those who own an american style fridge freezer tell me why you love it

[mothersmilkandherchickenseggs]

i am procrastinating over whether or not to get one, at the moment i have an under cabinate fridge (there is 5 of us in our house and i love to cook) and it just never seems big enough) i also have a tall freezer in a cubourd in our out house. we have just redone our kitcken which means we have moved our dinning sweet in to another room freeing up alot of space in the kitchen so im thinking of putting an american fridge freezer in the space and getting rid of the fridge (hubby would make another cubourd to fit the hole as he made the kitchen) and get rid if the freezer and turning the cubourd into a cloak room thus freeing up more space in the outhouse/utilty room. Does this sound like a good idea? aethey as great as they seem? the decission rests on me so if i get it wrong i'll never live it down not to mention the money the alternitive is i put a bistro table in the kitchen and the appliances stay the same
anyones opinions would be greatly recieved

[RepatNikki]

WE have a big Siemens one...

+ves:

• the water/ice dispenser is FAB and encourages the children to drink water all the time.
  
• the freezer part is quite good - it's nice being able to see things on shelves without having to rummage deep in drawers
  

BUT
-ves

• I really don't like the fridge part as much I thought I would. It seems so narrow compared to our last built in fridge
  

-it seems really difficult to organise the food properly

• it also has two, full width, salad/veg drawers at the bottom which are just too big, and really need sub-dividing. Stuff gets 'lost' in there then goes rotten or out of code. I need to find some way (plastic baskets?) to re-organise it?

[Kewcumber]

I've had two I loved them both until they broke down and I binned £1000 of fridge (outside warratny) as repair was so expensive.

So I thought sod it and bought the largest cheap fridge freezer I could find - Beko extra wide and its just as good. Doesn't dispense water or ice cubes but has a pretty good ice cube maker and bin which DS likes to fill up and we have quite got used to slumming it with tap water!

[TheRhubarb]

I had a Hotpoint Quatrio which unfortunately we had to sell when we moved house because it was too big for our kitchen. I LOVED it though!

Good points:
Energy saving so you save money in the long run.
Brilliant deep freezer drawers.
It never got iced up.
You could set it to holiday mode when you went away.
If the kids didn't shut the doors properly it would beep after a minute to let you know (very useful that one!)
Had bags of room in the fridge section.
Brilliant doors that opened outwards and also good for bottles, cartons etc.
Plenty of room to store your veg too so they would last longer, as would bread etc.

I can't think of any bad points, other than it was too big for our new house :(
We sold it to a friend and she's more than happy with it - she uses it for her 4 kids and manages to fit all her weekly shopping in there.

[Mrsfred]

RepatNikki you could have written that post for me. I would add that the freezer compartment is very narrow. For instance, you can't fit a large sized pizza in a box in there because it is too slim and the ice compartment on the inside of the door takes up a lot of room.

The ice/water dispenser is great unless you have a small child that can reach the bit you push, otherwise you end up with freezing cold puddles of water on the floor constantly (you can turn the ice off, but not the water!).

One other point is that the filter on mine needs to be changed quite regularly and they are quite expensive.

[RepatNikki]

Mrs Fred - oh, yes, I forgot about the width problem for things like pizza boxes!

I should add that we still have a traditional fridge freezer in our utility room which we use as back up (e.g. for pizza!) so we now have this complex shuffling routine for things which won't fit in the kitchen one

Does anyone have any bright ideas about how to store/rotate/manage the veg in the (too) big veg drawers?

[TheRhubarb]

The hotpoint fridge doesn't have water coolers, it does have an ice dispenser but that is inside the fridge. And the freezer drawers are big enough to fit a family sized pizza in there.

Nikki, I would have one for salad and one for veg and if I bought new I would just put the new stock at the bottom and the 'must eat now' stock at the top.

[valiumredhead]

I have a Miele one (actually they are separate but fit together to give impression of American style one)

Only positives as far as I am concerned -

LOVE the alarm which sounds when doors are left open.

LOVE the salad and veg drawers which keep food for waaaaaaaaaaay longer than any other fridge I have had,

LOVE the fact there is loads of room for food and nothing is squashed in.

The freezer side of it is amazing and also has a super freeze button you press when you fill up the drawers with fresh food, so it freezes very quickly.

Can't recommend Miele enough!

