We bought our refrigerator at the same time we got married back in the year 2000 (actually it was a wedding gift from my father). At the time it was completely suitable for our needs, and it has served us well for nearly a decade. Since then our family has increased from four to seven people, and the refrigerator has mysteriously decreased in size during the same period, or so it seems. Our family consumes a lot of milk, juice, vegetables, etc, which needs to be kept in a cool place before it is devoured. Our evolving family (and shopping bags) had put an increasing strain on the shelves in our refrigerator! Last summer a couple of shelves broke under the strain, and although we glued them with super-glue, they broke again pretty soon. Suddenly there were only two out of four shelves left in working order.
Actually only one shelf was working properly and, yes, the other one was being supported by a soda bottle (!) which meant two things; we were putting an immense strain on the remaining shelf and were almost out of cooling capacity.
Alas, it was time to make an investment!
Although I dream of having a really huge fridge or even a walk-in fridge our kitchen is currently quite small and we couldn’t postpone making this investment any longer. So even though we are planning a big kitchen makeover in the not too distant future, we decided to make do with a fridge that fit into the same nook as our old fridge for now. Perhaps if we win the lottery I will get my walk-in-variant later.
Our list of criteria boiled down to:
- A good quality refrigerator
- A narrow, but tall model.
- Within affordable pricerange.
- All fridge no freezer.
The choice we made:
- We wanted to invest in a refrigerator from Miele which we’ve experienced is a quality brand (this is not promotion). Yes, it costs a little more initially but you get a product that works like clockwork year after year, which makes it the cheapest choice in the long run.
- The tallest model available to us was 1,85 meters. Even though we had hoped for an even taller refrigerator it worked out well with this one because we could still fit the microwave on top.
- We kept the price down a little by settling for a plain white model (which in my opinion works well with the rest of our kitchen).
- There are a lot of models combining refrigerator and freezer, which are suitable for smaller families I presume. In our case we needed all the fridge we could get. By using the freezer in the basement we get to run the stairs a lot, which is a health-bringing activity for all of us.
Let me tell you, using this refrigerator with five shelves and two vegetable drawers feel like a real luxury after the shelves in our old fridge had started breaking.
