Find a fridge for your lifestyle

Is it able to keep your food fresh for cooking? Does it prevent smells? Is it too large or too small for your needs? Perhaps you might want to get one that really meets your demands. This article gives you tips.

The first thing to think of when you buy a new refrigerator is your lifestyle, said Chanwit Khieonavavongsa, Thai Samsung Electronics' group leader for home appliances. This will help you choose the best designs that fit your character and your home decoration.

 "Consumers are paying more attention to refrigerator design as modern houses have so many styles of decoration. As a result, modern refrigerators have a range of designs too; a modern minimal design tends to be popular now," Chanwit said.

Silver is still the all-time classic colour. More colours are  offered but have not gained great popularity.

The second issue is whether you are a heavyweight fridge user or not, considering the size of your family and what you keep refrigerated. Do you love to hang out with friends often or do you stay home during your free time? How often do you and your family cook? This will help you select a refrigerator with the most suitable technology.

In the broader picture, working people don't have time to shop for fresh food every day, so they need refrigerators able to keep food fresh and maintain nutrition for a long time. Meanwhile, smaller refrigerators are gaining more popularity as modern houses have smaller space. The inside of the small fridge should be well designed to maximise utilisation. Separated compartments are necessary.

"The two-door type is clearly better than one-door because it gives a wider area and separately designed freezer, which won't dehumidify from food. Also, a separate freezer won't let food smells mix with others in the refrigerator," Chanwit said.

Asked which types of refrigerators save energy best, one-door, two-door and three-door models are similar - except that they have separate compressors in each compartment, so that a compressor doesn't  consume more energy working for a number of compartments.  Viyada Sintanarungchai, LG Electronics   (Thailand)'s marketing manager, added that those with a water dispenser installed on the door save energy as users don't have to open the fridge  every time they need water.

Ideally, refrigerators with separate compartments and compressors are the best. Separate compartments allow effective space management while separate compressors save energy. The perfect refrigerator has shown good growth during the past few years. However, prices are quite high and might be too expensive for certain families; so, again, look at your lifestyle.