Did you see what I did there with the super lame pun in the title? You know you liked that.
As promised, I’m back with some details about our fridge purchase. And a long back story about how we picked our other appliances. Cue what is probably my longest post to date.
I know that people have their own opinions and convictions about appliances (as with everything, really). So please don’t take this as the end-all be-all. I’m not judging anyone’s appliance preferences, I’m just explaining my thought process on why we bought what we bought. Everyone has different needs/wants when it comes to things like this. For another view on the subject: here is Katie Bower’s view on buying a fridge. And feel free to chime in with your own thoughts in the comments!
I’ll start by saying this: the rest of the appliances in our kitchen are KitchenAid. It started back before we bought our house, when I was researching stoves for my grandparents’ house. Or maybe it started with all the cooking shows I watched on Bravo. (What show is that that refers to their kitchen as the KitchenAid Kitchen? Or is it the Whirlpool Gold Kitchen?) Or with my love for our KitchenAid stand mixer. Regardless, I was researching ranges and found a good price on a KitchenAid Architect Series II electric range (basically the old version of this one, except ours is four burner with a warming zone) at the Sears Outlet. I’m not sure why I was drawn to KitchenAid, possibly I just liked the look, trusted the name, and the price was right.
When we bought our house, my parents very graciously gifted the new KitchenAid range to us. We love it. As in, Robert lovingly cleans buffs the cooktop at least once a day, and we nearly cried when it got a teeny, tiny, not-noticeable-to-anyone-but-us scratch in the surface. My mom is basically the same way about her granite counters, so I don’t feel that bad admitting it. “Bill, there are water spots! Here, I’ll do it.” (Love you, Mom!)
Around the same time I was jumping for joy over our purchase of our Whirlpool Duet Sport washer & dryer (love them, too; also from Sears Outlet, we spent about $800 for the pair), we decided to replace the Hotpoint dishwasher that came with the house. Although I am brandist loyal neurotic, I did not initially set out to buy another KitchenAid. Yes, I wanted the handles to match (see, told you I’m neurotic!), and it would be nice if they were the same brand, but I was initially swayed by the price of a Frigidaire dishwasher (I think it was this one). Then I started doing my research. After reading one too many “my dishwasher caught on fire!” reviews, I decided I didn’t feel comfortable going with Frigidaire. For anything. Ever. Justincase. I continued researching, and after finding out that Frigidaire is under the Electrolux umbrella I decided to just rule out the entire Electrolux family of appliances, just for my own peace of mind.
Then I started thinking about our range, and our Whirlpool washer & dryer. I learned that KitchenAid and Whirlpool are both part of the Whirlpool Corporation. Major brands include: Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Jenn-Air, Maytag, Magic Chef, Amana, Hotpoint, and Roper. Whirlpool also makes most of the appliances sold at Ikea, and Hobart sanitizers and other commercial kitchen equipment. While I don’t have experience with all the brands under the Whirlpool umbrella (there are more if you follow the link above, and more info here), most of the brands listed are ones I know and trust, whereas the brands under the Electrolux umbrella are not.
Once we decided to go with something from the Whirlpool Corp, I started narrowing things down by features. I knew we wanted stainless, preferably with the controls on top for the cleaner look, and I wanted a stainless tub. The old KitchenAid dishwasher we used at a previous house had a stainless interior, and the interior of the Hobart I used at Starbucks was stainless as well. They keep the water hotter, and it’s a lot quieter. I know from our Hotpoint, and past experience with my parents old dishwasher (which I think was a 90s KitchenAid), the plastic tub design is really noisy! So with those things in mind, we went back to my BFF of appliances, Sears Outlet. Low and behold, we found a KitchenAid dishwasher (similar to this one) for the price of the Frigidaire we saw at Lowe’s. It had two very small dents on either side of the handle, but was otherwise completely fine. As I told a coworker recently “You can only see the dents if you stand 8 feet away and cock you head to the side. And our kitchen is only 5 feet wide. So you can’t tell”.
After that purchase, we were pretty certain that we were going to end up with a KitchenAid fridge too, but we kept our options open and looked into the Whirlpool Gold line. In the meantime, my parents were redoing their kitchen (it looks fantastic, by the way, and I need to post about it!) and after my mom did her own research they went with all KitchenAid appliances from a local appliance store. They have been very happy with everything, too. You guys, my mom is such a trendsetter. (No really, we have matching purses and everything.) Also, she said Nate Berkus likes the same line of appliances. Sold.
Also, I was pretty confident that finishing out our appliances with KitchenAid was the way to go, because I come by my obsessive researching honestly. (Hi, Mom!)
So, long story long, after all of the overtime I racked up recently, we were able to buy our new fridge! We went with the Standard-Depth French Door 24.8 cu. ft. 35 5/8″ Width Architect Series II fridge. We ordered it from the same local appliance store that my parents bought their range, dishwasher, microwave and fridge from. (And Robert set the owner up with an account to order parts for their fleet trucks through his work. Score.) Part of why we made chose this one:
- It has a water dispenser on the inside rather than on the door, and the ice maker is in the drawer instead of on the door, which is nice because it looks a lot cleaner.
- It has the silly pull out deli drawer that Robert is in love with on my parents fridge (what can I say, the man buys a lot of what he calls “sandwich makings”).
- I don’t have to squat down to see what veggies we have anymore, because the freezer is on the bottom (which is more energy efficient, too!)
- It’s not counter depth (that one is $2300), but we are eventually going to move the fridge over to where the current pantry is anyway and build a larger pantry, so we’ll just build the fridge enclosure deeper when we get there.
Total (including tax, delivery and installation): $1754
For comparison sake, the same fridge is $1899 at Lowe’s, excluding tax, delivery, and installation.
This next part is for my girl, Elisa.
I’m including this shot (above) because I am dying at the idea of a sandwich just inside the fridge like that! (Don’t get any ideas, Robert.) And a larger shot:
Except I don’t think ours has the bottle/can thingie on the door like the ones above. I’m pretty sure the door compartments are more like this one below:
I’ll be sure to include photos of it installed next week. I might even show you photos of the inside of ours. It’s like fridge porn. #thingsineverthoughtidsayontheblog
Anyone else make a large purchase recently? Or something you might be more excited about than you really should be? Come on, I’m not the only one who is over the moon about appliances, right?
totally tweeted this pic to Home Depot & Ryobi
photo from Period Bath
dry fitting the tub & drain pipe
toilet and sink purchases from a local home renovation outlet
$20 sinks at our local ReStore
image from 
