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Great Big Refrigerator With Zero Conveniences
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Posted by johnliu (My Page) on Wed, Nov 18, 09 at 18:57
| Suppose you were looking for a really spacious refrigerator, and found it.
Spacious, as in, 23 cubic feet of freezer and 23 cubic feet of cooler. Arranged side by side, in total about 54" wide, and it is nearly "counter-depth", 29.5" deep including handles. Each side has shelves nearly 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep, and you can have up to six shelves, set at whatever heights you like. You can even have two doors on each side. It is built like a stainless steel tank, with dual compressors and all heavy-duty systems. The price is about $5,000, or less than 1/2 the price of a 48" SubZero.
Sounds okay, no?
Here's the thing - the inside is just a big white box and those shelves are vinyl-coated wire.
There are no glass shelves, no door bins, no vegetable crisper, no butter/egg cubbies, no bottle/can shelves, no ice-maker, no chilled water, no conveniences, no nuthin'. Just cubic feet of cold.
What do you think? Would the price and volume make up for the bare institutional nature of the thing - for you? Could you work with clear plastic bins stacked on wire shelves instead of smoothly sliding drawers under glass? Would you lay glass on the wire shelves, have someone add sliding bins, and still being buying bags of ice? Or would you spend five figures for a SZ, and figure you get what you pay for?
(I'm not giving the brand because this isn't meant to be an advertisement, but they're not hard to find.) |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Great Big Refrigerator With Zero Conveniences
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ummmm, no, but maybe it's just because the idea is so different from what I'm used to that I can't envision it. What must it cost to operate such a giant? :o
Monica |
RE: Great Big Refrigerator With Zero Conveniences
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I would try to hit a "Happy Medium". When we originally shopped for our appliances -(the first part of 2006) A friend of mine--who wanted to take over the KD (Kitchen designer) duties told us "You have to have a Sub Zero Fridge". We wanted a 48" Fridge, and in fact I designed the kitchen "around the 48' Fridge"---so to speak.
So we went to Pacific Sales to check out the SZ. At that time(early 2006) only a few companies were making 48" Fridges. In those days, the SZ was pretty much as you decribed the fridge you are looking at now. Just a big box, and we wanted to panel the fridge, but you could not panel over the vents at the top of the SZ(back then). I also didn't like the price--well over 7 grand back then.
We walked a little farther in Pacific Sales and came across a 48" Jenn air. It was much nicer inside, better lit, 3 separate individual temps one for the main fridge one for the meat compartment and one for the chrisper. It had digital controls and readouts for all 3 areas + another one for the freezer. The other thing we liked is the digital readouts read the actual temp inside the fridge as well as the freezer.The area above the fridge was made for a panel so no "Gills" showing ala SZ.
So Now I had to do my home work---didn't know a lot about either fridge, back then. Spent a couple of months on the net investigating every 48" fridge made.
1st the Jennair was $4588 vs over 7 grand for the SZ.
Well SZ must be more reliable?
hmmmmm, Consumer Reports rated the Jenn air as the most reliable 48" side by side bulit in fridge, back in 2006.
SZ was rated last---sheeshhhhh whatta surprise?¿?
I also read where Jenn air uses a variable speed compressor as opposed to 2 conventional On/off compressors on the SZ.
Armed with this info we were really happy to place the order for the Jenn air--as both wife and I liked the look, both inside and out, as well as the conveniences that were not offered on the SZ back then--in fact CR dinged SZ for that too.
Anway, 3 years later, Jenn air has been completely trouble free, quiet, and we pocketed the 3 grand difference.
Now to be fair, SZ is still getting low reliable ratings from CR(but that could be old data---data which was caused by SZ getting hold of some bad copper and hence leaky evaporators) and since then, SZ has added a lotta new features.(Ya know that kinda reminds me of Mercedes Benz--their cars usta be kinda "sparce" on luxury appointments,(Teutonic Luxury) then along came Lexus, and now Mercedes is not outdone as far as "Creature comforts" go.