[wfrances]

bought a samsung 8 years ago .
died on us last month so had a new spec replacement with brita water filter .the kids cant get enough of the filtered water.
family of 6 and i food shop online in bulk.
only bad point ,mines not in the kitchen but in the utility room as we dont have room.

[DilysPrice]

Ooh, those Miele ones sound fantastic Valium - where did you get them? And were they shockingly expensive?

[LadyPeterWimsey]

Love the cold water and ice, but freezer compartment not really big enough. One day I am planning to get an extra freezer for the garage or utility room because we do need more freezing space.

[BlooCowWonders]

we have just bought big freezer for our utility room as the freezer side is so tiny - but only in comparison with the fridge. If I think back to our last fridge/freezer, it wasn't that different, but there are more of us now!
Love the ice and cold water on tap.

When we had the kitchen done, the kitchen co wanted us to have a £4k model... we chose a £600 one and has been fine.

[valiumredhead]

Dilys My dh bought them on line - can't remember the name, will ask him when he gets in, they always do the cheapest deals though. I seem to remember both of them were well under £1,000. Will ask and report back later ( he was in charge of buying appliances when we were doing the house up - I was project managing everything else! )

[valiumredhead]

Just remembered - Buyers and Sellers, but just had a look and can't see our model on the website.

[DilysPrice]

Oh bum. Thanks for looking though.

[valiumredhead]

Dh just rang - loves a white goods question that man!!

He said fridge was about £650 and freezer about £700 - which was at least £300 cheaper than John Lewis, plus you get the Miele guarantee so well worth it! So yes, big money but I would buy again as they last so well.

[valiumredhead]

Found the freezer!

www.buyersandsellersonline.co.uk/eshop/products/Miele/Refrigeration/Freezer/FN12620S.htm

[valiumredhead]

Fridge similar to this one but ours has more veg drawers

www.buyersandsellersonline.co.uk/eshop/products/Miele/Refrigeration/Fridge/K14820SDed.htm

They fit together so become one unit.

[jicky]

If you want a really big fridge how about a corner fridge? I have one and it is fab - size of a telephone box inside and stores masses of stuff. But then you would still need to keep your existing freezer, so you wouldn't get a coat cupboard - unless you could manage with a small under counter freezer where the fridge is?

[nancydrewfoundaclue]

Generally much better than the seperate under counter fridge and freezer I once had.

Obviously the fridge is much bigger so no hunting around under stacks of stuff to get at what you are after.

Salad drawers actually keep stuff fresh.

Love love love having a dedicated space for my chablis

Water dispenser means we all drink more water

The big negative is that the fridge is narrow. So in addition to a general lack of space as others have said there are some things that just don'yt fit. I love cooking and do tend to cook in bulk and freeze so I have ended up buying another freezer....

[jacksgrannie]

I have an American style Siemens combined fridge/freezer. Love it. Cannot imagine catering for the hordes (sorry, DGC) without it.

Pros:
Masses of space in the fridge, all at eye level. I used to have a built-under one which was pathetic - it was full up with a couple of bottles of milk and a bit of salad.
Large salad boxes, also useful for storing soft drinks, beers etc.
Alarm sounds if you leave the door open.
Dead easy to clean.
Filtered water on tap with ice and crushed ice is great for children and also
saves on bottled water.
Loads of door space for bottles, juices, sauces etc.
Integral wine rack!
Controls are very easy to operate.
It looks great.

Cons:
Freezer space is limited. Because of the narrow width of the compartment, it cannot freeze large items eg pizzas. I have bought a small chest freezer which lives in the garage to supplement it.
Cannot think of any other cons.

[ChrissyHynde]

If i had one it would cost me a fortune in food as I'd feel obliged to keep it full all the time!!

[Earlybird]

To all of you complaining about narrow width of freezer compartment and limited space:

Why not get an American style fridge that has fridge section up top, and freezer at the bottom. Example here:

www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_04671022000P?vName=Appliances&keyword=04660933000p%7C04651103000p%7C04671022000p%7C04628262000p%7C04671053000p%7C04651039000p&resultsLabelText=FeaturedItems

Are those sold in the UK (i'm in the US, so don't know what is on offer in the UK)

[DilysPrice]

I'm almost shocked by the number of people who've (presumably) spent ££££ on giant fridge freezers only to have to find space for an additional freezer for big things!

[LadyPeterWimsey]

Dilys: £350 new on eBay.