Features

Essential Tips for Choosing the Right Refrigerator

Key questions you need to ask yourself before you go out shopping for a fridge.

Updated on

March 23, 2020

Peter Lugaria

When shopping for a refrigerator, many buyers get overwhelmed by the wide variety of fridges available in the market.

To help you out, here are some of the questions you need to ask yourself before you go out shopping for a new fridge.

1.) How much space do I have for a refrigerator?

There is a fridge for every kitchen. Start by measuring the height, width and depth of the space for your fridge and use the dimensions to search for the design that best suits you.

Design considerations:

(i) Compact refrigerator – This is ideal for small spaces.

(ii) Top freezer refrigerator – This is a standard fridge design, and it is normally cheap and more energy-efficient as compared to other styles of refrigerators.

(iii) Bottom freezer refrigerator – This design places the freezer at your feet, thereby placing the rest of the refrigerator at an easier height to access.

iv. Side-by-side refrigerator – This type of refrigerator, whose doors open from the center, gives one a chance to store items that are on the most accessible level and which, therefore, can be preserved.

This advanced feature has water dispensers and high-tech digital controls. It, however, consumes more energy compared to other designs.

2. What refrigerator features are most important to me?

Today’s refrigerators come with so many features, some of which you may never use. Check the catalogs to identify the features that are most important to you.

Do you need to have a built-in water dispenser? Do you need to program the temperature on your refrigerator? These are just some of the things you need to ask yourself.

3.) Is the fridge energy efficient?

The last thing you want is a refrigerator that drains your bank account. Check the label attached to the fridge and look at the kWh per year to compare the energy consumption of various models.

Be sure to compare models of similar sizes because bigger models consume more electricity than smaller ones.

4.) What size of fridge do I need?

This depends on how big your family is. The capacity of the fridge can range from nine to 30 cubic feet – a family of three requires ten to 12 cubic feet. Each additional member requires an extra cubic foot.

5.) What is the warranty for this fridge?

Most of the refrigerators have a warranty of 1 year with a 5-year warranty on the sealed system. Request the seller to help you understand the warranty terms on the fridge.