What To Look For In A Refrigerator?

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, The more bells and whistles, the more chance of getting trouble. I don't use ice maker. Drinking anything ice cold is unhealthy.

[Red Green]

Tony Hwang wrote in news:etc7m.1120$ [e-mail]:

So is the Internet.

[The Daring Dufas]

I know a guy who only looks for one thing in a refrigerator, . . . . . BEER.

TDD

[trader4]

On my list would be water and crushed ice in the door. The ice systems have improved a lot over the last 20 years and I love the crushed ice. It instantly cools warm beverages and you don't have the anoying cubes trying to escape the glass when you drink. If you want to see a nice ice system, check out Kitchenaid, which is what I have. It doesn't take up as much space as many other ones and has a nice bucket in the door which you can just pick up and remove if you want to take it out to get bulk ice cubes. Also, with the water system, most of the better ones have water filters. The downside is the replacements cartridges that last about 6 months cost about $25-30. You could install your own inline conventional one, provided you have a place to locate it, eg basement.

The energy star rating should be looked at too, though for most models the energy used has been improved greatly and in the end likely won't be the deciding factor.

One big difference in cost is going with stainless. No one can predict design trends, but I feel safer with stainless and think it looks great. But of course it depends on what else you have.

[William Munny]

Reliability and operating cost are the keys for me. Check Consumer Reports who recently reviewed refrigerators.

[ransley]

I shopped by comparing the yellow gov energy tag, at

all units are compared as to annual operating costs. I also picked a unit with the coil underneath since I wanted it against an insulated wall that closed in to save energy.

[charlie]

i was just in an appliance store and saw a new idea. try to get a bottom freezer with 2 smaller doors rather than a single large door with a pull out drawer. it is much easier to get to stuff on the bottom shelf of a bottom freezer if it has it's own door.

regards, charlie cave creek, az

[Joe]

Read up on the ins and outs of current offerings in Consumer Reports. Whether you choose to use their ratings as a guide is up to you, but they have many technicians involved in real live tests which IMO are well supplemented by anecdotal opinion from newsgroups. Bottom line, never turn down a credible source of good information.

Joe

[Joe J.]

Just avoid Maytag. They are the noisiest on the market. Try to get an Energystar model of any kind. When we moved last year we bought a GE Profile with in-door ice/water dispenser. We are in Nevada and these hot summer days it sure is convenient and energy conserving to not open up the doors for cubes or water. Also, ours has a big slideout freezer on the bottom and split doors on top. It gives us slide out shelves; shelves that tip up to make room for large items; room for the big soda bottle and three separate pull out drawers for meat, produce veggies etc. Joe J

[aemeijers]

dries out, gets a crust, seperates

gets nasty acidic tasting, turns dark and funny smelling

gets mushy, and the sugar overwhelms the taste.

turns into mush, tastes nasty, separates

agreed

tastes nasty, and if real PB, the oil separates

agreed, but it can become unpourable from crystallization, and you have to add a dash of h20 and nuke it.

some nuts go rancid at room temp if not in sealed containers

sealed containers only

no significant diff from home refrig, since they are not kept cool in supply chain

that is what the back fence line is for. recycle, etc.

not if you have soft water- the ice tastes nasty.

some yes, some no. I prefer my veggies crisp.

yes

no way in hell. my brother tried that on a road trip with boiled eggs, and I refused to touch them after first 36 hours. I hate dysentary with a passion. If in doubt, throw it out.

only if in factory pack or wax-dipped

if it is sold cold, I keep it cold. If it is sold warm and I eat it cold, I keep it cold. I also keep bread products in frig- they last longer before going green, and it is harder for the ants and mice to find them.

aem sends...

[HeyBub]

Some observations:

See below on ketchup

Possibly, after several years. Ever see a restaurant that put its ketchup in the cooler? In your case, you might be better off with small, sealed, packets of condiments.

Huh?

Some margarine turns mushy. The margarine manufacturers deliberately add liquifiers because they know people are going to cool the product.

True. But commercial PB IS real PM, it's just been homogenized. If you make your own, you'll have a separation problem. Same with mayonnaise.

Then don't eat that kind.

Huh? Do you mean only if in the original packaging should live outside the fridge? Or do you mean uncovered coffee should be kept cool?

Water-softener lines should NOT run to the ice-maker. Softened water is an ice-maker killer. De-ionized is okay.

Then slice them thinly and fry them.

So he and his family died a most horrible death and you got to live large on the inheritance. Or was there some other outcome for your brother and his family? Now if your brother ALSO threw out the eggs, I'd suspect a motive on his part other than merely sharing a tasty meal.

Cheese was around for about 50,000 years before refrigeration. On the other hand, all the first century Romans who ate unrefrigerated cheeses are now dead...

I've never had a burger served with a frozen meat patty. You may be on to something.

