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DEAL WATCH: Keurig K-Express | 22% off $69.99

Keurig has changed the face of coffee, and snagging one of these for less than $70 is a solid deal. Read Review

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  • Introduction

  • Front

  • Interior

  • Back

  • Sides

  • Running Cost

  • Power Use Per Cu Ft

  • Fridge Temperature

  • Freezer Temperature

  • Vegetable Drawer

  • Power Loss

  • Freezing Performance

  • Usable Space

  • Ease of Access

  • Controls

  • Water Dispenser

  • Ice Maker

  • Cleaning

  • Noise

  • Other Features

  • Conclusion

  • Introduction
  • Front
  • Interior
  • Back
  • Sides
  • Running Cost
  • Power Use Per Cu Ft
  • Fridge Temperature
  • Freezer Temperature
  • Vegetable Drawer
  • Power Loss
  • Freezing Performance
  • Usable Space
  • Ease of Access
  • Controls
  • Water Dispenser
  • Ice Maker
  • Cleaning
  • Noise
  • Other Features
  • Conclusion

Introduction

With an MSRP of just $1,199, you may be tempted to get this fairly spacious side-by-side, thinking you're getting a fancy fridge for a low price tag. What you'd actually be getting is a fridge with temperature control so poor as to be unsettling, a cheap and occasionally awkward design, and a freezer with insulation so poor that it failed our power loss test (one of only a small handful to ever do so). Even when you consider the online sale prices, which go as low as $989, the glaring flaws in this machine may lead to spoiled food and wasted money.

Front

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The front of the {{product.brand.name}} has an unusual silver finish, sort of an imitation stainless. This could actually be trouble than you might think, since very few other appliances will easily match something outside of the normal color palette. Additionally, the through-the-door ice and water dispenser, as well as the handles, are all made out of cheap-looking and cheap-feeling black plastic that detract from any positive attributes created by the fancy silver exterior.

Even though the {{product.brand.name}} isn't a stainless fridge, it picks up fingerprints just as thoroughly as if it were. If it's placed in direct light, any smears or greasy streaks on the front of the doors will stand out like a Big Mac in a salad bar.

Indicative of a somewhat lower-end design, the temperature controls are inside the fridge compartment rather than out on the exterior with the ice and water dispenser. Two knobs at the top of the fridge section can be used to adjust the temperature of either compartment independently. It uses an arbitrary scale of one to five, from cold to colder, without using any actual degree scale. If you want to know what temperature your appliance will have reached when it's set to "three", you'll need to buy an external thermometer.

The handles are rather short and made of plain black plastic, with ribbing on the inside edge for easy gripping. However, they're so close together that they can be tricky to grab unless you're reaching from the outer edge; the freezer handle is even more of a nuisance, as the protruding ice dispenser means there's less room for your hand.

The through-the-door dispenser is almost comically large, considering that the cavity is quite deep and there's a lot of empty space to the left and right of the controls. It's made of black plastic, like the door handles, and is quite simple to navigate since the temperature controls are located in a different spot.

The controls may look as though they're back-lit, but that's not actually the case. The "buttons" actually cover switches that can be clearly felt when pushed upon. They can be used to switch from crushed to cubed ice, to turn on a light that illuminates the dispenser cavity, and to lock the controls when the device isn't in use to as not to accidentally pour water or ice all over the fridge.

Interior

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The traditional side-by-side layout won't surprise anyone. Basic white plastic shelves and trim offer a standard mid-range look, with glass shelves in the fridge and wire ones in the freezer.

The interior of the CDWT980VSS.

The {{product.brand.name}}'s fridge has three regular shelves, only two of which are adjustable. The third shelf serves as the lid to one of three drawers set at the bottom of the cavity. Of those three drawers, only one has an adjustable humidity control.

The water filter is actually located outside the refrigerator compartment. This is common practice for budget appliances made by Whirlpool, but not typically found anywhere else. It's found at the bottom exterior, just below the freezer door. It has a twist lock that must be turned in order to eject the spent cartridge.

A dairy tray and three adjustable bucket shelves make up the majority of the door storage. A fourth shelf, slightly smaller and non-adjustable, is located at the very bottom.

A large portion of the freezer interior is taken up by the ice maker. There's a small cavity above the ice maker which can be used to store smaller items, or lightweight items such as some frozen dinners. There are also two adjustable wire shelves, a third wire shelf that can't be moved, and a pull-out bucket at the bottom.

Despite having a portion of the ice maker taking up space on the freezer door, there are actually quite a few shelves available for storage. The four regular shelves, as well as the fifth and shallower shelf, are all fixed and cannot be shifted around. The bottom of the shelves don't connect to the front portion, so they all have a small gap through which very small items could fall.

The ice maker is quite large and bulky, and is controlled using an old-fashioned wire switch. There's a label on the device to remind you which position is on or off, though, so you won't have to worry about forgetting. If you don't want to deal with the hassle of removing the giant tray, the {{product.brand.name}} has a convenient little flap that you can lift up to provide easy access to bulk ice.

