The Auswine Forum

I've just bought a Liebherr WKes 4177 Wine fridge, but when it was delivered I'm amazed to see the back of the unit appeared the have been repaired or reconditioned. There was silver gaffa tape at the sides of the back plate (the silver cardboard piece), expanding foam had been used pretty roughly all over the place, the heat piping to the compressors had been crudely soldered in, and part of the polystyrene packing base had melted just below where the compressor was - indicating the unit had been repaired while it was in it's shipping packaging.

Some pics of the fridge are here: http://img710.imageshack.us/g/img2857.jpg/

Does anyone have a Liebherr (or Miele) fridge in a similar condition? (Apparently Liebherr makes the Miele wine fridges).

I've been back to Harveys, and all the units they have on the floor look the same at the back.

Andico are telling me this is standard, but if so, I'm really surprised that Liebherr is selling such shoddy workmanship.

Anyone noticed this? Any ideas what is going on? Or why Liebherr ship units like this?

The main thing that looks dodgy to me is the gaffa tape part... did the other units at harvey's have the gaffa tape as well??? If so, I'd say yes shoddy and not what you'd expect of a so called premium brand. If not, I'd want it replaced. But hopefully the fridge works well, that'll be the main thing.

Cheers
TiggerK

Yup, the units at Harvey's had gaffa tape as well. As you say... definitely not what you expect from the upper end of the market. Very strange.

Andico have assured me the unit is as-is from the manufacturer, and that the warranty is definitely valid, so I've actually started using it now.

Hopefully it behaves itself... might grab a double bulb thermometer, to make sure it's holding temperature properly.

Its been tapered with following release fom the factory probably damaged in transit and repaired by Harveys, it would never pass from Liebherr in that state their quality control is tops. Contact them at Europe HQ bypass Andi how would they know they dont open shipments bound for Harveys.

Thats how they make most of these types of fridges to my knowledge. there is an inner plastic shell, an outer metal shell, and a rear metalic cardboard shell. these are taped together and the whole thing is pumped with a liquid expanding foam that sets inside (a lot you can see have the fill hole at the top centre covered in a sticker).

I have 4 fridges at home, 3x vintecs and a cheapy. they all have the expanded foam, though the vintecs have a more attractive metal back plate rather than the metalic cardboard and tape.

having said that, if you're paying a premium price, you dont want to see all of this, it should be clean and finished.