It's not quite what I was hoping for

Our 15 year old refrigerator gaskets were going up and even though it was still working the gaskets were so expensive to replace, we made the decision to invest the money and buy a new refrigerator. Armed with reviews from the net and various publications, we set out on our search for our new machine. Our only requirements were we wanted the new fridge to be a Energy Star compliant and to have an ice maker.

We live in an almost one hundred year old home and many refrigerators are not an option due to their size, so that was a special problem that we had to work with and it let many brands I was personally interested in out of the running. My previous machine was a top freezer model and was a workhorse. We started out looking at them, but were unimpressed with the brands that were offered. We went over to the side by sides that were displayed and Whirlpool was highly recommended. We took some measurements and while it was a little bit bigger than our old one, it had the required ice maker. We decided that this one would suit our needs. It delivered two days later. When we got home the night we paid for it, my hubby had to saw some additional counter off by the dishwasher because even though our last fridge was 25 cubic feet, the cabinet of this one is roughly three inches bigger.

Delivery day came and the guys delivering had a time getting it in our door. Even though my husband had measured, the extra bulkiness (insulation?) of this unit made it hard to get through our doors. It is much bigger than we expected, yet the old and new were the same size in cubic feet. If you are in a similar situation with an older house this can be a problem. That said, once the refrigerator was installed, turned on for awhile and positioned, the real fun began.

I had not been shopping for a week and a half and with a family of four to include two at home adult children one being a young man who works out and has quite an appetite, there really wasn't a lot of actual *food* to store. However, I did end up filling the fridge up with what I *did* already have. We eat a lot of yogurts and I did have them to put away. They are a nightmare in this unit. I always stored the cups in the back of the unit....I really can't do that now. There is a gap behind all of shelves so if anything larger gets shoved in, everything ends up tilted in this gap. I will have to rearrange this once I get rid of a few more things.

Being the gourmet cook that I am I will be buying only what I need for special meals a day before mainly because just the storage of bottles of this or that cannot be accommodated. The shelving on the sides of the machine are totally full, not to mention that I am storing items that would normally stored on the doors in the main unit. Thankfully I kept my egg keeper from my old machine because there is no egg storage at all. I understand the concerns with eggs not being kept on the door, but a plastic container for them to be kept in would have been nice. That brings me to the drawers. I did not notice in the store there was only one crisper drawer. This has been a big problem for us given the fact I usually shop for 2 weeks and buy a variety of fruits and veggies. I have had to go back to shopping once a week, just due to the storage issues. Both the meat tray and the crisper once full are very flimsy to push back in. You can't just fill your arms full and expect to push it in with your elbow. You need to have a full grip on the drawer and push it in totally straight. I haven't figured out where to keep my milk other than the top shelf, which takes away from where to keep foods that I make. It's going to be a nightmare at holiday time!

The ice maker is great and we do love that, especially since it seemed we were always out of ice. The water through the door is another great option. It's been very nice not to have to buy water to take to the gym, however the unit does take space from the freezer and filters need to be purchased periodically and they are not cheap. Storing a frozen pizza in this unit would be a challenge. Luckily, I have an upright freezer in the basement for those sorts of items. The items I do have in the freezer never seem arranged to me much like the refrigerator. The fridge is plenty cold enough so far for all of my items, I just am unhappy with space management!