The Refrigerator Hunt

Ive been shopping around for a new fridge since the last two months. I needed a roomier model large enough to stash away unused grocery while I am away from home a month or two. A lot of my kitchenware has handles, and it was getting difficult to refrigerate these pots and pans with leftovers.

I had heard about the new design with the freezer at the bottom, that minimises the need to bend, every time you want tomatoes from the veggie tray – so I decided to give it a try.

The lone model that met these needs was Hitachi. The fridge is on top, and the veggie tray and freezer are drawer-like compartments. Quite a novel concept – except, the drawers have a great storage space – much more than necessary. On the contrary, the refrigeration section was a little smaller than my current 225L .

All the other models in the 400L – 425L category were the standard 2 door variety – in white or metallic gray. Whirlpool had a little bit of glitter on the door handle, bit other than that, the models hardly had any aesthetic differentiation.

For years, research has been telling us, not to store eggs on the door-side shelf. But modern refrigerator design seems to be extremely conservative in that sense, with the egg container firmly placed on the top shelf on the door-side. Samsung was the only one which actually had a free container that can be placed any where.

So finally, it was the Samsung that came home. An LG or whirlpool wouldnt have been too different either, Whilpools’s green tinted interiors retro interiors put me off. As for LG, Ive had a bad experience with their servicing for my home theatre – and Ive vowed never to buy any LG product again!

A lot of scope out there for designing refrigerators. I hope some product designers are listening!

Tags: refrigerator fridge