How to Buy A New Refrigerator for your house : Basic Buying Guide

Palka Khurana Mon, 28/07/2014 - 17:24

No kitchen is complete without a refrigerator which has become a complete necessity in recent times. Buying a refrigerator is an expensive investment and thus you have to be careful and consider certain things before buying a refrigerator. The important points to remember includes space available in the kitchen, the capacity, size and most importantly budget. Choosing the right refrigerator also depends on the number of people in the house.

Here are few tips to help you buy the RIGHT REFRIGERATOR for your house that meet your requirements :

1. Size and capacity : Before purchasing refrigerator, make sure to measure the dimensions of the area where you have to fit in the fridge. Depending on the size of your family, decide the cappacity of the fridge which varies from 250-800 liter.

2. Choosing the type of Refrigerator : Direct cool refrigerators are the most basic types where cooling within the fridge compartment is done without any fanning and cooling is rather done by a natural convection process inside the fridge. We have four types of refrigerators to choose from, and each of them have their pros and cons. Almost all modern refrigerators except a very few basic ones are frost free refrigerators. These frost free models use electric fans to circulate cool air inside the compartments. Deciding which refrigerator suits your requirements, helps in making a final buying decision.

  • Single Door Refrigerator : These refrigerators have a single door up front and do not have separate compartment for freezer. They include three main sections- a freezer, a fridge and a vegetable bin. They are low priced, easily fit in small space and best suited for office, shops, clinics etc. They have a capacity of 50-250 liter.

  • Double Door Refrigerator : Double door refrigerators are larger in size than single door models and offer a capacity that range between 200-600 liter. They comprise of 2 doors. One door covers the freezer compartment that have a sub-zero temperature and used to make ice. Another door has fridge compartment where temperature ranges between 0 and 10 degree Celsius and used to store vegetables and all types of eatable items. Since there are 2 separate doors for fridge and freezer sections, chances of heat escape remains low, making it highly energy efficient. They have adjustable acrylic shelves or toughened glass shelves to accommodate bigger bottles/ containers also.

  • Side-By-Side Refrigerator : These refrigerators have side-by-side doors similar to that of a standard cupboard. They are available with large capacities up to 800 litres and may feature ice and water dispenser depending on the cost and model of the refrigerator . We do not require to open the doors to fill the glass in case the model comes with the option of water dispensers. Since they have cupboard like design, they provide ample storage space to store daily items, thus saving on energy consumption as we do not have to open full refrigerator again and again.

  • Bottom Mounted Refrigerator : These refrigerators ergonomically designed and have a unique design with modern and stylish looks which has the freezer section at the bottom of refrigerator and the fridge section is on the upper side. This design is quite useful in household as we dont have to bend all the time to take out a fruit or some vegetables. At the same time, the bottom freezer compartment comes with a bigger sized compartment for storing large amount of frozen foods and ice that are required less frequently. This design is energy effiecient and bottom freezer units are also slightly bigger than top freezers, but there is very less variety of models to available in bottom freezers.

    • 3. Star Rating : While buying the new refrigerator, make sure that you choose a fridge that has best energy star rating. Energy guide ratings for any kitchen appliance refer to its usage in kWhs per year. The lower the energy number, the more cost effective it will be while operating. Electrical appliances carrying the Energy Star rating are supposedly 10 to 20% more energy efficient than non-rated models.

    The popular refrigerator models include LG, Samsung, Haier, Panasonic, Godrej, Electrolux, Kelvinator.