How much fridge/freezer space for family of 4?

[Pannacotta]

We have two young DSs, we cook lots and enjoy wine.
We dont entertain much other than family, but it'd be nice to have room to cool wine and beer.

We're planning a new kitchen and I'm not sure what we should go for.
I am wondering about a full height larder fridge, undercounter freezer and wine cooler above the freezer.

(I'm not keen on american fridge/freezers, I find the freezer section too narrow.)

Does this sound about right? What do you have and does it work well?

TIA

Hi! Will mail soon with plans of lighting, bathroom etc.

We have the opposite way round - a big freezer, a big cool larder, and a little undercounter fridge which is only for things that need to be kept at fridge temp and will be eaten in the next 2 days. If it's going to be eaten after that, it goes in the freezer.

DSiL has an enormous fridge and a little freezer, and I find the fridge incredibly stressful - it just feels like it's full of things about to be forgotten and to rot, IYSWIM.

Thats interesting, two votes for big freezer.
I dont tend to use frozen food other than fish fingers, potato waffles and ice cream/lollies so not sure we need loads of freezer space.

The fridge is always groaning though, with juice/wine /cheese/cold meat/fruit/veg etc, esp as we buy organic fruit and veg so need to keep things in the fridge so they last.

I think we'll look at a fridge which has the biofresh thing which is supposed to be good for keeping food fresh for longer.

Undecided re freezer/wine store etc.

We have a normal sized integrated frige in the kitchen and our original fridge/freezer in the garage. Once the babies were onto weaning, a 3 drawer freezer wasn't enough so we now also have a larder sized freezer in the garage as well. The fridge is used for booze/fridge stuff when offers are on.

We don't use much frozen food per se (not even fish fingers, sadly) - we just freeze all our meat, fish, butter, nuts, bread, cake, extra fruit and veg and herbs from the garden, etc etc. It means you have to shop much less and nothing gets the chance to go off, plus you can buy discounted food on its best before date, so it's worth considering.

We only need as much wine in the fridge as is actually going to be drunk that day!

My colleague tells me the biofresh thing seems to work.

There are five of us here. I have a matching pair of tall fridge and freezer (180cm tall IIRC). Fridge is a great size, with rack for 4 wine bottles just under one of the shelves, a case of beer fits nicely on the bottom shelf, and the door is deep enough for 4 pint milk and big juice cartons. Also assorted jars of pickles, sauces etc which take up the top shelf.
Freezer is huge, to service DH's bargain-hunting raids in Waitrose, and the usual ice-cream, frozen fruit chicken nuggets and a big bag of ice.

Will they be integrated or free-standing? If integrated, get 2 matching fridge-freezers and have the doors opening a la American ff. Means you're not bending to get stuff at the bottom of the fridge.

Chippy I had planned to have what you suggested then DH said he thought that was overkill in the freezer stakes. Are yours freestanding or intergrated?

Swedish yes they would be integrated I think, it looks a bit neater and probably easier to keep clean.

Grendel I hadnt thought about freezing all those things, good point, esp about buying bargians at their bbf date and then freezing them.

Perhaps I will revert to plan A which is large fridge, large freezer and sod what DH thinks! It sounds as if there woudl be room for wine and beer in the fridge anyway, if we chose well.

Any suggestions for good makes? Liebherr look good plus Siemens and Bosch etc.

Thanks smalltown, good point about the brand labelling and standard size.
I mentioned Liebherr as our existing fridge/freezer is by them and it has been going for nearly 10 years and still looks pretty good.

HAve you had a bad experience with Samsung? Think they got some flack on a MNet testing thread...

Sorry about your bad experience with Samsung smalltown, but I have one of these Samsung Bad Boys from the Product Testing thread and have nothing but praise for it!

I originally had separate tall Electrolux fridge and freezer side by side American stylee and was very happy with it as had enough room in fridge for all veggies, salads, milk and other perishables and stocked the freezer with frozen veg, burgers, fish fingers, chickens for roasting, pieces, meat pieces and mince for cooking, ice cream, frozen fruit, desserts and then storing cooked or part cooked dishes and of course bargains.

This was fine and I was very happy with it (DH diff matter but then he doesn't see things from my perspective) until the fridge died and needed replacing. We then replaced it with INDESIT - TAN6FNFS Fridge Freezer - Silver as we felt we needed more freezer storage for home grown produce. While I liked the size of the fridge, the freezer section on top was not v practical as I am not very tall!

The Samsung fridge freezer replaced the Indesit as we don't have room for both! And apart from a slight early hiccup when the freezer kept frosting up, it has been fantastic!

The freezing up issue resolved itself and hasn't recurred. The delivery was brilliant via Sprint (- you can read mine and other responses on the product testing thread link above) and Samsung customer service has been good when I contacted them.

The Samsung stores loads, has shelves that flip or slide under so you can change the configuration to suit. Can get large milk containers in no problem. Also the Deli drawer and salad/veg drawers seem to keep food fresher for much longer than other fridges. The freezer is frost free, (swoon no more defrosting freezer!) and has 2 sections and is quite commodious! On top of all that they dispense chilled, filtered water as well as ice and are dem fine beasts!

The only drawback for you might be enough wine/beer storage - but not a problem for us as we don't need it. Maybe you could get a separate small drinks fridge? Forgot to say, there are 4 of us but we regularly have family/visitors round and I like to be able to cater for them without stressing

HTH

We have an american frige/freezer plus a medium sized freezer in out back porch, we stock the kitchen one with the "often used" items, and the chest freezer is used for bulk storage of "bargins", transferring them to the kichen as things run out. Its a system that works well for us. Also, the fridge part is big enough for a couple of botttles of wine, some beer, juice, fizzy etc as well as the other things thay need chilling.

Mine are a pair of free-standing Hotpoint Future models. RLS175 and the matching freezer.

Can I just add don't buy a Samsung too and I live in Belgium, and my sister had one in the UK and we have both had the same problems. I have an american fridge freezer and if we had the same I would get built in a tall fridge and a tall freezer - we use lots of freezer space and apart from the bag of peas that have been there since time begun it's really handy for frrezing leftovers and meat etc.

Thanks, will avoid Samsung!

We are a family of four - and I've just ordered a pair of fridge-freezers (Bosch, budget model) which will stand side by side and open each outwards from the centre IYSWIM. The fridge is 194L and the freezer 94L - about the same as our current integrated FF in kitchen we are leaving behind, so should work well. I'm getting two so one can be switched on when extra space needed for catering & drinks - Christmas/parties etc. I use the freezer for frozen veg, meat & fish, ice-cream, and freezing down batch cooking - so one should be ok for most of the time; two when catering, and may get a small chest freezer to put elsewhere for when I am growing lots of fruit & veggies
I thought of getting a larder fridge plus a larder freezer, but considered didn't need all that space all the time.

We've done the same mylovely. It's great.

OP - we have tall larder fridge, under counter freezer (dont use frozen stuff much) and wine chiller and it works fine for us but know my mum would be one voting for two freezers. Depends on your family and what you use

we have a 70/30 and a 60/40 outside.
weaning twins we don't have enough freezer.
if we ad a larger kitchen space would defo get 2 tall side by sides.
we had an american in the last house and freezer got filled easy but never could fill the fridge ( was a samsung no probs either)
pannacotta if your wanting more fridge than freezer you could always have 2 x 70/30's side by side, will have loads and loads of fridge space and not as much freezer as a tall one but more than enough.

We've just bought a really tall Miele one (from JL, can't link on phone). Standard width and depth but about 30cm taller than most others iirc. 60/40 fridge/freezer.