ok so the big day is coming and me and my fiancee need to shop for stuff

I need some advice on the following:

Fridges - She likes the range from Fisher and Paykel, has to be titanium finish so it doesnt show finger prints etc, etc but i want one with the ice dispenser. She doesnt want it cos apparently u have to change something monthly (filter?)

Any recommendations for brands?

Anyone got comments about fridges with ice dispenser?

Tv - big question Plasma or LCD.... or bar both due to having short lifespans should i just go for a bulky rear projection

any comments/brand reccomendations?

Home Audio - Looking to spend about a grand on a surround system

Any recomendations?

cheers guys

Try seconds world or ebay on most of this stuff, you could end up saving hundreds of vwable dollars.

I know a guy who won a $14,000 fridge!
It has an ice despenser, AND an LCD Telly, AND the internet.
Then all you need is the surround sound :P
He wants $10, 000 for it BTW, still in its box..

Ice maker - do you use more than 48 cubes in a two or three hour period? If not, don't get one. If it's not plumbed in, you constantly have to fill the water inlet, and if it is plumbed in, there's a filter to change in most fridges.

I have a Fisher and Paykey Iridium (=titanium look no hand print) finish fridge, and it's great for these reasons:

* it's really quiet. You can't tell its on. This is an important feature unless the kitchen is really far away from everything else
* it cools lots of stuff very quickly - it has an electronic thermometer so it is always near 4 C and -18C respectively. This keeps veges crisp and milk longer
* very flexible interior, plus the shelves are glass - easy to clean and no more bent shelves
* it never ices. I've not defrosted in the 20 months I've had my fridge. There's still no ice on the sides. I make liberal use of the ice trays several days a week
* upside down - more energy efficient, and easier on the back
* can change the door opening side - very important for the fridge to make the "golden" triangle of kitchen ergonomics work or if you are building the fridge into the furniture. You can get it changed after sales too. 99% of fridges open the wrong way for right handers. At least with the F&P you can change it.
* last but not least - no fingerprints or paw prints. Awesome feature. It still looks new

Go the F&P fridge.

On the TV / home theatre front, why not save your dosh and go for a fantastic honeymoon? TV's and home theatres come and go, but a fantastic honeymoon will remain in your memory forever. Particularly if you tape it using a nice new shiny digital handy cam! Tripods are very useful and cheap.

If you've got the honey moon booked, I'm pretty partial to Sony gear. I've got a Sony Wega and now a nice new DVD player from them. Very nice. But for home theatre, your best bet is to take some source material you know well (CD and DVD) and go to a high end audio shop and watch and listen and compare. What suits me may not suit you, and honestly, your own ears and eyes will make a better judgement than the many one eyed enthusiasts here.

Oh yeah, plasma seem to have about a 7-10 year life span, and LCDs "yellow" after about two years. Both have superb output in the mean time. Bulky rear projection have exactly the same problems as projectors, and you're better off going the projector route with a cheap TV to watch the news and reality TV on. The bulbs for the rear projection TVs and projectors aren't cheap and last only about 1000-2000 hours depending on brand and model. Don't waste it on low quality inputs.

Andrew

Quote:

