Smeg Fab28

Fridge looks great. Sadly the design and quality of the materials used are pitifully inferior.

Ice box door catch broke almost straight away. Door shelves have shattered. Glass shelves are supported by plastic pins attached to the edge of the shelves, instead of being supported by the channels running full length of shelf. Totally defies logic someone could design this. Two have broken.

This fridge has been loved, not used roughly.

It's shameful Smeg have not recalled and replaced every one of these.

i agree with other buyers the only thing good about this is how it looks outside .I didn't even want to give it 1 star but you had to put a rating in . I would advise people not to waste their money on this product I've had trouble with it from the start and I've bought 3 new ice box doors so far and its broken again the spares are a ridiculous price for the bit of plastic they are .

Smeg Fab28 is really a nice and great value for money fridge. Works fine since I have bought it (1.5 years)

Have had this fridge for about 8 years. Its rubbish!!!!! Do not spend the £1000 (approx) they cost. Mine is black and looks very nice but do not be deceived like I was by this....that's where the positive points end. My freezer box door has broken and it will cost over £55 to replace, the door seal has been going for years and you have to buy a whole door unit for it which costs £266 plus vat because the seal does not come separately, which in my view is very poor design. For saying they cost so much I think you must be paying for the design and definitely not the quality....very over priced.

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.

This fridge, while superficially cute in photos, is a piece of junk. the inside parts are mostly cheap plastic, and broke within a week, and now the main door gasket has peeled back so that it no longer forms a seal between the door and the fridge, which is a huge waste of energy and is also causing really quick frost buildup in the freezer. Don't buy this fridge!!

I was very hesitant to buy this fridge due to all the bad reviews online. We decided to take the risk and buy one anyway. On delivery we found a note inside our fridge with specific easy instructions on how to keep it running 100%. Slightly tilt it backwards (due to the heaver door), and you will have zero problems.

We had this one for over 1,5 years now...no failure, no doors breaking off, no icing on teh inside...just make sure you slightly tilt it backwards and take good care of teh doorrubbers (as to keep a solid barrier)...

Bought a top of the range SMEG Fridge Freezer and have had nothing but problems with it. The SMEG recommended engineers are incredibly expensive.

Also have a SMEG washer / dryer which has been broken since the 4th January and I have been told today the parts will not be available until 4th March - are they joking!

I personally will not by SMEG again, (although my dishwasher and cooker are fine), as the reliability is a real issue and when something goes wrong - prepare yourself for major headaches!

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? :)