Your Guide To Buying an American Style Fridge-Freezer
What is an American style fridge freezer?
If you’re in the market for a new fridge freezer and you want something that’s big, modern, practical and full of great features – then you might want to consider going with an American style.
They may have originated stateside, but American style fridge freezers are now popular across the world, including the UK, where you can increasingly find them at the heart of a family kitchen..
So what puts the ‘American’ in American fridge-freezer?
If you’re picturing a big wide fridge with double doors that open out from the middle, with the fridge behind one door and the freezer behind the other, this is indeed what the most common style of American fridge freezer looks like.
However, as with all fridge freezers, there are lots of different models and sometimes there are even more doors. They often come with that enviable integrated water and ice dispenser as well for extra coolness – in all senses of the word.
That’s the short answer, but read on for everything you need to consider before buying your new American style fridge freezer.
Key features of an American fridge freezer
Size
You’ve probably gathered that American fridge freezers are larger than your ‘traditional’ free-standing tall fridge freezer appliance. Even then they come in a range of sizes, depending on how much space you have available in your kitchen, and of course how much storage you need, depending perhaps on the size of your family.
Generally, models come under the ‘narrow’ bracket – which could be anything between 70cm and 84cm wide – and ‘standard’, which range between 85cm and 95cm wide.
For an example of a narrow model, check out this Fridgemaster, which is 79.4cm wide, 181.7cm tall and 64.3cm deep. To put that into perspective, this has a capacity of 394 litres (265 in the fridge and 129 in the freezer), or the equivalent of around 21 bags of shopping.
For an example of a standard model, have a look at this much bigger 89.5cm wide Hotpoint. At 178.8cm tall and 74.5cm deep, this boasts an impressive 510 litre capacity (339 in the fridge section and 171 in the freezer).
Style
While that double door style is a key distinguishing feature of an American fridge freezer, you do get variations within that. They are also available with three or four doors, although the overall look is largely the same.
Two doors – Also known as a ‘side by side’, this is the most common American style fridge freezer. This Hotpoint model features two doors that open from the middle down the entire height of the appliance, featuring an upright fridge behind one and an upright freezer behind the other.
Three door – A three door American style fridge freezer set-up typically has a double door fridge at the top and a freezer section at the bottom, where one door opens to reveal drawers behind, rather than the side-by-side layout.
Four doors – Yes you read that right, four doors! With this variety, you still get the top and bottom layout, but there are double opening doors to both the fridge section at the top, and the freezer section at the bottom. This is ideal for even easier access to all the contents of the fridge. This Fridgemaster model is a great example of a four door American style fridge freezer.
Features
Something else that generally sets the American fridge freezer apart from its international counterparts is the variety of gadgets and features which give them that modern, techno edge.
Here’s a quick rundown of the most popular ones:
Water and ice dispenser – This is probably one of the most desirable features of an American style fridge freezer because it gives you constant access to instant ice cold water and ice whenever you want. A plumbed in fridge freezer means no more disappointment upon discovering you’ve forgotten to refill the ice tray, no dangerous hacking ice free, and no wasteful running of the tap waiting for cold water that’s never quite cold enough.
If you can’t connect the appliance to your water supply for constant instant ice, you can get one with a refillable tank instead, like this Hisense – you just need to make sure the tank stays topped up.
LED touch panel – For all you tech lovers, say goodbye to dials and knobs, the snazzy LED touch panel allows you to quickly select the desired temperature for each compartment at the touch of a button. This is a common feature of many American fridge freezers. You can see what it looks like on this Fridgemaster.
No Frost Technology – If you’re of a certain age, you’ll know the pain of having to manually defrost a freezer, whether that meant the inconvenience of emptying it out and turning the whole appliance off while it dethawed and having to catch and mop up all the resulting water, or painstakingly chipping away at the ice build-up.
Not so with No Frost Technology! This prevents ice forming, while clever humidity controls let you create the perfect environment for your food.
Precision temperature control – This clever technology lets you create the right environment for the different food types in your fridge by ensuring an even distribution of cool air throughout the fridge cavity. The result is a constant temperature which keeps food perfectly fresh for longer.
Have a read of the product description on this Hotpoint for more information on how precision temperature control works.
Cost
Costs vary for this style of fridge freezer, with a starting price of around £550, but for all the reasons listed above, you do get what you pay for.
We make even the highest priced items more affordable by breaking it down into more affordable repayments. With ElectroCare’s ‘plug in now, pay later’ finance options you can get your appliances immediately, then pay the cost back gradually over time.
Conclusion
American fridge freezers are sleek, stylish, modern and built to cope with the ever-changing demands of the 21st century family. They have a variety of desirable and practical features, including the ability to keep your food fresh as long as possible.
As with all appliances, they also come in a variety of styles and finishes.
How ElectroCare can help
ElectroCare is an online white goods appliance store that stocks a variety of fridge freezers, including American style fridge freezers. With models in all the sizes we’ve discussed above, we will likely have the perfect one to meet your family’s needs – and cash flow, thanks to our finance options.
Have a browse around our website and get in touch if you need any help or have any questions. Our knowledgeable advisors can be reached via email, phone, web chat or WhatsApp.