Good luck with your decision!!! Gary |
RE: Great Big Refrigerator With Zero Conveniences
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| I think it could be fine functionally, but I would check the energy usage. Commercial ones are often very noisy energy hogs. It would be easy to organize condiments by cuisine and keep them in smaller baskets on the shelves. My only wonder is produce--does it keep as well in that type system? I'm getting a floor model SZ pro48. I'm fine with no door shelves, but I do like that I'll have ice in a drawer, and spaces for fruit and veg. |
RE: Great Big Refrigerator With Zero Conveniences
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| Get a frigorista to install the compressor downstairs in the basement. Talk about quiet! |
RE: Great Big Refrigerator With Zero Conveniences
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| I'd only consider such a fridge if I could work on it myself on those occasions it might need service. Otherwise, you're going to be out of luck getting a service call on it in a home environment. And, I'd only consider it if I were even deafer than I've become and NOISE didn't bother me. That would rule out plenty of folks if you've seen the "quiet fridge" thread where plenty of quiet consumer grade appliances are being complained about. And, I'd only consider it if I really didn't care that my energy bill went up significantly. A better choice is two "standard" 30" or 33" fridge/freezers side by side or bookending a snack area. I'd personally prefer bottom freezer ones without ice and water on the door. But, you'd get 36 to 44 cubic feet of storeage, with all of those bells and whistles that are missing from a commercial fridge. And, you'd get Energy Star rated appliances (gov't rebate) and two ice makers. I've had several clients do this, and like having two dishwashers, they wonder why they didn't think of it a long time ago. |
RE: Great Big Refrigerator With Zero Conveniences
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| My friends have a refrigerator-only and a freezer-only pair sitting side by side in what used to be a pantry, 64" wide. They are both counter-depth, so they are approximately 16 cuft each of storage. And they cost a heckuva lot less than $5Gs. |
RE: Great Big Refrigerator With Zero Conveniences
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| I've been thinking True or Hoshizaki myself as there just isn't a good non-counter-depth refrigerator-only that I've found. We just don't need freezer space that often in the kitchen but are space constrained and certainly can use more refrigerator space. My big two concerns have been noise and power consumption. While I did find power consumption numbers for the Hoshizaki, I think that the test conditions (100 deg ambient for the comm'l) and the home units are different enough that I can't compare the two easily. At $0.40/kWh here, the differences look like they could be a couple dollars a day. Then again, a 27" wide, 23 cu.ft. fridge is a very attractive concept. |
Nyah nyah we pay less than you
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| If you could, please post any more info you find on commercial refrigerator energy consumption. Apparently there is an Energy Star standard for them too, see here: http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/technologies/eep_crf.html We pay $0.122/kWH in peak hours. |
RE: Great Big Refrigerator With Zero Conveniences
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| you'll find they do consume more, and i think the reason is that they are überpowerful compared to household needs. At home, you open and close the door ten times. In a restaurant, your staff will open and close the door every minute. Also, at closing time someone will put a large quantity of warm or hot stuff in it for overnight storage and cooling, and your fridge system has to remove that heat fast enough to ensure all the other foods don't warm up and grow food poisoning bacteria. Since it's so powerful, it can't be designed to be silent too. |
Noisy, But How Often?
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| Does that mean that in ordinary household use, when the door isn't opened much, they would spend a lot of time in "off" (compressor not running) and therefore silent? I wouldn't mind noisy sometimes if it were quiet most of the time. Would be just like my kids. |
RE: Great Big Refrigerator With Zero Conveniences
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| Very funny. For several reasons. One is that you ask these questions as though you came from eastern Siberia in 1945 and thus had never yet been in the same room as a fridge. |
RE: Great Big Refrigerator With Zero Conveniences
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| Noise is a concern - I was in a small ethnic restaurant recently that has been beautifully remodeled, but the commercial frig was right by the doorway into the kitchen. You could hear that puppy clear across the room, all through our dinner, although they never opened it once that I saw (and I was looking right at it). |
RE: Great Big Refrigerator With Zero Conveniences
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| I saw the Hoshizaki numbers for the RH1-SSB (75cm wide, refer only) at 7.6 kWh/day and that is a lot higher than the SubZero BI-36R (for example) at 505 kWh/yr or 1.4 kWh/day. It very well could be that a lot of the difference is the testing -- the Hoshizaki is measured at 100 deg ambient, which is a 65 deg difference, as opposed to probably more like a 40 deg difference to a 70 deg home temperature. At $0.40/kWh, that could be a couple dollars a day. |
Energy Star info
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| Here's Energy Star program's list of commercial refrigerators and their daily kWH consumption. http://downloads.energystar.gov/bi/qplist/commer_refrig_prod_list.pdf For 23 cu ft reach-in cooler, 3-4 kWH/day seems pretty typical with the best around 2.7 kWH/day. The page where you download this stuff http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=commer_refrig.pr_commercial_refrigerators There is also a page for residential refrigerators. Didn't see any cooler-only models but 22-23 cu ft refrigerators look like around 1.3 kWH/day. Looks like Energy Star ratings for residential refrigerators require testing at 90F ambient. http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=561153af0e2aa8917046ede1c63d3ac8&rgn=div9&view=text&node=10:3.0.1.4.16.2.9.6.1&idno=10 For commercial refrigerators, the Energy Star ratings appear to require testing per ASHRAE Standard 72-2005 and I have not found what ambient temperature that standard requires. That might be the 100F you mentioned, sfjeff? Not sure what info you are looking at. Anyway, for me paying $0.12/kWH, we're talking total cost of running an Energy Star listed 23 cu ft commercial refrigerator is in the $100-$175 range even if I kept my house really really hot inside - which I don't - so it doesn't matter much to me. At $0.40/kWH, I guess it starts to matter more, where you are in that range. Now, there's still the noise issue. |
RE: Great Big Refrigerator With Zero Conveniences
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| Move the compressor to the basement. Get a frigorista to install the compressor downstairs in the basement. Talk about quiet! |
RE: Great Big Refrigerator With Zero Conveniences
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| Thanks John! 4 kWh/day is a lot better than nearly 8 kWh/day. The numbers I had came off the Hoshizaki web site. Amusing note is that I recall my wife really wanting a glass-door fridge. At least we know that True can deliver on that for a lot less up-front than a SubZero. |
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