All posts in: Refrigerators

The big chill: A new problem-solving fridge

Kitchen & Food
By Davida Hogan on October 2, 2011 in

Stainless steel fridge

I love good design. When I was renovating my kitchen I chose white glass front appliances--they blend right in with my shiny white cabinets from Ikea. My French door refrigerator by Jenn Air, with its bottom freezer and water filter tucked inside the door, is super slick. I loved the way it looked when it was first installed and then I started using it. Who knew that 26 cubic feet would not be big enough for a young family? And I never realized how many times a day my children would open the fridge (sometimes both doors and the freezer drawer all at once) in search of juice. So last week, at the Kenmore preview, I went head over heels for a new French door fridge, which will hit stores in January 2012.

 

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Coming soon to a fridge near you: Status updates, remote controls

Home & Garden
By Christine Frietchen on January 9, 2011 in

Kenmore washer prototype

One of the hot topics at this year's Consumer Electronics Association conference in Las Vegas has been "connected appliances." Several companies demonstrated washers, dryers, fridges and ovens that can tweet, sync and link to your home's network, with varying degrees of functionality.

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Are any of these Black Friday fridges cool enough?

Kitchen & Food
By Christine Frietchen on November 23, 2010 in

Refrigerator

The holidays are a good time to spot deep discounts on major appliances. Today we're taking a closer look at refrigerators. The big question mark right now is Home Depot -- which has vigorously persued legal action against any site publishing its Black Friday circular ahead of time. We have no idea what deals they might offer, but since the Sears, Lowe's and Best Buy ads have been up for a few days, we've had a good chance to research the featured models.

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The cold hard truth about today's refrigerators

Kitchen & Food
By Sarah Burns on May 10, 2010 in

A couple shopping for a fridge.
When it comes to refrigerators, one of the biggest issues consumers face is long-term reliability, something that professional reviewers often don't have the ability to comment on. That's why user reviews play such an important role in selecting the best refrigerators.
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Not very holiday-ish, but there are some decent deals on fridges this Black Friday

By Christine Frietchen on November 19, 2009 in

Samsung French Door fridge

Shopping for major appliances doesn't sound that Christmas-y, but if your refrigerator is on its last legs, we spotted some good discounts at Sears, Best Buy and Home Depot. All three are advertising French-door refrigerators as part of their Black Friday sales, with sale prices ranging from $798 to $1,399, but not all of them are good bets.

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Appliance rebates coming this fall

Home & Garden
By Christine Frietchen on September 8, 2009 in

Washing machine
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Some dorm fridges aren't safe for food storage

Kitchen & Food
By Christine Frietchen on September 2, 2009 in

Those little $80 cube-shaped mini fridges are de rigueur in dorm rooms, but before you buy, make sure you're getting a real refrigerator.

It turns out that the smallest of these units, like the $60 Chefmate BC-50A aren't using a compressor and coolant like regular refrigerators; instead they use thermoelectric (Peltier) cooling, much like the portable coolers that can be plugged into a car's cigarette lighter. That means they can only cool down to about 40 degrees -- and only in cooler rooms. If the ambient room temperature creeps over 70 degrees F, these little fridges just can't keep up. That makes these coolers dangerous for storing leftovers and perishable food since there's a good chance the unit just can't keep food cold below the 40-degree maximum recommended by the USDA.

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