Frigidaire FFSC2323LS 22.6 Cu. Ft. Side By Side Stainless Steel Review

Introduction

The {{product.name}}, unfortunately, is one of the latter. With a very high MSRP for a mid-level fridge - it's set at $1899 - and performance characteristics that are surpassed by other, even cheaper fridges, there's very little going for this particular model. Some times this can be overlooked for exceptional sale prices, but the best we found dropped it down to just $1485 - still rather high for a fridge of this quality. True, temperature variations often plague side-by-sides, and this {{product.brand.name}} did better in that respect than others that we've tested, but not enough to justify spending that much money on it.

Front

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The front of this side-by-side has a stainless steel finish. On the left door, which opens onto the freezer, is a through-the-door ice and water dispenser set just below the control panel. It's quite large, taking up a large portion of the door. Unfortunately, the plastic feels cheap compared to the rest of the fridge's exterior.

As is the case with many stainless steel fridges, this model picks up every fingerprint and smear. If you do a lot of cooking and keep going in or out of the fridge, or if you've got a house with lots of children, then you'll wind up doing a lot of polishing to keep the doors and handles clean.

The control panel is located just above the water dispenser on the freezer door. The buttons are quite large with big, clear labels. They're also very spread out, resulting in a larger-than-average panel that takes up a lot of door space.

The two vertical handles are actually quite small for a side-by-side, running just over two feet in length. Also stainless, they match the front, curving in to rest flush against the doors.

The water and ice dispenser is all made of black plastic, with a small white spout sticking down for the water. It's operated using a small paddle, and has a small lip that allows you to rest your glass while it's filling.

Interior

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The side-by-side {{product.brand.name}} has the freezer on the left and the fridge on the right. These two compartments run the full height of the overall appliance.

The fridge interior keeps has three adjustable shelves with rear-mounted hooks, with a fourth shelf set below that. At the very bottom of the fridge section are three drawers. The middle shelf is a crisper drawer with adjustable humidity control, and a regular drawer at the bottom without any adjustable settings.

The top drawer is labeled the Chill Drawer, and has a a small switch to the left of it that allows you to control the drawer's temperature.

The water filter is located at the top right corner of the fridge, and is replaced by sliding it forward and back.

The {{product.brand.name}}'s fridge door has quite a few storage options. A dairy bin is found at the top, with three adjustable bucket shelves below that. Right below the third shelf are two beverage racks, which can fit bottles that are laid on their side. At the very bottom is a fourth, smaller, shelf.

The top portion of the freezer is occupied by the {{product.brand.name}}'s ice maker. Under that are three small wire shelves, with a pull-out wire drawer on the bottom.

As is the case with the freezer interior, a large chunk of the door is occupied by the ice maker. In this case, it's the portion of the device that allows the ice to dispense through the door. As such, there's not much else going on - a very small shelf is found at the very top, with three fixed shelves located on the bottom portion of the door.

The ice maker has a rather awkward removable front. In order to turn the machine on or off, or to remove the large tray in order to access bulk ice, this cover has to be removed.

Back

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The back of the {{product.brand.name}} has a metal cover. Running up the right side is a water pipe that supplies the ice maker.

Sides

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The {{product.brand.name}}'s sides have a black matte finish. Using a design that doesn't match the front of the fridge very well is a decidedly lower-end move, and means that if your fridge is exposed on either side, you run the risk of having a color that clashes with the rest of your kitchen.

Running Cost

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As a somewhat larger than average fridge, the {{product.brand.name}} will cost about $48.25 per year to power. It's not the cheapest fridge on the market, but there are other models that will cost you more. We calculate this cost at a rate of $0.09 per kW-h, so it may cost more or less depending on where you live.

Power Use Per Cu Ft

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The yearly operating cost of a larger fridge may be more than that of a smaller model, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's less energy efficient. To determine a refrigerator's actual efficiency level, we figure out how much energy is used per cubic foot of usable space. The {{product.brand.name}} uses just 0.10 kW-h per cubic foot of space, making it quite efficient despite having a slightly higher-than-average operating cost.

Fridge Temperature

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The {{product.brand.name}}'s fridge section was set to zero degrees according to the appliance's control panel, which was an accurate reading of the internal air temperature. The inside of our test materials, however, only reached an average of 38 degrees, so you may want to drop the thermometer a degree or two. Temperatures managed to remain fairly consistent over time, fluctuating a degree above and below the average. This isn't as consistent as some models we've tested, but for a side-by-side, it's actually pretty good. There wasn't a huge difference in degree from the top to the bottom, either, which is also impressive for this type of appliance.

Freezer Temperature

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Despite the control panel stating temperatures were at zero degrees Fahrenheit in the freezer, we found that the inside of our test materials reached sub-zero temperatures. This would be fine, but the problem with the {{product.brand.name}} is a lack of consistency. Temperatures at the top weren't terribly different from the bottom - there was only a difference of about one degree, much less than the usual difference in a side-by-side - but they both fluctuated significantly over time. The average change in degree hovered around one degree, but the extremes in temperature change spanned a range of about four degrees. This rather large gap means food is at a greater risk of freezer burn, which leads to spoiled food and wasted money.

