LG Craft Ice Maker Fridges Defective, Claims Milberg Class Action

LG refrigerators equipped with a Craft Ice Maker have a defect that makes them unable to perform as intended and warranted, alleges a Milberg class action lawsuit. Anyone who purchased an LG Craft Ice Maker fridge may be eligible to join this lawsuit and recover compensation.

About LG’s Craft Ice Maker

LG markets its trademarked Craft Ice as “slow melting round ice” that is “one of the hottest beverage trends.”

The manufacturer released the first-ever Craft Ice refrigerator in 2019. These fridges are capable of producing three ice types: slow-melting Craft Ice in the freezer drawer (made in batches of three or six cubes), in addition to cubed and crushed ice in the door.

LG heavily marketed the Craft Ice feature in order to entice consumers to purchase Class Refrigerators at a premium over competitive offerings.

LG’s Craft Ice is “A Game Changer for Home Entertainers” that “Lets you entertain like a baller” and opens “a new world of high-end drinks,” the manufacturer states.

On the LG website, Craft Ice fridges retail for approximately $2,000 – $4,500. The “smart” appliances, which have wi-fi enabled features, are also sold at retailers such as Lowe’s, Best Buy, and The Home Depot.

Customer Complaints About the Craft Ice Maker

LG Craft Ice Maker refrigerators have overall customer review scores of 2.8 stars out of 5. Both the 30 cu. ft. model and the 24 cu. ft. model have more 1-star ratings than 5-star ratings. Some of the most common customer complaints relate to the Craft Ice Maker function.

• One customer posted to the LG website that they purchased their fridge in October 2020 and the Craft Ice Maker stopped working in April 2021.
• Another customer wrote that their Craft Ice Maker broke just short of a year after they bought the fridge, and the same thing happened following a replacement. “The ice spheres freeze in the maker, it tries to refill and spills over the water that freezes on the container below, making a mess,” the customer said.

A common thread cuts through these poor reviews. Customers say the Craft Ice Maker was key to their purchasing decision, but within a year of purchase, the Craft Ice Maker stopped working and caused leaks. What’s more, these problems reoccurred when the Craft Ice Maker was replaced by LG under warranty. Then, once the warranty expired, LG refused to repair or replace the Craft Ice Maker free of charge because it was outside the warranty period.

Lead Plaintiff and Class Allegations

The customer experiences described above echo those of the lead plaintiff in Milberg’s LG Craft Ice Maker lawsuit.

California resident Jeff Henenfent bought an LG refrigerator (model LRSOS2706S) from Home Depot in September 2021. He paid approximately $1,800 for the WiFi and Craft Ice Maker-equipped fridge.

His purchasing decision was based on research of several competing refrigerator brands. Ultimately, he decided to buy the LG fridge—and paid a premium for it—due to its perceived quality and features, including the Craft Ice Maker.

Plaintiff Claims

• Within two months of delivery, Henenfent says, the Craft Ice Maker developed an obstruction, started making a grinding noise, and leaked water into the freezer compartment.
• Upon calling LG customer support, he was advised to reset the Craft Ice Maker, and then to unplug and re-plug the fridge.
• When neither of these solutions resolved the issue, LG sent a technician to Henenfent’s home. However, this also failed to fix the problem.
• A month later, the technician installed a new Craft Ice Maker. This temporarily solved the issue, but several months later, it returned.
• LG agreed to schedule another repair technician, but told Henenfent that his limited warranty was about to expire. Future repairs would therefore require an “extended” warranty, LG said.
• Henenfent purchased an extended warranty for around $400. After another repair was performed, the defect once again manifested. This time, a third party warranty repair technician was dispatched.
• The latest replacement Craft Ice Maker was installed in February 2023. Based on the record of repeated failures, Henenfent fully expects the new unit to fail as well.

LG Knew About Issue Since 2020

According to the lawsuit, LG was aware of the issues plaguing its Craft Ice Maker fridges since at least November 2020 based on consumer complaints, repair and warranty data, and product performance data acquired from the fridge’s “smart” functionality.

However, despite this information, LG refused to disclose the Craft Ice Maker defect, knowing disclosure would undermine a key competitive advantage, the lawsuit alleges. LG’s failure to acknowledge the defect also affects their warranty coverage and puts customers in a no-win situation.

Once the Defect manifests, [customers’] only options are to purchase a non-defective refrigerator to replace a Class Refrigerator for which they paid a premium, keep their defective Class Refrigerator and pay for multiple repairs, or forgo using the Craft Ice Maker feature, without which they would not have bought Class Refrigerators in the first place.

Proposed Classes

The lawsuit asserts violations of state consumer protection laws and seeks damages for breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty, and unjust enrichment. It looks to establish the following classes of consumer who purchased any LG Craft Ice Maker refrigerators:

• A Nationwide Class
• A California Subclass

Notably, a previous LG refrigerator class action lawsuit resulted in the company being ordered to pay consumers $400 – $3,500 for a cooling defect.

Milberg: A National Leader in Consumer Class Actions

Eligible class members do not have to hire an attorney. Milberg is representing the class on a contingency-fee basis. We pioneered federal class action litigation and remain a national leader in consumer class actions, with tens of billions of dollars recovered for our clients.

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