Refrigerator for village up country - what and where to buy?

[OneMoreFarang]

The father of my gf needs a new refrigerator for his house in a small village up country - it's maybe 20km away from the next town.

Now my gf thinks about the options like what to buy, where to buy, warranty, etc.

 

I had a look in Lazada and I saw refrigerators for about 4000B - 7000B from different brands.

 

Some questions:

- Do you know if Lazada, which delivers i.e. in Bangkok free of charge, would do the same to a small village which is 20km away from a city?

- Do shops like Big C deliver them or do (most) people buy them, put them on a pickup, and bring them home?

- Are there any recommended brands which have long warranty, good service, etc. in Thailand?

- What do you think are important criteria when buying a fridge?

 

This is an example of the kind of fridge she wants to buy.

 

 

[bankruatsteve]

We live in a small village 70 km from the nearest "big city" (Udon Thani) and have received 100's of orders from Lazada and others.  That's no problem.  My suggestion is to find out what dad currently uses (or used to use) a refrigerator for.  If he is like (I'm guessing) the majority of up-country folks, it will only be used to hold a few bottles of water and medicine.  Which means anything bigger than the small units is just a waste of space.  If you do go with large, I suggest "inverter" as that makes a huge difference in temperature control and energy efficiency.

[DILLIGAD]

I’m sure there will be a local shop that can deliver to surrounding villages.

All I’d recommend is, don’t buy a ‘Rolls Royce’ when all they will need (& be happy receiving) is a ‘Ford’, just like all their neighbours have.


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[bankruatsteve]

Forgot to say... the big shops, like Big C, do deliver free but if outside of (I think) 50 km radius, they will charge - in our case it's usually around B500.  But, that is likely less than it would cost you to rent or borrow a pickup.  Our Amphur is about 17km and we always get free delivery from the shops there.  If you end up wanting a small fridge (like everyone else has) you probably can't go wrong buying in the nearest village that sells them and there will likely be several vendors to choose from.  Those things seems to last forever and not bothered by erratic voltage so the warranty probably not an issue.  If you go big, I would look at the Home places and Lazada as the village shops don't usually carry "inverter".

[dddave]

Lazada delivered a sofa to my GF's village in Khon Kaen, about 25km outside of Chum Phere with no issues.

FWIW, a Mitsubishi fridge I bought for the same family 10 years ago is still working normally. It's one of the small, about 5' tall ones, cost under B5000 at a Tesco-Lotus.  The one annoying issue with most of the small fridges with a non-separate  freezer compartment is they tend to frost up and get ice bound every few months, requiring usually pretty messy defrosting.  If within your budget, a fridge with a separate freezer will be less a headache.

At most upcountry shopping centers there are Tuk-Tuk and mini-pick up drivers who will deliver most things. There is probably also a person in his village that has a pick-up and makes extra money picking-up and delivering stuff for locals.

Edited October 16, 2019 by dddave

[Tayaout]

I live 3h from Bangkok in a small village. Bought a huge freezer and it was delivered to my door. The shipping fee is included in the price on Lazada. I paid ~260 baht and it tooks 3 days. In your picture you can see shipping is free anywhere in Thailand. 

 

BigC won't deliver to my current address but probably do 20KM from Bangkok. They delivered a fridge to my old Bangkok address. 

Edited October 16, 2019 by Tayaout

[sometimewoodworker]

 There's really no one answer for does Lazada deliver for free because it very much depends on the shop you're buying from within Lazada and their limits if the shop has free delivery on the amount you want to spend it's anywhere in Thailand, free delivery ranges from spending more than 99 Baht from one shop to spending more than 20,000 with another. Lazada is a platform not a shop.

 

If free delivery is important you can filter for that.

 

As to the most important point that is automatic defrost.

Edited October 16, 2019 by sometimewoodworker

[wayned]

Lazada will deliver but I would buy one from a local dealer, preferably one that also has a repair center or contact.  I'd check on warranty and if they are an authorized warranty repair center for the brand that you buy.  If the shop doesn;t have their own delivery they will be able to arrange it for you but it won't be free.

[Psimbo]

Lazada deliver country-wide. I've even seen their trucks inside Doi Inthanon park. I've had stuff delivered to a small village 50km outside Chiang Mai before. As for free shipping its down to the vendor but shipping costs are low.

