I would never consider a fridge with ice and water in the door… mostly due to lousy filters and possible failures/leaks.
I suppose I could spend the better part of a grand for reverse osmosis filters under the sink, but my pref for water/ice is ZeroWater filters for superior results at a small fraction of the price (where I am - about $36/year).
I couldn’t even do that. Or a pizza. Pizzas wouldn’t fit in the freezer side flat, either. Loved the easy access to the shelves, though.
slide out baskets / shelves are attractive - but the mechanism required to make that happen most often impact the ‘usable volume’
for our top-open mid-sizish freezer, I use corrugated boxes for different items -
beef
pork
chicken
veggies
rolls
etc . . .
that allows wall to wall volume use, and ease of ‘where is that?’ findings.
Separate freezer appliance is my recommendation. Separate reefer, too, if you can swing it.
In the basic, no-frills model being replaced, I used wire-mesh bins from an office supply store to organize the freezer and the lower fridge shelf.
oh that’ll definitely work - the Amazon boxes are cheaper (g) and as the volume increases/decreases it’s ‘toss and adapt’ routine.
we do Costco time-to-time. their prices on Prime grade beef beat the supermarket’s Choice grade - but it come is a BIG package! so it gets frozen - same with chicken - same with pork - same with ground beef. . .
the twenty pound bags of frozen veggies (okay, not really 20 lbs…) I divvy up into one gallon freezer bags and ‘box’ for organization. the “ready-use” bag goes in the fridge freezer, the rest stays in the chest freezer…
Another problem with my Whirlpool refrigerator, many of the plastic drawers and shelves in the door have cracked. The price of replacement parts is so high that the cost of replacing all the cracked parts would exceed the cost of a new refrigerator. I would like an additional shelf for the freezer, but the it’s too expensive.
I got a KitchenAid in 2004 (made by Whirlpool). By the time I replaced it in 2018, every one one of the shelves had cracked. And some of the lighting died. The replacement didn’t even last 3 years until it in turn got replaced.
That’s a bummer. Prior to buying my Whirlpool refrigerator I had a KitchenAid. A friend had used it for many years and it lasted me many years. It’s disappointing that a formerly trusted brand is no longer trustworthy.
Have you looked at after-market products? We need to replace the filters in our mini-splits and the Mitsubishi replacements are $50-75.00.
Aftermarket are coming in around $20-25.00 each and the reviews are pretty positive.
Might be similar for fridge products too.
In the three refer/freezers I’ve had in 25 years, every one of the clear bins cracked. I used a crazy anount of duct tape for repairs. The last time I bought replacement bins, it was almost like taking out a loan. I have now found that using hard plastic bins with perforations (one is a Rubbermaid brand) work for me. I will never buy a side by side again. I need the wider freezer space for freezing cookie sheet size trays for flat freezing. There have been issues with food freezing in the refrigerator section, too. If I could, I would design my own!
Your example looks really nice. I hope you can get the perfect fit for you and your needs with function and maintenance care.
Oh my, that’s interesting!
Note that fridges can vary in temp by 5°F or more… and back is colder than front, and bottom is colder than top. 38°F sounds a bit cold, especially if your therm is mounted at the top or near the door.
Here is what mine looks like over the last dozen+ hours, refreshed every 30 minutes:
My sensor tag is mounted at the top by the door hinge. Stuff at the bottom shelf/drawers stay very cold, but dairy and produce never freeze, and eggs and milk keep well past the expiration dates.
I have analogue thermometers is different parts of my fridge. Different areas vary by as much as 7 degrees. There is a special drawer that is meant to stay colder - mine is around 30 degrees - for meat and other keep-it-really cold things - and the warmest spot is 37 degrees. The fridge is set at 34, so I guess it splits the difference. The freezer stays exactly where I set it, though.
