What your fridge can do?

Design news: let’s draw and let’s eat!

Modern refrigerators do not necessarily have to be classic white: they are increasingly being replaced by a stylish ‘non-rusting steel’ design. Color models can be found in the range of almost all brands, Vestfrost is most famous for the variety of color solutions offered. Indesit introduced an interesting development two years ago with the Graffiti model.

This fridge is supplied with a special pencil, with the help of which one can paint the outer surface of the device the way he wants. A variety of materials can be used for the exterior panel of the refrigerator, from wood to metal and even glass. LG and Gorenje, for example, have fridges inlaid with Swarowski crystals.

Another interesting innovation is the window on the door of the refrigerator that makes it possible to have a look inside the refrigerator without opening the door.

It is also worth mentioning the Norwegian company Norcool refrigerator with a triangle-shaped housing. In the kitchen it takes up only a small area about 1 square meter but is the equivalent of four large refrigerators.

Such a refrigerator is available in both freestanding and recessed modification. So feel free to choose and do not be afraid to try and implement even the most ambitious ideas in your kitchen design.

Negative ions clean your fridge and your whole kitchen

Many innovations and developments are appearing in the cleaning systems for the interior built into the fridge-freezer. For example, not so long ago in Siemens refrigerators appeared antibacterial system of cleaning on the basis of inorganic compound of silver AgION , which reliably prevents the development and spread of harmful bacteria, microbes and pathogenic fungi. Similar cleaning systems are used in the top models of LG refrigerators BioSilver , and in refrigerators manufactured by Electrolux Group. Another invention used in refrigerator production is the double honeycomb air freshener Sharp .

The thermal insulation systems are also being actively improved. In Snaige refrigerators, for example, the inner wall coating is made according to the exclusive “three-layer” technology: the first layer has enhanced thermal insulation properties, the second provides increased resistance to deformation, the third is made according to the “crystal” technology and has anti-bacterial properties.

The use of this technology makes it possible to avoid the distortion of the fridge when using it for a long time as well as the appearance of the undesirable odors in the refrigerator.

Whirlpool is actively engaged in developments in the field of antibacterial protection of home appliances. The essence of this company’s new antibacterial air filtration system is a high-tech removable filter with built-in Microban® antibacterial active ingredients.

Sharp has developed PlasmaCluster technology for cleaning the interior of refrigerators.

Plasmacluster ions circulate inside the fridge compartment and effectively prevent unpleasant odour and harmful micro-organisms and mould. The air is purified not only inside the refrigerator but also outside of it: Plasmacluster ions propagate throughout the entire kitchen and actively purify the air in the room.

Plasma cluster ions” technology is based on creating a large number of positive and negative ions. Fungus and harmful bacteria are deactivated because positive and negative ions tend to cluster around the microparticles and react chemically with them to destroy their envelopes.

Cooling – Super: With two ways on stream!

Strangely enough, there haven’t been too many new developments in this refrigeration sector. Maybe because since the advent of refrigerators, improving cooling systems has been the number one challenge, and it was only after this challenge that engineers began to pay more attention to design.

Multi-threaded cooling systems the essence of their operation is approximately the same, but the names of different manufacturers differ are used in the majority of refrigerators of the middle and high price category. It’s a struggle to keep cooling evenly and to maintain an optimal level of humidity inside the appliance.

Some other technologies that are a bit special are worth mentioning. These include, for example, the hybrid system. This technology cools food in two ways: by means of an aluminium plate at the back of the refrigerator, which spreads air evenly across the entire compartment or by means of an additional lateral enveloping flow that circulates along the walls of the compartment. So there is no intensive blowing, which preserves a much higher level of humidity.

More and more fridges are being fitted with supercooling or fast cooling SuperCool functions. This function is particularly efficient when a large volume of food is loaded inside the freezer at once because, firstly, the food will cool down more quickly to the refrigerator’s average operating temperature and, secondly, it saves energy because the average temperature requires considerably less energy than the energy required to provide the average temperature for the first time.