Edited October 16, 2019 by Psimbo

[55Jay]

Yeah, check in the town or nearest towns close to the house, and they'll deliver it.  Bigger chains in closest city will, might charge an extra petrol fee or something. 

 

No idea about Lazada for large items like that.  But hey, support the local town folks and get it from them as long as it's not too much more.  Why not.  As others said, good to buy local.  If any problem, ideally, they can sort it out any problems Thai to Thai.

[Beggar]

You have to look at the energy consumption and also at service and the availability of spare parts. If you buy an unknown brand it might not exist anymore in a couple of months. So a warranty might be completely useless in such a case. 

[kamalabob2]

If the OP buys a real brand, such as Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Panansoic, Samsung or Electrolux he will have a shot at after sales service. Good luck on the no name brands of fridges often sold on Lazada. Samsung service does not care who you bought it from as long as you have the original receipt and warranty papers. Many other brands sub out warranty repairs, but some brands have fr better warranty terms and locations of warranty repair service centers. 

[Moonlover]

A refrigerator is probably the most reliable of the 'white goods' that you can buy. So as long as you buy a well known brand your G/f's family are unlikely to have any issues.

 

Regarding delivery, we also live, without a car, in a small village 20kls from town, We've never had any problem getting goods, great and small delivered to our dwelling. Just yesterday we had a complete bathroom suite and a large water tank delivered by Global House. Just let the G/F do the talking.

[kingofthemountain]

For the op 2 advices

choose a low energy consumption model

(Unless you pay the dad's energy bills)

and as some have already suggested, it should be better

to buy in a small shop in the area, you have less choice in models and you pay a little more

but you can easily have a repair if something go wrong during guarantee period and

you have a free delivery (And they care during the transport, a lot of freeze models do not like 

at all to be lay on the side, they need to be staying up and small shops are more aware about 

that because they need to change or repair if they don't)

[KhunBENQ]

Maybe problem solved already?

Otherwise just supporting posts like #13.

Every dealer in a district town will deliver to the house at least within the district (like 20km or so). Even MAKRO would deliver within 30km or so for price > 5000?

We never had to organize own transport for fridge and washing machine.

Recently they lifted a 60kg washing machine upstairs.

 

[wayned]

I bought an 18 ft³ Whirlpoool from Home Pro in Bangkok 19 years ago next month and put it in the back of my truck and hauled it here, 250 kilometers north in the "boonies".  The first time that it failed I put it in the back of my truck and hauled it to the local appliance repair place.  The first thing that he looked at was the production date and said"very old".  30 minutes later it had been repaired by replacing the defrost timer, cost 600 baht.  It's failed twice more since then, everytime the defrost timer which I just go and buy and install myself.  I just bypass the timer until I "get around to it", usuaklly reminded by the excessive ice build up in the freezer.

[sometimewoodworker]

8 hours ago, wayned said:

I bought an 18 ft³ Whirlpoool from Home Pro in Bangkok 19 years ago next month and put it in the back of my truck and hauled it here, 250 kilometers north in the "boonies".  The first time that it failed I put it in the back of my truck and hauled it to the local appliance repair place.  The first thing that he looked at was the production date and said"very old".  30 minutes later it had been repaired by replacing the defrost timer, cost 600 baht.  It's failed twice more since then, everytime the defrost timer which I just go and buy and install myself.  I just bypass the timer until I "get around to it", usuaklly reminded by the excessive ice build up in the freezer.

I may have exactly that problem, as I have the same make and symptoms.

 

could you show a picture of what and where the faulty part is and goes please 

[OneMoreFarang]

9 hours ago, wayned said:

I bought an 18 ft³ Whirlpoool

I have to admit I was a little confused by that - but then I realized my misunderstanding.

[Farangwithaplan]

On refrigerators it can be a good bet to buy a brand with a history of making them. All fridges work but the cost of running inefficient ones can be much higher than a quality inefficient one.

 

A friend recently bought an LG (i think) unit about 14.5 Cu Ft unit for under 10k. Last year's model apparently. It is a gem. That was from a Home Pro.

 

I would imagine you can arrange to have a Home Pro or Power Buy deliver to anywhere. If not, a private contractor might be able to assist.

 

What is the budget for the unit including delivery?

[OneMoreFarang]

Thanks for all your tips. I will keep them in mind.

I didn't reply recently because I wait until my gf goes up country again. It might be a couple of weeks until she will buy that fridge and until then I won't have any updates.