Originally posted by vanderaj Ice maker - do you use more than 48 cubes in a two or three hour period? If not, don't get one. If it's not plumbed in, you constantly have to fill the water inlet, and if it is plumbed in, there's a filter to change in most fridges. I have a Fisher and Paykey Iridium (=titanium look no hand print) finish fridge, and it's great for these reasons: * it's really quiet. You can't tell its on. This is an important feature unless the kitchen is really far away from everything else * it cools lots of stuff very quickly - it has an electronic thermometer so it is always near 4 C and -18C respectively. This keeps veges crisp and milk longer * very flexible interior, plus the shelves are glass - easy to clean and no more bent shelves * it never ices. I've not defrosted in the 20 months I've had my fridge. There's still no ice on the sides. I make liberal use of the ice trays several days a week * upside down - more energy efficient, and easier on the back * can change the door opening side - very important for the fridge to make the "golden" triangle of kitchen ergonomics work or if you are building the fridge into the furniture. You can get it changed after sales too. 99% of fridges open the wrong way for right handers. At least with the F&P you can change it. * last but not least - no fingerprints or paw prints. Awesome feature. It still looks new Go the F&P fridge. On the TV / home theatre front, why not save your dosh and go for a fantastic honeymoon? TV's and home theatres come and go, but a fantastic honeymoon will remain in your memory forever. Particularly if you tape it using a nice new shiny digital handy cam! Tripods are very useful and cheap. If you've got the honey moon booked, I'm pretty partial to Sony gear. I've got a Sony Wega and now a nice new DVD player from them. Very nice. But for home theatre, your best bet is to take some source material you know well (CD and DVD) and go to a high end audio shop and watch and listen and compare. What suits me may not suit you, and honestly, your own ears and eyes will make a better judgement than the many one eyed enthusiasts here. Oh yeah, plasma seem to have about a 7-10 year life span, and LCDs "yellow" after about two years. Both have superb output in the mean time. Bulky rear projection have exactly the same problems as projectors, and you're better off going the projector route with a cheap TV to watch the news and reality TV on. The bulbs for the rear projection TVs and projectors aren't cheap and last only about 1000-2000 hours depending on brand and model. Don't waste it on low quality inputs. Andrew

Nah, unless you're an ice junky, the normal ice trays are more than adequate. I find that when I'm making martinis for everyone, I can make four new trays (=96 solid cubes) in about three hours. An ice maker can't keep up with that volume of ice unless you have a plumbed one. And plumbed ice makers == very expensive fridge!

Only a few manufacturers do the Iridium style finish. Real stainless steel finishes need a special chemical, soft pure calcium free water, microfibre cloths to get rid of finger prints and stains. I know this because my dishwasher, stove and cook top are stainless steel and I regret their fancy looks nearly every time I use them.

Get a digital tuner wide screen CRT with 100 Hz progressive - very good value for money and very good picture, particularly when watching NTSC (=US) DVDs.

I like the Metz widescreens - about $1800 for a basic analog 76 cm widescreen rising to $2999 for a digital tuner with 100 Hz capability, and Sony have digital tuner widescreens for about $2300. Both tubes are reasonably flat, but Sony's are trinitron, which are excellent. My Wega is awesome.

Sony 76 cm digital widescreen KD32DX51: ~ $2299.
Use Google - Sony's website is appalling to bookmark

Metz 76 cm digital widescreen : $2999.
http://www.campsiehifi.com.au/index.php?apg=products&bpg=item&categor...

Although this is starting to be in the ballpark for a reasonably good (=quiet) DLP projector which can show a 1.5 - 2 m diagonal image easily.

Andrew

I can't help much on the Gucci Home Theatre idea, but we bought a Samsung side by side Fridge / Freezer not long ago after spending bucketloads of time wandering and pricing.

Our model has a water dispenser in the fridge door, and has ice cube trays in the freezer that tip into a tray. You just get the ice from the tray.

We worked out what we would use more as a family and it was cold water over ice cubes....so went for this model. As was mentioned before, the new ones are quiet and good on power....also something I was shocked over was the disappearance of the grills from the back of the fridge.

Good luck!

so is the ice cube dispenser on the inside or outside of the fridge

i dont mind either but i would rather a fridge that does ice over water and then i dont need to stuff around with water filters

and i got 50% off this what do u think:

http://www.binglee.com.au/shop/results_display_single.asp?szProdID=COLOURTELE...

buy it

We have a F&P fridge, very nice.
We went to the good guys with a list of what we wanted, selected our stuff, then spent an hour haggling with the staff to get a better deal. Got a TV, fridge, washing machine, food blender etc etc all for much less than we expected.

Saved a lot of money that way!

[Edited on 3-1-2005 by Gibbo]

Now I could be really sarcastic and say.. Cancel the whole thing and end up saving several hundred thousand dollars....., But I won't

Hey Costa! I didn't even know, congratulations man!

As for Fischer and Paykel - DON'T DO IT!!! We were speaking with a fridge mechanic very recently, and he reckons that they have a computer unit inside them that breaks with incredible regularity. This cannot be serviced, and must be replaced. And they seem to break just when the sucker runs out of warranty.

I recommend anything European, but just look hard at the energy rating, cause it will save you a bundle. As for ice making, it's just another mechanical thing that can go wrong. Just buy some more trays man - you wont regret it in the long run!

