REFRIGERATOR BUYING GUIDE
Throughout this guide dashed links will take you to filtered product lists.
INTRODUCTION
You're in luck: You are going to like your new refrigerator a lot more than your current one.
As Consumer Reports puts it, "The trend is toward spacious models with flexible, more-efficiently-used storage space,. Useful features such as spillproof, slide-out glass shelves, and temperature-controlled compartments, once found only in expensive refrigerators, are now practically standard in midpriced models." New models also tend to be quieter than fridges of the past.
You'll also save on electricity because new Energy-Star models are much more efficient – and since your refrigerator probably consumes more electricity than any other gadget in your house, that counts!
FIRST THINGS FIRST: MEASURE!
Above all, the refrigerator you get has to fit into your kitchen. It also has to have enough room for your family's needs. So let's talk about figuring out how big a space you have, and how much capacity you need.
Fitting the Fridge Into Your Space
Most buyers are replacing an old refrigerator. The space is already there. All you have to do is make sure your new fridge fits into that same space. (According to Best Buy, the number-one reason new refrigerators are returned is that they won't fit!) Obviously, that means you get out a ruler and measure how DEEP the space is, how WIDE it is, and how HIGH it is.
Of course, there's a little bit more to it than that. (There always is.)
Deep: From the back wall, you measure out to where you want the front of the refrigerator to be. Of course, you have to leave enough space in front of the fridge so people can walk by, so drawers and doors behind you don't bump into it, and so the door of the fridge can open without hitting anything. You might want to write down a range – here's how deep it should be to be comfortable for everyone; here's how much deeper it could be and still kind of squeeze it in, if we really had to. Then consult with your store salespeople – they're familiar with the issues and know how to give you practical advice.
If you're really squeezed for space in front of the fridge, side-by-side refrigerators have the big advantage that the two doors are only half as wide as single-door models, so they don't stick out in front as much. This can be a real space-saver.
When comparing the refrigerator that interests you to your measurements, ask how much clearance the fridge needs behind it; that will take away some of your available space. Fridges often have cooling coils and other gadgets hanging from the back, so they can't be pushed flat against the back wall.
Wide: Usually there's not much choice here: The opening for the fridge is only so wide. Measure the inches, but don't buy a fridge that's exactly that measurement – you don't want to squeeze the thing into the space – for one thing, you don't want to scrape the sides; and it's hard enough walking the fridge into the boxlike space that's usually provided without having zero side room. The store should be able to help here: Tell them this measurement is exactly how wide the space is, and ask them what width fridge they recommend you fit into that space. They have lots of experience on this.
One tricky part of the width issue is how the refrigerator doors open. They swing on hinges, and usually the hinges stick out a little from the corners, and when you actually swing open the door, it takes up a little side space. If the fridge is going into a boxlike spot, or if it's tight against the cabinets on either side (as is usually the case), the doors might not have the clearance to open completely. So look at the hinges on the doors of the fridge you're planning to buy to see how much it sticks out, and open the doors when you're in the store showroom to see how much the door swings out to the side.
To fix this problem, some fridges are made with special hinges that don't stick out, so the door when fully open doesn't eat up any extra side space. That's a nice feature if you are in a pinch for space.
You also have to take extra care if the refrigerator will be going into a space where it's next to a wall or door: If the door opens into the wall or the door, it will only be able to open so far. That can make it hard to put in and take out bulky things, because the thickness of the door will block part of your access to the fridge's interior. One solution if you're in that fix is to get a refrigerator whose door opens on the other side, away from wall or door. Many fridges come with doors that can be mounted from either side, your choice. Again side-by-side models have doors that are only half as wide, and sometimes that helps.
High: If you have cabinets above the refrigerator, you'll have to decide how high a refrigerator you want, depending on how much space you want to leave up above. Some people like to store things on top of the refrigerator; some people hate the clutter and want the fridge to fill up the gap. Measure according to your style. If you have nothing above your refrigerator to get in the way, then you don't have to worry about measuring for height.
Designing Around Your Refrigerator: The most convenient situation is to be building a space for your refrigerator, rather than fitting it into an existing space. You may be building a new home, or redoing the kitchen to your specifications. In this case, you will decide on your refrigerator needs, then build around it. Of course, you still have to fit all the pieces together, and into the overall space and design plan, including fitting it in with all the other components of your kitchen. It's a good idea to discuss this with your designer, architect, or contractor; many appliance stores and appliance departments have design experts to help you make decisions about fitting your refrigerator into your kitchen vision.