Back

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The {{product.brand.name}}'s rear is almost completely covered by a sheet of metal, with a small rectangle of cardboard-like material at the bottom. In addition to the power cable, there's a tube running up the height of the machine that connects the water filter to the ice maker.

Sides

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Another example of lower-end design, the sides of the {{product.brand.name}} have a black matte finish. This doesn't exactly complement the silver front very well, and will stand out in your kitchen if the sides aren't completely covered.

Olympus SZ-31MR iHS side views

Running Cost

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Using a standard rate of $0.09 per kW-h, we determined that the {{product.name}} will cost $61.31 per year to operate. It's a good thing that this fridge is on the lower end of prices for side-by-sides, since a rate like that will end up costing your more than you might like over time.

Power Use Per Cu Ft

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An operating cost that doesn't take into account a fridge's size isn't necessarily the best way to measure energy efficiency. With that in mind, we take the amount of energy used and divide it evenly throughout every cubic foot of usable space. This allows us to determine exactly how efficiently an appliance will use consumed energy, regardless of its overall size. It turns out that the {{product.brand.name}} uses 0.12 kW-h per cubic foot of space. This isn't the most efficient fridge we've tested, but it's not bad. Even though it may cost a lot to power, this ratio of space to energy consumed is acceptable.

Fridge Temperature

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Side-by-sides frequently fall prey to a design flaw which results in air warming as its nears the bottom. The gap in the {{product.brand.name}}, however, was much larger than anyone would like—from top to bottom, temperatures heated by an average of seven degrees. Add to that the issue of temperature fluctuation over time (by as little as half a degree, and by as much as one and a half), and you have a fridge that could cause even heartier foods to spoil faster than they should. With a top that's almost too cold and a bottom that's clearly too warm, the middle shelf is really the best place to put your food.

Freezer Temperature

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The freezer didn't have quite as big of a temperature gap as the fridge, but there was still a pronounced shift from top to bottom. On average, the top of the freezer was about four degrees colder than the lower portion. This isn't quite as dire a problem as it is in the fridge—whether your food is at -1 degree Fahrenheit, or at 3 degrees, it's still going to be frozen. The problem here is in the temperature fluctuation over time. From top to bottom, temperatures would shift anywhere from half a degree to a full degree over a span of 24 hours; it's not the worst we've seen, but it still means your food is at risk of developing freezer burn. As long as you don't leave food in here for really extended periods of time or shift things around from top to bottom, you should be okay.

Vegetable Drawer

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The {{product.brand.name}}'s single humidity-controlled vegetable drawer did a decent, albeit unremarkable, job of retaining moisture. Over the course of three days, it lost an average of 0.15 grams of water per hour. This is much better than a lot of cheaper fridges, but not quite enough to make it one of the best models available in this area.

Power Loss

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Perhaps one of the most glaring flaws in this appliance, the {{product.brand.name}} is one of only a handful of machines which we've brought in that failed to pass our power loss test. To simulate a power outage, we unplug our fridges once all other testing is complete and let it sit for 36 hours. Keeping the freezer door shut for that entire time, we wait to see how well the freezer insulation can trap the cold air. After just 19 hours, the {{product.brand.name}} had warmed up enough to completely thaw. This means that if you use this fridge and lose power, you better hope the local electric company isn't paid by the hour, otherwise you're going to have a lot of spoiled groceries.

Freezing Performance

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The closer you get to instantaneous freezing, the better your food will be when thawed. If it takes a long time to freeze, items like beef or chicken can come out with a rougher, less-desirable texture. Taking one hour and 51 minutes to freeze our room-temperature materials, the {{product.brand.name}} proved to be one of the more inefficient appliances that we've tested in this regard.

Usable Space

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The three shelves and three drawers in the {{product.brand.name}}'s fridge section may look wide and spacious, but that's primarily a trick of the eye. With 9.9 cubic feet of usable space, it has no more or less than any other average side-by-side in its size or price range.

The bucket shelves on the fridge door offer a lot of height, and are actually deeper than they may appear. Each of the three standard shelves can comfortably hold two gallon-sized containers, with a little room left over for a bottle of salad dressing. There's also a wide dairy bin at the top and a small, shallower shelf at the bottom.

Despite having a large ice maker, the {{product.brand.name}}'s freezer is actually pretty spacious. With three shelves and a pull-out bucket at the bottom, this is actually a bit larger than average. In total, you have 5.2 cubic feet of space to play with. In addition to the traditional storage spaces, the ice maker here was set low enough that there's a small cavity at the top which is big enough to actually be usable. While you may not want to put a small turkey or buckets of frozen spaghetti sauce on a plastic shelf set above your ice tray, it's good for lightweight items such as bread or certain frozen meals.