Specialists have calculated that, for example, when the SuperCool function is activated, drinks in bottles cool six times faster. At the same time, the timer registers and monitors when the refrigerator is operating more intensively and stops the auxiliary cooling system in time.

Controlling with a single touch

Refrigerators are increasingly being fitted with external multifunctional displays with key sensors. External control panels are now almost mandatory on fridges in every price category. This is related to the aspiration to reduce the power consumption and provide more qualitative and uniform cooling of the internal space of the device.

Temperature and humidity control systems continue to evolve and become more precise and accurate – thus tolerable are deviations within 0.5°C of user set parameters.

A whole system of sensors works for this, transmitting information about changes in the refrigerator’s operating parameters to the microprocessor that controls it. It is by no means uncommon to have in-built diagnostic systems, when in the event of malfunction the refrigerator displays an error code, which can greatly facilitate the process of troubleshooting.

Door, door, pour me a beer!

More and more often models, whose price exceeds 25-30 thousand Dollars, are supplemented with built-in dispensers with handy multifunctional displays. As a rule, dispensers work in three modes: they make ice cubes, ice chips or serve chilled water.

Water filters are often built into the dispensers – an example is the recently presented Electrolux fridge with built-in Brita filter.

And Ardo has gone even further and offered a combi fridge with a special cooled beer dispenser. A tap is installed in the upper door, and the beer delivery system is located inside in special niches. Besides, inside the refrigerating compartment there is a separate shelf for a reserve keg with beer, ready to use at any moment.

This does not affect the other functions of the appliance at all and does not reduce the available storage space.

Last summer Sharp introduced a refrigerator with four doors, the latter does not have a central door but instead of one wide door, two narrow doors close it Sharp Perfection range .

Each of the doors has become thinner, so it takes up much less space when you open it. The interior of the refrigerator is quite wide, so there is room for large dishes and large pots and pans. A frying pan or salad bowl can easily be stored in the refrigerator with only one door open, which also serves to keep the cooler air in and saves energy.

Another advantage is that the doors of such a refrigerator are considerably lighter than those of a conventional refrigerator and therefore no effort is required to open or close them.

Place meat and fish in containers

Modern manufacturers strive to ensure that the consumer is able to create a comfortable modification of the interior space. Examples abound: there’s the Candy Multibox system and designs by companies like Whirlpool, Electrolux, Miele and others. At the same time, the task of the engineers is to optimize and increase the useful internal space of the refrigerator while maintaining the external dimensions.

Attention is also paid to improving the details. For example, drawers and fruit and vegetable compartments are increasingly being made as a solid unit without a divider, or with a movable divider, making it easier to put food inside. Inclined shelves in refrigerators for convenient and ergonomic placement of bottles are no longer uncommon.

Half-width shelves are also very popular, because they can comfortably accommodate even tall pots and sauces and yoghurts on the narrow remaining shelf. Special barriers for placing tubes are designed to be placed on the refrigerator doors.

Portable containers for meat, fish, oil are complemented, for example, by a movable snack compartment. The manufacturers focus on an interesting design of the inserts, so that you can not only store, but also serve food in them.

There are also very convenient design details: for example, with the help of a wooden mini board on the lid of the meat container, it is convenient to slice the meat Gorenje RK 67365 .

I’ll put some cheese in the fridge

For freezing and storing of berries, mushrooms, small vegetables as a rule the fridges/freezers come with special hanging trays.

Indesit refrigerators have recently got a silicone Easy Space grid that can be hung up under the refrigerator shelf and serves for storing all sorts of flat packs, such as sliced cheese, sausages or vegetables. Such design helps to save the space that is especially important for refrigerators of small volume.

In order to save the internal space, in some Bosch refrigerators the functions of lighting and forced air circulation ventilation are performed by one Fan-Light Unit.

Miele has come up with an interesting development. The shelves inside some of the manufacturer’s new refrigerators are fitted with LEDs and give the impression of glowing moths.

