Easy To Use, Great Capacity, Attractively Designed Refrigerator

When I purchased my new home, the appliances that were already installed were stainless steel and black. This is a very attractive and modern look that has great visual appeal in my kitchen. When considering a refrigerator for my kitchen, I had to take the overall design into consideration. There were several models of refrigerator in stainless steel finish that offered the set up that I was looking for. The only drawback to stainless steel is that it is not magnetic. So, if you are one of those people who stick stuff to your refrigerator with magnets (like I do), a stainless steel refrigerator may not be the best option. Stainless Steel is also prone to showing fingerprints and/or streaking. Whirlpool Gold offers a finish called Satina (Monochromatic Satina) that has an appearance very close to Stainless Steel. However, the Satina finish does not streak or show fingerprints. Magnets will also adhere to this finish. The Whirlpool Gold GI5FSAXVA matched my kitchen, is easier to keep clean and hold magnets...I knew I had found the right product for me.

All of the refrigerators I have owned prior to this purchase have been freezer on top, full door on bottom models, with the traditional type ice maker. Wrapping my mind around the concept of having a freezer at the bottom of the refrigerator took a little bit of thought. I still find myself initially looking up when I go to get something out of the freezer. I have never had a split door refrigerator, either. However, most split door models have a freezer on one side and a refrigerator on the other. In this model, both doors open up to the refrigerator. You can open both doors or either one individually. There is no wall separating the upper portion of the unit. The way the doors are designed allow for a complete seal once the doors are closed. This is accomplished by a hinged bar attached along the inside edge of the left door. The bar lays flat when the doors are opened and then hinges out to create a seal between the two doors when they are closed. However, you do not have to close the left door first. The bar automatically slides into place as the left door is closed, if the right door is already shut. Sometimes it requires slight pressure to ensure that the doors are sealed.

I have never owned a refrigerator that has an ice or water dispenser in the door. Because the freezer is located on the bottom of the refrigerator, there is an ice maker located inside the refrigerator. The ice maker is in a sealed and obviously insulated area located in the left (as your looking at it) side of the refrigerator. This unit has a dispensing area that connects to the left door when it’s closed. On the right hand ceiling of the refrigerator is a curved door which houses the filter unit for the water. The water line enters the back of the refrigerator and is fed through this housing in the top of the refrigerator. The canister that filters your water comes inside the refrigerator when it is delivered. Installation of the canister is very easy. There is a blue cap that is screwed into the area where the canister attaches that is removed prior to installing the filter. The cap should be saved for later use (in case you decide to stop filtering your water). The filter canister simply turns into place with moderate pressure. After installing the filter, you have to run water through the water dispenser for several minutes to clear any air from the lines.

The ice and water are dispensed through a backlit housing located in the left door. This door has a digital display that allows you to select whether you want water or ice dispensed. I am unfamiliar with water and ice dispensers, but have noticed one minor issue with this format. I normally keep my unit on the ice setting. There is only one dispenser lever on the outside of the door. You simply press the lip of your cup against the lever and the ice will dispense slowly into your cup. If you want water, you have to press a button located above the lever. There is a small blue light that indicates your setting. If you select water and then later come back for ice, you may end up watering down whatever it was that you were drinking. I am still getting used to this concept, so it may just be a passing issue. When I first set the refrigerator up there were default settings on the temperature control which are also located on this display above the water/ice dispenser. The digital temperatures were easy to read. I found that the refrigerator and freezer sections were both too cold, so I adjusted both settings up two degrees. I decided to adjust the settings slowly to prevent over-adjusting. The two degree adjustment worked perfectly for me.

