Ice box chic
The fridge isn't just a place to stash your groceries anymore. With innovative design and features, it's a fashion statement.
By JUDY STARK
Published July 30, 2005
Who can live long without a refrigerator? The dishwasher breaks down, you wash the dishes by hand. The cooktop doesn't work? Hit the microwave. The oven goes on the fritz? Let's grill or eat out. But there's no realistic alternative to the refrigerator, the one appliance that's always on. Packing the contents into a cooler filled with ice makes sense only when the power goes out during hurricane season.
Which leads us to the concept of "duress buying," the way appliance manufacturers refer to those occasions when the refrigerator drops in its tracks, beyond repair. Now, tonight, you have to buy a new refrigerator.
Customers may walk in expecting to buy at the low end, "but when they see all the innovations they haven't seen in 10 years, they buy a mid-range or higher-end refrigerator, based on innovation, look and style," said Nick Giometti, associate buyer for refrigeration at Sears.
"People use it as an excuse to chic up their kitchens," said Audrey Reed-Granger, director of consumer insight at Whirlpool. "They won't go for the cheapest. They'll say, "If I have to buy, I might as well buy something really cool that will add value to my home.' "
And they don't stop at one appliance.
"In the old days, people would buy a new appliance when the old one broke down," said Robert Rogers, marketing manager for refrigeration at GE. "These days, people replace the whole kitchen when one product goes out."
From old standby to fashion statementEvery refrigerator on the showroom floor is vastly more energy efficient today than even four years ago, when the federal government mandated higher standards "and everybody's refrigerator had to get a whole lot more efficient than 15 or 20 years ago," Rogers said. Refrigerators certified under the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program use at least 15 percent less energy than required by current federal standards and 40 percent less energy than the conventional models sold in 2001. That said, the difference between an Energy Star-certified refrigerator and a new one that's not certified has shrunk in recent years.
Two similar GE side-by-side models offer a good case study. A 21.9-cubic-foot side-by-side with water dispenser, Energy Star qualified, is priced at $1,199 and costs $47 a year to operate. A similar 22-cubic-foot model, not Energy Star qualified, is priced at $999 and costs $56 a year to run. The difference in operating costs is only $9 a year. But at $9 a year it will take 22 years to pay back that $200 price difference. However, it needs to be added that often Energy Star-qualified models come with upgrades and features that are covered by the higher cost, and utility companies sometimes offer rebates that lower the price.
For decades refrigerators were simply the big white box in the kitchen, changing little from year to year. Now they are a fashion statement that homeowners study closely in shelter magazines and on the home decorating shows on television. "Ten or 12 years ago you didn't see a lot of changes," Rogers acknowledged. Now, "we've changed them every year for the last three or four years, and so have our competitors."
The biggest innovation in the last few years is the bottom-freezer refrigerator, and the industry is frankly a little puzzled at their great success. These are actually not new: Forty years ago some manufacturers made them, and they faded in popularity. Their renewed popularity may be based on their retro look. Maybe it's because people like to have the fresh food they use most often at eye level, rather than frozen food. Aging baby boomers with bad backs and bad knees don't have to bend so often. These are big sellers in Florida, Sears says.
The other innovation these days is the counter-depth refrigerator, which looks like an expensive built-in but costs less. Standard refrigerators protrude 5 or 6 inches beyond the counter. The appearance is dramatically different, and buyers seem willing to live with a slightly shallower refrigerator.
Cooling techniques still evolvingWhat a social revolution the refrigerator created some 90 years ago. People no longer had to shop for food every day. They no longer had to live near stores and markets or near an icehouse that could supply the "iceboxes" that were the forerunner of the modern refrigerator. They could keep food fresher longer, and by freezing could easily store food to eat days or months later. They could avoid the illnesses created by soured or spoiled food. How egalitarian it was when iced beverages and ice cream were available to everyone, not only the wealthy.
Design and accessories aside, refrigerators still face the challenge of keeping food fresher longer. The cold, dry air that helps a freezer operate properly quickly dries out fruits and vegetables when it's pumped through the fresh-food compartment. (Those desiccated strawberries are not your fault.) Manufacturers work at improving refrigeration on the door, traditionally the warmest area. They offer closed bins there to keep beverages colder.
For all the features and flashes, there are still problems the refrigerator industry hasn't solved. The side-by-side units, which offer ice and water through the door, are the industry's bonanza as the largest unit and dollar producers. But if there are cabinets or walls immediately next to a side-by-side, the doors can't swing far enough out to allow a user to fully pull out the crisper drawers.
"I never imagined this was a problem until I saw how many people have issues with this," said GE's Rogers, whose company does market research by videotaping willing consumers as they use its products. "We have to rethink how we address that issue."
Fridge factsHere's what appliance manufacturers know about us and our refrigerators.
We replace them every 81/2 years.
In the Tampa-St. Petersburg area 34 percent of households have a refrigerator that is at least 10 years old.
Just about everybody has a refrigerator - 96 percent of American households own or have access to one.
White (or its variants, almond and bisque) is still the most popular color, but stainless steel is the hands-down second choice. Manufacturers will always advertise their latest, greatest feature in a stainless-steel model.
Side-by-sides, the top favorite, have a useful life of 14 years. The good old-fashioned one-door refrigerator should last 19 years.
We open our fresh-food compartments seven times for every one time we open the freezer.
- Sources: Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, Energy Star, manufacturers.
How they workAt its simplest, here's how a refrigerator works: Liquid refrigerant absorbs the heat inside the refrigerator and, in the absorbing process, turns into a gas. The hot refrigerant gas travels to the heat-exchanging coils on the outside of the refrigerator, where it dissipates the heat, cools and turns back into a liquid. Then it moves back into the refrigerator and the cycle repeats.