Introduction

Design & Usability

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Inside and out, this Samsung has a truly elegant design.

On the left-hand fridge door is an ice and water dispenser, as well as a control panel for the internal temperature and several other features. The stainless steel front, while attractive when clean, picks up fingerprints very easily, especially when hands are wet or oily. The interior of both compartments is bathed in a pale blue glow emitted from LED lights. While it's easy on the eyes and illuminates the interior just as thoroughly as regular bulbs, it may take some time to adjust to looking at cheeses that, for instance, are not meant to be blue.

The central portion of the refrigerator is made up of five different shelves, three of which are adjustable, and one of which has a retractable portion for storing particularly tall items. There are also two crisper drawers, complete with humidity controls and internal lighting. Beneath those, you can find what Samsung has dubbed the "Wide-Open Cool-Select Pantry," a full-width drawer that also has independent controls, and can be set to one of three labeled headings: Deli, Fresh, or Chilled.

The freezer is accessed using a pull-out drawer, and has three distinct sections. The lower shelf is cut into two parts by a plastic divider, with the Auto Pull-Out Drawer above that. Also, a tray for smaller items is located on the inside of the freezer door, with a specialized section called the Pizza Door which can be flipped to provide vertical storage for wide, thin items.

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Features

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It's very easy to master, even with the many extra features and numerous retractable compartments.

The numerous shelves offer ample storage while still remaining organized enough to keep food in sight. Shelves are easy to adjust and the drawers—both in the fridge and freezer—move like well-oiled machines. The control panel is located on the outside of the left fridge door, where everything is clearly labeled and LED back lit images indicate when things are on and working.

The water and ice come out of the same dispenser, which features an opening large enough to rest a glass. Changing the filter is even remarkably easy: Simply turn it in the labeled direction, and pull out. It may dribble a bit the first few times until you’re used to the angle needed to prevent spilling, but is otherwise one of the easiest water filters to access and change that we’ve seen.

The ice maker is stored in the upper left portion of the fridge. It takes up a fair amount of space, but can also be pulled out from the front to access larger blocks of ice should the amount produced by the door dispenser be inadequate for your needs. It's a bit bulky, but no more so than other typical ice makers found in this location.

Performance

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Temperature readings and overall freezer performance were not as consistent as one would like in a higher-end fridge.

We place data-recording sensors inside the unit at different levels over the course of several days to ensure that temperature is evenly distributed and maintainable. The Samsung’s refrigerator had fairly consistent temperature readings over time, but not throughout the entire compartment. The most ideal data was recorded near the top by the ice maker, but even that was a bit warm, rising a few degrees as we got down to the crisper drawers at the bottom. To compensate, you can turn down the temperature to slightly below the recommended manufacturer setting, but that won't help the degree shift.

The freezer temperature fluctuated quite a lot over time, but at it’s highest, the temperature only reached just over 4 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that your food will be quite thoroughly frozen, although there's an increased possibility of freezer burn.

We should note that the crisper drawer was quite good and lost less moisture than average. Regardless of any temperature issues, fruit and vegetables kept here should actually last a bit longer than average. Anything you buy on Monday should only lose a bit of its quality if you still haven't eaten it by the end of the week.

Conclusion

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A good all-around fridge with a couple of performance flaws.

The Samsung RFG297HDRS is a gorgeous fridge, equally adept at storing your food as it is becoming a kitchen conversation piece. Under the stunning surface, however, lie some temperature inconsistencies in both compartments, as well as storage space that isn’t as cavernous as the eye might make you believe. Freezer temperatures fluctuate over time, which means the likelihood of freezer burn is increased, as well, plus it has a fairly high power consumption to boot. The MSRP for this Samsung is listed at $3,099, but many retailers will tag it at something closer to $2,000; we even found a new unit for as low as $1500, a very reasonable price indeed. With respectable performance scores, not to mention an amazing vegetable drawer, this Samsung is easy to recommend despite its minor flaws.

Science Introduction

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A fridge this expensive may be expected to be close to perfect. Unfortunately, the Samsung RFG297HDRS definitely wasn’t. Take a look at our numbers for yourself and see why.

Temperature Performance

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A surprisingly warm fridge combines with a surprisingly inconsistent freezer.

Surprisingly, even though we had the temperatures calibrated to the manufacturer's recommended settings, the entire fridge interior ran warm. That's an easy fix, though: just turn down the thermostat. That won't fix the temperature shift from top to bottom, unfortunately. Produce should actually be stored just a bit warmer than other refrigerated items, though, so your food should be okay, especially when you consider that temperatures fluctuated less than a degree over time.

The freezer also ran a bit warm—2.17 degrees Fahrenheit at the top, and 2.42 degrees at the bottom—but again, that's an easy fix. The biggest trouble we had with the freezer was with fluctuation over time. The average shift in temperature was about one degree, but we found spikes as far off from the target temp that were as large as four degrees. You won't want to keep anything here for too long otherwise you're definitely going to see some freezer burn buildup.

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Moisture Retention

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Fantastic moisture retention means fruits and veggies stay fresh for longer.

The crisper drawers in the Samsung are very well made. Over three days, our tests indicate an average moisture loss of 0.13 grams of water per hour. Produce placed in these drawers will definitely stay fresh for longer than in most other fridges, so feel free to stock up at the grocery store.

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Freezing & Thawing

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A very long freezing time that may have a negative impact on your frozen goods.

Despite the high-end nature of this model, the freezer still took one hour and 52 minutes to freezer our room-temperature test items. That's definitely a long time, so much so that sensitive items such as meat and fish may have a lower quality texture when thawed. At the very least, the freezer did manage to retain cold air when the electricity was cut off, managing to stay frozen by the end of our 36 hour power loss test.

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Storage Space & Energy Efficiency

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A spacious fridge comes at the expense of a slightly cramped freezer.

Unlike manufacturer specs, our measurements take into account space taken up by objects that prevent food storage, such as shelves and drawers. As such, we found that the Samsung only had 10.78 cubic feet of usable space in its refrigerator, with 4.68 cubic feet in the freezer. The fridge is actually really spacious, but it comes at the cost of an under-sized freezer compared to the average French door model.

A fridge this size is going to be fairly expensive to run regardless of like the Samsung is not going to be incredibly energy efficient. You can expect to see an annual running cost of about $68.44, which is a bit high even for large fridges, though it only uses 0.13 kW-h per cubic foot. It'll cost you a fair amount, but at least it's using all that energy quite efficiently.

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Other Tests

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