I don't have time for the other stuff. Naturally rear projection is supposed to be the best for normal people. If your made of dosh and can afford to upgrade your set as often as your mobile phone, then either of the other options is good. I'll go and have a squiz on some of the German sites later. There's this great one where people review all products imaginable, and you get hundreds of responses. Check back in a couple of days.

And greetings to the little woman!!! (She isn't an imaginary friend is she? You sad bastard!)

For the TV's. I want a plasma but Rod says no because something or other stops working quickly ......

Don't worry about the rear projetion being too bulky, you can now buy slim line ones, they aren't much thicker than a plasma !!!!!! I saw a really nice one the other day in Megamart, can't remember the brand (I think that it was a Panasonic),can't remember the size (was REALLY BIG, well over 100cm, think was either 112 or 127cm) for $7999

Hey Coz...do you want an "ice maker" as in the frozen blocks of NoH20 or crystalmeth???! hehe....

I think you'll find marriage life to be in need of both!

W:duh

I thought you found some rust in her Costa and you didn't know whether to get rid of her or not....

Squiz....

Go F&P.. Great KIWI brand from NZ.. Only the best out of that little piece of Godzone

We had a client at work who really was fixed on an ice maker in a nice looking fridge. Most of them were really ugly with the exception of the Gaggenau one

http://www.sampford.com.au/gaggenau/content.asp?newsID=95664

and some of the ones made my Maytag and Jenn-air.

I think F&P ones are fine. You can get built in kits for them if you want to match your kitchen joinery as well. A lot of our clients have them and they have been pretty reliable.

I've found an old magazine from May 2003, which has the earlier version of my fridge (it has wire baskets in the freezer, mine are clear plastic). Both of the F&P models tested are in the best buys for that review of 16 fridges.

F&P have a 90% reliability rate (ie 90% of all fridges didn't need repair), with 5136 responses. The most reliable brand (Sharp with 677 responses) had 95% reliability. There were no European fridges in the top 10 of reliability.

In 10 year running costs, the predecessor to my fridge is $400 cheaper in electricity to run than the worst fridge. However, since 1999, according to this article, there are no more "grossly inefficient" fridges on sale in Australia due to "Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS). More stringent MEPS came into effect last year, so all fridges you can buy should be pretty reasonable in terms of $$$ to run over 10 years.

So there.

Andrew

after being in that industry for many years, costa, i would suggest you bought something other than the fnp. the computer thing is truth. it has to do with condesation, moisture and the chip failing. the chip is in it to give control over temp, but like their dishwashers they have a much higher repair rate. the biggest thing it does have goin for it though is the look. in fridges quality and longegivity has pretty much gone out the window, in favour of margin and price point. dont even bother with oldsckool white,a s they rust very quickly nowa days... we used to say that the fnp was the best of a bad bunch due to the finsh of hte exterior and the shelving. but they lack a good icetray maker/ dispenser inside. i have in the past personally prefered the samsung fridge that dispensed water from the door. you filled it yourself, but was very good, and for parties you replace the water with vodka or what ever other beverage you prefer nice and chilled. makes a great fun idea and the fridge is well featured. sold it in my last house, as it wouldnt fit the one i have now.

dont know if youve been to designer homeware in camperdown, but if you drop in ask for 'dusty'... one of my old trusties so to speak (if you want to go side by side) he can give you some help and maybe you can sort a deal.

2G

costa, having a father that makes speakers for a living, you have a huge range of stuff you buy off me cheap when it comes to sound systems. send me a u2u if your keen

i fix that sort of stuff aswell and i would not buy f&p stuff either.after 10 years of fixing the products including under warranty, it has steered me to buying westinghouse. i found that when replacing electronics in f&p products they are very dear to do and people are not fixing them and buying new stuff saying i wont be buying an F&P. Well that is what i think.

Yeah, I was just repeating the stuff from a guy who has to try and fix 'em all day long.

As for European appliances, don't buy hype, but buy products that have to go through the TUV standards board in Germany or something equivalent. With so many consumers and products in such a small country, they are real serious about their job. Those engineers are SO anal, and will bitch about anything. Then again, there are a lot of Euro companies that do the dodgy electronics and price point scams. It's all about research!