Fridges

[NickyJ]

I have a fridge freezer with a fridge on top of a freezer.

My parents have a bottom freezer. How should I vote?

I'm not sure where mine fits. The freezer is on the bottom.

Spoiler :

I have a freezer on the bottom too. I am the 99% and I can't vote

Oops. I forgot about those. I'll see if I can get someone from the Staff to edit it that option in.

 

[CELTICEMPIRE]

I have a Freezer on the top, in all 3 of my refrigerators (our family has way too much food).

 

[LucyDuke]

Bottom freezers are clearly the best. Not only does it make the most sense with the temperature gradient, the pull-out "drawer" retains cold air better than a front-door would, and top-down is a much easier way than front-back to access items close to the ground. It's also much easier to stack storage.

I have a top-freezer.

please don't think i'm being provocative - i would genuinely be interested to learn:

how do you think you would manage if suddenly your fridges all stopped working? say for one year?

i'm guessing that it would involve a major change in life style.

could you handle it, if you had to?

Wouldn't change a whole lot. I would drink less beer and juice and more wine and water. I would make smaller batches of food and visit the grocery store more frequently. I'd probably eat a bit better.

 

[say1988]

In a full hight fridge? Why? If you access the fridge every time you make any kind of beverage or meal thats literally dozens of times a day. The freezer you need once or twice a week. Why in gods name would you put the fridge so you had to bend over to access it dozens of times a day with the freezer at counter top level. It's a time and motion catastrophe.

I have never known anyone who owned one witht eh freezer on the bottom.

I, personally, access the freezer for the majority of meals (particularly my meat is all stored in it). And as a person over six feet tall, I never had a problem with the fridge being too low. Keeping in mind that you generally store the stuff you use most often in the top of the fridge, around counter height.

 

[GinandTonic]

I have never known anyone who owned one witht eh freezer on the bottom.

I, personally, access the freezer for the majority of meals (particularly my meat is all stored in it). And as a person over six feet tall, I never had a problem with the fridge being too low. Keeping in mind that you generally store the stuff you use most often in the top of the fridge, around counter height.

You must use the fridge more than the freezer. Even on the assumption you never cook anything fresh the total number of ready meals must be less than the total number of chilled beverages + hot beverages requiring milk + snacks requiring butter or spread + meals requiring ketchup or mustard. I use the fridge more times before I've sat down to eat breakfast each day than I use the freezer in an average week. I easily use the fridge 50 times as much as the freezer.

Why in gods name do I want to design the kitchen so 98% of visits to the fridge freezer are to the less accessible parts?

 

[LucyDuke]

The top shelf in my fridge, which is as high as possible in this fridge, is below counter height. Any sort of bottle wont fit on the lower shelves. So most of the things I use most often (vegetables, containers of leftovers) end up on the lower shelves that require bending over to reach. And I'm not very tall. It's very easy to get bread or vegetables from the freezer, but that's less frequent than having to bend for fridge vegetables. I would have an easier time if I only had to bend for freezer items.

 

[bombshoo]

I have a side-by-side. Bottom freezers are the best though.

 

[Cutlass]

Side by sides are actually not very good. It's harder to fit big things in.

 

[GinandTonic]

The top shelf in my fridge, which is as high as possible in this fridge, is below counter height. Any sort of bottle wont fit on the lower shelves. So most of the things I use most often (vegetables, containers of leftovers) end up on the lower shelves that require bending over to reach. And I'm not very tall. It's very easy to get bread or vegetables from the freezer, but that's less frequent than having to bend for fridge vegetables. I would have an easier time if I only had to bend for freezer items.

The ice box in the top of below counter fridges is the lease accessible part since you have to all but kneel down to look into it. Hence it's the freezer.

Below counter = ice box on top. Full height = freezer below. Time and motion.

 

[LucyDuke]

Oh jeez, below-counter fridge? I don't live in a damn dorm anymore.

 

[GinandTonic]

The top shelf in my fridge, which is as high as possible in this fridge, is below counter height.

Oh jeez, below-counter fridge? I don't live in a damn dorm anymore.

 

[say1988]

Side by sides are actually not very good. It's harder to fit big things in.

Agreed. The main exception being if you have a separate chest freezer where you store all the big stuff and the smaller more commonly used stuff is in the fridge-freezer.

Why in gods name do I want to design the kitchen so 98% of visits to the fridge freezer are to the less accessible parts?

Even if you donèt use the freezer at all, the vast majority the time you use the upper shelves of the fridge, which are around counter height.

 

[LucyDuke]

Not to scale, but you get the idea?

 

[GinandTonic]

Gotcha.

 

[say1988]

Every fridge is different and they usually have adjustable shelves.

Mine has a shelf about six inches above the counter, with the meat drawer hanging to on side, and the tall shelf directly below so that juice, etc is grabbed around counter height (despite resting slightly below that).

The point remains you aren't getting down on your hands and knees every time you use the fridge.

 

[azzaman333]

Cool thread .

I see what you did there.


Top freezer for me.

 

[Borachio]

Not to scale, but you get the idea?[/QUOTE]

this is the most appalling idea if you ever intend suffering from mobility problems of the difficulty bending your back or hip joint kind of thing - so very common among the differently youthful sector of the population. long-term design flaws like these abound.

same kind of thing with electrical sockets located near skirting board level...oh... um.. sigh

 

[Mise]

I voted bottom freezer, but I actually have two fridge-freezers. I have a little, very inefficient one with a tiny freezer compartment at the top that I don't use. I also have a much bigger fridge-freezer, with the freezer on the bottom. But I don't use that one - it's just turned off at the wall, and I really need to get rid of it but it's massive and heavy and I haven't got a car. I use the small, inefficient one because, though inefficient, it still uses less electricity than the bigger one. I have it pretty much full to capacity, except for the freezer which is in a constant state of disuse.

 

[NickyJ]

Cool thread .

I see what you did there.

Now I see it. I feel stupid for not getting it when he posted.

Also, thank you moderators for fixing the poll!

 

[Tecknojock]

Here's a list of things we normally have on hand all week long (we shop once a week) that would not last:
Half & Half (also known as light cream)
Butter
Creme Fraiche (assuming it's summer)

Butter would last just fine provided you keep your house under 80F. It dorsnt go bad above this temp, but it does begon to melt amd sepperate. Butter is quite stable and even being left on the counter it takes over a month for it to go rancid. Just keep it free of breadcrumbs or mold might develop. I love keeping my butter out in a covered dish because it's so easy to spread.