This technological innovation GlassLight system not only perfectly illuminates the entire internal space of the unit, including the vegetable compartment, fresh storage area and door, but also creates a very pleasant, unusual and romantic atmosphere in the kitchen. At the same time the personal quality of the lighting is retained even when the fridge is fully loaded – after all, the light bulb cannot be obstructed by anything else, it is built into the shelf.

Buy a refrigerator – watch a movie!

Thanks to the development of digital technology, a refrigerator can replace a television set, video recorder, DVD player, radio, voice recorder, and answering machine. Not uncommon are the models with LCD display built into the fridge door, sized 13 or even 15 inches for example, Toshiba, LG, Gorenje, Samsung, Siemens .

These dimensions correspond to the size of a small TV, which are usually installed in the kitchen. The programs can be changed from the control panel on the fridge itself or from the remote control and the device functions include freeze frame.

To ensure high quality sound, the display is equipped with two amplifiers, and in some models e.g. Samsung KG 39 MT 90 the screen can even rotate up to 45 degrees so that no matter in which corner of the kitchen you are, you will be able to watch any program you like.

There are refrigerators on the market with Internet access. Having such a device, you can look inside and check the contents right from the workplace. To do this, all the food brought home from the store needs to be ‘registered’ in the refrigerator by means of a small video camera.

The models with built-in voice-recognition have also become a reality. With LCD display in these models you can record and listen to the voice messages left by other housemates.

The electronic memory is loaded with a database of information on storage times and conditions for different types of food, as well as their caloric values. Furthermore, modern refrigerators can also be connected to a paging system, so that these interactive models can display real-time weather reports, for example.

So, apparently, the time is not far off when you will ask your fridge to make ice from the comfort of your favourite armchair and in a few minutes you will simply turn the dispenser knob and enjoy a nice cold drink.

The Smart Home concept requires a single, centralized appliance management system.

An example of this is the Miele@home SuperVision system, which can integrate a refrigerator, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, hob and oven. The central display, which also acts as a remote control, is normally combined with the control panel of the oven, and a special communication module is connected to each appliance. The data is transmitted over the normal power grid, no additional wiring is required.

Liebherr has similar innovations. Thus, the HomeDialogSystem makes it possible to connect the refrigerator and the freezer through the normal power supply, even if the two are located in different rooms or on different floors. All of the relevant information about the freezer is shown on the display of the fridge-freezer. It also beeps if the door of a fridge-freezer in another room is not properly closed. A pity it is not yet possible to send the food from the fridge to the freezer by email!

You can freeze or heat a fridge or freezer?

The standard refrigerator models with two chambers – a refrigerator and a freezer – where each has a fixed volume are gradually becoming a thing of the past. More and more often the number of chambers in a modern refrigerator is greater than two: In addition to the usual freshness chamber, where the operating temperature is maintained at zero degrees, there are special chambers for storing vegetables.

These compartments can in turn be subdivided into low and high humidity levels for storing different kinds of fruits and herbs.

In a number of LG refrigerators it is possible by turning the switch to turn the lower vegetable storage drawer into a low-temperature compartment for meat the average temperature is from 0 to +2°C . A similar innovation is present in some Samsung models e.g. RL 44 QEUS with the CoolSelectZone function. This technology, supplemented by a better insulation system, makes it possible to change the temperature in a special compartment of the fridge, while not affecting the operation of the rest of the space.

And the most interesting from this point of view is the Sharp Hottoko fridge which combines the functions of cooling and heating, freezing and defrosting. One and the same chamber of this refrigerator can operate within different temperature ranges: from -18°C up to +8°C, as well as it is equipped with the option of heating the ready meals at the temperature from +55°C up to +60°C.

Depending on the selected temperature, the application of this compartment varies: for quick freezing about -18°C , for easy cutting of frozen foods -8°C , to store fresh meat, poultry, fish and cheese 0 to +2°C , to store juices, beverages and ready meals +3°C to +5°C , to store wine +8°C to +10°C .