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Indesit BIAA10
by FrostBite
Since being in our own flat we have always just had a small fridge with a caravan size freezer as we could not afford anything more. After about four years every chrsitmas was becoming more and more awkward as we like to treat ourselves to Iceland party foods, joints of meat and salmon etc. The trouble is they tell you not to pack your ... fridges or they work inefficiently, well ours was packed to the rafters! After some looking around I bought this Indesit model from the Littlewoods catalogue last year in the sale for £249.99 so I would be able to pay the amount in installments interest free.
This fridge freezer is made by Indesit who are a famous Italian appliance manufacturer founded in 1975 who sponsored Arsenal football club in 2011. I bought this type of fridge as I needed more freezer and fridge space, in this case the fridge is larger than the freezer but this is fine as I had enough space to buy an extra upright freezer. The capacity is 182 litre in total with 51 litre freezer and 131 litre fridge leaving plenty of space for fresh foods. The energy rating is A+ not only good for bills but for the environment conscious of us.
The fridge freezer came wrapped in polystyrene to protect all the edges and was in great condition. At first turn on the fridge freezer needs to be left for 24 hours for the gases to settle.
The fridge itself is fantastic for storing a large amount of items and the height of the fridge makes life a lot easier not having to bend down for milk every time I make a cup of tea. The door has a top shelf ideal for butter blocks and eggs (the egg tray is moveable but I put it up here so the eggs are out of the way from being knocked). The middle shelf has more space for all of my jars of jam, marmalade and the shorter squeezy sauce bottles such as ketchup. The third shelf has the most space and this is where I store milk (4pt), juice bottles and taller sauces. The door makes organisation easy and looks tidy.
The main part of the fridge has 2 moveable shelves; the top I always use for my butters so I have this higher. The middle shelf I use for puddings and yogurts plus any water bottles I lay down; and the bottom for the fish and meats. A great little organisation idea is the two drawers in the bottom which fit a large amount in. In my two drawers I store cheese in one and the other has lettuce, peppers, chillis, onions, tomatoes (yes its that big!).
The freezer has three normal drawers and one drawer for fast freezing, this drawer is ideal for meats or ice cream if it has melted a little on the journey home from the shops. I find the freezer holds plenty enough for a couple and I suppose even with a child there would be plenty; I have mince, steaks, a chicken, chips, vegetables, a gateux and other bits and pieces in here.
The freezer is frost free but the fridge occasionally freezes up at the back and things stick to it so I keep them away from the back. There is an antibacterial lining, I find cleaning is very easy I just use a wipe to go around the shelves whether it looks dirty or not. The shelves are easy to remove in the fridge as are the drawers in the freezer. The fridge is fab at keeping temperature though and I feel that it keeps milk fresher as my milk often lasts longer than the dates on the pack.
The door opening sides can be changed as can the leg heights on the bottom, this is handy as we have tiles and the fridge freezer can become uneven.
I love my fridge freezer having no issues with it yet.
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Beko BC502
by bringingsexyback
WHAT IS IT?
A fridge freezer made by Beko. It has got a larger fridge than freezer and that was what I was looking for when I researched my purchase because I do not buy a lot of frozen food.
WHY I BOUGHT THIS MODEL
I needed to replace my fridge freezer because it had started to make a loud buzzing ... noise that disturbed everyone in the house at night, it also was not keeping my food fresh for as long as it should. I did not have any brand on my mind and chose this Beko appliance because it has got a 155 litre capacity in the fridge and 70 litres in the freezer, that suits my family unit because my fridge is usually filled with fresh foods and vegetables but I use my freezer for home cooked then frozen meals like stew and chilli. I am energy conscious when I choose home appliances so the A+ energy rating also helped me to decide.
