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One Of The Few Times In Life That SIZE Does Matter!Jun 26 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Refrigerators
The Bottom Line The first step to decide which model and size is for you is to MEASURE the exterior of the old refrigerator or the space it will fit into.
“Hey, lady. It’s too big and it won’t fit!” Words a lady never wants to hear. Especially from a delivery person that is trying to fit a large refrigerator into a small kitchen space. “What to do? What to do?” The answer is to plan ahead. The answer is to measure before buying the largest refrigerator/freezer that your money can buy. The biggest refrigerators only work for people that don’t have preordained spots that have been built into the cabinets. The inside dimensions (cubic feet) do have a bearing on the size of the outside of the refrigerator. My son recently moved into a new home. New to him, but previously occupied. His major household appliance purchase would be a new refrigerator. They took theirs with them. He’s never had a home before and money was an object. While researching for the best size and price with him, I learned a lot. In a person’s lifetime, we probably make a buying decision like this only once or twice. Unless we often have to make moves, a major purchase of an appliance is a purchase that we have to start over learning about each time. Step One Decide on which kind of refrigerator/freezer you wish to purchase. There are three major types. One type is called a Side-by-Side. This means that the freezer is located from top to bottom on the left side of the refrigerator and the refrigerator part is on the right side. Both doors of this type open from the middle, one swinging to the left and one swinging to the right (kind of sounds like square dancing). This works well in kitchens where you have to place the refrigerator in cramped conditions. These come in all different sized interiors (and exteriors) from 19 cubic feet to 25 cubic feet being the standard sizes. These come in various colors, standard being white, black, and almond. Others can be special ordered. Also, I noticed that many of the whites have black trim pieces. This model allows you to hook into your water system and the freezer will provide outside access to Water To Drink, Crushed Iced, and/or Ice Cubes. Some models also have a light to light up this area. Depending on manufacturer, some offer filtered water. I have never seen one of these combinations that offer models that you have to defrost yourself. The second type is the “Freezer on the Top” model. This is the standard type of refrigerator/freezer model. The top third of the unit is freezer and the bottom two-thirds is refrigerator. Both doors on this type usually open right to left, with the handles being on the right side of the refrigerator. I did notice a few left to right opening refrigerators and some manufacturer’s will let you order this opposite set-up. The opposite set up is what my parents have because my mom, who is left handed, found it works best for her. I grew up there and it never bothered me, although I am right handed. The main advantage is to be able to place a refrigerator in certain kitchen spots that only allow clearance in one direction. These freezers sometimes have wire shelving. They can be either frost-free, which means it defrosts itself or you can choose one that you must defrost. Although frost-free is a bit more expensive, it is well worth it. The only person that would recommend defrosting yourself to save money would be someone who has never defrosted a freezer before. You can get ice makers inside the freezer. These units automatically keep a bin of ice ready for you. No more trays! This device also has to be hooked up to your water supply. You can load all different sizes of foods into this freezer. This is one of the ADVANTAGES of this type freezer over the side-by-side models. The main DISADVANTAGE is finding all the foods toward the back and behind things. You often have to unload the front foods to use up older frozen goods first. I do find that with a side-by-side I often have to do the same thing. But, because the shelves are smaller I have less to move out. The third type is the Freezer On The Bottom model. This type was new to me. I had never seen one before I began refrigerator shopping. I don’t have much experience to bring to the discussion of the advantages or disadvantages to this model. The ones that I looked at were priced higher than the freezer at the top ones. I would think that since a person uses the refrigerator much more often than the freezer, this would be a real nice model to own. No more bending down or over to see into and get things out of the refrigerator. Eye level would be looking at what is used most often. That may be why I like the side-by-sides so well. The freezer is out of the way for using the refrigerator. The insides were set up just like the freezer on top models. These also offer frostfree and ice cube makers. Depending on size, these cost more than freezers on top but a little less than side-by-sides. Things to know about buying a refrigerator in order (1) Measure the spot where the refrigerator will be located. (2) Find the measurements of the different size refrigerators’ exteriors. (3) From those measurements find out what size interiors are available. At this point, you can try to get the largest interior that meets your needs. (4) Know that the refrigerator will “stick” out from the cupboards it is aligned to. All refrigerators are deeper than your cupboards. We have custom-made cabinets that are deeper than most and our refrigerator still sticks our about 3 inches. (5) Decide on how much money you can afford to spend. The least expensive is the Freezer On Top model. The most expensive is the Side By Side. However, there is a huge “gray” area where all of the different types mentioned above overlap in prices. This gray area covers the range of about $500 - $900 depending on interior size and features. (6) You can get a bigger interior with fewer features or more features with a smaller interior for about the same price. (7) Any ice cube maker or water in the door features will require being hooked up to your water source. One of the salespersons at Best Buy said that you can buy the kit and hook it up yourself for about $50 dollars or they can send someone to hook it up for $100. If you are handy, it’s a way to save some money. He did say that the professional installer sodders and uses certain copper tubing parts that are not included in the Do It Yourself kit. So the advantage is less chance of drips occurring. (8) Delivery charges range from $30 - $50 dollars. This is another sum that will be added onto the final cost of purchase. You can save yourself this fee by picking it up yourself from some of the distributors or retail businesses. I was told that if you lay it down in the bed of a pick up, once you get it home you must stand it up and then let it sit for 15 minutes for each 10 miles you drove it. That allows the oils to get back into the right places before you plug it in. (9) Interiors vary and add or deduct from the price of the refrigerator. The differences include: (a) glass (tempered or not) or wire shelves (b) jug or milk cartons that fit in the door or not (c) egg holders in the door or egg bins that sit in the interior and (d) the number of bins that hold produce and luncheon meats. (10) Sometimes certain colors cost more. You need to decide the importance of color coordination in your kitchen area. Picking out a large appliance is a lot of work. If you have some time to decide, the best place to start to look for the best price for the size you need is the Sunday newspapers. Scour the ads looking for the size and features that you want. Then go and visit the various appliance stores to see what the best price ends up being. Each store that I visited (over a month’s time) had different sales, different brands, different delivery charges and different floor model specials. Many weren’t advertised in the paper. Many places will honor the best price you received from another store. Most of the time, however, they tend not to carry the exact model at the exact time their competitors do. Do your homework and you’ll never have to hear, “Lady, it doesn’t fit. It’s too big to fit into that tiny space.”  |
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