REFRIGERATORS

A 20-year-old avocado refrigerator with chrome handles may have vintage appeal, but sentimental attachment costs money. According to the EPA, a refrigerator made before 1993 costs an additional $100 each year to operate.

French door refrigerator

Example of French door refrigerator with ramp-up interior lighting. Photo: Electrolux Home Products, Inc.

The French door or "double door" refrigerator is a fairly recent popular design. It has equal sized double doors at the top and a pull out freezer below. Its width provides the space advantage of the single door refrigerator that has a freezer below, at the same time as having two doors which can be opened one a time to save energy. French door refrigerators can come in two configurations - one with an icemaker and filtered water dispenser and one without for a more streamlined look. Having narrow refrigerator doors and a pullout freezer drawer avoids the need for a wide door radius. French door refrigerators are not ADA compliant.

Freezers with more than one drawer allow for better organization. One model has three easy-glide freezer baskets with removable/adjustable dividers for organizing food.

 French door design is at least 20 percent more energy efficient than the minimum federal government standard. Another major benefit is larger capacity. For example, one counter-depth (28-3/16-in) refrigerator provides 23 cu. ft. of space, which is more than many standard-depth units offer. A larger typical Tier 3 ENERGY STAR-rated 36-in wide model with a standard depth of 33-in offers 28 cu. ft. of space and is 30 percent more efficient than is required by federal standards.

Side-by-side refrigerators

These have long been a popular choice. New models have increased capacity with a typical counter depth unit offering 23 cu. ft., with the same amount of shelf space as a typical 26 cu. ft. standard-depth model. This design is ADA compliant.

Cut-out dimensions for 23 cu ft counter-depth French door refrigerator Drawing: Electrolux Home Products, Inc.

 

Innovations for new model refrigerators can include:

• A perfect-temperature refrigerator drawer with multiple touch screen settings store foods at their correct temperatures. Photo: Electrolux Home Products, Inc.

  Touch screen control panels.Fade-to-black touch screen and LED temperature displays are choices on typical models. Touch screen controls, which remain visible, are options on lower price point units.
• Perfect temperature drawer. Controlled by fade-to-black  touch screen technology, an adjustable temperature drawer keeps foods and beverages at their ideal temperature, such  as, a fish/shellfish setting at 28 degrees F, a perfect marinade at 37 degrees F and white wine at 42 degrees F.
• Ramp-up lighting with a number of LED lights embedded in the wall and drawers that focus on the stored food.
• Air filter circulates clean air throughout the interior prevents the transfer of odors.
• Dual carbon block hermetically sealed water filter.
• Self closing doors
• Alarm system activated if there has been a power failure, if a door stays open longer than a certain number of minutes or if the interior temperature remains above 55 degrees.