Amana's bottom freezer Refrigerator Model ARB8057CC is conveniently cabinet depth.
Written: Apr 23 '03 (Updated May 06 '03)
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Pros: Elegantly simple styling. Well organized interior. Excellent water filter and ice maker.
Cons: Ice maker water leak made left freezer glide seize. Front levelers make rolling difficult.
The Bottom Line: Windows everywhere, see food before it goes bad. Extremely attractive bisque exterior finish with leather grain texture, elegant door handles are made of a single curl of thick metal.
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| zlotmachinskyr's Full Review: Amana Bisque 19.8 cu. ft. EasyReach Refrigerator w... |
Here in America we are blessed with a great number of choices when it comes to almost any product. A refrigerator is a very important member of the family kitchen, in fact it is probably the key appliance around which most kitchens function.
So keeping this fact in mind, a buyer will need to narrow down the choices considerably. This article is about the refrigerator that matched our criteria: Bisque color; cabinet depth; bottom pull out freezer; reversible door hinge; built-in drinking water filter and factory installed ice maker.
I called a friendly family owned appliance dealer whom was able to match my criteria immediately, but with just one model. After looking at this refrigerator and several other models with my wife, we decided to purchase this refrigerator. We spent almost a month searching and researching refrigerators while our current box sat uselessly in our kitchen. Our two Igloo playmate ice chests were pressed into service for a month and our favorite restaurants got increased business. Our old refrigerator had given up the ghost when its compressor conked out. Our compressor got extremely hot and when I held my Fluke branded finger-sized electrical energy sensor everywhere within 2 inches of our dead refrigerator its tip glowed red and showed that the entire outer skin and handles were electrically charged and potentially dangerous. I warned my wife to not touch that old refrigerator so as to prevent electrical shock. I warned her not to touch it with more than one hand if she had to touch if for some unknown reason. When she saw how our touchless electricity sensor glowed red it got the point across, don't touch until we can get it unplugged.
In the mean time I needed to have a plumber put a shutoff valve on my water line and recess it so that it was inside the wall rather than sticking straight out 4 inches which would have wasted the cabinet depth concept of this new refrigerator.
After that I had an electrician come and install a new dedicated circuit for our incoming refrigerator. It cost a few bucks but was well worth it. In the process my electrician discovered that one of our two power lines from the main power supply was brittle as it had gotten hot multiple times related to the fact that hold down screw was loose in comparison to the other incoming power line. The burned and brittle main power line was de-electrified; trimmed; and burnished with a wire wheel to remove the plastic insulation that had melted in between the seven heavy-duty copper strands incoming to our circuit breaker box from the main power supply. The electrician had to use my battery powered Dremel to cut the top of the hold down screw away as it had mushroomed from the heat. This was an important find that reduced the chance of an electrical fire and should increase our electrical efficiency by up to 10 %. We needed to install a dedicated circuit for our refrigerator since our previous refrigerator was connected to almost our entire second floor, master bedroom and second bedroom and some of the kitchen.
You may need to install a dedicated refrigerator circuit too. Today's new refrigerators are much more energy efficient so my electrician said that other appliances could be on our refrigerator circuit if they were in the kitchen. Our new refrigerator is rated at 8.2 Amps at 115 Volts AC.
Preparation can be much of the work when buying a large appliance. During the course of my homework and found out that Maytag has purchased Amana. Every dealer I spoke to said that Amana currently is the sole supplier of all makes of bottom freezer refrigerators including: GE; Whirlpool, Kenmore; Kitchen-aid et al. Who would have thunk it? I went to Sears initially to see how my internet research fleshed out in metal. Sears carries almost every brand of refrigerator and their Kenmore brand is very well rated by consumer reports as they should be since their large appliances are made by the major OEM(s) (original equipment manufacturer)(s). I value consumer reports opinions as well and personally have had an excellent long time association with many products bearing the Sears Kenmore name. If I purchased this refrigerator from Sears it most likely would have had the Kenmore nametag on it.
Features and dimensions of this cool machine.
The external dimensions of this refrigerator are 69 3/4 inches high including the top door hinge, 35.5 inches wide, and 26 inches deep including the door. The top door handle adds another 1 1/8 inches. The Top door handle is just a simple 41 inch long metal curl and reminds this author of Pipeline type waves that surfers have made so famous. The bottom freezer drawer has the same style curved metal handle at 35 3/8 inches long and beautifully finished.
The internal dimensions given are approximate but close and measured to reflect the actual interior sizes of the storage compartments.
The paint color is know as Bisque ( a type of off white)and the metal skin over the entire refrigerator is texturized and reminds this author of some types of leather. This texturized finish does not show scuffs, dirt, dents and other wear and tear as easily as some of the smooth paint finishes on other refrigerators.
Now you see it and now you don't have any trouble seeing it again!
This refrigerator is designed in such a way that not only is it very easy to see the contents on the shelves but also inside all the compartments without opening them.
Da door, Da door!
The door's inside has some roomy open top cargo bays. The top door comes from the factory with the hinge on the right side but it can easily be converted to left hinge status if so desired. When open the door has a long bottom compartment 27 inches wide, 6.5 inches deep and 3.5 inches high but no rubber spill catcher.
