Your Cart
£0.00
Fridge Freezer Features Explained
When you’re shopping for your new fridge freezer you want to make sure you get the best deal! But how do you do that when you have no idea what all the features listed mean?
If your current fridge freezer is old, you may be unaware of all the new fridge freezer features available today! And that’s okay, it would be quite an interesting hobby if you did! Luckily, it’s our job to know all the ins and outs.
With our decades of experience, we know a thing or two about fridge freezers, and all their wonderful possibilities. In this guide, we share our knowledge about the most popular and helpful fridge freezer features. We’ll explain what they are and, more importantly, how they help you out. Certain features are so good that they directly affect the price of the unit. It helps to know which ones are actually worth paying for!
Holiday Mode
What is holiday mode on a fridge freezer?
Holiday mode is ideal for when you are going away for longer than 3 weeks. When turned on, the fridge section will maintain a raised, steady temperature of around 15°C. This is higher than the usual fridge temperature, which should be between 0°C and 5°C. Because of this increase in temperature, all food should be removed from the fridge. That shouldn’t be a problem though, as most perishable fridge foods won’t last for longer than 3 weeks anyway.
What’s the point of holiday mode?
Now that you know what it is, you may wonder what the point is. Can’t you just leave it on as normal, or just turn it off completely?
By switching to holiday mode, your fridge will use a lot less energy than it usually would. This saves you from wasting money on an appliance that you don’t need whilst away. Furthermore, by operating at 15°C, rather than turning off completely, your fridge is protected against foul odours, or mould developing inside.
Also, holiday mode is designed so that when the setting is on, only the fridge is affected. The freezer portion will continue to run as normal, so you don’t need to worry about your frozen goods. This is much better than turning it off completely, as you’ll still have a working freezer whilst you’re away soaking up the sun.
Flexible Space
What does flexible space mean in a fridge freezer?
Lots of fridge freezers offer various space-saving solutions. The most common kind of flexible space feature you’ll find are shelves that can be removed or rearranged. This allows you to shuffle them around to find a suitable layout. Some shelves are a little more advanced, allowing you to remove half of the depth, and slide it underneath. This gives you a lot more height for larger items, such as tall bottles or jars.
Convertible Fridge Freezer Spaces
Even more advanced than fancy shelves are convertible spaces. These are spaces that can transform into either a fridge or freezer space! So, if you need a little extra fridge space, simply convert your freezer into a fridge and, voila! You have all the space you need for that big party of yours.
Frost Free
What does frost-free mean?
More and more people are opting for a frost-free fridge freezer model. Why? Because there’s no frost build-up! Traditional freezer spaces develop a build-up of frost, which happens when humid air gets trapped and frozen. This frost decreases the efficiency of the unit, so it ends up using less energy. It can even cause damage to your drawers, as they can get frozen too and break as you try to pull them out!
A frost-free freezer uses advanced technology that stops frost from ever forming. This means you won’t ever have to worry about the tedious task of defrosting your freezer again!
What is Total No Frost?
Even better than No Frost models, are Total No Frost models. These fridge freezers extend their benefits into the fridge. With Total No Frost, dry air is circulated around both the fridge and freezer. This means that there’s an even distribution of cooling throughout both cavities, keeping your food fresher for longer. It also helps to keep your fridge free of moisture, which increases efficiency and reduces bacteria.
Fast Freeze
What is the fast freeze setting on a freezer?
The fast freeze setting has many different names, depending on the brand. A few variations include PowerFreeze, SuperFreezing, and superFreeze. They all have the same function though: to quickly lower the temperature of your freezer. This setting is best used when you’re about to place fresh groceries away. We recommend turning it on before you go shopping, so the temperature has time to lower.
There are two main benefits to this feature. The first is that your fresh groceries will reach the ideal frozen temperature faster. This helps to retain nutrients and keep it tasting great.
The second benefit applies to all of the food already in your freezer. When you place non-frozen food items in the freezer, the overall temperature slightly increases. This can affect the integrity of your already frozen items by raising their temperature. However, when you use the fast freeze setting, the effect is minimised.
Humidity Control
What does humidity control mean in a fridge freezer?
A humidity control system is a common feature in most fridge freezers these days. This essentially means a separate compartment within the fridge that is protected from air circulation. The less air circulated in the compartment means a higher moisture level.
Humidity controls are most commonly found on salad crisper drawers. They work by using an adjustable window on the drawer. By controlling the humidity levels, certain moisture-sensitive foods, such as many vegetables, will benefit by staying fresher for longer. These have been a feature in fridges for a long time, but now there’s more variety than ever before.
Different brands have their own patented humidity control systems, so you may find lots of different names for this feature. Some examples include BioFresh, DailyFresh, GreenZone, and VitaFresh. Many brands also include lower temperature zones in their fridges, providing an ideal space for fresh meats, fish, or dairy products.
Smart Technology
What does a smart-connected fridge freezer do?
Smart technology has made its way into many appliances, including fridge freezers. What exactly this entails depends on the brand and model of the fridge freezer. However, the most common and helpful smart features include the ability to check the contents of your fridge without opening the door, plan or order food, or monitor energy usage levels.
Many smart fridge freezers can be connected to an App. This allows you to manage various aspects of your fridge freezer wherever you are. Often, it also gives you the ability to control your smart home with voice commands. This is particularly helpful for some people with disabilities.
Samsung Family Hub fridge freezers have an integrated tablet. You can use this screen to keep stock of what’s in the fridge, keep a family calendar, watch TV, play music, and more! This is a fantastic smart feature that will modernise your kitchen like nothing else.
Easy Grab Door
What’s the point of an easy-grab door?
An easy-grab door is a great feature to look out for. These fridge freezers have a door within a door, which opens to reveal just the door shelves. This makes grabbing your most used condiments or drinks easy. It also saves on energy, as it restricts the amount of warm air entering the fridge compartment. The less you open your fridge door, the more efficient and energy-saving it will be!
LG’s Door-In-Door Instaview fridge freezers go one step further. If you need to check the contents of your fridge, you can simply knock on the glass. This will light up the interior of your fridge, so you can see what you have without wasting energy by opening the door.
Water & Ice Dispensers
What do I need to know about water & ice dispensers?
Water & Ice dispensers aren’t exactly a new feature on fridge freezers; they’re very common! The name is fairly self-explanatory for what they do, but if you’ve never had a fridge freezer with a water or ice dispenser, there are a couple of things worth knowing about them.
When buying a fridge freezer, you have the choice of no dispenser, just a water dispenser, just an ice dispenser, or both. Some refrigerators with a dispenser will require plumbing, however, this isn’t always the case. You should always double-check the plumbing requirements on your selected model to be sure! Those that don’t need to be plumbed will have a tank that you can fill up as and when you need to.
Anti-Bacterial Seals
What are anti-bacterial seals?
Anti-bacterial seals are a small feature, but they do a lot for food hygiene. These seals have an antibacterial layer which helps to reduce the growth of mould, bacteria, and more.
Other Features
There are so many different features available in fridge freezers that it’s difficult to talk about them all here! Just a list a few more though, some other great features to look out for include:
- Quiet (Look out for our Quiet Mark rewarded appliances)
- Easy clean
- Large drawers
- Powercut failsafe
Need more information?
