toria wrote:I asked the sales man what the average life was for a stove or refrig...seems like for any appliace I asked about he said ten to twelve years.

We recently bought our second fridge in 22 years in our house. The last one made it about 11 years, which seemed awfully short. We're happy with the new one so far (only 6 weeks!)--and the best thing is that the freezer is on the bottom. We love not having to bend down to see what's in the back on the bottom shelf.

@pairs4life -Hey there. Just to add my two cents...

We recently built a house and had to outfit our kitchen with all the appliances. We chose an Electrolux counter-depth French door with a freezer on the bottom. I wanted an ice/water dispenser in the front and enough room for food. The counter-depth will always be smaller, it's just shallower than a stand alone but what I liked about the French door style is that we can put larger, wider items in the fridge (think: huge cake or sheet pan full of dry rub ribs) without a problem. It also has a "chill" drawer which can be set colder/warmer than the rest of the fridge. The freezer on the bottom has sturdy shelves which allows us to organize a little easier and see what we actually have in there. Here's the link: http://www.electroluxappliances.com/kitchen-appliances/refrigeration/french-door/ew23bc71is

The drawbacks for me so far (4 months into it) is that the ice maker doesn't have enough volume - I really like ice. So, with parties, I always grab an extra bag or so. Also, it's a bit pricey but not nearly as much as the Viking I had in Chicago (a real waste of money).

Good luck.

Pie-love wrote:We bought a new refrigerator recently-- a Frigidaire (actually two!). When we were at ABT scoping out refrigerators, we were looking at French door models with the freezer on the bottom. My husband suggested that for the price of a large-ish (21 or 22 sq. ft.) fridge, we could get TWO smaller (18 sq ft) basic models and keep one in the basement. This worked out brilliantly for us-- the smaller fridge makes our kitchen look larger, and the basement fridge serves as superb overflow space for extra milk, bread dough, forcing tulip bulbs, CSA produce, etc. I find I waste much less food because the upstairs fridge is much less crowded and I can find everything. Also, given the improvements in efficiency, the two smaller fridges run on about the same amount of power as our old fridge.

Jen

The fridge is still acting odd, but I'm really thinking about this solution.

Anyone else have experience with the fridge/freezer solution?

pairs4life wrote:The fridge is still acting odd, but I'm really thinking about this solution.

Anyone else have experience with the fridge/freezer solution?

I'm not someone else, but despite feeling a bit ridiculous about having so much chilled space for a family of three, I'm still really happy with the two-fridge solution. Costco shopping, long-proof bread dough, cold beer, multiple gallons of milk-- having the extra space is great for us.

Cheers, Jen

In Québec, it is customary to have a "beer fridge" in the basement/sous-sol. (Assuming that you have a cellar!) This is certainly true in Montréal. I've got such a fridge in the sous-sol, and I find that it is a marvelous supplement to my ordinary refrigeration behavior. In fact, the option is so valuable, that my housie and I in KC now have a "beer fridge" in the basement of our house there. The downstairs fridge is much less frequently opened, so the temps are much more stable. This is especially important in the freezer, which I use for long-term storage of well-wrapped meat.

Geo

seebee wrote:A fridge's job is to keep everything at about 38 degrees. Bells and whistles are bells and whistles, but a 7000 dollar Sub Zero cannot stay at 38 degrees better than a 300 dollar Kenmore. 38 degrees is 38 degrees.

This is what I've always believed--but is it really true? (Not whether 38 degrees is 38 degrees, but whether all refrigerators do an equally good job of keeping the temperature at a constant 38 degrees.) The question is not academic for me, as we are about to go refrigerator shopping. Jean Blanchard mentioned her Sub Zero did an incomparable job of keeping vegetables fresh. Is it because it does an incomparable job of maintaining the same ideal temperature? I have no desire to spend thousands extra for a tony name, but am interested in attributes that make a difference.

