Usable Freezer Space in Undercounter Fridge/Freezer Units

12 years ago

I recently purchased a house with a small kitchen space. Due to that and a couple personal/design preferences I'm looking into maximize the utility of my undercounter spaces.

My volume requirements are pretty small, about 6.5 cubic feet of fridge space and 2.5 cubic feet of freezer space, which means two units. What I had envisioned before I started doing research is one sole refrigeration unit and one fridge/freezer. Little did I know that the fridge/freezer units would be so hard to come by!

The Sub-Zero 700BC is a little light on the freezer side at 2.1 cubic feet, but I could probably make it work. But even if I doubled it up, I'd still only have 5.9 cubic feet of fridge space, and the price tag would be depressing.

The KitchenAid KDDC24CVS advertises 2.4 cubic feet of freezer space, but in the glamour shots on their site, half of that is taken up by the ice maker, and I have a suspicion that's what is keeping things cold, meaning I'm only getting a fraction of that for usable space.

I've looked at Perlick and two unit wide fridge/freezer they have, but at 6 cubic feet per unit, I'm just under what I need for fridge space and way over what I need for freezer space. I'm also a little concerned about their commercial origins leading to a noisy unit that isn't terribly appropriate for fresh food.

A guy at a kitchen store suggested Marvel, they look fine as far as fridges go, but not so much when it comes to freezers.

From the mostly negative reviews I've read here on Summit, I'm not going to consider them as an option.

Anything else I should be considering?

Anyone know for certain whether or not I need a huge bucket of ice to keep the KitchenAid freezer unit cold?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Comments (6)

captsmethwick
12 years ago
Have you looked at the Fisher/Playkel CoolDrawer? It doesn't perfectly meet your requirements - at 3.1 cu. ft. but it has the interesting feature of being able to be either fridge or freezer. This could be your freezer?

We checked it out extensively last year (for our butler's pantry) and found that its internal capacity was quite usable. The downside is its dimensions for an undercounter unit: at 25"h, one cannot stack 2 units other than in a wall cabinet. Stacked, the top of the high drawer would be over 4'h!.

