Under warranty, sure. After the one year warranty is over, they will answer questions, but it's all up to you and your tech. It's been out of warranty for a year. Did you purchase an extended warranty with an after market warranty company?

This is why the typical 1 year warranty is a consumer ripoff.

Summit makes lots of small refrigerators such as model SCR500BLHH for $539. Search "compact refrigerators and "beverage centers" at appliancesconnection.com

Sorry, you've had problems with it. We installed a 15" ULine under counter beverage fridge 8 years ago and it has worked well all these years. Not a single problem or service call. We remodeled the kitchen this past year and that was the only appliance that we kept and reused.

If you bought it with AMEX, they add a year warranty to your purchase. Just a thought-it saved my butt once.

Thanks, all. No extended warranty purchased and we called the company and were told that we're outside the warranty, so it's no help here.

chispa, I hope you're well! I'm surprised and disappointed that this appliance is the first to die. It's doubly annoying because we had custom cabs made to fit this model. Glad to hear your U-Line has worked consistently.

Thanks summit for the recs for other more affordable fridges.

I reached out to the company to see if they could help with our service issue. I'll keep you all posted.

I did a search, found HeritageParts.com that carries U-Line parts. Model U-3018RGLOL-00 comes up listing only 5 items. The "digital controller" Part Number 68099 is tagged as Discontinued and no substitute is stated.

There's also a "thermistor" Part Number 68092 (which would be the temperature sensor) that is substituted to Part Number 80-54006-00.

U-LineService.com search for the model (after a false-start) finds reference to Control (Main BD & Display) Part Number 80-54407-00, listed for $649.99. Does that correlate with the price you were quoted? HeritageParts.com does have it under the substitute number for the same price as U-LineService.com.

Searching eBay for "u-line 80-54407-00) finds a new board (without the display module) for $400 (with a Make Offer option).

Google on the part number finds numerous hits, including one that indicates Part Number 80-26046-00 as a substitute (I don't know if that's valid).

I know of two board repair services (I've seen references to a couple others that I don't recall). FixYourBoard.com and CorecentricSolutions.com. Neither lists any U-Line boards but both may handle items that aren't explicitly listed on their web sites.

thanks so much, dadoes. This is helpful info to have.

Just an update, after reaching out to U-Line's customer service, they are only willing to offer me a "discount" on the part that is apparently malfunctioning. This will mean that I have to sink around $500-600 into the unit (for labor and parts), after already paying $150 for diagnostics. They flat out refused to replace the unit which broke after two years. A $3,500 beverage center! Ridiculous.

So...for anyone that is thinking about buying a U-Line product, DON'T. I should have coughed up the extra $ for the SubZero fridge, because U-Line is really sub-par when it comes to quality and customer service.

I bet there is a way to bypass the electronic garbage on that unit. Literally all that's needed is a thermostat that opens and closes a switch to the turn the compressor on .

"Literally all that's needed is a thermostat that opens and closes a switch to the turn the compressor on."

Assuming the unit is frost-free, wouldn't it also need to know when needed to defrost?

As mentioned above, if you paid by credit card and are still under 2 years, your CC may extend the warranty. You need to file an initial claim within the 2 year time frame, though.

If the technicians correctly identified the fault, then asking a repair service to fix the board might make a lot of sense. I can't imagine that the electronics are overly complicated, and typically faults are limited to a couple of really obvious components. So, this could very well be fixable. I'd give it an 80% chance.

On the other hand, I know that service technicians love to blame the main controller board for any type of fault that they can't isolate. So, there is a good chance that something else has failed and your efforts are going to be futile, as the main controller board is in fact perfectly fine.

There also is the possibility that some other component failed and the failure of the main board is simply a trickle-down effect. In that scenario, until you find the root cause, the main board would keep failing over and over again.

A good technician could help with all of the above. And realistically, an appliance such as a fridge as not super complex. It certainly can be debugged, if you put enough effort into it. But it is unclear whether that's economically viable :-/ Competent technicians aren't exactly cheap.

"Cans of soda and bottles of wine have exploded in it"

What? How did that happen? I've accidentally frozen soda before when trying for a quick chill and I forgot it. But the cans didn't explode. They just warped. Wine just became a wine slush.

I have managed to make bottles and cans explode in the freezer. It's a bit of a question of how (un)lucky you get.

And there are different reasons for why a fridge could suddenly turn into a freezer. It could be an issue with the termostat, with the air fan, with failure to defrost, with the controller board, or possibly a few other things.

It was the control board issue and the fridge apparently did turn into a freezer, hence the exploding bottles in it.

Just as an update, U-Line agreed to repair the unit after I went up their chain of customer service. The unit has just been serviced and we will see if the fridge is working properly. Fingers crossed.

Did this fix work? I am looking for two under counter appliances—a small refrigerator that has an ice maker and no drain required, and a wine refrigerator. ULine makes a 24” RF that is just what I want. Sub Zero also makes this but it costs much more. I was planning on doing U Line and maybe buying two of their cheapest wine refrigerators in 1000 line vs a dual zone 3000 series. Are there any other suggestions for this? I have had cheap wine refrigerators that just died in the past and I want a good one this time and I thought it was U Line...

I have u-line 1000 series wine fridges in both of my homes. One is 7 years old and other one is 3 years old. No issues.

I have 2 Uline 24 inch refrigerators in which the cans constantly freeze and explode without changing the temperature. One has leaked into the room below ruining the ceiling and carpet. Now the door doesn't seal properly so I use it for storing grain and flour and keep a stool propped next to it to keep the door closed. My 18 inch one hasn't given problems.Not sure what brand to replace it with when I remodel.

I found that the ice maker took up a huge amount of space in undercounter units. It just felt excessive. So, instead, we installed undercounter freezers that don't include an ice maker. And we have an old fridge somewhere else in the house that can make ice. Every so often, we carry some ice from that fridge to our undercounter freezers. Given that our family uses only moderate amounts of ice, this solution works better for us. YMMV

chrisinsd, the fix worked and it the undercounter fridge is working great now. We were happy with U-Line's customer service - they were responsive.

Thanks M and Pipdog. My dream post remodel is to be able to make a cocktail/beverage at my living room built-in without needing anything from the kitchen. I want the room to be independently useful. So yes, ice maker is bulky, but what I require for my use case.

U-Line products are crap and their service is about the same. We've had 3 products and 2 are now dead. Clear ice maker had a valve failure about 4 years in that flooded the basement and did $18K damage - apparently a known valve issue that U-Line failed to disclose or notify customers about. Our beverage center had a complete failure and since it is a sealed system will cost more to repair than buy a new one. We have a 3rd refrigerator that is still alive and kicking for now. (Not holding my breath). For the cost, these should last longer than units that you can buy at Lowe's.

U-Line service is woeful and not very empathetic. Even local dealers say the same thing and repair guys throw up their hands when faced with attempting to repair these things.

My under counter U Line is over 20 years old. I will purchase another one, without a doubt.