Bosch Rebranding Fridgemaster Fridge Freezer?

[Coldpoint]

Hi,

You may have seen in another thread that I’ve lived with a useless Fridgemaster MC55251MS appliance for the past 4 years. It cannot keep food at a safe temperature because the auto-defrost programming is horrifically poor. The fridge overheats every 48 hours. But I’ve also had poor experiences trying to replace it with another model.

Now, I have seen that the low end Bosch Series 2 KGN27NLEAG is the same size as the Fridgemaster, which I need for the tight gap in my gap in my kitchen, however it also looks identical inside, with the exception of some Bosch branding. I’ve asked Bosch about this but they claim to know nothing about Fridgemaster. So I’m wondering whether anyone on here can answer the question from experience instead.

Is it possible that both Fridgemaster and Bosch have bought the same ‘Total No Frost’ internal carcass/drawers/shelves but used their own PCB with their own programming? Is the motor likely to be the same if the appliance looks the same?

The Bosch costs 50{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} more than the Fridgemaster, and Bosch do have a good reputation for reliability, so I’m struggling to believe that they would just rebrand a cheap Chinese fridge, but the fact they claim to know nothing at all about Fridgemaster, while selling an identical looking appliance, hasn’t filled me with confidence.

MC55251MS | Fridgemaster

KGN27NLEAG Free-standing fridge-freezer with freezer at bottom | BOSCH GB

The plus points of the Fridgemaster are that it fits in the gap I have, there’s enough space inside, and I can tolerate the general noise from the motor and refrigerant. But the auto-defrost has been programmed so badly that it just doesn’t function safely or reliably. If the Bosch is different inside then I will try one of those. But I don’t want to spend another £450 just to find out it’s exactly the same as the Fridgemaster in terms of function as well as looks.

Thanks in advance.

[kwatt]

Fridgemaster is a brand owned by Hisense. Hisense do make some units for BSH. But, so far as I am aware, it’s only side by side units that are made by third parties for BSH, not normal stuff.

K.

[don]

Studying the picture gallery closely, I believe they are similar on layout but looking at things like the venting ports, doors, hinges and other materials they are different.

Noise level is exactly the same at 41db. If your kitchen is stud wall make sure appliance is sat awy from the wall slightly so you don’t transmit noise from compressor.

Don

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