Craft Ice Makers in LG Refrigerators Are ‘Certain to Fail,’ Class Action Says

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Another proposed class action lawsuit claims the “craft ice” makers in certain LG refrigerators are defective and prone to fail within months or even weeks of use.

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The 43-page lawsuit says that although LG touts the craft ice makers as a “new frontier for home mixologists and cocktail connoisseurs,” the products suffer from a defect that can cause the ice machines to freeze, jam or fail to operate well before the end of the refrigerators’ service lives.

According to the suit, LG is aware of the problem as the “smart,” WiFi-enabled refrigerators, whose key feature is that they can make large balls of slow-melting ice in their freezer drawer, transmit performance data back to the company. Further, LG began receiving consumer complaints as early as November 2020, the complaint says.

However, despite the many complaints on social media and message boards, LG “refuses to properly address and rectify the problem” and has denied consumers reimbursements for repairs or replacement costs, the case claims.

“In fact, Defendant continue[s] to affirmatively hold out the [refrigerators] as effective, fit for their ordinary and intended purpose, and free from [defects],” the complaint says.

Consumers have also reported that the company’s replacement craft ice makers are similarly defective and “certain to fail,” the filing adds, noting that there is “simply is no way for [consumers] to return their [refrigerators] to working order, because there is no remedy for the Defect.”

What’s more, LG’s one-year warranty “offers little in the way of actual relief,” the lawsuit relays. After the warranty expires, the suit explains, LG refuses to provide further coverage unless an extended warranty is purchased, leaving many consumers with no choice but to extend their coverage or pay hefty out-of-pocket repair costs.

As the case tells it, consumers are put in an “impossible situation.” Outside of buying an appliance to replace the one for which they paid a premium price, “their only options are to … keep their defective [refrigerator] and pay for multiple repairs, or forgo using the Craft Ice Maker feature, without which they would not have bought [the appliance] in the first place,” the complaint contends.

In September 2021, the plaintiff, a California resident, bought an LG model LRSOS2706S refrigerator specifically for its craft ice maker, the filing says. Within two months of use, the ice machine reportedly began making a “loud grinding noise” and leaked water into the freezer compartment, which froze into a sheet of ice, the lawsuit shares.

After three failed attempts by the plaintiff and LG technicians to repair and replace the ice machine between November 2021 and July 2022, the consumer again contacted the company for a repair but was warned that, as his warranty was about to expire, he needed to purchase an extended warranty to cover future issues, the suit says.

“In other words, LG informed Plaintiff that even if LG’s repairs (again) failed to cure the Defect, LG would refuse to honor its warranty and repair his refrigerator at no cost,” the case charges.

The plaintiff purchased an extended warranty for $392, and after two more technician visits, the defect purportedly manifested again in December 2022, the complaint states. Repairs continued into February of this year, when another replacement craft ice maker was installed in the man’s refrigerator. Because of its history of failures, however, the plaintiff expects the new ice machine to “fail within several months,” the filing adds.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States who purchased an LG-brand refrigerator equipped with a craft ice maker.

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