Don't Forget Ventilation: You will need to make sure your refrigerator's motors are able to breathe and cycle the air that keeps things cold, so you won't want to cram the unit too tightly into its space. This is another good reason to compare notes with your appliance sales team at the store, matching up the measurements you've taken with the dimensions of the model you're considering buying.
The Path from Your Front Door: One wild card you won't want to surprise you is the dimensions of the pathway from the front of your house to the spot where the fridge will live. Stairs, doorways, doors that don't open completely, hallways, elevators (God bless the freight elevator!) and the space in front of the fridge all conspire to make it hard for the delivery people to maneuver the thing into place. Do some work with a measuring tape to find the narrowest and most awkward point along the path from truck to kitchen, and DO mention any tight spots, bottlenecks, and potential quirks to the salespeople at the store.
A Tip: Not In The Garage: Don't put a refrigerator or freezer unit in your garage, unless your garage is insulated. They don't work right when it gets very hot or very cold, especially self-defrosting refrigerators. For example, when it gets below freezing, the oil in the motor gets so thick that the compressor can fail prematurely. When it gets too hot, the refrigerator motor can fail and just shut down.
Fitting Your Family's Needs
Just as important as measuring the space you have to fit your refrigerator into your kitchen is figuring out how much refrigerator capacity you need. That depends on how many family members you have, and your meal lifestyle.
Here's a rule of thumb offered by Lowe's for figuring out roughly how many cubic feet of refrigerator you need. Start with two people as the base: Two people will need about eight to 10 cubic feet of fresh food storage – that's not counting the freezer. Then add a cubic foot of refrigerator for each extra person in your family or living group.
So for a family of four, you want a system of 10 to 12 cubic feet. Now every fridge you see claims 20 to 26 cubic feet, so you should be safe – except that, like miles-per-gallon claims for autos, cubic foot claims for fridges are exaggerated. Rule of thumb: According to Consumer Reports, usable space for top-freezer models is about 80% of the claim, while for side-by-sides, usable space is typically 65% of the number on the sticker. That means that for side-by-sides, the usable space will be eight or nine cubic feet less than claimed, and for top- and bottom-freezer models, four or five cubic feet less. Fortunately, even a side-by-side that claims only 20 cubic foot has at least 12 of usable space, so a typical family of four should be in good shape with any standard fridge of any type.
If your needs are different, you'll have to adjust: If everyone in your family is a famished teenaged boy, or everyone in your group is in a competitive physical sport, or you have a family of eight, or you really, really like to cook lots of food – then scale up, and talk about your capacity needs with the salespeople at the store – they know which fridges are the really big ones.
BASIC TYPES OF REFRIGERATORS AND HOW TO CHOOSE
The freezer-above-the-refrigerator style is the classic, and it still has the important advantages of being the least expensive style on average, the most reliable over time, and the most energy efficient. It is also the most popular model in sales volume.
There are models that are narrower than other types of fridges, so this is a good choice if you have a narrow space to fit it into.
Top-freezer models also make better use of the interior space than side-by-sides, mainly because the refrigerator compartment is just one big box. You can put big things in there by moving a few shelves around; pizza boxes are no problem. The freezer itself is also a big box, where you can more easily cram a frozen turkey before Thanksgiving.
Various kinds of adjustable shelves, special compartments for meats and for vegetables, and many types of adjustable door shelves so you can hold gallon milk jugs round out the picture.
The freezer-on-bottom style is also less pricey than the side-by-side models on average, but has better reliability and energy efficiency closer to that of the top-freezer model.
The main advantage of the bottom-freezer design is that items in the refrigerator part are at eye level, while frozen goods – and especially large and heavy frozen goods – are more easily accessible for shorter people and some of the disabled. Of course, things on the very top shelf of the refrigerator are now less accessible, but this can be more easily worked around.
It can be harder to stack frozen goods in a bottom freezer and use the space efficiently, because instead of a door opening on a box with shelves, the bottom freezer is usually a drawer you pull out, and you lower things into the freezer box. So things get stacked up on top of each other and you sometimes have to empty out part of the freezer to get at stuff that's buried down below.
