D**m - the 36' counter depth FD is small!!!

16 years ago

Last nite I finally moved all my food from my old 33" regular depth SxS into my new JennAir 36" counter depth FD. I knew it wasn't that big inside, but I find it is even smaller than I feared - especially the freezer.

Luckily, anticipating this, I had also bought a medium sized freezer for my basement. But I'm going to have to use it much more regularly than I had anticipated. And it doesn't help with the frig capacity.

There are only two of us using this frig, but I guess I just keep a lot of stuff. (We *need* 6 kinds of pickles, 4 salad dressings, 4 mustards, etc.)

Because there are two vegetable bins, and they are shallow, its really hard to accommodate large lumpy and inflexible things, like cabbage or broccoli and get anything else in the same drawer.

Some stuff just isn't fitting at all, like beer bottles.

I suppose we will play with the shelf adjustments and eventually find a way to make it work for us, but it sure is frustrating.

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Comments (7)

chefkev
16 years ago
Sorry for the frustration, but thanks for posting. It's helps those of us who are still trying to decide which type to get.
kailleanm
16 years ago
We have the same fridge. We're a family of 3, and don't have any issues with size. My DH keeps his beer on one of the doors, on the top shelf, or on the shelf above the crispers. There are lots of places for beer! LOL!

Also - what are you using your pull out deli tray for? I find I can get a whole bunch of deli meats and cheeses in there, and still have room for my egg tray and at least a 12 cans of soda).

Hang in there - you will get used to it! :-)
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paul_ma
Original Author
16 years ago
I realize that half of the problem is just getting used to something new. But its funny that people (including me) complain about the freezers in SxSs (especially small ones like a 33") yet one still holds a lot more than the big looking bottom freezer on a 36" FD counter depth.

I suppose it also depends on how you use your frig. I don't just buy food for the week. I only buy meat opportunistically when I like the price, and I keep an assortment in the freezer so I can pick whatever I feel like to eat at any time. I had been managing to do that without a separate freezer. Now I do have the separate freezer, but its down in the basement, accessible only from the garage, so its not especially convenient to go there. I'd at least like to have enough every different kind of thing in the freezer for one meal. I'm not certain I will be able to manage that.

But I really didn't have the room for anything bigger. I could have gone with std depth, but the new std depth refrigerators I was looking at were a lot deeper than my old one. The new FD isn't much shallower than my old std depth. Wouldn't have looked very good.

But I will survive. Just griping.
artielange
16 years ago
I agree that a 36" refrigerator should have a larger capacity than 19.5 cubic feet. I have been STRESSING over what refrigerator to choose for our lake house and finally I decided to go with the same refrigerator that I have at home...a 48" SxS SubZero. I just could never get used to the idea of digging through the freezer to find what I need. I love my current SZ so I bit the bullet and did it again. My money saving way to buy the SZ was to buy a floor display unit which saved $1300 off the SZ price.
kailleanm
16 years ago
Well, yes, there's bound to be some tradeoff when you purchase a counter depth fridge. Me, I like the extra room in my kitchen.

No worries on your griping, Paul. We are all entitled. But man, you must want to store a lot of meat in there! Just for fun, I went to take a look at what I've got in there right now. Here's my inventory.

One family pack of pork chops (8 chops)
Two, 2lb packs of hamburger
One 2lb bag of frozen prawns
One 4lb whole chicken
2 quarts of ice cream
1 box of popsicles
Two steaks
1 box of frozen waffles
Plus my ice tray
leel
16 years ago
I have the same thing, only its a GE Profile. The only thing I have a problem with is the produce drawer,since we use a lot of salad stuff. However, I find that by keeping the lettuce on the shelf above, it works out OK, and other than that, I really like the frig.
paul_ma
Original Author
16 years ago
kailleanm,

I don't think I have that much in mine. Maybe I will eventually find a better way to organize it.

D**m - the 36' counter depth FD is small!!!

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chefkev

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D**m - the 36' counter depth FD is *small*!!!

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chefkev

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D**m - the 36' counter depth FD is small!!!

paul_ma
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