Beware - Defective fan design - keeps failing, after warranty expires.

Purchased June 2005. Did not buy the extended warranty as a good product should last a few years. In 6 mos. (12/05) the small fan which blows cold air from the bottom freezer to the refrigerator compartment failed. Freezer worked fine, but we lost the refrigerated food. Repairman replaced the fan at no charge under warranty & tried to sell us the extended warranty, as he is required. Still didn't buy it.

Ten mos. later (10/06), the fan failed again. We had been away for a month, so it certainly was not due to frequent use. Called Maytag to fix. Of course it was outside the one-year warranty so the tab is mine. Plus; to get next day service there is a $30 overtime charge, even though there was no overtime involved. The repairman told us the fan was a poor design and he was surprised that the prior repairman had replaced the original with the old design. This time he put in a re-designed fan, which he says, and we hope, will last longer. We were again offered the extended warranty, but passed it up. Philosophically, if I cannot rely on a costly product to be reliable then I will not buy that product again.

We paid $190.88 to replace the old design fan which Amana/Maytag knew was defective and had died on us twice.

This is on top of our prior Maytag refrigerator which had a very short, noisy life, although it never broke down until it flat out died at age 8. That is not old for a refrigerator.

At this point we can say, do not buy Amana/Maytag. It is not reliable, does not last and the company does not take care of its customers when a known defective part fails. No wonder many people buy foreign made products.

UPDATE 7/1/07: We did find the overall design pretty handy. But after being away for a few weeks we returned home to a stinking mess. This Amana died for the third time in two years. (Bought June 05, found dead June 07) Totally failed this time. Possibly covered under warranty, but we do not want the beast in the house. Besides, what do we get if they fix? A refrigerator that has already proven that it is worthless. So we went to a different dealer, bought an LG french door and learned that a refrigerator does not have to be noisy all night long in order to work. Amana is outa here. If I could score it a negative star, I would. My hard feelings are showing through.