We ended up with an Electrolux drawer fridge due to its size capacity - 6.0 cu. ft., 24"w and its undercounter height. We've used it for a year now and are very happy with it.
ulinesalesguy
12 years ago
You are probably looking at 2 units, simply because of the limitations of the standard 24" wide unit. For example, the U-Line refrigerator/freezer has 4.2 cu. ft of refrigerator space, and 1.5 cu. ft of freezer space (these are certified measurements...you may want to ensure whatever measurements you are getting are certified). For this reason, you will need a 15" refrigerator to go with your 24" unit to get to your needed space (it would add another 3.0 cu ft. of space)
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One thing to consider is the proportion of your total wealth that your house represents. Does the bank own the greatest portion? If so, can you cover that easily? Will the cost of a new kitchen set you back if life gets weird and you have to sell immediately? Since you're talking Perlick, you may be in the category of people who aren't worried about the price they get if they have to sell their houses in an emergency. If that's true, go ahead if it makes sense to you. If not, you'll be better off with a recognizably shaped fridge. Some people do use only undercounter refrigeration, but that tends to be in high design, minimalist spaces, where convention is out the window anyway. Perlick is known for being quiet. I have Marvel, which is not quiet. Not bad for a working kitchen, but not quiet. I don't know about the other brands, but you can stand up most bottles of wine, even opened, and big pop bottles, in the bottom drawer. Some brands have much shallower drawers. I actually think you could manage for two people, no entertaining, no buying a week's worth at a time, in four drawers/48", especially if you live where you can keep fruit and root vegetables (onions, potatoes, carrots, etc.) out of the fridge. That depends on the configuration, however. Will at least one drawer be a freezer? Two? I'm not sure that 24" is enough for refrigeration. If you go through enough chilled beverages to need a separate unit in the dining room (other than wine storage, or similar), you probably can't make it on just the 48". Also, keep in mind that you'll have to stack things, and there will be a lot of shifting things around to find them. Plus, heavy goes on the bottom. Example: Recently, I made a large dish of enchiladas. They don't do as well in containers, so I covered the baking dish and put it on the bottom of a drawer. I also bought bought vegetables to make soup, so had celery, leeks and carrots on top of it, which had to be shifted to get the dish out to put together lunch then shifted to put it back. There are some bottles of ale in the bottom drawer. Vegetables live on top of them. Stuff like that. It's fine for my secondary fridge, which is used for transitioning projects, ale, and stuff I need at the stove. It could get really old if that's all there were, however. I love my fridge drawers, but I also love the glass shelves and great lighting in my Miele all fridge that allow me to see and get at everything easily. The people who have done it are happy enough with it, but, again, they tend to be style first kinds of people. It's a no-go for function first.
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I need to make the same decision. :) I do not know the cost of the same base units from Gaggenau. Perhaps someone could post them if they get them before me. I think the layout in the Gagg is better than Miele or Thermador. The UI always seems better on the Gaggenau, too (based on reading the operating guides).
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We have the 30" Thermador individual columns and would do it again in a NY minute! Yeah, they look pretty, blah blah blah, but what is really attractive is all that storage space! Holy cow. Granted, because they're built-in the storage is shallower, but we find that we don't lose much in the back .... You bet it cost significantly more than a combined unit (side-by-side, french door, etc.) but this was one of those non-negotiables for us, and in fact, that was pretty much what predicated the whole kitchen reno. (Sure, there were other factors, but ever since we had children we've been dreaming about separate fridge / freezer units.) We did look at the less expensive stand alones but turns out what we couldn't afford was the space: we just didn't have the extra foot of room (for the 36" units), and we didn't want to do a 36" fridge with a 24" freezer -- we wanted the max from both the units. (When we were looking Northland was still a dirty word -- it's my anecdotal understanding their quality has since improved.) We love and use all the storage, and in fact are horrible consumers because we even have a set of 24" fridge drawers. We try and make ourselves feel a little better by remembering they're all energy star .... (We keep our children's snacks and drinks, lunchtime foods in the drawers. Oh yeah, and beer! Our eldest [he's four] can open the drawers himself which we think is terrifically handy.) Anyway, my ultimate answer to your question is: Yes, they are worth it.
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davidro1
12 years ago
amphibious, I'll guess you mean
2 appliances,
both under the counter:
"... about 6.5 cubic feet of fridge space and 2.5 cubic feet of freezer space, which means two units. What I had envisioned before I started doing research is one sole refrigeration unit and one fridge/freezer. Little did I know that the fridge/freezer units would be so hard to come by..."

The more motors, different cooling circuits and separator walls you try to cram into a small space, the less space you have left over to call fridge or freezer.

I got a 36" unit, for that reason. More real space left over, after the insulation and mechanical stuff.

Your perceived space needs are actually in a range, quite elastic. Go for a fridge unit and a freezer unit.
User
Original Author
12 years ago
captsmethwick: hadn't heard of it until you mentioned it. Very very cool. The price is a touch high, but definitely fulfills my requirements for the freezer side. I'd probably match this up with a standard undercounter fridge unit, unless my wife will allow me to get three of them. ;)

ulinesalesguy: for absolutely no specific reason I hadn't looked up U-line. I'll go take a look at the offerings. Thanks for the tip on the certified measurements.

davidro1: I've seen several of your posts about undercounter refrigeration, you seem quite knowledgable. Which 36" unit did you buy? I'm definitely still in the discovery stage of my refrigeration search.
User
Original Author
12 years ago
ulinesalesguy: The Combo Drawer C2275DWROL says that it has 2 cubic feet of freezer space... but again, an ice maker. Is ice required to keep that portion of the unit functional as a freezer?

Thanks.
ulinesalesguy
12 years ago
Ice is not required to keep that portion a freezer; in fact, you can turn off the ice maker, and pull the ice bucket out if you want an all freezer in the bottom drawer

Usable Freezer Space in Undercounter Fridge/Freezer Units

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Usable Freezer Space in Undercounter Fridge/Freezer Units

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