My new energy efficient refrigerator and freezer

My new refrigerator finally got installed on Friday. After some long hours of procrastination and drooling over appliance porn, I eventually went with a smaller, less-feature-rich, yet much "greener" model. (Actually two models, since we got a separate small freezer to go with the fridge.) It's not as sexy as the glamorous models in those appliance centerfolds, but it has a lot of features that suit the way I cook and shop for food.

(Yep, for those of you who think the interweb is going down the drain fast, this is a post about someone's refrigerator.)

We got a refrigerator-only model and a separate small freezer. The maker of both is a German company called Liebherr (North American site is here). The energy rating of the fridge is A, and the freezer is A++.

Our old fridge was built into a cabinet in the kitchen, but we decided to put the new one and its little brother freezer in the pantry (aka the boiler room), where we had a big locker-type freezer before. The locker-type freezer went down to the basement/wash room, where we'll use it only for long-term bulk storage. (At the moment it only holds my stock of bonito flakes and kombu, plus a leg of lamb.)

Plain old white models since the pantry is no-frills (with a concrete floor that needs a serious scrub!) The temperature indicator and controls are right on the front of both.

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Half of the fridge is taken up with "Biofresh" vegetable or meat storage drawers.

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The freezer has four drawers. After having lived with the dive-in-from-the-waist locker type freezer for so long, I really wanted drawers - so much handier, plus they are sealed all the way around making them much more energy efficient. We got the table-height short model so we could access the electricity control panels on the wall above. (Liebherr seems to specialize in table-height models.)

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Dedicated bottle rack is great for chilling wine and other beverages.

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The Biofresh compartments have adjustable humidity settings: low for meat, seafood and cheese, higher for veg and fruit.

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Handy reminder in the freezer for how long to keep stuff frozen. Hmm, pork is more vulnerable than beef or chicken.

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The things I decided to forego, in the interest of energy efficiency:

  • Ice maker and dispenser
  • Cold water dispenser
  • Sub-zero or partial freezing compartment for holding fresh fish and meat - this was the hardest one to give up on.
  • Glass front doors and stainless steel cladding - expensive!

I'm very happy with what we got. So much better than a leaky old fridge of course, but the Biofresh compartments are going to help cut down on food waste I hope.

Filed under:  equipment

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Comments

I am *so* totally jealous.

That is one righteously gorgeous fridge! Rock on!