Great design, Great price, User friendly Refrigerator.
Written: Dec 18 '08
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Pros: French doors make it extremely usable. Looks sleek and modern. Low operating cost.
Cons: Bottom freezer design requires good storage organization - not really a "con" though.
The Bottom Line: An excellent Fridge at an excellent price. French door design is wonderful, very usable, especially with a bottom freezer. Extremely energy efficient. Better storage and user friendly than side-by-side models.
jmb3450's Full Review: LG TRIO 7830 (22.6 cu. ft.) Bottom Freezer French ...
Last year my wife and I moved "up" to a nicer home. One of the things that attracted us to the home was the nice kitchen - of which everything was upgraded except the refrigerator which was an older side-by-side Kenmore. It worked fine, but just looked a bit dated in relation to the other newer appliances. So...we decided to get a new refrigerator as our Christmas gift to each other this year.
Our fridge is located at the opening of a short hallway coming from the pantry. In discussing with my wife what we desired in a new fridge and what the layout of our kitchen required, we decided on the following guidelines: 1. The front of the refrigerator can't extend too far past the front of the cabinets or it would restrict clearance at the hallway entrance. 2. If the door swing was too great it might be limited by the edge of the wall across from the fridge.
3. The fridge must fit in a 33 inch wide opening between the cabinets and the pantry.
4. The new fridge needed to look more sleek or streamlined than the old one to match our stove – less squarish or blocky at the edges than the old one.
5. The old fridge lacked an icemaker – we wanted at least an icemaker in the new one, maybe even a water and ice dispenser in the door.
6. The color needed to be bisque, to match our stove and dishwasher.
7. Our preference would be for a bottom freezer.
8. The fridge must be energy star compliant.
9. The economy being what it is and our budget being limited, we hoped to spend no more than $1200.
In consideration of the above guidelines, we realized a single swing door might be problematic and possibly even bang into the corner of the hallway opening. Double doors like our old side by side had would work best – but we really didn’t want another side-by-side. So if we did get a fridge with a bottom freezer, it would need to have french doors. But….we already knew from some preliminary price checking it would be difficult to get what we wanted and keep in our price range. With those things in mind, a-shopping we went.
We discovered several things:
1. Now (end of November 2008) was a great time to buy an appliance. Most stores have real honest-to-goodness sales and discounts, plus free delivery and installation.
2. Bisque is really not a popular color anymore. Selection is limited. It seems that most people want stainless steel or black.
3. French door bottom freezers with water or ice in the door are very expensive, definitely not in our budget.
4. Most french door fridge’s are wider than our 33 inch space and are significantly deeper than counter depth, so that they might extend far enough past the counter to restrict adequate passage into our hallway.
5. Some salesmen can be a real pain in the butt. J
After shopping at all the home improvement stores, appliance dealers, and several department stores we were getting a bit discouraged, as none of them had exactly what we were looking for, and the couple of refrigerators we liked that might work with our layout criteria were either prohibitively expensive or only had a single doors.
Our last stop was at Sears. We were pleased to find the selection of refrigerators was extensive and prices were very competitive. The sales person was actually very helpful and was able to find us a refrigerator that matched all our criteria. We purchased a Kenmore MDL# 78304. It’s also listed as an LG brand in some places on the Internet. We were told by the salesperson that LG manufactures this model for Sears, so the same model number, either 70304 or LG 7830, refer to the same refrigerator. The regular price on this model is $1519, but it was on sale for $1130. There was an additional 10% discount on all appliances, so our final price was $1017, which beat by several hundred dollars other French door bottom freezer models we’d seen. On top of all that, delivery was free.
The refrigerator was purchased on Saturday, and we were able to get delivery the very next day on a Sunday. It cost an extra $10 for delivery, but since normal delivery was free we only needed to pay the extra $10. It was worth it to get delivery on a day we didn’t need to take off work. Sears called that evening to arrange a time window for delivery the next day, and the truck was right on time. The delivery men were great, taking the old fridge out to the garage where I wanted it, bringing the new one into the kitchen with no mishaps, and hooking up the ice maker. I’d purchased an icemaker installation kit in advance thinking I’d need it, but they supplied one, so I was able to take mine back and get a refund.
