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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

  • Ice Maker

  • Cleaning

  • Noise

  • 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
  • Ice Maker
  • Cleaning
  • Noise
  • Conclusion

Introduction

Front

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Right angles and horizontal-grain stainless steel distinguish the front of the fridge. Its handles are contoured, and there's no through-the-door water/ice dispenser.

Though it attracts fingerprints, the stainless finish is easy to clean with a damp cloth.

All controls are located inside the fridge. Separate freezer and fridge temperature controls operate on an arbitrary scale with a recommended setting of 4 rather than displaying the actual temperature.

Interior

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Inside, the fridge will be familiar to anyone whose used a Whirlpool/Amana/Maytag fridge in the past decade. The freezer drawer rolls out from the bottom.

The interior of the CDWT980VSS.

Open the double doors and you'll see adjustable glass shelves with metal frames and thin plastic drawers

Both doors are mirror images of each other, with the exception of the butter/dairy drawer at the top of the right drawer. All but the bottom shelves are adjustable.

The freezer is a large drawer separated into two parts by a plastic divider. Above, a shallower drawer contains the ice maker and more storage space.

The {{product.name}}'s ice maker sits above the top freezer drawer.

Back

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There's a water line on the back of the {{product.name}} for the built-in icemaker.

Sides

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The {{product.name}} has gray sides.

Olympus SZ-31MR iHS side views

Running Cost

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The {{product.name}} is quite economical to run. If electricity sells for 9.1 cents per kW-h, this fridge will only cost you $32.89 a year.

Power Use Per Cu Ft

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Adjusting for usable space, the {{product.name}} uses only 0.08 kW-h of electricity per cubic foot of storage space. That's above average across all refrigerators.

Fridge Temperature

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The {{product.name}} maintained nearly consistent temperatures throughout its fridge cavity, though the top shelves were slightly cooler than the bottom ones by about a degree.

The {{product.name}} kept food packages at consistent temperatures without fluctuations. The temperature sensors that we placed inside food packages registered no more than a half a degree of total variation.

Freezer Temperature

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With such a small freezer, it's not that hard for the {{product.name}} to keep it all a uniform temperature. That's a good thing, because fluctuating freezer temperatures lead to the formation of ice crystals.

Vegetable Drawer

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Vegetables stored in the {{product.name}}'s special drawer won't dry out quickly thanks to this fridge's excellent performance on our humidity testing. The simulated vegetable we tested only lost 0.12 grams of water per hour, which is half what similar fridges have lost on the same test.

Power Loss

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When the power goes out, you could lose up to $800 worth of food. We tested the {{product.name}}'s insulation by unplugging it and found that the internal temperature of food stored in the freezer didn't go above 32 degrees within 36 hours. In fact, after 48 hours the food had yet to thaw.

Freezing Performance

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When food freezes slowly, it forms ice crystals that affect its texture when thawed. The {{product.name}} didn't do that well on the freezing test, taking 2 hours 9 minutes to freeze food from room temperature. That's about a half hour longer than we'd like to see.

Usable Space

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Unlike the manufacturers, we measure a refrigerator's storage space subtracting for curves and shelves that impede on usable space. The {{product.name}} only offers 12.45 cu. ft. of refrigerator space, but makes the most of it. Four shelves are adjustable, and above two crisper drawers there's a long, wide "deli drawer" for storing cheese and meats. There's also an odd drawer made up of widely-spaced wires. It doesn't seem very useful.

The {{product.name}}'s refrigerator doors open to reveal five shelves and one butter drawer. You'll have no problem storing large bottles in here, including 2 gallon milk jugs.

The freezer only has a main drawer and a top drawer. Considering that a third of the top drawer is taken up by an ice maker, there's only 2.44 cu. ft. of storage space.

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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Like all bottom freezers, the {{product.name}} requires some bending down to get frozen foods. If that's a problem, you should consider a side-by-side or top freezer. Shelves are heavy and difficult to adjust since they hook into slats at the rear of the fridge. Like most Maytag/Whirlpool/Amana fridges, the flimsy-feeling crisper drawers stick.

Controls

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All controls are located inside the fridge. Separate freezer and fridge temperature controls operate on an arbitrary scale with a recommended setting of 4 rather than displaying the actual temperature.

The {{product.name}}'s controls are located inside the unit at the top of the fridge compartment. Inexplicably, they feature an arbitrary numeric scale instead of Fahrenheit/Celsius temperature displays.

Ice Maker

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The {{product.name}}'s ice maker sits above the top freezer drawer.

Cleaning

Noise

Conclusion

Energy Efficiency

The {{product.name}} has excellent energy efficiency considering its usable storage space, using less energy to keep a cubic foot cool than many fridges in its class.

Performance

Though the fridge's lower shelves are slightly warmer than the top shelves, the {{product.name}} keeps food at consistent temperatures and has one of the best vegetable drawers we've tested.

Storage Space

The {{product.name}}'s freezer is small, but the fridge is cavernous and can fit very wide items.

Usability

Though the heavy shelves are hard to rearrange, the fridge interior and exterior are both easy to clean, and the wide deli drawer is a nice touch.

Meet the tester

Keith Barry

Keith Barry

Former Editor in Chief, Reviewed Home

@itskeithbarry

Keith was the Editor in Chief of Reviewed's appliance and automotive sites. His work has appeared in publications such as Wired, Car & Driver, and CityLab.

See all of Keith Barry's reviews

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