On December 31st, 2006, I found myself in Las Vegas after being in six and a half hours of heavy traffic - was it all a dream? Soon after, and in a stupor, I found myself muttering "I do" after hearing my girlfriend say the very same thing. Was this a bad episode of some lame reality TV show? She's wearing a ring I don't remember giving her. Am I really married?

Apparently so, because my parents asked us what we wanted as a wedding gift. Joking, I mentioned a new refrigerator because I had just sold my 8 year old Whirlpool. She told me to set it up and she'd take care of it.

So off to Best Buy I went. I wanted 25 cubic feet or larger, "French door" type and Titanium finish - the side-by-side thing is not working for me anymore. That narrowed the field down to three contenders. Maytag, LG and GE. After looking at everything the LG won and the sales person told me that I chose wisely.

He punched a few keys on his PC only to find out that Titanium is a special order at Best Buy. Why? Titanium is just as hi-tech as stainless steel without the constant fingerprint and smudge drama. Besides, Titanium is about $50 less than stainless - Bonus! I was NOT going to wait two to three weeks for a new fridge. Apparently the sales guy didn't care that my new wife, her daughter and I were living out of a mini-fridge at the time. By the way, this same unit is available in black or white and is about $200 - $250 cheaper. Best Buy will deliver the black, white or stainless in two days. Something to consider if you're in a rush.

I called my wife and she suggested trying Sears. They only offer two French door units - neither are available in Titanium. As a side note, I did think about calling Pacific Sales, but remembered they are now owned by Best Buy so I never even gave them a chance.

At the end of the evening, I found myself at Home Depot for some of those things you need when you move. All of a sudden, the clouds parted, harp music faded in and I could hear angelic humming as I spotted my LG fridge in a spotlight. It called to me. I called to the employee and asked how fast I could get the fridge. She punched a few keys on her PC - I expected two weeks. A drum roll echoed in the abyss of my frazzled mind (remember I just moved and got married during the holidays). In a second, everything got quiet and I watched the sales girl's lips move in slow motion as she said, "You can have that in five days." I was sure she was looking at the black, white or stainless finishes. I asked her to make sure it was the Titanium. She smiled and repeated her answer. I smiled and muttered, "Got 'er done!"

Five days later the truck brought me my new fridge. I have to say, the thing is gorgeous to look at with its sleek lines, elegant door pulls and that Titanium finish is just stunning.

After the delivery guys removed sixteen thousand pieces of tape from the inside and set up my water and ice line. They informed me to throw out the first five gallons of water and the first batch of ice as it will taste funny. It's a filter thing.

The French Door style units have two side-by-side doors on top for the fridge and one large pull-out drawer for the freezer. This is much more efficient for large cakes and things that would ordinarily not fit in a side-by-side unit.

At first glance, the digital interface is quite impressive. Short of having a TV in the door, this was pretty hi-tech. The display shows room temperature and can be switched from Fahrenheit to Celsius easily.

There are a myriad of touch controls on the left door's ice/water portal. "Ice Plus" turns on/off the feature to make ice faster. This is helpful if you know you're going to have a party, you can produce ice much faster and store bags of ice in the freezer. Keep in mind, this cycle automatically ends after 24 hours unless you press the button again.

The next button is the water/cubed ice or crushed ice selector. Note: This fridge enables you to choose from small, medium or large cubes - very cool.

The next two buttons select the temperature for the freezer and the fridge. The freezer ranges from 8 down to -2 degrees. The fridge ranges from 45 down to 32. Set at 32 degrees, my milk was not cold enough for me. I found out that setting the freezer a bit lower had an effect on the ambient temp of the fridge. So I keep the freezer at -2 and the fridge set at 32 and all is nice and chilly. The manual suggests leaving the temperature set at the default settings ( 37 and 0) for 24 hours to stabilize the unit and then set it at whatever you prefer.

The next button governs the night light and displays the remaining filter life. Finally, the last button governs the door alarm and the button lock. You can set the unit and then lock the buttons so kids can't mess with the controls. The subtle alarm will sound when the doors are open for more than sixty seconds. This can also be disabled easily if it annoys you.