Machines differ in insulation values, air flow patterns, fan size, motor size, etc. It's not just a question of maintaining 38°F, it's questions like 'are all the zones properly maintained at temp?', 'how fast can the fridge recover from being stocked on shopping day?' , 'how much energy does it take to keep that temp annually?' and a bunch of others. Among these many questions, I think only the last one is standardly answered.

Our GE keeps things pretty well, but it runs a lot, it's noisy, and it takes it a while to return to correct temp after new stuff is added.

I don't know where you might get answers to these important questions, sorry.

Geo

Geo wrote:Machines differ in insulation values, air flow patterns, fan size, motor size, etc. It's not just a question of maintaining 38°F, it's questions like 'are all the zones properly maintained at temp?', 'how fast can the fridge recover from being stocked on shopping day?' , 'how much energy does it take to keep that temp annually?' and a bunch of others. Among these many questions, I think only the last one is standardly answered.

Our GE keeps things pretty well, but it runs a lot, it's noisy, and it takes it a while to return to correct temp after new stuff is added.

I don't know where you might get answers to these important questions, sorry.

Actually, Geo, you raise one point I might be able to gather some anecdotal evidence on here. Noise. The first floor of our house has a kind of open "floor plan," such that a noisy refrigerator will be heard in the living room. We bought our Bosch dishwasher largely because it was reputed to be very quiet, and in fact it is--amazingly so. So quietness in a fridge will also be important to us. Anyone own a fridge that's unusually quiet for a fridge?

We bit the bullet yesterday. 18.6 cu foot all refrigerator and a matching 18.6 cu foot all freezer by Frigidaire.

Sales guy said if we get 10 years, that's good. Alistair did the math, it's about 75 cents/day. I will start the appliance fund for 2022 on Tuesday when the new goods are delivered.

http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadi ... Kgod93O41Q

Freezer http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadi ... 9D7LF.html

We believed the sales guy & the reviews on this site were decent so we went for it.

PS @tyrus Frigidaire has been owned by Electrolux for over 20 years now.

Those are really good looking. Regarding freezers, in my family most of us have an extra refrigerator and separate freezer in the basement or garage. Both my grandparents and parents had extra kitchens in the basement as well. Believe me these were nothing deluxe. They were used during holidays because small bungalows and ranch homes did not accommodate large family dinners all the time. My grandmother had a big old stove in her basement along with a refrigerator and full size chest freezer. My other grandmother and greataunt had a large stove in the basement with flat iron grates with round circles on the top and they would boil their laundry on the stove in one of those large copper basins and then put it through a wringer wash machine!!! They would also make currant jelly down there from their currant bushes. My mom had a combination laundry room kitchen. My upright freezer and an old refrigerator has traveled with me to three houses. First in the basement they now reside in the garage. They are decades old. Freezer is a sears coldspot. Yes they are used for beer, pop, and storing extra food on holidays.

riddlemay wrote:

seebee wrote:A fridge's job is to keep everything at about 38 degrees. Bells and whistles are bells and whistles, but a 7000 dollar Sub Zero cannot stay at 38 degrees better than a 300 dollar Kenmore. 38 degrees is 38 degrees.

This is what I've always believed--but is it really true? (Not whether 38 degrees is 38 degrees, but whether all refrigerators do an equally good job of keeping the temperature at a constant 38 degrees.) The question is not academic for me, as we are about to go refrigerator shopping. Jean Blanchard mentioned her Sub Zero did an incomparable job of keeping vegetables fresh. Is it because it does an incomparable job of maintaining the same ideal temperature? I have no desire to spend thousands extra for a tony name, but am interested in attributes that make a difference.

My first thought would be that the fridge's drawers had the correct humidity level set. I don't know. My new (ish) fridge seems to keep vegetables fresher compared to my old one.Then again, I have no clue what the real temp in the old one was. It had levels, not temperatures. In the new one, I set the thing to run at 38 degrees. In the old one, I think there was a knob that said "colder" on it. That may have something to do with it as well.