Why aren't you using a more efficient chest refrigerator?

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“One word: ‘Tupperware’!”

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Too true. But what MAINLY drew us to this fridge was Samsung’s product reliability. The “usual” brands last only a few years at their 100% peak design levels, then things start to slowly go south.

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Remembering the Whirlpool fridge my mom had for over 25 years…

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The GE fridge grandma had for more than 40 years

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New-ish Whirlpools (like the TWO obvious go-to’s we had over the last ~11 years) only lasted that long combined. “W” seems to put more effort into their brand than in design/quality control. at least based on our experience. Outsourcing of sub-components may be the cause.

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We have a Whirlpool like this one. I like the double shelves. We had a Samsung like that in our old house as well that stayed there when we moved.
What don’t you like about the French doors?

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I want to say over 30 years, but I can’t really remember the date we bought it.

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No problem with the double doors; I was noting their contribution to inefficiency vis the freezer.

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They don’t make them like.…and so on and so on. :blush:

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But this is still front-opening, so you aren’t getting the benefit of a coffin freezer.

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In reality, compared to if you have one big door for the entire fridge area and you know where you are grabbing your stuff from, it can save a little bit of energy because you’re only opening the one side.

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Chest freezers are for people who have lots of space, and lots of organization. My mum had a list of what was in ours, when it went in, and when it needed to be used by. She even had it in a database (I think on our C64, but may have been after we switched to DOS.) When I took home economics in high school, managing a freezer and pantry was part of the curriculum.

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Partially true, yet still much more efficient than a front opener since the freezer trays (open top… a good thing) hold already frozen stuff, and that still frozen stuff allows the chest volume to take less time to get down back down to freezing temp.

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This. “Freezer audit” is a periodic thing in our house.

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Yes. We have found, though, that if you think the orange juice is on the left side, when it’s actually on the right… :blush: I know you see my point.

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I had a friend long ago that inherited one of those huge ones from his grandparents. He came up with a brilliant idea for it, though. He saved up a ton of milk jugs and lined the entire bottom of that with them, put cardboard on top of the jugs, thereby making the space not so cavernous.
Also, whenever they went camping, he would grab a couple of those for the ice chest.
The other benefit was that it made the freezer more efficient to run being that it was about 1/3 filled with solid blocks of ice.

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About doors…why aren’t the chest freezer folks considering multiple doors/compartments in their design to accommodate both refrigerator and freezer modes? :man_shrugging:

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It may be due to the not so small annoyance of having to bend over for everything. That, and how a chest (if, for the sake of some convenience) in the kitchen would consume floorspace. I’d be surprised if market research has not been done on all this. Unfortunately, our world is convenience over efficiency (as far as some products). One solution could be a raised chest with internal integral easily raised and accessible multiple shelving, although floorspace could suffer.

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I have a chest freezer & it’s fine for long-term storage - I go into it maybe once or twice a week. But it takes up more floor space than a fridge, so there’s no way I could fit one in the kitchen. If I wanted to use one for a fridge it would have to go in the basement next to the freezer. I’m not going down & back up the stairs every time I need a few ice cubes or a cold drink, or every morning for milk & OJ (and a second trip to put them back).

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I have one of these and also like it (no French doors, though). I get the impression that the chest/drawer freezer at the bottom is becoming more of a preference for appliance manufacturers.

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