To address this problem, makers have been adding special lift-out baskets (so you don't have to sort through the goods while bending over) and special shelves. Other models offer freezers with doors, just like top-freezer models, so you can put frozen goods on shelves in the same way, though in this case you will be crouching down to access your frozen foods.
In the main refrigerator compartment, you'll find everything is right there at a middle level, so things are easy to find and take in and out. If you spend lots of time in the fridge and less time in the freezer, you'll appreciate not having to bend over as much with a bottom-freezer model.
Side-by-side models have a freezer unit behind the full-length left-side door, and the refrigerator unit behind the full-length right-side door. People like these somewhat more expensive units because, for one thing, they seem very modern compared to the old-fashioned top-freezer classic model. You also get a lot of freezer space, and it's all right there – no bending over or reaching up to get at things.
Side-by-sides have short doors, so they don't swing out as much when you open the fridge door. This can really be nice if your kitchen walkway is narrow, or the fridge sits in an area where there's not much room for the doors to swing open.
The side-by-side models also pioneered the thick-door-with-roomy-shelves concept, which lets you easily stick gallon containers of milk conveniently in the door instead of in the main fridge area. Side-by-sides tend to be where manufacturers put their pioneering new-design efforts in other areas, like cold-water dispensers and cubed ice dispensers, as well as shelving novelties like putting lips on shelves so if you spill something, it doesn't drip off the shelf into the rest of the fridge. Since the units are narrow, it's easier to adjust the adjustable shelves with just one hand.
The main disadvantages of this design are that they tend to have higher prices, are more likely to require repairs, and are a bit less energy-efficient even if they are Energy-Star complaint. The popular through-the-door water and ice-cube dispensers also tend to be the thing that breaks down most often. Finally, since the two side-by-side units are narrower, you won't be able to cram in wider items like pizza boxes or oversized turkeys. When it comes to capacity, the cubic footage claims of the manufacturers tend to be a bit more exaggerated with side-by-sides than with other styles, so you get a bit less usable space than you would with another style claiming the same capacity.
FRENCH-DOOR STYLE
Here's a compromise: Put the freezer on the bottom, as in a regular bottom-freezer model; but for the refrigerator unit, put in double doors. Now you get the modern styling of the side-by-side, the short doors so you aren't bumping into things, but the extra space and better dimensions of the top- or bottom-freezer models. But where the regular side-by-side refrigerator has the freezer behind the left-hand door and the refrigerator behind the right-hand door, the French-door style has one big refrigerator behind both doors – but you can open just one door or the other at a time to get something, which means you let in less warm air and you still get the advantage of the wide refrigerator space so you can fit, say, a pizza in the refrigerator. Or, since the freezer on the bottom is also the full width of the unit, the pizza (or turkey) will fit into the freezer easily too.
Built-ins tend to be less deep, but wider – which is why they are commonly part of a new-home purchase or a kitchen redesign. You can get a lot of flexibility, and you pay for it. Counter-depth models are meant to look like built-ins at lower cost.
REFRIGERATOR DRAWERS
The latest bright idea is a kind of extra mini-refrigerator, in the form of a two stacked drawers which are installed under a kitchen counter, which expands your refrigerator (but not freezer) space without having to make room for a second refrigerator. They are expensive, though, costing more than most standard full-sized refrigerator models. (If you don't care about the built-in designer look, you can of course just buy a minifridge and stick it in the corner, for a fraction of the cost.)
OTHER FEATURES YOU MAY LIKE
Consumer Reports says, "Look for features that maximize space, such as split shelves (the two halves of the shelf can be raised or lowered separately) and cranks for adjusting shelf height. Pull-out shelves provide access to the back of the fridge and freezer. In bottom-freezers, full-extension pull-out drawers help you find items in the rear."
Sturdy shelves that can be adjusted quickly and in many ways easily are you best insurance that you'll like the interior layout in real life. Adjustable door shelves are a great idea too. Good lighting helps; check the lighting inside the freezer, too.
Shelf snuggers in door shelves help secure bottles and jars so they don't move around. Wine racks hold wine bottles in the recommended horizontal manner. Glass shelves are easier to clean, and most have a lip to prevent spills from dripping down.
