Meditrina

I have never had to buy a new refrigerator. This house came with a brand new one, with tags and all. That was almost 10 years ago. These last few days, it has been making a noise on and off. Sort of a rattling noise, but nothing in the fridge is rattling, I checked. It sounds like it is coming from the back. I wanted new one anyway, one with the water/ice dispenser in the door. So I was going to use this opportunity to start shopping around. Then I realized, I don't know what to look for.

White? or stainless steel?
side by side? or the one with the freezer on the bottom?
Will that all depend on the size of the space I have to put it in? ( I measured the noisy one. It is 31 inches wide, 66 inches tall ( or so). I have little room to play with on the sides, maybe some room on the top.)
Is one brand better than another?
Any store I should stay away from? go to first?

Any tips or hints, experiences with this kind of purchase, both good and bad, would really be appreciated and helpful in making this decision.

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noodle

I like :

Black or stainless
Side by side (easier to not have to dig in drawers)
and Kenmore or LG for reasonable.

Check Lowe's and Home Depot. They'll do a line of credit for a discount a lot of time and you can pay it off with no penalty in the first month or two. They're expensive!
And get it delivered and installed, even if it costs extra. lol.

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inBOIL

Those are a bitch and a half to clean. If you don't do it right, you'll eventually end up with stuff floating in your water.

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Charlatan

Don't get stainless unless you really like the way it looks. You will be adding to the price for stainless and if you don't really want or need it... save the money.

Make sure it is Energy Star compliant. You will save in the operating costs.

Think about how you use your fridge. Then have a look at the shelves and drawers and door shelves. Are they adjustable? Are they strong enough? Can you pull them out to clean them? Will it hold the food you normally store (both volume of food and height of the shelves).

I'd skip the water dispenser and ice maker as they suck up precious space. But the might just be me.

I prefer a side by side or a freezer on the bottom.

As for brands, I wouldn't worry too much about that. Do some research on the ones they show you in the store. Read some reviews online and see what people have to say.

Good luck.

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wooÐs

If it were up to me, I'd get black / side by side. Stainless is attractive, but while at others' homes, there always seems to be greasy fingerprints on the doors. That could very well be because they don't wipe the doors down often enough though.

I wouldn't go white. That's 'old' lol.

Post pics and let us help you choose .

GreyWolf

I prefer one with a freezer on the bottom. It gets used the least, and puts the storage area at a more reasonable height. I'm 6'2" and I *HATE* bending down to get stuff at the bottom of the refrigerator. I'd love to have a water/ice dispenser in the door, but I couldn't find one with the freezer on the bottom. I'm sure they're out there now, though.

As for the efficiency, better efficiency is always good, but not as much as they might make it seem. On Long Island, when you're heating your home 4 months of the year or so, the energy cost of the refrigerator is greatly reduced. It is a heat pump, moving the heat from the food you put inside, back out into the kitchen, and quite efficiently. The energy used by the refrigerator shows up as heat that reduces the load on your heating system (actually the same with ALL electric appliances that don't use hot water). If you reduce the consumption of the refrigerator, your heating system will have to make up the difference.

The big gains from better efficiency come during the cooling season when your refrigerator is consuming less energy (producing less heat). This reduces the load on the a/c, and gives you a "cooling" bonus (again, same with using any more efficient electric appliance).

Basically, I'd get the most efficient one that gives you the features and style you want at a price you can afford. Isn't appliance shopping easy?

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Redlemon

Stainless refrigerators don't hold magnets. This could be a positive or negative, depending on your kitchen.

Side-by-side refrigerators store less than top/bottom units; the dividing wall takes up more space.

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snowy

We (my parents) bought a new fridge not long ago. We went for a basic GE side-by-side with a water dispenser in the door. We went with white because my mother hates stainless; the fridge in her house is a counter-depth Bosch, and she dislikes how it gets fingerprints all over it. So when she picked out this fridge (since it will be hers in another year) she went with white--it's way easier to clean and it doesn't look weird in our kitchen the way another color would.

One thing I would say is to examine the fridge and make sure it has all of the shelving, drawers, and pullouts you need. I need a cheese drawer and a produce drawer, preferably one with a humidity control. A convertible meat pan is also nice, as is soda storage. I like the one we have because it has deep pocket shelves in the door, big enough to fit a gallon of milk. Think about these things when you pick out a fridge. Some people think they could care less, but they would miss those things if they weren't an option anymore.

And yes, if you want in-door water and ice without paying an arm and a leg, side-by-side is pretty much the way to go.

This is the fridge we bought, and I love it: GE 25.0 Cu. Ft. Side-by-Side Refrigerator - GSH25JFXWW at The Home Depot I feel like it came with the right amount of bells and whistles for the price--it includes a water dispenser with water filter.

The real determining factor though is: what will fit in your space? We had to sand off a bit of the countertop to fit our fridge in the kitchen, but it was worth it! The old one was a Kenmore from the 70s. I'm soooo glad it's gone.

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Projectguru

There is a lot of options to choose from. I went with a stainless french door with the fridge on the bottom. Very, very functional and spacious. However, with 3 kids the stainless needs constant attention. So you need to consider who is going to be touching it all the time (which I did not do). Other than that, almost all have filtration systems for the water now and some sort of ice maker. One major thing to consider is the space you have. I bought the fridge I loved without ever measuring, and I had to take down a cabinet and trim it down for the fridge to fit. It was a pain and a lot of work. It wouldn't have been so bad if I would have been prepared to do it beforehand, but I was shocked when it was delivered and didn't fit! Talk about embarrassing!

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