Bigger than Ben Hur! Our update test of large and extra-large fridges finds six new models worth buying. (Update: large fridges).(Product/Service Evaluation)

Publication: Choice (Chippendale, Australia)

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COPYRIGHT 2003 Australian Consumers' Association

While shopping, you can get a 'feel' for a particular fridge--its convenience, layout, features and so on--but how well will that nice new white tower work? That's where CHOICE's performance tests come in.

A good fridge needs to maintain an appropriate range of fridge and freezer temperatures throughout the different seasons. Temperatures also need to be fairly uniform within each compartment and not vary greatly during operation, as this might make food lose its quality faster. It's also helpful if fresh-food and freezer temperatures are appropriate when set to the 'mid' or recommended setting, so that you don't have to fiddle with the controls a lot before you get the right temperatures. Our temperature performance tests cover all this.

Typical big fridge usage by large families, particularly those who entertain often, can mean frequent large loads of warm food being put in and more door openings than in smaller households. So it's important that large fridges can chill food rapidly; our cooling score rates this.

We also assess crisper performance--it's important your fruit and vegies keep fresh as long as possible and don't dry out, go mushy or freeze. Plus we check chiller temperatures and make sure the manufacturers' claimed energy efficiency ratings are accurate. See the last fridge test report in CHOICE, November 2002, or go to www.CHOICEextra.com.au, for more information about our tests.

ALL GOOD--BUT NOT PERFECT

The six large fridges we tested for this update all worked well, and you'd probably be happy with any of them. However, all were slightly let down in particular areas--it seems we'll have to wait a while yet for the perfect fridge.

The top-scoring large fridge, for example, the KELVINATOR N520H, worked very well in most of the temperature performance tests, but getting its temperature set correctly took some trial and error.

The best extra-large fridge, the SAMSUNG Cool Tech SRL550DW, was let down by large temperature fluctuations. See the profiles on page 44 for more details on the strengths and weaknesses of each fridge tested.

How reliable have subscribers found them?

We asked over 42,000 subscribers whether their fridge had needed repair in the previous 12 months. There wasn't much difference between brands, and fridges are generally reliable appliances--only 10% overall had needed repair.

The graphs only show the results for brands for which we received sufficient replies--we don't have reliability data for some brands mentioned in this article. The results include all types of fridge, not just those in this test. The number in brackets tells you how many readers reported on the brand.

Percentage not needing repair Differences of more than 7% are meaningful. Average for all fridges 90 Sharp (677) 95 Samsung (174) 92 Whirlpool (669) 92 Fisher & Paykel (5136) 90 Kelvinator (2738) 90 Westinghouse (5880) 90 GE (666) 87 Amana/Kleenmaid (323) 85...

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