Things I love:

The unit is very impressive and is quite efficient as well as quiet. All the shelves pull out for easy access and cleaning. Two of the three pull-out bins incorporate humidity controls.

The freezer drawer rolls on a geared track and there is a pull-out shelf and a smaller shelf within the cavity. There's also a sliding divider in the main freezer compartment. You're NOT going to be able to store many very large items (like frozen pizza) in this freezer. If you're a larger family, I'd suggest either getting a freezer unit for the garage or (if you have the space and money) an all fridge unit next to an all freezer unit.

I love having the filter inside the refrigerator instead of those filters mounted on the back. Those tend to leak and when they do, it's all over your floor. This model's filter is designed to screw into place creating a better seal. When installing the ice / water line to the unit, I would recommend using the white sealant tape on the threads before you install.

Unlike most refrigerators, when you open the door to the LG, the already quiet motor shuts off even if it was in a cooling cycle. Once the door shuts, the cooling cycle resumes. This will save money on electricity.


Things I DO NOT Like:

The major issue I have with the unit is the opening for the ice & water. It's too deep to the back control button and it's too short from top to bottom. Larger glasses and pitchers are NOT going to work here. LG should realize that many of us use larger tumblers or use pitchers for Crystal light. This means using smaller glasses to fill the larger ones and that is annoying. While some larger containers will work at an angle, this means it won't fill up all the way.

A minor annoyance is the fact that the manual is so poorly bound that pages simply fall out with very little handling.

When changing the $53 water filter, be sure to place a cup under the filter exhaust port or you'll have water all over your top shelf.

They could have made the freezer a bit larger.

Another minor annoyance is the fact that the ice maker takes up the entire left side's interior door. Yet there is one small storage shelf underneath. The GE and Maytag mounts the ice maker in the fridge and takes up precious interior shelf space.

The right side door of the LG has three adjustable shelves (with dividers) that are large enough to store gallon milk containers. Note: While I like being able to store two gallons of milk on the door, the manual suggests not to. LG says that storing things like milk and dairy inside and NOT on the door makes it last longer.

Note: We did a taste test between the filtered water that comes from the fridge and the PUR System from the sink - it was close but the PUR system won.

Potential hazard with the freezer drawer: There might be an instance where someone's foot might get pinched if their feet are too close to the drawer as it opens. This might be a concern for parents because the drawer opens then tilts down. This goes for any French door model by any manufacturer. I tried to pinch my size 11 foot under the door in slow motion and it barely made contact for a pinch but would bruise the top of the foot. Luckily, the gap is too large to hurt a child's foot.


Included Accessories:
A clear plastic egg box, a removable ice tray in the freezer compartment and a removable wine bottle holder.

Here's something I thought was funny: WARNING: Keep flammable materials and vapors, such as gasoline, away from refrigerator. Which begs the question - did someone think gas was better chilled?

Overall, I'm very pleased with this product - it's my very first LG product and I love it so far. My wife thinks it's a "monster." The footprint of this 25 cu' model is actually larger than my 27 cu' side-by-side. Make sure you measure your space before you buy.


Final notes: The extended warranty was only $89 at Home Depot (much less than at Best Buy) and I strongly suggest buying it. Also, Home Depot gave me a $200 gift card for buying this unit and my $55 delivery fee in a rebate. So taking off the $255 made the price around two thousand - bonus!

The LG customer support is open 24 hours each day at (800) 243-0000 or on the web at http://us.lge.com

UPDATE 8/13/09:  Within the first year of purchase, LG handles all claims.  I had to have the ice maker replaced twice - so far.  After the first year and for the duration of the extended warranty period, Home Depot's (GE's) sub-contractors handle the claims.

Apparently, there's a part recall.  The seals around the three doors need to be replaced.  One day, my LED screen went blank with an error code.  The service guy came out and took my entire freezer apart.  Good thing I had the extended warranty AND an upright freezer in the garage.

Turns out, because of the door seals, the freezer fan assembly was encased in ice.  He used a steamer product to melt the ice in the freezer housing and the motor assembly.  They're coming back in a week to install the new door insulation.  My warranty experience was a breeze void of any drama.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 2249.00