Buy in haste, regret at leisure... (Zanussi ZL56W/SA)

Member Name: nikkisly

Product:	Zanussi ZL56W/SA
Date:	13/12/01 (656 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Price, Functional, Efficient

Disadvantages: Design

For some weeks, there was a funny smell lurking around our house. A musty, mouldy, mildewy kind of smell - the sort of smell that has you wandering round endlessly sniffing as you desperately try to locate its source. This particular smell persisted long after Mr nikkisly got on its case and began digging up random spots of the floors in our old cottage to see if one of them was missing a damp proof membrane.

It took us weeks to put two and two together without making five. Our old Hotpoint fridge had gone to meet its maker - it was an ex-fridge, but seeing as its interior light continued to work long after its effective demise, we just didn't realise until our food began to go mouldy literally overnight.

An evening spent checking the websites of the various electrical superstores induced a mild panic. Not only was our old fridge of a discontinued size, but the amount of space we had available under our work top to site a new one was too small for most standard sized fridges. Mild panic escalated rapidly to hysteria once we discovered that the few fridges we could actually accommodate had a delivery date of a few weeks hence, rather than "Right Now!"

A trip to a small independent local retailer the following day turned up two models that were in stock and available for immediate delivery. The Zanussi was chosen simply because it had a reversible door - the other model available did not and its door was hung on the opposite side to the fridge I had been using for the past 10 years.

Within 30 minutes of making my choice and handing over my credit card, the Zanussi was in my kitchen. It's a basic white fridge, with no ice box and rated B for environmental friendliness. Zanussi guarantee it for 12 months from the date of purchase and I also had the option (which I declined) to extend that guarantee at extra cost. Am I happy with it? Well, yes and no...

The fridge has toughened safety glass shelves, rather th
an the open wire shelves boasted by my old Hotpoint. This seems to have several disadvantages. Firstly, anything glass or metal placed on the shelves makes a terrifying 'clunk' - the sort of noise that makes your heart leap into your mouth and your eyes squeeze tightly shut in anticipation of the shelf shattering. (I'm not sure how much longer my nerves will hold out!) Secondly, the interior of the fridge seems much more gloomy making items harder to locate in its depths. While the Hotpoint's wire shelves had dinky little hinged flaps which could be opened to accommodate taller items, the glass shelves obviously have no such thing. Plus, there is less air circulation around the fridge than there were with wire shelves so things seem to take longer to chill satisfactorily.

The position of the shelves can be adjusted, although one feature I sorely miss is a built-in holder for eggs. Zanussi provide a pathetic separate holder for six, but there is no obvious place to put it. They have also thoughtfully provided a "Dairy Compartment", although this is hinged at the top rather than the bottom and does not close automatically - I can foresee it getting broken before too much longer. It's rather cumbersome and, like all the internal plastic, seems flimsy. (There are a few unidentified, loose plastic dishes and containers supplied with the fridge that, for the life of me, I have been unable to discover a purpose for.) Personally, I would also have preferred the interior plastic to be clear, rather than 'frosted' (no pun intended!) since I feel that soiling is more easily visible on clear plastic.

The fridge defrosts itself automatically - good job too, since defrosting fridges and freezers ranks high on my list of housework hates. It also runs very quietly and manages to defy the known laws of Physics!

The internal capacity of fridges is measured in cubic feet. The Zanussi has a whole 0.3 cubic feet of space m
ore than my old Hotpoint, yet, on changing the contents from old to new, this was hardly evident. Not knowing for how long my old fridge had been malfunctioning, I did a very close visual inspection of its contents ( along with some vigourous sniffing) before deciding what to keep and what to throw away. I threw away anything I was even remotely unsure of - around 25% of the contents of the old fridge - yet struggled to fit the remaining 75% in the new. Somehow, the Zanussi seems less spacious than my old (smaller) fridge.

There are some positive aspects. The instruction book supplied with the Zanussi is excellent. Written in plain English, it contains an explanation of the terms of the guarantee, telephone numbers for Zanussi's Service Centre and Customer Care Department and a full name, address and telephone number list of authorised Zanussi Service agents throughout the United Kingdom, including the Channel Islands.(I note with some dismay that my nearest is 50 miles from my home and wonder how keen they would be to make a visit in the event of the fridge needing a repair - hopefully, I won't need to find out.)

Would I reccommend this product to a friend? Again, yes and no. For a basic, functional fridge that does the job it's intended to do quietly and with the minimum of fuss, then yes, I would. Yet the keyword is 'basic' - it has absolutely nothing in the way of design or specification innovations that make it stand out above other fridges in a comparable price range. Would I buy this product again? Probably not - unless it was in another culinary emergency where I didn't have time to check out rival brands!

Specification:

Dimensions: 85 cm high x 45.5 cm wide x 60 cm deep.

Power Supply 220-240 V
Total Power Absorbed 100 W
Average Daily Units Electricity 0.52 kWh

Dairy Compartment
3 Storage Shelves, plus half shelf.
Thermostat Control / Interior Light
Can Storage
shelf with separate egg tray
Salad Bin.

Summary: