What Size Can You Fit?
The most important thing to determine when buying a refrigerator is the maximum space you have available for it. One of the worst things that can happen is to get the refrigerator home and it not fit. Important measurements to take note of are:
- Height – Take the measurement from the floor to the top of the cabinets. Something to keep in mind while looking at refrigerators is the spacing you’ll need for the hinges.
- Width – You will want to measure from one side of the cabinets to the other. If one side happens to be a wall you will want to keep in mind the clearance you’ll need to open the door
- Depth – The last measurement you will need to take is from the back wall to the face of the cabinets. You will also want to measure to make sure the refrigerator you pick out won’t protrude and block a doorway if there is one on the wall to the side of the refrigerator.
What Type of Refrigerators are there?
After you determine what size refrigerator you can fit in the allocated area, the next question to answer is what style do you want? There are several different styles of refrigerators, each with its own unique benefits and drawbacks.
Top Freezer
This is where you are going to find your smallest capacity and sized refrigerators. The cubic foot sizes vary from a small 12 cubic feet to a robust 24.6. An ice maker is an upgrade in top freezer refrigerators and very few have the internal water dispenser (like G.E.’s PTS22SHSS). You can no longer find the option of water and ice in the door on top freezer refrigerators. This style refrigerator makes accessing your freezer compartment easy, but you have to bend over and dig for your fresh food products.
Side by Side
The side by side refrigerator offers you the refrigerator and freezer, as you can probably guess, side by side. The functionality on the side by side is reasonably good for everyday use, but you run into a problem when you have larger items such as pizza boxes or party trays. Water and ice in the door are a norm for this style of refrigerator.
Bottom Freezer
The bottom freezer refrigerator is the direct opposite of the top freezer refrigerator. As it says, you get the freezer on the bottom – giving it a chest-freezer like feel with either a slide out drawer or swing open door. The refrigerator up top has a single large door and an opening that helps make the fresh food easily accessible. Water and ice are not available in the door. Ice makers are fairly standard and the internal water dispenser is generally only found in upgraded models.
French Door
This is the fastest growing segment in refrigeration today. The french door refrigerator offers a wide refrigerator space which can accommodate party platters and more. It also brings the fresh food compartment up to where it can be easily accessed. Unlike the bottom freezer refrigerator which has one big door, the french door refrigerator has two smaller doors, making it more accommodating in tighter areas. Like the bottom freezer, the freezer compartment is the down side of this style of refrigerator, giving you a chest-like freezer area.
All Refrigerator
All refrigerator units offer 17 cubic feet of refrigerator-only space. These are particularly nice if you have limited space in the kitchen, but you have room in the pantry or garage for a freezer. These do not come with ice or water.
Built-ins
Built-ins are your premium refrigerators. They generally run two to four times as much as you standard refrigerators. I’ll be writing a buying specifically for these in the future.
Finish
The next question you have to answer is what finish do you want. The most common are stainless steel, ‘smudge proof’ fake stainless, black, white, bisque, and panel ready. There are a few brands,such as Dacor and Aga, that offer more extreme colored finishes.
Energy Efficiency
Make sure you purchase an energy efficient refrigerator. A question I hear often is “how much do I really save with an energy star refrigerator?”. The answer to that question varies depending on how old the refrigerator is you are replacing. A lot of people like to brag about their 30+ year old refrigerator still running, which I admit is a cool thing, but you may be surprised at how much it costs you to run it. Let’s take a look at a thirty year old, full size side by side (26 cubic feet) refrigerator– you’re looking at a savings of $300 a year versus the new refrigerators today. Even though it still runs, think of the money you can save by putting it on the curb and replacing it with a new one. Check out http://www.frigidaireenergysavings.com to run different variations to see exactly how much you’ll be saving.
