Choosing between fridge-freezers

The first thing I’d like to do in my first ever Appliances Online blog post is to wish Kate all the best on her maternity leave.

The subject of this post is something I've been thinking a lot about lately because like many of the people who read this blog I'm in the market for a new fridge-freezer.

My girlfriend and I have just moved into a new flat and one of the first things we discovered is that the fridge that came with the kitchen just isn’t up to scratch. It's got no storage in the door, the shelves moved out with the last tenants and the door seal is stained a funny colour of blue.

Because I live and breathe household appliances I knew exactly what I needed (if you don’t know what you need then go to the fridge-freezer buying guide to find out more) so I went out and found it. The problem was that there wasn’t just one of it. Almost every brand has a model that fits my requirements and even when I narrowed it down by price there were still three different units to choose from.

So how do you go about choosing between almost identical fridge-freezers?

Well here are three things you can look at which reveal more about an appliance that it may appear.

Annual energy consumption – the annual energy consumption is a good indicator of the quality of a fridge. A lower number means that it costs less to run and because it takes better engineering to make an efficient machine a lower number usually means a better, more reliable model. Bear in mind that fridge-freezers with large capacities will automatically have higher annual energy consumptions.

Reviews – it may be obvious but reading reviews is a great way of finding out what other people think about the product you want to buy.

Climate class/required room temperature – a climate class tells you at what temperatures the appliance can operate. The wider the range of temperatures the better the quality of the machine.