you exactly what each one gives up.

Turquoise

About $4,700

The retro look, in stock

Fridge	Galanz	$700
Range	Unique	$1,836
Hood	Unique	$799
Dishwasher	Unique	$1,399
Total		$4,734

What you give up: One-year warranties, plastic handles on the fridge, and delivery no further than inside your front door.

Coastal blue

About $6,300

The kitchen we sell

Fridge	Del Mar	$1,899
Range	Kucht	$3,029
Hood	ZLINE	$486
Dishwasher	ZLINE	$910
Total		$6,324

What you give up: No owner reviews yet on the fridge, and one year of warranty on the hood and dishwasher.

Cherry red

About $15,000

Built to order

Fridge	Big Chill	$4,495
Range	Big Chill	$6,295
Hood	Big Chill	$2,095
Dishwasher	Big Chill	$1,895
Total		$14,780

What you give up: One year of warranty, three to nine weeks to build, and delivery charged on each appliance.

Four things separate a colorful kitchen you love from one you regret

1. A color that lasts. Red goes out of date fastest, and looks best in a white kitchen. Cream is warmer than white, goes with every countertop, and is the one color Smeg never discontinues. A color chosen because it’s in fashion is the first thing in the kitchen to look dated.
2. A maker you can name. When a brand says nothing about who builds its appliances, the warranty and the repair network are the only real evidence of quality you have.
3. A warranty that works where you live. A long warranty with no repair technician within a hundred miles is only a piece of paper.
4. A set that matches. Some brands can do a whole kitchen in one color. Most stop at two appliances. Knowing which brands can do the whole kitchen, before you start, stops you ending up with three blues that almost match.

What a colorful kitchen feels like when you choose it well

Owners who chose their retro fridge well still write about it like this, years later:

I would not have gotten it for any reason other than aesthetics- it looks so great it makes me happy every time I look at it!An owner of a retro fridge, on Houzz

Everyone who has seen has complemented me on it and how well it goes in our kitchen.An owner of a retro fridge, on Houzz

it’s one of my favorite parts of my kitchen.An owner of a retro fridge, on Houzz

None of those owners is talking about cubic feet. They are talking about how the room makes them feel. The guide exists so that you get that feeling from your kitchen without a fridge that stops working after two years.

Everything you get with the guide

The Essential 2027 Guide to Your Dream Colorful Kitchen. 154 pages in full color, as a PDF you can download the moment you pay.

1. Start with the color. Which appliance colors go out of date and which never do. Why one brand’s "blue" is never the same as another brand’s blue: retro appliances come in two kinds of blue, and they don’t look good together. Which colors suit a white kitchen, a wood kitchen, a dark kitchen and a pastel kitchen.
2. The fridge. Nineteen fridge brands side by side on the nine measures. The five kinds of colored fridge and what each kind is for. The right choice for a showpiece fridge, a family’s only fridge, a second fridge and a built-in kitchen, and what you give up with each.
3. The range. Twenty range brands. How to tell a colored range from a stainless range with a colored door. Each brand’s safety record, including which recalls affected which models and which models were never recalled. The small print in each range warranty, explained.
4. The hood, the dishwasher and the wall oven. How to match the rest of the kitchen to the color you chose. Which brands can do a whole kitchen in one color, and where it works to mix brands.
5. The costs nobody puts in the price. Every delivery option and what it costs, from leaving the appliance at the curb to installing it and taking the old one away. How long each brand takes to deliver. The warranty terms that catch buyers out. And twelve questions to ask the dealer before you pay.
6. Three kitchens at three budgets. Complete kitchens at about $4,700, $6,300 and $15,000, priced appliance by appliance, with what you give up at each budget.

The guide also has two reference sections you will keep coming back to:

• Measure before you order. The doorway, clearance and installation measurements for every model. For example, Big Chill’s Original fridge needs a doorway at least 34 1/8 inches wide, while a 24-inch retro fridge goes through any normal door.
• Extended warranties, explained. When an extended warranty’s cover actually starts, what every plan leaves out, and the questions to ask before you buy one.

The guide also comes with three short bonus guides, each for one specific job:

• "The Small Pieces": the mixers, kettles, toasters and pots that finish a colorful kitchen, matched to the color you chose.
• "The Dealer Question Sheet": the twelve questions to ask an appliance dealer, on one printable page you can take to the showroom or keep by the phone.
• "Delivery Day": a one-page checklist for the day your appliance is delivered, from measuring the doorway to connecting the water line.

Would you like the guide on your coffee table as well as on your screen? You can add the printed hardcover for $39 when you check out. Each hardcover is printed to order and mailed to you.

More from readers of the guide

Before the guide, and after

Before you read the guide, a colorful kitchen is a photograph, a price and a dozen forum threads that contradict each other. After you read it, you have a short list you understand: the color that suits your room, the two or three brands that make it well, what each appliance really costs once it’s delivered, and the questions that tell you whether the dealer is being straight with you.

Who the guide is for

• You are planning a kitchen remodel and want a color that lasts, not a passing trend.
• You have a colored appliance in mind and want to know it’s the right one before you pay.
• You would rather read the public record than the brand’s brochure.

Who the guide isn’t for

• You want stainless steel appliances. The guide is about color.
• You have already bought every appliance. The guide is built to help you choose, not to help after you’ve bought your appliances.

The honest part: the brands we sell

We sell three of the brands in the guide: Kucht, ZLINE and our own Del Mar. Those three brands are shaded in every table, scored on exactly the same nine measures as every other brand, and placed where the record puts them. Where a brand we don’t sell is the better choice for your kitchen, the guide says so.

The guide’s 30-day money-back guarantee

If the guide isn’t what you need for your kitchen, email us within 30 days of buying it and we’ll refund your $29.

Questions

Who is Colorful Brands?

We sell colorful kitchen appliances, and we publish the Colorful Brands Scorecard at colorfulbrands.co, the public record behind every table in the guide.

Which brands does the guide cover?

Every brand selling colored appliances in the United States, including Big Chill, Smeg, BlueStar, ILVE, Bertazzoni, Elmira, AGA, Lacanche, Viking, GE Café, Unique, Galanz, ZLINE and Kucht.

Why is it called the 2027 guide?

Because appliance prices change and recalls happen. Every price, warranty and record in the guide is current for 2027.

Is there a printed copy of the guide?

Yes. You can add the hardcover for $39 when you check out. Each hardcover is printed to order as soon as you send your address, then mailed to your door with tracking. Either way, the PDF arrives straight away.

When do I get the guide?

The PDF and the three bonus guides arrive in your email inbox within minutes of paying.

I’ve already chosen my fridge. Is the guide still worth buying?

Yes, if you haven’t chosen your range, hood and dishwasher yet. Chapter 4 shows how to match them to the fridge you already have, and chapter 5 covers the costs none of the brands include in their prices.

Is the guide only about retro appliances?

No. As well as retro appliances, the guide covers mainstream fridges that come in colors, built-in fridges with a colored or custom panel front, and colored ranges from professional-style to classic.

Your kitchen is the room you will live with longest. Choose its appliances once, and choose them well.

While other buyers are still reading forum threads from 2015, you will know what you are buying, who builds it, and who will repair it.

The guide costs $29, and you can be reading it in five minutes.