anyone have refrigerator drawers?

[lph]

Yet another kitchen remodeling thread, even though I swore I wanted to spend as little time and effort on this as possible... *sigh* ;)

I suddenly realized that the spot we'd planned for the fridge (normal, small upright fridge, no freezer), which is the only possible spot really, in the corner next to the window, would mean that it partly blocks daylight to the sink. Not a biggie, maybe, but if we put in refrigerator drawers instead, we could have daylight on all the work spaces. And it would look sooo smooth...

But the only refrigerator drawer module we can get costs twice as much as a fridge, and has half as much space. Buying two of them isn't really an option, it would crush our budget.

Does anyone have these? Are they handy? Are they significantly easier to fill up than a regular standing fridge? We need lots of room for veggies, but hardly any room for drinks since we don't drink milk or soft drinks regularly.

[malkin]

My cousin has them and they are cool, and easy enough to use, but my cousin's kitchen is gigantic and also has a normal fridge. Mr. Cousin is a contractor, and their remodel was very well resourced. The only problem I noticed with them is that when there are a bunch of people hanging out in the kitchen, whoever is in front of the drawer has to move in order to get stuff out. Of course this is true of any fridge door.

Losing the window light would be a bummer.

I wish there were more smallish options for refrigerators in the US. Our choices are Gigantic, Big, and then Dorm Room. We'd be much better off with a smaller one that didn't invite us to keep so much mystery stuff pushed to the back.

Honoring our sprawling western US lifestyle, we also have a fridge in the garage where we keep beer and make ice in trays in the top freezer.

[Irulan]

Have you been to Sears? It seems to me that they always have apartment size there.

[Bike Writer]

Yet another kitchen remodeling thread, even though I swore I wanted to spend as little time and effort on this as possible... *sigh* ;)

I suddenly realized that the spot we'd planned for the fridge (normal, small upright fridge, no freezer), which is the only possible spot really, in the corner next to the window, would mean that it partly blocks daylight to the sink. Not a biggie, maybe, but if we put in refrigerator drawers instead, we could have daylight on all the work spaces. And it would look sooo smooth...

But the only refrigerator drawer module we can get costs twice as much as a fridge, and has half as much space. Buying two of them isn't really an option, it would crush our budget.

Does anyone have these? Are they handy? Are they significantly easier to fill up than a regular standing fridge? We need lots of room for veggies, but hardly any room for drinks since we don't drink milk or soft drinks regularly.

The only refrigerated drawers I have used have been in restaurants and they worked very well. Using them at home with no other fridge? Not so sure. I guess it would depend on how you can configure it. In the commercial ones used in restaurants there are many configuration options for the drawers.

[OakLeaf]

I wish there were more smallish options for refrigerators in the US. Our choices are Gigantic, Big, and then Dorm Room. We'd be much better off with a smaller one that didn't invite us to keep so much mystery stuff pushed to the back.

Ya know, the last fridge we bought was 18 whatever cubic feet and it's just too small for the two of us. Bunches of larger leafy greens like kale or chard don't fit in the crispers at all. When we pick up our CSA share it's packed to the gills. I think it isn't the size so much that's the issue, it's the shape of the drawers, compartments and shelves. Americans aren't expected to put vegetables in our refrigerators, we're supposed to pack them full of cr*p in shiny boxes and bottles in neat, uniform sizes. :mad:

But, as far as the OP, I don't have drawers, but I would be skeptical of any option that made me lump vegetables one on top of the other. Air needs to circulate so they don't spoil.

[Irulan]

I wish there were more smallish options for refrigerators in the US. Our choices are Gigantic, Big, and then Dorm Room. We'd be much better off with a smaller one that didn't invite us to keep so much mystery stuff pushed to the back.

.


Plenty of options out there -
http://www.compactappliance.com/Apartment-Fridges/Appliances-Refrigerators-Apartment_Refrigerators,default,sc.html

[malkin]

Plenty of options out there -
http://www.compactappliance.com/Apartment-Fridges/Appliances-Refrigerators-Apartment_Refrigerators,default,sc.html

Nice! Lots of new options and new manufacturers since we last shopped several years ago.
Maybe by the time the current fridge breaks there will be a little one with all the options I want and none of the things I don't want.

[NbyNW]

Subzero makes a drawer-style refrigerator. Our designer suggested it because it would get us some additional countertop space, but at the same time she recommended that we keep our old fridge in the garage for overflow storage.

At the end of the day we decided to go with a slim, 24" wide full-height fridge/freezer by Liebherr. We decided that the way we use our fridge it would be a pain to run downstairs all the time for things, and it would be too easy to forget that we had extra stuff downstairs. We like to cook leftover quantities of meals on weekends to save time/work during the week, and we just felt like the drawers would not accommodate that. But we did keep the old fridge in the garage and it does come in handy when we are hosting a large number of guests.