Five shelves on the freezer door is more than most side-by-sides can offer, and four of them are big enough to actually be practical. The fifth shelf, which is second from the top, is quite shallow, and be best suited to smaller items like ice cream sandwiches or ice packs.

Below are the manufacturers own figures for capacity, and our own measurements for usable capacity. The manufacturers figures do not take account of the shelves, drawers and other removable features, but our measurements do account for the space these take up.

Ease of Access

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With just under the average number of shelves in the fridge, food is easy to get at regardless of where it's placed. The same is true of the freezer, with one slight difference—no matter how you position the two adjustable shelves, one of them is going to be very short. This can make for accessibility to the rear portion of that shelf a bit problematic. Consumers may also find themselves avoiding the crisper drawers unless absolutely necessary—they can be very difficult to open and close due to a lack of smoothness, a result of the plastic-on-plastic design.

Controls

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Indicative of a somewhat lower-end design, the temperature controls are inside the fridge compartment rather than out on the exterior with the ice and water dispenser. Two knobs at the top of the fridge section can be used to adjust the temperature of either compartment independently. It uses an arbitrary scale of one to five, from cold to colder, without using any actual degree scale. If you want to know what temperature your appliance will have reached when it's set to "three", you'll need to buy an external thermometer.

The controls are very easy to use, but it's not because they're comprehensive and intuitive. It's because they're painfully simple. The temperature controls have no degree listing of any kind, or even a manufacturer's recommended setting. On a scale of one to five, you'll have to use trial and error (along with an external thermometer) to figure out the right setting; thankfully, their traditional dial design is easy to adjust. The water and ice dispenser uses a series of switches which masquerade as the sort of buttons you'd find on a higher-end fridge. They feel a bit stiff, but have almost no learning curve.

Water Dispenser

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The ice and water dispenser found on the front of the freezer door is more or less passable in its layout. The controls, which allow you to switch ice types or turn on a small light, are easy to use despite their painfully cheap design. The two types of moisture are triggered using separate paddles: one for water and one for ice. The one which initiates a stream of water feels well-oiled, while the ice paddle is noticeably stiffer. The cavity itself isn't very deep or tall, so you'll likely have to hold any glass that you want filled.

As far as the filter goes, well...best to get someone with good knees to replace it. Located at the bottom of the fridge, it's one of the most frustrating things we've ever had to deal with. The cap that locks the filter into place is annoyance in physical form: not only is it difficult to grab the filter, we found that it frequently got stuck on the way out, meaning we had to push it back in and start over. Sounds confusing? It is. Never have we experienced such unadulterated joy in relation to an appliance as we did after successfully removing and replacing the {{product.brand.name}}'s water filter.

Ice Maker

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The ice maker is quite large and bulky, and is controlled using an old-fashioned wire switch. There's a label on the device to remind you which position is on or off, though, so you won't have to worry about forgetting. If you don't want to deal with the hassle of removing the giant tray, the {{product.brand.name}} has a convenient little flap that you can lift up to provide easy access to bulk ice.

Cleaning

Noise

Other Features

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Conclusion

Energy Efficiency

The frustrating thing with the {{product.brand.name}} is that it does have some good points—for example, a decent level of energy efficiency. Since it has a sizable amount of storage space overall, all the energy it's consuming is being put to good use. Unfortunately, that doesn't take away from the fact that this is one of the more expensive fridges we've tested. This appliance will cause a big splash in your electric bill, particularly if you live in an area with high energy costs.

Performance

When the best thing going for an appliance is moisture retention that's just decent, you know you have a problem. Temperature disparity and fluctuations in both the fridge and freezer can lead to rapid spoiling or the presence of freezer burn. Food also took a rather long time to freeze, possibly effecting the quality when thawed. Perhaps most disappointingly, the {{product.brand.name}}'s freezer turned out to be one of a small handful that managed to fail the power loss test, a rather dubious distinction.

Storage Space

The fridge section isn't going to wow anyone with its available space, possessing an average amount of storage that's par for side-by-sides. The freezer, though, is actually a bit roomier than usual, despite the presence of a large ice maker.

Usability

The fridge shelves and door storage are actually quite accessible and possess adequate spill protection, but it's all downhill from there. Freezer shelves are made of wire, so any messes will get everywhere. Drawers in the fridge are sticky and difficult to open. Perhaps most perplexing of all is the exterior water filter, which is located at the bottom of the appliance just below the freezer door. After trying to change it out for the first time, you may decide to just stick with the kitchen sink for your hydrating needs.

Meet the tester

Matthew Zahnzinger

Matthew Zahnzinger

Logistics Manager & Staff Writer

@ReviewedHome

Matthew is a native of Brockton, MA and a graduate of Northeastern, where he earned a degree in English and Theatre. He has also studied at the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin and spends most of his free time pursuing a performance career in the greater Boston area.

See all of Matthew Zahnzinger's reviews

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