WHAT I THINK
I am very happy with my new fridge freezer and think it fits in with what I need from this large appliance. The shelves in the fridge can be moved and this is easy to do so I often move them if I have bulky things to store like large cakes, at Christmas I took the bottom shelf off altogether so that I could fit my turkey in while it defrosted. I like that the salad drawers have got a glass shelf covering them because that helps to keep my vegetables crisp and fresh and it also lets me put plates of food on this glass shelf because it is more solid that the other wire shelves. The salad drawers are deep and I can keep quite a lot in them, they are cut out a bit at the backs though so I cannot fit long pieces of celery or cucumbers in them without disturbing the loose glass shelf.
The inside of the door has got a wide shelf for my milk and the other shelves are narrower so I use them for jars and yogurts. The door moves smoothly so they do not rattle around when I open and close the fridge. It comes with a removable wine rack but when you put 4 bottles of wine in it it takes up a lot of room so I took mine out and keep my wine in a wine cooler instead of the fridge.
The freezer has got 3 drawers and a shelf at the top with a drop down front. The drawers are very good because they are dead square so I can stack my containers of meals when I have finished cooking, it holds enough containers and bags of peas, frozen potato products to feed my family of five for a week if I am very busy with no time to cook in the evening. I use the top shelf for containers of pureed foods for my baby daughter that I batch cook every second Sunday. It is a very quiet fridge freezer and does not even make a humming noise when it is running.
The freezer is frost free and does not damage food that is kept in there for quite a long time, it also stays clean and it is not very often that I have to wipe it only usually when my husband spills peas in it like he always does. When we had a powercut last week I made sure nobody opened the door and left it for an hour for the coldness to come back after the power had been restored, I was happy that none of my food had defrosted and think the freezer must be very well insulated. The food in the fridge did not seem to be so fresh though and I had to throw some dairy products and cooked meat away.
I like that you can change what way the door opens and we did this because the way the door was hinged when we bought it would have been awkward in our L shaped kitchen. My husband did this and it looked easy but I had to help him hold the door while he clipped the hinge back in on the other side so I do not think it would be so easy to do alone.
ANYTHING ELSE
We paid £350 for our Beko BC502 and I think that is very good value for a fridge freezer that costs less than £3 a month to run even when it is full up.
5 Dooyoo Stars.
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Whirlpool ART262A+
by NotMyToothbrush
We got this fridge freezer after having our old one for many many years before it broke. Our old fridge was also a Whirlpool branded one and therefore due to the reliability of that one, we trusted the brand with our new purchase.
To date, we have had this fridge for about 4 years. During the first year, we had it in the ... kitchen of our old house (This room was rather warm - this becomes relevant later). We then moved house and had the fridge in the utility room which was on the edge of the house as an extension and had very little heating; this meant that in winter the utility room was as cold as outside generally. The reason I am telling you this is that the temperature around the fridge appears to be very important. As long as the temperature of the room stays at about 5-8 degrees Celsius or higher, the fridge works perfectly - both the fridge part and freezer part either cools or freezers at the desired temperature and the food always keeps because of it. HOWEVER, if the temperature fell below 5-8 degrees, the freezer part completely stops working. Without warning, the winter we moved into the house we opened the freezer to find everything defrosted. We assumed the freezer had worn out for some reason but after speaking to Whirlpool, we found out that the temperature was the culprit. This therefore means that we are unable to use the freezer from November-March usually.
We recently moved the fridge from the utility room to the kitchen which does have heating and is more central in the house and haven't had a problem since.
On the good side, when the fridge freezer is working properly; the freezer is completely frost free and we have never had to defrost it even slightly. The fridge part contains a filter for smells which can be replaced cheaply every couple of years or so. The fridge is very spacious and can accommodate large amount of food - more than enough for 4 or 5 people for weeks!
There are a multitude of compartments in the fridge and door to store all sorts of food neatly and in an organised fashion. Most of the compartments are very solid however there is one shelf which is of a different design. This design seems to be far less sturdy than the others and has snapped on our fridge in the middle slightly. This happened only by putting some food which was not particularly heavy on it.
If it wasn't for the poor shelf and the fact that it doesn't seem to like the cold (kind of ironic), this fridge would be fantastic. However, these issues are inexcusable and therefore only earns it 2 stars.
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