Refrigerators add so many features to help organize the stuff inside, it takes an organizer just to keep track of the selection.
Styles begin with the simplest one-door, no-freezer type. The two-door, freezer on top arrangement and the side-by-side refrigerator and freezer have been around since not quite the Ice Age.
Newer, fancier choices include French door and four-door refrigerators, and door-in-door models.
• French door refrigerators are the current most popular among buyers shopping for a new fridge, according to Consumer Reports. Two doors at the top keep things at easy eye level, above the freezer.
• A four-door design splits the freezer as well: two refrigerator doors on top, two freezer doors at the bottom.
• Door-in-door means an outer door that opens separately from the inner compartment. The front door is for things that icebox raiders grab the most. It's a good place for leftover pizza and beer. The inner compartment is for things of less frequent demand, such as Tuesday night's tuna casserole that nobody really wants to see again.
Shelves, racks and transparent compartments make it handy to store things -- or like a coat of many pockets, easy to lose things.
But with today's highest-tech refrigerator, there's no need to open the door and stare a frozen forever, searching for something while the cold air leaks out. A built-in camera shows what's inside without your opening the door. The camera reports to the grocery-seeker's smartphone.
Organizers looking for even more options can find refrigerator storage bins, compact water and juice containers and can holders.
Or for the ultimate in canned drink dispensers: a push-button home vending machine, like the one in the office break room only without the pilfering coin mechanism. The Hisense Chill vending refrigerator, for one (about $600), gives out bottled water and canned juice, soft drinks and beer with no need ever to reach into the regular refrigerator.
-- Ron Wolfe
HomeStyle on 02/11/2017