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COPYRIGHT 2002 Australian Consumers' Association
IN A NUTSHELL
* Our verdict on 42 upright, two-door, frost-free fridge/freezers. We found 12 to recommend in various sizes: see What to buy: profiles, page 42.
* Only one of the 11 new models tested can be recommended, and some have serious temperature management problems.
* What to look for, page 46, gives useful hints on buying a fridge.
Off to buy a new fridge? There's no shortage of models--you can choose from small to extra-large, freezer on top or bottom, side-by-side, with chiller or without, with one or two crisper drawers, wire, plastic or glass shelves, stainless steel or white, and much more.
You can check out before you buy whether the fridge you're interested in fits in your space, the door opens in the right direction, the shelves are appropriate for your needs, and its energy consumption. But the one thing you can't find out in the shop is whether it works well. Does it maintain appropriate temperatures in both winter and summer? Cool down a warm load quickly? Keep meat and fish extra-cold in the chiller and vegies fresh in crisper?
That's the type of information you'll find in this article. We tested 11 new fridge/freezers and, together with the 31 models that are still on the market from earlier tests, can give you the verdict on 42, ranging in size from around 300 L to more than 550 L, and in price from less than $1000 to over $2000.
Considering that sort of expenditure--and the fact that you may have to put up with the fridge for a long time--you want to make the right choice. The information about the tested models in the table, pages 44-45, and general hints in What to look for, page 46, should help you choose a model you'll be happy with.
FINDING THE PROBLEMS
While there's a large range of fridges on the market, not all are good at keeping your fresh food fresh and frozen food frozen. In fact, none of the 11 newly tested models (marked with a [dagger] in the table) stood out for performance, and only one made it into the What to buy list (see What to buy: profiles, page 42), which is dominated by two major brands. All the other models in the What to buy list are from previous tests and still available, and they're certainly better buys than the other 10 in our latest test.
In this as in previous tests some of the fridges had serious temperature management problems. Ideally, in a fridge with two temperature controls you should be able to get suitable temperatures in both the fresh-food (0[degrees]C to 4[degrees]C) and freezer (-18[degrees]C) compartments simultaneously. However, these controls aren't always independent for each compartment. They're usually interdependent: one may monitor the temperature while the other acts as a baffle, directing different amounts of cold air to each compartment. And adjusting them to get the right temperature combinations can be quite difficult.
One of the problems we encountered is a fridge's inability to keep the freezer compartment sufficiently cold without freezing fresh food in the fridge. In the WESTINGHOUSE BJ503T, for example, the fresh-food compartment tends to be far too cold. Because of the temperature balance between compartments, you can't always set the freezer to -18[degrees]C (as is recommended for many foods) without the temperature in the fresh-food compartment dropping close to freezing point.
The AMANA TX518V, on the other hand, has the opposite problem. Its fresh-food compartment, when set to full cold, still tends to be too warm, especially in summer, unless you have the freezer set to very cold as well.
The NEC FR-405 has problems coping with ambient temperature changes from summer to winter. As the room temperature drops from 32[degrees]C to 10[degrees]C, the average freezer temperature warms up by more than 8[degrees]C--which is unacceptable for long-term food storage. You'd be hard-pressed to get this model's temperatures properly balanced when the seasons change. That's not the only problem with this fridge. Its temperature also fluctuates considerably when the compressor stops and starts, and the cord could be pulled loose--a safety risk.
All these temperature issues (and others) are considered in the temperature performance score. For more, see note 3, page 47.
What to buy: profiles Prices shown are recommended retail, as provided by manufacturers in August/September 2002. See the table overleaf for individual model scores and features.
Eight of the 12 recommended models are FISHER 8, PAYKEL Active Smart fridges. Most of these come in three price and style ranges: Tasman, Elegance and Inox (the Inox is in stainless steel, and the Tasman is usually the cheapest of the three; performance should be similar for each style of any model). Several comments apply to them all:
* They have relatively independent electronic controls for the fresh-food and freezer compartments, allowing you to set one without significantly affecting the other. But there are quite large steps between the settings in the fresh-food compartment, so it's hard to fine-tune temperature settings. However, Fisher & Paykel has told us the new versions of all Active Smart fridges (available from September) have smaller steps between the settings, which should make fine-tuning easier.
* They have an alarm that sounds when the door is left open or a fault is detected.
* They have no chiller.
SMALL FRIDGES (UP TO 375 L)
The KELVINATOR Opal N360F ($1195, top freezer, 3/4-width chiller with separate control) is the standout fridge in this size range. It's very energy-efficient, very fast at cooling the flesh-food compartment and maintains a steady temperature well--although the door bottle shelf's a bit warmer than the rest.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The two FISHER & PAYKEL Active Smart Tasman fridges in this size range (E331T, $1046, top freezer, right) and E372B, $1267, bottom freezer, below right) are good performers (the E331T is a slightly smaller model). Both are quite fast at cooling the fresh-food compartment and very good for crisper freshness. However, in the E331T the temperature fluctuates a bit, and in the E372B temperatures in the freezer aren't very uniform.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
MEDIUM FRIDGES (375-450 L)
FISHER & PAYKEL Active Smart Elegance E402B ($1421, bottom...
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