This refrigerator runs at the high end of capacity. Most of the units I looked at ran between eighteen and twenty-six cubic feet. This unit has a capacity of 24.9 cubic feet. That capacity is split between 18.3 cubic feet in the refrigerator compartment and 6.6 cubic feet in the freezer compartment. The refrigerator compartment would be larger, but the ice making unit eats up a good portion of the capacity in that area. The area in the left door that dispenses the ice and water also uses up a lot of the door storage space that I am used to taking advantage of. The refrigerator is delivered with the glass spill proof shelves installed upside-down. The shelves are modular and can be adjusted inside the refrigerator to various heights. However, the distance between the pegs that hold the shelves makes the options limited. There are built in crispers and a built in wire basket that also limit the configuration of the refrigerator. There is a removable twelve-ounce can dispenser in the right hand door that comes in handy. However, I find that the storage available in the doors is very limited. The freezer area is divided into sections. There is a large bin at the bottom of the freezer that has a wall dividing it into two sections. This area will hold a decent amount of food, but the size makes it very difficult to store large sized pizza boxes. I have a Red Baron pizza in there right now that barely fits. On top of the bin area is a drawer that slides in and out on top of the lower portion of the freezer. This provides additional storage which is also limited by height and width considerations. There is a bucket and scoop in this area for stock-piling ice in the event that you use (or are planning to use) a higher volume of ice.

The Whirlpool Gold GI5FSAXVA has casters on the bottom of the refrigerator that allow it to be directed into place without damaging your floors. I have wood floors and didn’t want to take any chances. I placed cardboard boxes down on the kitchen floor when the deliveryman arrived to install the unit. After connecting the water hose and electricity, the refrigerator rolled easily into place. There are screw down feet on the bottom of the refrigerator that allow you to both level the refrigerator as well as lock it into place (if you don’t, the unit will roll forward whenever you open the freezer door). There is a small vented fascia on the bottom of the refrigerator that conceals the bottom of the refrigerator. This unit easily unsnaps from the bottom to allow you access to the wheels and feet. Screwing the feet into place required very little effort. The refrigerator lifted ever so slightly, but enough to take the weight off the wheels. A quick adjustment leveled the refrigerator and resolved the rolling issue. Snapping the fascia back into place was as simple as removing it.

This refrigerator is not cheap. When I was in the market for this unit I stopped at Lowe’s to check their selection. This model in the Satina finish was not even available at the time I was looking, requiring me to special order it. The website lists the price of this finish as $2449, which is about the same price that Lowe’s had it listed at. The Stainless Steel was one hundred dollars more, while the black and white models are two hundred dollars less. When I purchased this unit from Lowe’s, they had a ten percent discount on all refrigerators, which took $250 off the list price. Having recently filed a change of address with the Post Office, I was in receipt of a ten percent coupon as well, which brought my price down to $2,000 plus tax. Because Lowe’s was offering free delivery I also saved close to eighty dollars taking advantage of their delivery rebate. I never thought I would spend two thousand dollars on a refrigerator, which is more than the rest of the appliances in my kitchen. However, I have been happy with the purchase, with a few minor exceptions.

The water filter is supposed to be changed every six months. It is a PuR brand filter. I have not yet had to purchase a filter for this unit and went to the whirlpool website to find out which filter this unit takes. The filter is not listed by the model number on the whirlpool website yet. A search of Nextag reveals a PuR water filter that does not appear to be the correct one, which runs around thirty dollars. The prices on the Whirlpool website run between twenty and sixty dollars for replacement filters. When it comes time to replace the filter, I will open the trap door and look at the model number and purchase it that way, so there is no room for error. The keypad on the front of the refrigerator has an option for filter replacement so you don’t end up spraying water everywhere when you change your filter. During initial installation there was a small amount of water leakage which cleared up after I bled the lines.

I have owned a variety of refrigerators over the years. My last refrigerator was a Kenmore, which was a great standard refrigerator (although I had to have the fan in the freezer fixed on a warrantied service call). The Whirlpool Gold GI5FSAXVA has many great features including large capacity, filtered water dispenser, ice dispenser, digital temperature controls, Energy Star certification, low maintenance, attractive design and split doors. Installation was easy including the water filter. There are a few minor issues I have with this refrigerator, but nothing of substance. The freezer could allow a bit more space for pizza boxes and the refrigerator doors could be configured a little bit better, but that is a sacrifice you have to make to get the ice and water dispenser in the door. I guess that would hold true for any model. In summary, I would give this refrigerator four and a half stars out of a possible five, which I will round up to the full five since it has to be a whole number. Although expensive, this refrigerator is money well spent.