On the top right of the door is a large butter compartment that is 10.75 inches wide, 6 inches deep and 6 inches high and sports a large clear hinged plastic cover. The middle right section of the door is had a multipositionable compartment that is 11.5 inches wide, 6 inches deep and 3.25 inches high. A rubber spill liner is included.
The top and middle section of the refrigerator door sports two same size open top compartments that are 14.75 inches long, 5 inches deep and 3.25 inches high. Each of these longer door compartments also have a rubbery material lining the bottom to aid in cleaning spills.
The innards are good for your gizzards and what not.
At the bottom inside the refrigerator section is the full width so called " Climate controlled Chef's Pantry" with a glass top and tapered see through front that rests under the long lower door compartment. It is 26 inches wide, 17 inches deep and 4.5 inches high inside. Six inches from the front this tray tapers down from 4.5 inches to 2.5 inches inside. There is a cut out hand pull opening in the middle.
Crispers
Immediately above the Chef's Pantry are two climate (i.e. humidity) controlled vegetable crispers of very sturdy clear plastic and see through fronts and a long glass top as well. They are 13.5 inches wide on the front edge, 11 inches front to back and 5.75 inches deep.
Adjustable shelves
Just above each vegetable crisper are two adjustable shelves that easily slide in and out. The shelves have glass bottoms that are recessed and thus catch spills and easily pull out and off to wash in the sink. The shelves are easily adjusted to many different heights yet lock very solidly in place.
Water filter and lighting
The light fixture inside the top section is curvaceous very beautifully integrated into the ceiling of the refrigerator section with a light bulb for each side under one sculpted glass fixture. The refrigerator section temperature control is centered inside the light fixture.
The water filter cartridge holder is located on the ceiling of the refrigerator right and runs front to back. It is easy to access the water that comes out of the water dispenser and comes out rapidly, is cool and very good tasting. Lead is one component that this filter removes as well as other organic materials. Our filter is rated to provide at least 300 gallons of filtered water and also filters out some microbiological cysts as well. The water dispenser is on the left side of the door and has a gray button above it to activate water flow. The water flow is satisfyingly rapid at three quarts per minute but a filled pitcher would be recommended for more convenience when serving large groups. Amana makes two water filter cartridges: one filters 300 gallons of water and the other filters 500 gallons of water. These filters remove lead, asbestos, some odors and three organic chemicals were listed on the spec sheet. Some small particles in the 1-2 micron size are also removed by this filter. Water filter change every six months is recommended by Amana.
Beverage organizer
Also supplied with this refrigerator is an flat plastic beverage organizer which can hold 5 cans of soda or beer or one wine bottle or 4 bottles of beer or other bottled beverage. If the shelf is high enough it can hold 7 cans or 5 bottled beverages. It works pretty well too.
Freezer on the bottom pulls out like a drawer on a chest.
The top of freezer section has the ice receiver tray which sits in on the left side and is quite large at 10.5 inches in front, 12 inches front to back and 3.5 inches deep. The ice cubes are nicely shaped like a crescent moon and about the size of a lemon wedge. Attached to the factory installed ice maker there is a square wire loop above the ice tray which when lifted up will snap into the up position and turn off the ice maker. When this wire loop is snapped down the ice maker is turned on. Our ice maker leaked water inside the freezer when first installed and filled up the left telescoping glide upon which the freezer door and its upper and lower baskets glide. So watch out for this one and if it happens then you may have to turn off the circuit breaker for four or more hours to allow enough thawing to occur to pull out the outer most freezer glide out. You may need even more time to allow the ice in the track to thaw out. If you turn off the freezer temperature control it will turn off the upper section too so watch out for that and just turn off the water supply to the whole refrigerator if you can access it. Then before you close the freezer section once it has opened all the way you must blow out any and all water out of the left glide with a hair dryer and once the ice maker leak is corrected by the dealer's serviceman the dried glide will function perfectly. Disconcerting to have a brand new refrigerator malfunction in this way but corrected in seconds once the repair technician shows up. There is at least an equal amount of space to the right of the ice receiver tray. A full harvest of ice is specified to take only 3 hours.
The freezer's lower compartment
Inside dimensions are 25 inches side to side, 12.5 inches front to back, and 12.5 inches deep. This freezer basket is supplied with one adjustable divider. All the freezer baskets are made of heavy wire with an ample luscious coat of white plastic. Drips and condensation do not easily collect into heavy blocks of ice because of the open wire construction of these baskets. The freezer has an attractive light fixture with a temperature control mounted in the center.
This unit qualified for a hundred dollar rebate by the dept of water and power in my area for being energy efficient. Product specifications list power consumption at about 500 kilowatt-hours per year.
Overall a very nice design that shows almost all of its food contents at a glance.
Relatively easy to clean. Well thought out design and counter depth keeps this unit from intruding into space limited kitchens with it's much more efficient footprint. Our family expects to save money by not needing to buy good tasting bottled water since we can take it directly off this refrigerator's interior water tap. This refrigeration unit is well worth the money and our family is totally delighted with this appliance . If 20 cubic feet is adequate volume for your groceries then this unit is highly recommended by this owner.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1775
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zlotmachinskyr
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Location: California
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