Smeg Fab28

Have loved my Smeg for 2 years, yes the door rubbers did go, and yes the interior plastics are rubbish and fall apart.......But it looks beautiful!

Sadly it has now died, Smeg, who are useless and after waiting 3 weeks for an OVERPRICED ENGINEER to visit (£120 ph) have condemned it saying it is beyond economical repair as both the Compressor AND the main board are gone.

Call me old fashioned but for over £850 I expect it to last a little longer as I told the service engineer so as to get as much use out of my callout fee as possible.

He explained that the insides of the fridge are not Smeg, well they are, but they are also Gorenje and something else, and that they are not made in Italy, but ALBANIA and SLOVENIA, they are just assembled in Italy.

So all of this has left a rather sour taste in my mouth, SMEG are appaling at customer service and assistance, their fixed price and free parts promises are basically a scam and the fridge is basically a £1k talking point for a kitchen.

Don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful looking piece of art, it is just rather rubbish as a fridge.

Yes it looks great, yes its cool, but man this is a poor excuse for a fridge!

Points to think about :

1/ The magnetic seal on this is very strong, so great the door wont keep opening on its own! However when you do open the door the whole thing rocks & shakes.

2/ The compartment for the freezer is very small, if you dont have a separate freezer than this isnt for you.

3/ The freezer door , & one of the shelves has already broken on ours, so its parts are not very sturdy.

4/ Parts are very expensive.

5/ Not the biggest of fridges, if you have more than 1 lttle one you might struggle to gey all your perishables in.

5/ Oh by the way it looks great!& keeps things nice a cool.

I seem to be something of an exception to the rule as I love my Smeg FAB28 fridge and have had no trouble with it at all. I admit I bought it almost purely on its looks, reasoning that as fridges all work much the same I might as well have one that looks fabulous even though it was going to cost me rather a lot of money. I bought the pastel green one and indeed it looks every bit as wonderful in my kitchen as I had anticipated. The green is a beautifully soft shade but not insipid and suits the 50s style shape of the fridge to perfection. Everyone who sees it is bowled over by it, including people who don't even like the colour green!

Now, to be practical - how does it actually do what it's supposed to, ie keep food cool? Very well indeed is the answer, as it works just like any other fridge with an ice box, although the ice box in this one is bigger than most. We've had no bother with the shelves or the door seal or anything else, everything just works as normal. It runs pretty quietly too, which is nice as our last fridge was far too noisy. It's easy to clean and looks as good now both inside and outside as the day we bought it (about 2 years ago). My husband and I are both very careful people, though, so I can't vouch for how the FAB28 would stand up to the rough and tumble of a household with children or teenagers.

Its price is the obvious stumbling block, because of course it's possible to buy a fridge for a third of the price and still have a good quality appliance. We're not rich so it was a big outlay for us to buy something at this price, but we just took a deep breath and decided to go for it. We might have been unlucky and ended up with the fridge from hell (as some people here sadly seemed to) but that hasn't been the case for us. In fact, I'd go so far as to say this has been our best purchase within the last few years, as it has changed the whole look of our kitchen. We were restyling our kitchen anyway when we bought it, but once we had the fridge in place it was easier to see what else we needed to do to get the retro look we were after.

So - going purely by my own experience - I heartily recommend the FAB28, if you're after a fridge that will immediately make your kitchen take on a retro appearance and that will always be a talking point with visitors to your kitchen. Yes, it's not a small purchase to be taken lightly, it's a major outlay and for your own peace of mind it might be a good idea to buy a 5-year warranty if you can manage it. But IMO it's worth it for an appliance that makes you smile every time you look at it - now how many other kitchen appliances can you say that about? :)