Kenmore 70333 Refrigerator Review

True, it's not perfect: Temperatures ran too warm and the crispers are relatively ineffective, plus the overall fit and finish feels a little cheap. Nevertheless, if you're dying for a door-in-door, this is the best deal you're going to get.

Design & Usability

Functional fit & finish

This Kenmore’s traditional layout and design might not win it any beauty contests, but it's at least easy to match with other stainless appliances in your kitchen.

Controls that look like a touchscreen actually hide a series of small buttons underneath. If anything, the responsiveness of the buttons made them easier to use than an actual touchscreen.

As with similar LG products, the door-in-door compartment is mostly enclosed by a plastic barrier that you can pop open from the inside. Access door-in-door storage from the front by pushing down on a small button found in the main door handle.

The rest of the interior is fairly basic. Cool, dim LED lights illuminate half-width shelves, and these shelves each have a white plastic trim. The crispers use old-fashioned dial controls.

The pull-out freezer has an upper drawer, a lower drawer with a sliding partition, and absolutely nothing else.

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Performance & Features

Turn it down if you want to chill out

Every fridge we review is tested in an environmentally controlled lab, and—for the sake of consistency—we set any model with a degree-based thermostat to 37°F in the fridge and 0°F in the freezer for our tests. Final scores are based on the internal temperature of our test materials, not air temperature. As such, it's pretty common for average temperatures to run about a little warm—say, a degree or so—but this Kenmore was much worse.

Average temps in the fresh food section clocked in at 41°F, while not one part of the freezer ever actually made it down to 0°F. Fortunately, this problem isn’t without a potential fix: Both sections were at least consistently bad over time, so cranking the thermostat down by about four to six degrees should set things right.

Despite the presence of adjustable controls, the crispers also did a generally poor job, and barely retained any moisture over time. At least this fridge turned out to be exceptionally energy efficient, so the news isn't all bad.

Aside from an on-the-door icemaker, an Ultra Ice feature, and an Energy Saver mode, there’s not much else going on with this fridge.

For in-depth performance information, please visit the Science Page.

Affordable Door-in-Door Storage

A decent deal for what it is

There’s a lot about the Kenmore 70333 that left us underwhelmed. Between a bland design and several performance issues, other models easily surpass this fridge. That said, this Kenmore offers unmatched savings when it comes to door-in-door fridges. At $2,500 on the Sears floor, you’re simply not going to find a French door fridge with door-in-door storage for less... at least, not without an incredibly deep sale.

The Cold Hard Facts

For consumers looking for a fridge with door-in-door storage, the Kenmore 70333 (MSRP $3,199.99) is currently the most affordable option. Those savings come at a cost, though: Temperatures ran warm throughout the entire appliance.

Temperature Performance

Even though we set this fridge to 37°F, it ran much too warm. Temperatures averaged a whopping 41.89°F at the top, 39.69°F in the middle, and 41.6°F at the bottom. 40°F is the threshold at which bacteria starts to multiply more quickly, so your food may spoil more quickly—especially considering the average temperature deviation of ±0.46°F over time. Turn the thermostat down about three degrees for optimal performance.

The freezer also ran too warm. We set this chamber to 0°F, but recorded averages at the top and bottom of 1.17°F and 3.07°F, respectively. Not once did any part of the freezer hit 0°F. The average deviation of ±0.22°F is excellent, however, and means that lowering the thermostat another two or three degrees should help stave off freezer burn, which happens when temperatures constantly shift above and below 0°F.

Moisture Retention

The crispers drawers were ineffective at retaining moisture. Test materials lost an average of 0.28 grams of moisture an hour, more than double what we would've liked to see.

Freezing

Freezing times were adequate. Only an hour and 27 minutes were required to chill room temperature test materials down to 32°F.

Storage Space & Energy Efficiency

Despite its other failings, there’s no denying this Kenmore is a roomy fridge. Four adjustable half shelves, one full-width shelf, twin crispers, and a pantry drawer serve as the primary storage areas for the main section. With plenty of door storage to back it up, this fridge offers consumers 12.01 usable cubic feet of space.

The basic freezer, with its two pull-out drawers, is also pretty roomy. Between the upper and lower sections, you’ve got a total of 5.06 usable cubic feet.

One of this Kenmore’s best strengths is actually its energy efficiency. Based on a fixed rate of $0.09 per kWh, we estimate that—with the icemaker running—this fridge should cost you about $42.56 annually to run. That breaks down to about 0.08 kWh required to cool each usable cubic foot, making this an exceptionally efficient fridge.