Whirlpool ED2FHEXSQ 21.8 cu. ft. Side-by-Side Refrigerator

Purchasing major appliances is always difficult as there are so many choices. It is even more difficult when you know it is a necessity and the choice is complicated by the space alloted for that appliance. So it was the case when we recently replaced our refrigerator.

What we wanted: For this purchase both needs and wants had to be considered. Because of the design of our kitchen the fridge will only fit in one spot. The only play we had with width was moving the stove by 1/4" no further because of downdraft system and removing a 1/2" wide baseboard. We had no play in height unless we removed the upper cabinet entirely. We were limited in our choice to 32 3/4" x 67". With that in mind we knew we wanted an Energy Star® qualified refrigerator. We wanted white to match the rest of our appliances. We wanted side-by-side with at least ice in the door. We also knew there was at least one brand we would not consider for any reason based on their customer service. So we wanted to buy a refrigerator where the manufacturer has good customer service.

What we bought: We bought a Whirlpool ED2FHEXSQ 21.8 cu. ft. Side-by-Side White-on-White Refrigerator with ice and water dispensers and filtration system. We ordered through our local furniture and appliance store. We bought the extended 5 year warranty just to be on the safe side.

Why we bought: As mentioned we needed to buy a new fridge. While shopping we discovered few friges would fit in our spot without going to a rather plain jane top freezer model smaller than our old side-by-side. After several stops we found a Whirlpool side-by-side on sale at IKEA. It would actually fit and it had ice and water dispensers. The inside was gorgeous! But it was stainless steel so we got the model number and went online to the Whirlpool site to see what we could find. We found the model then decided to check some of the big box stores first. We found one similar for $1699 CDN plus taxes and delivery charges. After careful scruteny of that model, we took down the model number then went back to the Whirlpool site. We compared that model to the stainless steel model and the model we were interested in. Finally we decided on the model we were interested in which is one step up from what we saw in the store and the stainless steel model that does not come in white. Armed with that we called our local furniture and appliance store, gave them a number and asked them to get a price for us. We have dealt with them for years. They came back with $1249 plus taxes and no delivery charges. We would be getting a higher model than in the box store considerably cheaper! So based on price we asked them to order it.

One factor I should mention in our decision to buy this particular refrigerator was the manufacturer. Whirlpool has an excellent reputation for quality products. Their customer service is reputed to be excellent and that is important to us.


Features: Normally in my reviews I go directly to performance but this fridge is loaded with wonderful features too good not to mention. First the frige is Energy-Star® Certified. We calculated this fridge will cost us less than half the cost our old fridge cost to run. At our electricity rates the payback for this fridge is almost 5 years.

From the outside it has stylish design with texture doors. The ice and water dispenser is just at the right height. The grey buttons are stylishly outlined in shiny silver. There are little unlit indicators above each of the buttons. The settings are cubed ice, crushed ice, water, unlock, lock, light off and light on. The ice and water are simply nice convenience features and I like that the water is filtered. The locking feature is really nice if you have little ones or pets that might hit one of the buttons. The filter is at the base of the fridge in the base grille. It comes out by pressing an eject button. The cap is part of the fridge and is put onto the replacement filter. The filter should be change about every six months. The fridge is on wheels making moving for cleaning behind very easy. There are no coils to clean at the back either another nice feature.

The fridge compartment is gorgeous! The first thing that really stands out it the lighting. A couple of sales people pointed out that Whirlpool is noted for this innovation. There are two refrigerator lights, one at the top facing in and one about mid-way down the back. Nothing is going to get lost in this fridge. On the door and spanning its width there is a clear covered butter keeper, three adjustable clear with white trim door gallon bins. A fourth gallon bin at the bottom is a non-adjustable and is opague. At the blue indicator lights for the temperature of the freezer and fridge. These are slide contolled. There is green indicator light for the filter to indicate the status. It changes to yellow when the filter is almost ready for changing and red when it needs changing. There is a reset button to turn the light back to green after the filter has been changed. There are three spill proof adjustable glass shelves. Under the bottom adjustable shelf is a sliding cheese keep. The fourth shelf is non-adjustable and serves as the top for the humidity controlled slide-out vegetable bin. A slider controls the humidity. This is a really nice feature! The final slide out bin is a convertable vegetable or meat keeper. A slide controls whether it is for vegetables or meats. This is especially nice if you don't keep a lot of meats in the meat keeper or if you have a lot of vegetables. All of the bins are clear so you can easily see what is in them. They are nice and deep with ridded bottoms.

The freezer is equally well designed. There is a light so you can easily see what is in the freezer. The ice maker takes up a good portion near the top but the other features make up for it. On the door from top to bottom there is a deep shelf, narrow shelf, ice/water shoot, and three deep shelves. The compartment has the icemaker unit, three coated metal shelves, and an opague pull out bin.

All in all the over all theme of this fridge is light, bright, airy while being packed full of features and function!

Performance: Installation for this refrigerator requires a waterline. While we likely could have done this ourselves, we hired it out. They installed copper piping. Hooking up the piping to the fridge took very liitle time. The fridge was pushed back and after draining the line for air the fridge was set to go.

The first thing it does is start making ice. At first you hear the water run then when the ice is ready it dumps so you hear the ice cubes falling. Both these noises take a little getting used to. This will continue until the ice compartment is full after that the fridge is rather quiet. It does cycle on and off more than the old fridge did which is noticeable at first even though it is fairly quiet. I think this is more because these are new sounds in the house.

As far as ease of operation, you couldn't get any easier. The only thing you really have to do is adjust the temperature controls if necessary, change the humidity setting on the vegetable to desired settings depending on what vegetables you have or change from vegetable to one of the three meat settings on the convertible bin.

What I like: Most of that has been covered in the features but there are a few things I would like to stress. The lighting is wonderful! I LOVE the gallon bins on the refrigerator door. I have a lot of sauce bottles and these bins have really helped to organize them. They are perfect for larger containers and jugs too.