It was the Sunday before Thanksgiving that the fridge was delivered, and my wife’s entire family was coming over on Thanksgiving day so we needed lots of space for food. Although the new refrigerator is almost the same size as our old one, we’ve found there’s space for a lot more stuff due to the French door layout. The difference in usable space between this fridge and our old side-by-side is amazing, this one just holds so much more.
French doors make such a big difference. Everything in the fridge is in eye level range and easily accessible, no more bending over and peering into shelves. The shelves are completely adjustable and with the extra width of the refrigerator compartment there is greater flexibility in how things can be stored. It’s possible to store a large platter or sheet pan by spanning more than one shelf if necessary.
The front of one of the shelves slides back underneath if needed so that very tall items can be stored there.
In the doors are 6 gallon sized bins that can hold milk or juice if needed, or can be used to store smaller bottles and jars. There are adjustable dividers in the bins that can be used to separate items, or keep items from sliding around if only part of the bin is being used. Inside one door is a bin with a cover that could be used to store butter or similar items. There’s a drawer for meats and two humidity controlled drawers for storing items such as fruits, vegetables, and produce. All of the shelves have a spill guard edge and are made of tempered glass for easy cleanup. The drawers slide very easily and have plenty of room. Lighting in the fridge and freezer is very good. Separate temperature controls for the fridge and freezer are at the top front of the refrigerator compartment, and have a digital display.
One of the things we like about this model is that it’s energy star efficient, but we were surprised at just how little electricity it uses – the same amount of electricity as a 75 watt light bulb. Estimated yearly cost of operation is only $50. That is just amazing.
The freezer has a pull-out wire basket/shelf on top, and a pull out drawer underneath that. That design has taken a little getting used to in comparison to what we’ve been used to in the past. Not that there’s any less room, but it’s more important to be organized with this type of freezer design compared to what we were used to in the side-by-side. Multiple shelves in the side-by-side made it easier to get by with less organization. With the bottom freezer we’re limited to one large shelf and one large pull-out bin. Not that it’s con to this type of freezer, because it really does hold a lot. It just forces you to organize things in order to have the food readily accessible. The bottom bin has a movable divider, which helps with storing items in it.
About a third of the top basket/shelf in the freezer is taken up by the ice machine and ice storage. This is pretty standard – you sacrifice some space in the freezer for the convenience of have ice made automatically. The ice maker is adjustable to 3 different sized of cubes, and there’s an on/off switch easily reached at the front of it. We’ve found that it makes ice quickly. In 2 days the bin is full so we turn it off until we deplete the ice supply, then turn it back on.
The refrigerator is extremely quiet, you wouldn’t even know it’s running. The only noticeable noise is when the ice maker dumps ice and refills. Our old fridge was loud enough to be noticeable from the bedroom at night.
The coils on this model are supposed to not need cleaning. That sounds great, however, I do plan on pulling it out periodically and at least checking them. I’ve heard from more than one source that clogged or dirty coils are the biggest cause of breakdowns, and that by keeping them clean the compressor systems will last a very long time.
We’ve had this refrigerator for a month now and are very pleased with it. The sleek design looks great in our kitchen, it doesn’t protrude excessively from the front of the adjacent counter, and the French door design works very well with the limited space we have at the hallway opening. It is much more usable in terms of design than any single door or side-by-side model we’ve had in the past. Every one of our friends, family, or neighbors who have seen it absolutely loves it. Other Kenmore appliances we’ve had have been very reliable, and while we’ve only had this for a month we’re expecting good reliability based on reputation and experience. And we feel very good that we got a great deal on it. We would recommend this refrigerator to anyone looking for a new model.
33 in. Width for smaller refrigerator openings Trio 3-door design with Pull-Out Freezer Drawer Adjusta Cube Ice Maker - 3 different sizes of ice cubes...More at Sears
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