Vegetable Drawer

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The test materials that we placed in the {{product.brand.name}}'s vegetable drawer lost an average of 0.21 grams of moisture per hour. At this rate, produce stored in this fridge may start to wilt just a bit faster than if it were stored in a lot of other models that we've tested. This is rate of loss is just acceptable - it's better than lots of cheaper fridges available on the market, but it's certainly not above-average quality.

Power Loss

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To simulate a power outage, we unplug our fridges for 36 hours to see how well the freezer can retain cold air. The {{product.brand.name}} did a fine job, keeping everything frozen for well after our testing period.

Freezing Performance

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The sooner a freezer can bring room-temperature items down to freezing, the better. Faster freezing times result in a better texture when thawed, particularly with frozen meats. Despite the freezer's height and the distance the cold air has to travel, the {{product.brand.name}} managed to freeze our test materials in one hour and 13 minutes. It's not the fastest on the market today - we've seen some that can take just a bit over an hour - but it's still faster than most of the other models that we've tested.

Usable Space

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This side-by-side offers relatively straight forward, simple storage options. The majority of the available space is spread out over four shelves, the top three of which are adjustable. The fourth shelf is the top of a series of three pull-out drawers. The {{product.brand.name}} has a Chill Drawer with an adjustable temperature switch, a vegetable drawer below that with adjustable humidity settings, and a third drawer on the bottom that cannot be controlled in any way. In total, you can store up to 9.71 cubic feet worth of items in the {{product.brand.name}}'s refrigerator compartment.

The {{product.brand.name}}'s fridge door offers some surprisingly flexible and specialized storage options for a mid-level appliance. There is a standard dairy tray located at the top with three adjustable shelves set below it. Under these shelves are two bottle storage racks, and a fourth, smaller shelf at the very bottom. The bottle racks can be used as designed, for holding bottles or beverage cans, or can be used for improvised item storage. We included them in the overall storage tally for this reason, adding to the overall fridge storage total.

Since the top of the freezer is occupied solely by the ice maker, storage space isn't quite as expansive as it is in the fridge. With three wire shelves and a small pull-out drawer at the bottom, the {{product.brand.name}} offers 4.28 cubic feet of storage space.

With the bulk of the door also taken up by the dispenser portion of the ice maker, there's not a lot of storage space found here. There's a very small shelf above the ice dispenser, and three fixed ones near the bottom. They're not very tall or deep, but are certainly usable.

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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The smaller number of shelves means you won't have to worry too much about having to move things around in order to get to items stored in the back. Door storage is also very accessible, with the spread out layout taking advantage of the {{product.brand.name}}'s full height. Drawers, however, don't move terribly smoothly. They occasionally emit a loud, disruptive squeal, the result of plastic on plastic. It's easy to get at food stored there, but you may not want to put much in them to avoid having to listen to them open.

Controls

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The control panel is located just above the water dispenser on the freezer door. The buttons are quite large with big, clear labels. They're also very spread out, resulting in a larger-than-average panel that takes up a lot of door space.

The main control panel's cheap-looking black plastic may make for a tacky look, but its large size and big text result in a panel that's easy to read and intuitive to use. There aren't any changing displays to cycle through, no menus to dissect. It's all plain and visible, with a very low learning curve. The use of an actual degree scale for temperature control is a plus, too. The vegetable drawer's humidity and the Chill Drawer's temperature are both operated using separate, adjustable dials that are also clearly labeled.

Water Dispenser

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The {{product.brand.name}}'s water dispenser is a bit...odd. It uses a standard paddle that is easy to depress, but the paddle is rather short. It's dispenser cavity is rather tall overall, so you can angle in even larger containers, but the lip isn't very deep. It's almost as if the design was half-finished, allowing for easy access but denying you the ability to set your glass down while filling it.

Ice Maker

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The ice maker has a rather awkward removable front. In order to turn the machine on or off, or to remove the large tray in order to access bulk ice, this cover has to be removed.

Cleaning

Noise

Other Features

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Conclusion

Energy Efficiency

This is the {{product.brand.name}}'s greatest strength. With a decent storage capacity bolstering its level of energy efficiency, the {{product.brand.name}} costs less than many other fridges of its size and style to operate. If saving money in the long run is your biggest concern, consider buying this fridge. Just make sure that you find it at a low enough price to make those savings start to appear before the fridge keels over.

Performance

The {{product.brand.name}} is, with all the level of quality that the word implies, adequate. Its temperature control is decent, and even surpasses some other side-by-sides in its consistency. Moisture retention is perhaps just under the ideal average, and its freezer does a very good job of freezing things. It actually does quite well overall.

Storage Space

You won't be blown away by the capacity of the {{product.brand.name}}'s fridge or freezer, which total about the average amount of space available in this type of model. It lands right in the middle, without more or less space than one should expect from the center of the spectrum.

Usability

Other than the usual hassles found in a side-by-side - thin compartments can make storing bulky items difficult, spills that manage to drip down the back are a pain to clean - this fridge does just fine. Controls are large, making them easy to both read and use, shelves are readily adjustable, and aside from the wire components in the freezer, spills are fairly easy to contain.