Image courtesy of Miele
Every year, at this time, we ready our homes for the holidays. We clean. We upgrade. We prep. We decorate. We welcome guests. We cook. We stress.
And at the end of another big holiday meal, the last thing we want to do is clear all the leftover food from the table only to find a frustrating lack of storage space in the refrigerator.
This is such a common occurrence among consumers, it has led many to purchase a second refrigerator for the butler’s pantry or garage—after which they then learn how much more it’s going to cost to run that second refrigerator.
But what if it didn’t have to be this way? What if our refrigerators were more ingenious in design, function, and efficiency? That’s why we’re taking a pre-holiday deep dive into refrigerators to see which models get the most points for storage capacity, overall function, and energy savings.
Here are a few of the latest and greatest models that are designed with enhanced storage features, better efficiency, and features that keep even fancy foods fresher longer.
Posh Op from Bosch
The Bosch 800 Series 36-Inch French Door Bottom Mount Refrigerator solves many of your holiday cold food storage issues. Bring on those large buffet trays, or even your holiday sugar cutout cookies for a little pre-bake chill. (Makes them so much easier to transfer to the oven for baking!) This series of refrigerators offers innovative FarmFresh technology rated to keep foods fresh three times longer than standard models.
Features we love:
- Comes with a full-width chiller drawer to store oversized platters with ease until they are ready to serve
- Wide, gallon-sized door bins on both sets of doors
- Two-tiered freezer drawers that allow for extra storage to keep frozen foods better organized
- FlexBar feature creates extra space in the refrigerator and is completely adaptable to changing needs
- Its UltraClarityPro water filter removes an astonishing 99.9 percent of sediments
- It’s an ENERGY STAR-certified appliance, which offers dual compressors and dual evaporators for efficient and precise cooling and humidity control, while also limiting odor transfer between the refrigerator and freezer
- Users can control temperature, adjust lighting, and receive notifications for their Bosch refrigerator from a smartphone, tablet, or smartwatch via the HomeConnect application
Cool from Top to Bottom
This amazing looking appliance was released to the consumer market just last summer. KitchenAid’s 36-Inch, Counter-Depth, 4-Door Refrigerator with PrintShield Finish is their first French-style design with four doors. The top level allows for ultimate viewing and storage flexibility and is combined with a side-by-side lower-level freezer which addresses the visibility and stacking issues associated with a traditional bottom-mount freezer setup. It offers a total of 19.4 cubic feet of cold storage space.
Features we love:
- Custom Freeze Zone, located to the right side of the freezer section, sets temperatures to 0, 10, or 19°F. This feature helps keep specialty items such as compound butters, gelato, or shaved ice at the perfect serving temperature
- Full-width, sliding storage refrigerator trays, included in both the refrigerator and freezer compartments, slide out for easy access—especially helpful large platters and ingredient storage. An additional tray can be found in the Custom Freeze Zone and is perfect for chilling and prepping. All trays are moisture and stain-resistant
- A unique feature called the ExtendFresh Temperature Management System senses and adjusts temperatures in the refrigerator and freezer to help keep ingredients fresh by monitoring the airflow between them
A Perfect Kind of Cool
Miele’s PerfectCool Model KFN 7795 D Refrigerator keeps food fresh up to five times longer than a standard refrigerator with its PerfectFresh Active humidification system which converts water droplets into vapor and releases it in the form of a waterfall, which is clearly visible in the veggie drawer. This function is activated automatically every 90 minutes, but also every time the appliance door is opened.
Features we love:
- Individually adjustable glass shelf lighting with its FlexiLight 2.0 feature
- The NoFrost system means no more “ice fuzz” on your frozen goods
- This model offers a FlexiTray feature that turns the glass shelf into a turntable (pivoting 180 degrees to the front and rear), giving users easier access to all the food items stored on it
- This appliance is networked conveniently and securely with Miele@home via a home Wi-Fi router and the Miele Cloud. Operation is simple—whether you use the Miele app, voice control, or integration into existing smart-home solutions
What Smart Looks Like
LG’s Smart Mirror InstaView Counter-Depth MAX French Door Refrigerator is one of the industry’s largest capacity counter-depth fridges with 26 cubic feet capacity, perfect for storing all those holiday meals and goodies. The Mirror InstaView window has a frameless edge-to-edge design so that you can see inside of the refrigerator with two quick knocks on the glass panel before it reverts to an ultra-sleek mirror finish which enables the user to quickly check on the food within the fridge without having to open the door to let the cool air out.
Features we love:
- Equipped with three, LG-exclusive innovative cooling technologies that work together to extend the life of fruit and vegetables while keeping all foods fresh and flavorful
- Has dual ice makers and a SlimSpacePlus ice system that offers easy access to ice while freeing up shelf space and provides extra door bin storage and the refrigerator with four types of ice: Cubed, crushed, mini-cubed, and LG’s exclusive, slow-melting, round Craft Ice to perfectly complement any drink or cocktail
- This tech-smart refrigerator also works with the ThinQ app to set up fresh food and freezer temperatures, turn IcePlus on and off, or get “door open” alerts
Undercover Under Counter Versatility
The future is calling and has much to say! Check out this innovative refrigerator/freezer storage option. LG’s Signature Kitchen Suite 24-inch Undercounter Convertible Refrigerator/Freezer Drawer features dual refrigerator/freezer drawers that operate independently with Multi-Temp temperature settings that can be adjusted based on your ever-evolving needs.
Designed to be flexible, you’ll love that this drawer feature allows you to select from six temperature zones: Pantry, Fridge, Bar, Seafood, Meat, or you can drop the temperature all the way down to make it a freezer. With incomparable versatility and the option to be installed with custom cabinet panels or a stainless-steel finish, this 24-inch unit can easily fit into various areas of the home outside of the main kitchen, including your primary suite, home office, bar, theater room, or gym.