You know those crisper drawers for veggies, and meat drawers? They've upgraded now: You can get them with separate temperature controls so they can be kept cooler than the rest of the refrigerator, and humidity controls. Such bins should be see-through. You can get custom cooling bins to rapidly chill drinks or safely defrost meats. There's also a quick-freeze shelf in the freezer that freezes food put there faster.
People like icemakers, which vary a lot in how much they produce, from several pounds per day to 10 pounds or more. Icemakers take up freezer space, though. Side-by-side models offer through-the-door ice and cold-water dispensers (though these do greatly increase the chance that you'll need repairs in the future), while some top- and bottom-freezer models offer water dispensers inside, not through the door. (You can get locks to prevent the kiddies from playing with the door ice and water dispensers.) Some water dispensers have water filters to reduce impurities (though many municipalities have surprisingly pure water supplies, so you might want to check on that before spending what may turn out to be unnecessary money). If you get a water filter unit, you'll have to change the filter occasionally, so check that it's readily accessible.
Mechanical controls have been replaced in many models with electronic touchpads. Especially useful is a digital display that shows not just the temperature you've set, but the actual temperature inside the refrigerator.
Another new gimmick designed for convenience and energy savings is the "in-door refreshment center," a little compartment built into the door that lets you store snacks and beverages your kids eat frequently, so they aren't opening the big door and letting all the cold air out.
You can get alarms to warn you if the door is left open, or if the interior temperature drops below a safe level. The maker LG even offers a model with a TV set built into the fridge door; the TV can be plugged into a DVD or satellite TV signal or even the Internet. No, we don't know why you'd want that, unless you watch a lot of TV while in the kitchen and want to save counter space.
Style is always a personal issue, of course. Stainless steel exteriors are getting more affordable, other types of exteriors are becoming more colorful, fingerprint-resistant and glasslike coatings are being offered, and curved doors are gaining in popularity. Of course, the style you choose has to fit into the rest of your kitchen's style; or else the style will become an excuse to redo the entire rest of the kitchen. And that would be a shame, wouldn't it.
INTERIOR LAYOUT
The bottom-line issue for how much you will like the refrigerator you choose is how much you like how the inside is organized. Unfortunately, this is the hardest thing to picture when shopping for a fridge. Take a good look at your current refrigerator and think about the many little convenience pain points. Wouldn't it be great if you could widen or contract that space as needed? Raise or lower that shelf? Have a half-shelf in that space? If your friends have new refrigerators, invite yourself over – it's good to be able to see in real life how the food and containers actually fit in. And your friends will have opinions, some of them useful.
First, you care about saving money. Your refrigerator is typically the device in your home that consumes the most electricity; in most homes, it accounts for half your electrical bill. Energy Star, a U.S. government program that requires manufacturers to design more energy-efficient products, has had a great impact: Refrigerators today eat up only one-third as much energy as they did 25 years ago, and half as much as they did even five or six years ago. You could cut your electrical bill a lot by replacing that clunker – a new fridge can cost as little as $50 to $70 a year to run these days. Mainly they accomplish this with improved motors, better defrosting processes, and better insulation.
Second, some states and some cities offer cash rebates if you upgrade to an Energy-Star-complaint appliance. Check with your utility company for details; they've probably been sticking rebate pitches in your electrical bill for years.
Third, you of course care about The Environment, so cutting back on your energy-burning ways is always a good idea. You can buy that new refrigerator you've always wanted and then pat yourself on the back for your good citizenship.
BRANDS: WHO MAKES AND SELLS REFRIGERATORS
There are a lot of refrigerator brands, and the number has grown with high-end models coming in from Europe in recent years.
The major brand names in the U.S. are Frigidaire, General Electric, Whirlpool, Kenmore (manufactured by Whirlpool), Maytag, Amana, Fisher-Paykel, Jenn-Air, KitchenAid, L.G., Samsung, Sub-Zero, Thermadore, and Viking, Liebherr, and Bosch. Then there are the high-end models of the major brands, such as the Electrolux Icon, the GE Monogram and Profile, and the Kenmore Elite lines.
In recent Consumer Reports testing, all these makers are capable of producing quality products you'll be happy with, though a few models have problematical repair histories, especially models with through-the-door ice and water dispensers.
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