I, too, keep bread in the cooler. But that's because I buy giant quantities at once from Sam's Club. Maybe that's why I'm so anal about what to put in the fridge. For example, 55 gallons of jalapenos simply won't fit in the refrigerator, no matter how much packing I do.

[AZ Nomad]

If tap water straight from the city taste bad, so will the ice cubes.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using 'soft water" (magnesium removed) in an ice maker. How pray tell can removing minerals and inpurities harm an ice maker? Do you think they use crud for lubrication?

I live where the city water is nasty canal water and I use a line from the undersink RO purifier for ice. Works great. Neighbor has a whole house water softener as do two of my relatives. Obviously their ice makers work just fine. Do you have some confused notion that water softeners add salt to the water output? They don't. The salt is only used to recharge the purification rods/beads.

[Pete C.]

In general the mid-upper priced units will be better built, fit, finish and durability than the lowest end units. The highest prices units usually only differ from the upper middle priced units in the foofy brand name badge on them.

The first thing to determine is what style you prefer as this is very subjective and based on your typical use and will drive your other decisions.

The top freezer models are typically the most efficient from an operating cost perspective, but in my opinion horribly inefficient from an ergonomic and daily use perspective since they force you to bend down constantly to get routine stuff from the refrigerator.

The bottom freezer models are ok, however I find that since the bottom drawer requires stacking items on top of each other, they can be pretty inefficient organizationally, and also problematic when you have a pan of something you need to chill, can't find a flat surface in the freezer drawer, or have slosh issues trying to close the freezer drawer.

I prefer the side by side configuration since it eliminates most of the stacking and flat space issues, eliminates slosh issues, and allows you to organize both the refrigerator and freezer sections to avoid bending for commonly accessed items.

Once you get past the style selection, you look for operating cost (energy star rating), durability of the construction, functionality of shelves, bins, etc., warranty, parts availability, operating controls (I prefer digital with real temp displays vs. arbitrary numbers), and serviceability.

[charlie]

you can use an r/o supply for the icemaker, but you don't want to use metal tubing for delivery. the water will quickly pull metal ions out of the tubing causing leaks pretty quickly.

[HeyBub]

I was wrong about soft-water / ice-maker. Soft water does make better ice and is easier on the ice-maker.

I'm not confused about salt, although many others are. People on a low-salt diet are really supposed to be on a low-SODIUM diet. Water softeners exchange Sodium ions for Magnesium (and other) ions, so people on a low or salt-free diet are really getting MORE Sodium than without using a softener.

Now the facts are these. Sodium or salt does not CAUSE hypertension, it merely aggravates the condition. About six percent of the population has hypertension and about half of those have the kind that doesn't take kindly to salt.

Bottom line: 97% of the population can use as much salt as they want with NO adverse health problems. Several studies have been done where test subjects ingested up to 25 GRAMS of salt per day for extended periods with no adverse effects. Anyone who's ever eaten in a military mess hall can verify this.

[HeyBub]

You make a good point.

I wonder if one could buy, say, a Kenmore and slap a SubZero or KitchenAid or LG medallion on it.

Who would know?

[norminn]

clipped

Not so....sodium/salt causes fluid retention, which alone can cause hypertension and congestive heart failure. There are other causes for hypertension, but fluid retention would aggravate all forms, whatever the cause.

Folks who have even the risk factors for hypertension, without evident disease, should limit their salt. A stroke or heart attack can be the first "proof" of hypertension, and that can be too late.

My hubby was on meds for hypertension for about 10 years, which kept it very well controlled.....so well that he decided to quit his meds because he felt so good. I was away for a wedding, and when I returned, he wasn't feeling well. Next morning he was in distress. After being stabilized in hospital, the docs pumped a quart of fluid out of his chest cavity. An extra quart of "breathing room" makes a hell of a difference. His idiot decision led to discovery of 90% blockage of a coronary artery, just in time to prevent heart attack.

There have been steady and frightening increases in juvenile obesity and, with it, high blood cholesterol levels. These are very young people headed for heart disease and they should not be taking in the amounts of salt that you suggest are "ok"....kidney disease and diabetes follow, another reason to limit salt.

[Wayne Boatwright]

On Thu 16 Jul 2009 04:46:33p, HeyBub told us...

Whoever slapped it on there.

[Some Guy]

The above is an absolutely useless statement. It contains nothing that can actually guide someone looking at *anything* on the showroom floor.

Almost all fridges are energy star rated. The *difference* in electricity usage over the course of a year between two models with identical interior volume won't exceed $10 or $20.

All useless because they are either hidden or unknowable without a tremendous amount of research.

Again, very little difference between makes and models.

[Pete C.]

Apparently you lack the technical knowledgeable to be able to evaluate the features I noted, fortunately they have a band-aid for this failing, it's called Consumer Reports and they will happily tell you what brand and model you should buy and you can sleep well knowing you have followed the advice of a magazine that is as clueless as you are.