Big is best (LG GRB207DVZA american style fridge freezer)

Member Name: wearsidelass

Product:	LG GRB207DVZA american style fridge freezer
Date:	08/09/04 (6372 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can see all the food in the fridge at a glance

Disadvantages: Need a large space to position the applicance

WHY DID I NEED A NEW FRIDGE/FREE ;ZER?
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It was about two years ago that I totally refurbished my kitchen and I decided to make it look very streamlined and uncluttered and so I disposed of my rather old fridge/freezer to make way for a new small fridge (separate very small freezer section located at the top of the interior of the fridge) ? you know the type, typical ordinary small fridge. So ?. my kitchen looked lovely and it was my idea that I wouldn?t need a freezer because the very small section in the fridge would suffice.

A year ago, after getting totally frustrated with having to shop regularly for food because I didn?t have a freezer big enough to cope and the fact that the fridge was small, I took the plunge and bought a separate chest freezer which I had to store in my spare bedroom turned junk shop/computer room.

Three weeks ago I became totally and utterly bad-tempered and frustrated with both my separate fridge and freezer. The fridge just couldn?t cope with the volume of fresh food I wanted to put into it consequently, during the hot weather, all my vegetables were quickly rotting (especially as they were organic ones too!) and my fridge was so packed that I couldn?t see exactly what was in there! The chest freezer ?. well, it annoyed me too because I couldn?t remember the food that was deep at the bottom and if I wanted to see what was in there then I either had to take out the food or make an inventory. Plus, I had decided that the time was right to clear the room and make it into a nice study/den.

Enough was enough, I said to my hubby.

I can?t cope like this anymore. I am getting too bad-tempered and frustrated. I wanted an American type fridge that was

?frost free? so that I can put all my fresh food into it and actually be able to see the food in there and I wanted a freezer in the kitchen. I got totally sick of having to physically defrost the freezer section of the fridge.

So, off we went to look around all the shops. I wanted a cream one and I didn?t want one that had the icemaking/cold drinks section on the door ? I understood that this type would have to have a water supply running to it. The area where I wanted my new fridge/freezer to be located wasn?t near a water supply and I didn?t want to go to the expense of installing these extra pipes. So I needed a side by side large fridge/freezer in cream or white without drinks dispenser. Not hard, I thought.

All the American style side-by-side ones that I looked at without drinks dispenser were available in most colours (silver being the most popular and silver being the colour that I hate most in kitchens - sorry for those of you, like my daughter and her friends, who love this colour) but not cream or white. Eventually, we found a Currys shop that had exactly what I wanted in but, unfortunately, not available in cream so I had to settle for second best and order white.

The fridge/freezer I chose is made by LG Electronics which is a company I hadn?t actually heard of previously but I read a review on another opinion site about an LG washing machine and the reviewer was extremely pleased with the product.

WHO ARE LG ELECTRONIC S?
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They claim to be one of the world?s largest manufacturers of electronic and IT goods. The company was founded in 1958 and 64,000 people are employed by them and they sell to more than 180 countries worldwide. They have their hands in quite a
few
pies : consumer electronics, IT products, home appliances, air conditioning, sports sponsorships, large LCD and plasma screens, audio, wireless home cinema and communications.

Pretty impressive company then so why hadn?t I ever heard of them before?

WHAT IS MY FRIDGE/FREE ;ZER LIKE?
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Having checked the measurements required for the space in the kitchen, this fridge wa
s perfect and it could be delivered within a couple of days. It meant a minor adjustment to one of the work benches to get it fitted into its workspace.

Excellent. One drawback though. Currys wanted to charge me £49.95 for delivery ? their defence was that it was a 2-man job but I told the sales assistant that I was disgusted with this price and she therefore halved the cost as I don?t think she wanted to lose the sale! Still, it cost me £25 for delivery. I can remember the days when shops delivered free! Bring them back!

First of all, it has an A energy rating which means it uses the least amount of electric and is more friendly towards the environment and it also has the lowest noise level in the range of side-by-side fridge/freezers (alledgedly!).

It is also frost free, (yippee) and has an LCD electronic temperature control panel on the left exterior door.

You should try and avoid placing the appliance near heat, direct sunlight or moisture. This beats me when it is in a kitchen ? heat, moisture!!!

Air must circulate around the appliance if you want it to work properly ? recommended to be at least 2 inches from the wall with a 12 inch clearance at the top.

You should also make absolutely sure that it is level and don?t place it anywhere where it the temperature will
drop below 5 d
egrees Centigrade as this could affect its performance. There is a height adjustment feature on this model.

Once levelled, turn on the electric and adjust the LCD display on the front of the door to the temperatures required. This displays consists of a rectangular shape which is divided into four boxes; freezer temperature, fridge temperature, lock/unlock and on/off. The freezer and fridge buttons and self explanatory ? set to the temperature required. The on/off button is for the super freezer ? when putting in food needing to be fast-frozen then switch this button on. It is recommended that after 2-3 days of initial u
se you should readjust the temperatures. Obviously, you choose which setting suits you best. The lock/unlock feature is to try and lock your settings so that if people eg. grandchildren, try to touch the settings then they can?t change them. However, by pressing unlock then these same little grubby hands could quite easily change the fridge/freezer settings so this is a feature that is good in one sense but could quite defeat the object in another sense! Hence, when grandson no.4 visits (he is nearly 2 years old) then I have to watch him like a hawk because his eyes have already noticed this LCD panel and his little sticky fingers are itching to press those buttons!

