While my life is not as exciting as some of those movie star's lives, I would never spend precious time looking at the food inside my refrigerator with a camera. Who would do that? If you want to see how much milk is left in the gallon container, open the danged door and look!

Or use that fancy phone of yours to make a call to someone from the supermarket a bit less annoying. Calling to ask what someone is doing, and MAKING me listen to that inane conversation is annoying. Calling to ask if you need milk/bread/eggs... at least makes being forced to listen to your all important conversation a tad less annoying... a very small tad.

That will teach me to try and read with my glasses off..... I thought the header said million dollar FUDGE, which I know something about.

I have a 10-year old refrigerator and am starting to check around for what's new since the current refrigerator is certain to make it's way to "appliance heaven" one day sooner-than-later (probably when I have a house full of family visiting for Christmas), since they have a lifespan of 9-13 years. My challenge is --- I don't want anything on it. No water or ice dispenser (we use distilled water for drinking, and ice making with a countertop ice machine - as needed). At our house those "conveniences" on the refrigerator are a waste of money, take up precious refrigerator/freezer space, use more energy to run the unit, are the things people most commonly have repaired, and units with them (as pointed out by "experts" in an article I read recently) don't last as long as the refrigerator without all the bells and whistles.

Hubby is a CKD (Certified Kitchen Designer) - 41-years with the same company - and he shows me some incredible kitchens the company does for the "rich and famous". I'll have to make a visit to their appliance showroom and see what's all the rage - and then avoid it like the plague. I wouldn't want anything with a lot of complicated electronics. The inside is a well-known "friend" to me since I fill it each week and cook from it every day. The refrigerator and I are "one"!

What we should do is go European with a small refrigerator to save on utilities; or I could check with my nephew and see if the refrigerator my parents bought (used) in 1951 is still running (he's the third generation to use it) and make him a heck-of-a-deal on it.....;-)

Maybe if you go the 1951 route, use a kilowatt to determine energy consumption. I have heard that even the plain older fridges use a significantly larger amount of energy than the plain modern ones do.

Lucille -

I was joking about the 1951 refrigerator (which is really small and has a freezer box about 12-inches square), but you're right about checking energy consumption - especially the ACTUAL cost - based on your actual use at your electric rate. The yellow energy efficiency ratings stuck on the unit are some sort of government-based rating that really has little to do with the actual use in the household - results WILL vary. Just as my car is rated at 29-mpg in town and I get between 35-36-mpg.

We checked our 10-year old (side-by-side Energy Star label) refrigerator recently with our Kill-A-Watt Meter and after 507 hours (just over 21-days) it costs 7-cents per day at our electric rate. Naturally, that varies with household use and other factors, including how full/empty your refrigerator/freezer is, freezer on top/bottom or side-by-side, how frequently you clean the motor area under the refrigerator, and the ambient temperature the unit is used in.....

There is a lot of general information on the subject at these links:

"Mr. Electricity" - http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/refrigerators.html

Consumer Energy Center - http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/residential/appliances/refrigerators.html

If people have to be looking in their refrigerators methinks the phone addiction has gone way past ridiculous.

When I was looking for a frig I had initially planned to "treat myself right" and get a higher end unit. A french door bottom freezer unit but trying to find one without a water dispenser was a challenge and finding one without an ice maker was next to impossible. For me, it's just wasted space in there and I don't like it. I found a deal on a Samsung 4 door "flex" frig that was one of those with 4 separate compartments (which seemed a waste of space to a point too) and where a couple of the compartments could be set either as refrigerator or freezer. I thought that was a great idea but here again, the one compartment was nearly half eaten by an ice maker. I saw that I could take a good part of it out and recover some space but it still would lose space. The unit was regularly over $2500.00 and was on clearance for about $700. Thought about it, thought about it, measured and thought some more, then realized it wouldn't fit in the designated refrigerator spot in the kitchen. I thought I'd just move it to another wall and have space for a portable dishwasher. It just bugged me to have to lose by having that icemaker forced on me so I passed and bought a $400 basic top freezer. It's happily chugging along. I even put a tray of ice in it recently for some screwdrivers.

I have a cousin who believes the old refrigerators are so much better than the new ones. They're a smaller capacity and they keep (and waste) a BUNCH of food. Tried to tell him that the increased cost of operating FOUR of those energy hogs would PAY for new refrigerators every few years. Plus he could buy bigger units and need fewer. He finally listened and bought one to try. Haven't heard from them lately on how that's working out. (We've since had a falling out.) It's interesting how stubborn people can get.

The energy ratings are not perfect of course but I do like them since they give you something to compare units on a more fair basis. Your electric rates will be different but unit to unit will still give you an idea which is cheaper to run. I found it curious that the top freezer units are more efficient than bottom freezer units and both are way cheaper than side-by-side.