A refrigerator has become the basic necessity of every modern household. It is used in all weathers to store perishable items and leftover food. With new inventions and advancements in technology, refrigerators are becoming smarter. New features are being added almost every 3-6 months, making it a confusing affair to choose the best one for your needs.
Today we have choices of single door, double door, side-by-side door, French door, and mini-refrigerators.
Some additional features like adjustable shelves, thermostat control, water and ice dispensers, curd maker, deodorizer and moisture control for veggies, and built-in stabilizers are being advertised by companies.
In this article, we are going to discuss the basic things and features you need to consider while buying a refrigerator.
1. 1. Capacity: Refrigerators come in various capacities ranging from Just 43 Liters to 900+ Liters. It depends on your usage type and family size to choose the capacity.
Below is a chart to help you decide the capacity according to your family size:
|
1-2 members |
121-230L |
|
3-4 Members |
231-350 L |
|
4-5 Members |
231-500 L |
|
Large Family |
500 L plus |
|
Hotel room or PG |
43 L |
Single door – Single door is suitable for small
families of 2-4 persons. They are slightly cheaper in price and thus suit the low-budget customers. In this type of refrigerator,
Double Door- This type of fridge has a separate chiller
compartment and in some new tech fridges, the chiller compartment can be
converted to a normal refrigerator compartment as per requirement. They generally come in 230 L to
500 L capacity.
Triple Door – These fridges have a separate chiller
compartment, the main fridge compartment, and a separate vegetable basket at the
bottom. These fridges are slim and tall and have toughened glass shelves. These are best for families that store weekly packaged foods and frozen foods.
Side-by-Side Door – This type of fridge is suitable for a big family or a family that stores packed food and non-veg for longer times. These come in 500 to 900 Liter capacity.
These fridges are becoming more popular because of their features and capacity to store a larger amount of food items. This saves the time to go to supermarkets daily to buy vegetables and frozen items on regular basis.
3. Compressor type: General compressor and inverter compressor. General compressor consumes more energy, emits more noise, and has a lower life span. Inverter Compressor works on new technology and when the temperature falls below the set level, it reduces the capacity of the compressor thus reducing the demand for electricity.
When cooling is required again, it again increases the capacity of the compressor. This technology helps in saving 20% to 30% of electricity, increases the life span of the device, and improves the performance of the refrigerator. Thus the fridges with Inverter Compressor are the best to buy.
4. Energy Rating: Energy rating is set by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and is rated as stars ranging from 1 star to 5 stars. The more the stars, the less energy is consumed by the machine. Therefore a fridge with a 5-star rating will be most economical to run as compared to the one with a single star.
5. Features: With the new techniques, every company is keen to provide more and more features in their fridges. Some of the most useful features to be considered are:
·
Number of shelves: with the same size of a fridge, the number of shelves might differ in different models. So choose according
to your needs. It would be best if you can find adjustable shelves that can be adjusted as per the size of
the utensils.
·
Requirement of
stabilizers:
Some new fridges have in-built stabilizers and thus there is no requirement for external ones.
·
Water and ice dispensers: Some models have a facility of water dispensers and even ice cube dispensers where you don’t need
to open the fridge to draw water or ice cubes. This provides ease of usage and
also increases the performance of refrigerators leading to less electricity usage.
·
Cool Pack: Some fridges have a
cool pack fixed in the ice chamber. This pack helps to maintain a cool
temperature during power cuts. As per the manufacturer, the ice pack provides
cooling up to 12 hours after a power cut. This feature is useful in remote areas
where power cut is a major problem.
·
Curd maker: This feature helps you
to make curd in any weather condition. These models provide a separate chamber
where you can put milk mixed with curd culture. This chamber not only prepares
curd but also stores it at maintained temperatures.
·
Vegetable storage: Almost all fridges
provide separate storage for vegetables. You can choose according to your requirements.
·
Toughened Glass
shelves:
These shelves not only look beautiful but also provide more strength as
compared to wired mesh shelves. These are easy to clean and are more hygienic.
Top-selling refrigerator brands in India. Below are the top-selling refrigerator brands in India. You can consider any of them, all of them have good brand value and great features. You can choose according to your needs based on the above-mentioned features.
- LG.
- Whirlpool.
- Samsung.
- Haier.
- Bosch.
- Godrej.
- Electrolux.
- Videocon.
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