Another feature of this appliance that I truly like is the fact that when the fridge door is open for longer than 1 minute then it will warn you 3 times at 30 second intervals that it is open. I think this is really clever.

The manual does stress that there is a self-diagnosis function which operates when a problem occurs in the unit. I presume that this will show up on the LCD display, I guess similar to a photocopier ? eg. when our photocopier at work goes wrong a picture of a red spanner will show to warn us something is wrong. &
#72;owever, they stress
that you shouldn?t, under any circumstances, switch off the power because the engineer will take longer to find out the problem. Obviously, by keeping it switched on then he will be able to diagnose the fault by the number that displays on the screen.

The freezer compartment is slimmer than the fridge compartment and holds less than my chest freezer but I am not bothered about this. There are 6 drawers and I can just pull each drawer out and see what is in that particular drawer. I have ?filed? my food away separately and I didn?t realise just how much ice cream I had hoarded over the past few months! Near to the top of the freezer there is an ice making box which contains 3 sets of fixed ice cube boxes with a compartment situated underneath. There is one knob to each ice cube box and, if required, you can just turn the knob and the ice cubes will fall out in the tray underneath so that you can build up a supply of ice cubes, should it be needed. Quite clever I thought. Obviously, you must make sure that the water is completely frozen before doing this otherwise water will spill everywhere! And no, this hasn?t happened to me (yet!).

The fridge compartment is absolutely wonderful. There are several racks on the door compartment with a milk product corner situated at the top of the door. There are 3 small door racks and the great feature about these 3 racks are that they are easily slid along the door to whatever position you require.

There are 3 drawers with humidity switches so you can control the humidity in each drawer separately. Then there are three glass shelves with a spill stopper located at the edge which is another nifty feature thereby stopping any spillage from dropping onto the produce situated on the shelves underneath.

There is an egg container (12 eggs) and a wine holder which are quite nifty too!

&#
83;TORAGE OF FOOD
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Fresh food should be stored in the fridge and you shouldn?t really store food that goes bad easily eg. bananas and melons. However, I must state that I do. I put bananas in my fridge, yes the skin turns black but the inside is still good and that is what counts. If I leave all of my bananas in the fruit bowl then they quickly go bad as my house is very warm.

Hot food should always be allowed to cool before placing in the fridge. If you do put hot food into the fridge then your electric bill could be higher because it uses more to cool the food and hot food can spoil the other food in the fridge.

Always cover food before putting in the fridge either with clingfilm or in a container with a lid. If you don?t then moisture will evaporate and the food can lose its taste and goodness.

Try not to open the fridge door too frequently, easier said than done, I know, especially with children in the house!

Another point is to be careful about storing moist foods on the uppermost shelves because they could quite easily freeze and this happened to me a few weeks ago ? my Mozzarella froze!

There is a lamp inside the fridge and the lamp cover is quite easy to remove to put new bulbs in.

CLEANING OF THE APPLIANCE
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You should always keep your fridge/freezer clean and if you spill any food whatsoever then clean it up straightaway ? if it acidifies then it could stain plastic surfaces inside the fridge.

Just use a warm water with washing up liquid on the exterior although I must admit I used to use CIF Oxygel on my other fridge and it used to shine so much you could see your face in the shine!

The inte
rior of the fridge/freezer sh
ould be cleaned with baking soda or very mild detergent and warm water and then rinse and dry.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
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After searching around the shops this model was the most reasonable at £799.00 and, as mentioned previously, £25 delivery instead of the normal £49.95.

I was asked if I wanted insurance cover and normally I always refuse but, because this fridge/freezer was expensive (yes, you can purchase similar ones for £1,500+ but £799 was expensive for me) I said I would consider it. They quoted me £229 for 5 year cover and she knew by the look of horror on my face that I wouldn?t want it. However, she did say if I paid £10 deposit then the remainder could be spread over 10 monthly payments by direct debit.

So, I decided to purchase the insurance cover after having been fully reassured by the Curry?s staff that, should anything go wrong with the appliance, then I wouldn?t have a problem getting it fixed. The Coverplan Service Agreement states that if the appliance can
not be repaired, or if it takes longer than 6 weeks to repair, then I can request a replacement product. HOWEVER, it also states that the replacement model could be fully-refurbished product or in the form of vouchers to purchase a new product of at least the equivalent specification. I guess the vouchers would be to stop you purchasing a cheaper model and pocketing the difference! But, if the appliance goes wrong and they can?t fix it then you should get your money back not vouchers!

Needless to say, the Curry?s staff did not volunteer this information!

The agreement also states that if the product is replaced then the Service Agreement ends and you will receive vouchers for the rema
ining value and you can use these vouch
ers when you next buy Coverplan. THIS STINKS! To my mind, if the product has to be replaced then it is has been faulty, has it not? Then why should the Service Agreement have to end? Surely, it should continue until the end of the agreement. What say, the appliance packs up after 2 years and they give you a fully-refurbished one, then they are coining in the money from the insurance premiums. THIS PART REALLY DOES STINKS TO ME and I am definitely thinking of writing to Currys and telling them so. The assistants simply do not tell you this. It is all in the small print.

So, be aware now of these facts. In fact, I didn?t realise this about the coverplan until I started reading it properly for the purpose of this review.

So, Dooyoo, you are good because you have made me read the plan in order to complete this review and realise what it exactly wants to give and take off people!

Summary: