Kenmore 79009 19.7 Cu. Ft. Bottom Freezer Black Review

Introduction

There are, of course, some things that keep this appliance from ranking up there with the best of them: There's no water filter, the door handles and interior layout look cheaper than those found on high-end appliances, and items can be rather hard to get to depending on where you put them. The price tag, at least, doesn't hurt that much—it has an MSRP of $1,119.99, but we managed to find it on sale for as low as $780. The large vegetable drawers and easy-access fridge at least make this an excellent choice for fresh produce lovers, and as long as you don't overstock much this appliance is definitely an excellent contender.

Front

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Like most black things, the front matte finish can pick up stains and dust. Luckily it's easy to clean, as long as you don't put anything gooey on it. If you prefer tape or stickers to magnets, make sure you invest in some Goo-B-Gone.

While dust and and goop may be readily visible on this fridge, the matte texture means you'll almost never see fingerprints or smears.

The {{product.brand.name}} has controls that are located at the top center of the fridge interior. It consists of two meters that adjust both the fridge and freezer temperatures independently of each other. With an arbitrary scale ranging from 1-7 and a manufacturer recommended setting of 4, it lacks any real degree correspondence. If you want to know the actual internal temperature that you're refrigerating or freezing your foods, you'll have to invest in a thermometer.

The handle is one of those facets keeping the {{product.brand.name}} set firmly in a mid-quality feel. Unlike the front of the doors, the handle has a glossy black finish. It's somewhat ironic, really, that the part of the fridge you'll like touch the most finished in such a way that it will always smudge and smear unless your hands are perfectly clean and dry. The freezer handle runs left to right, making it look like a pull-out drawer. It opens like a regular door on a hinge, though, but thankfully doesn't feel that awkward to use.

Interior

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Lots of shelves and drawers in the fridge make the unit look deceptively small, and the wired storage in the freezer give it a very busy look. The white plastic edging feels sturdy and durable, and just barely manages to avoid looking cheap.

The fridge compartment places lots of food at eye level, or very near it. Four half-width shelves make up the bulk of the storage space, with a full-width shelf on the bottom. There are also two very tall crisper trays on the bottom, as well as a smaller deli drawer that sits smack dab in the middle of the shelf space.

The door has the obligatory dairy tray, but otherwise offers a surprising amount of storage flexibility. A selection of thin, wide, and full-width bins sit on the door and can be slid around in order to add variety to your storage options.

This standard freezer layout and a wire shelf on the top and large pull-out drawer, also wire, on the bottom. In the upper left corner is a simple ice maker, as well as an optional bucket for bulk ice storage that can be removed if you should so desire.

The freezer door has a small, shallow tray that runs the full width of the door, but not much else. As is the case with many bottom freezers that are designed to have a set of pull-out drawers, the door isn't really designed for storage.

A simple ice maker sits in the freezer compartment in the upper left corner. It can turned on or off by flipping a clearly labeled switch on the actual device.

Back

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The back is covered from top to bottom in a sheet of metal. There is a water port on the bottom right corner for the ice maker, and a removable panel just left of center that can be removed if any repair work is needed.

Sides

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Like the front, the sides have a matching black matte finish. It gives the appliance a nice, uniform look, but if the sides are exposed, be sure to watch out for dust build-up.

Running Cost

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The {{product.name}} offers its services for a very low cost. Using a standard rate of $0.09 per kW-h, we determined that it would cost a mere $29.42 to run this appliance for a full calendar year. If you're looking to save money on your energy bill, this fridge is an excellent choice.

Power Use Per Cu Ft

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Not only does this fridge's operating cost fall on the low end of the scale generally speaking, it also falls on the very low end for fridges of this size. For each cubic foot of usable space found in this appliance, it only uses 0.07 kW-h of energy - this fridge is one of the more efficient ones we've tested, and excellent claim to make.

Fridge Temperature

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We set the {{product.brand.name}} to the manufacturer's recommended temperature setting of 4 out of the 1-7 scale. The appliance overall ran a bit warm, but that's easily fixed by dropping the controls down a number or two. Otherwise, this {{product.brand.name}} offered some of the best temperature consistency we've seen. The degree was almost exactly the same from top to bottom, and over time there was only a fluctuation of less than half of a degree. You can put your food anywhere in this fridge and it will be kept at almost the exact same temperature regardless of location.

Freezer Temperature

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The freezer wasn't quite as uniform in its temperature output as the fridge, but it still did really well. The top of the freezer was noticeably colder than the bottom, but at its warmest the freezer just missed hitting two degrees Fahrenheit. While a solid zero would be ideal, two degrees is still plenty low enough to keep things in safe cold storage. As long as you're not swapping things from the top to the bottom, you'll also have very little risk of freezer burn - each section of the freezer never fluctuated more than half a degree over time.

Vegetable Drawer

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We test a fridge's crisper drawer using the highest humidity setting designed for vegetable storage in order to determine the slowest rate of moisture loss possible. The {{product.brand.name}}'s unusually large drawers lost an average of just 0.17 grams of moisture per hour over the course of our three-day testing period. This is really quite good, and better than some of the high-end fridges that we've tested. Produce stored here will remain fresh and crisp for longer than average, making this fridge that much better for consumers that love fresh salads.

Power Loss

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If you happen to lose power due to a minor natural disaster, your first thought may be for the well-being of your loved ones. Your second thought may be whether or not your food will keep for the mount of time it would take to get the power back on. The {{product.brand.name}} had no trouble keeping the freezer cold for more than 36 hours after we cut off the power, so as long as you keep the freezer door shut and have a decent power company, you shouldn't have to throw anything away.

Freezing Performance

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The sooner an item is brought down from room temperature to freezing, the better it will be when thawed. The texture of meats and nutritional value of vegetables are just of the elements that can be effected by freezing speed. Ideally, food would be flash frozen instantly, and the closer a refrigerator can get to instantaneous freezing, the better. The {{product.brand.name}} managed to freeze our test materials in 1 hour and 26 minutes. This isn't the fastest time that we've seen, but it's fast enough to get the job done. Thawed food should be just fine.

Usable Space

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The inside of this {{product.brand.name}}'s fridge appears rather crowded, and it is...but not as much as it may seem just from looking at it. Despite the small presence of appliance claustrophobia, there's still ample storage for an average household, with the {{product.brand.name}} offering 9.3 cubic feet of usable fridge space. Four half-width shelves and a full-width shelf on the bottom provide most of the storage capacity. In addition, you have three drawers: one placed under a half-width shelf in the location of a traditional deli drawer, and two tall crisper drawers on the bottom. The unusually tall crispers push the shelf storage a bit closer together vertically than is usually seen, which seems to be the primary cause of the cramped feeling. The odd thing is, the {{product.brand.name}} has a fairly average amount of storage - there's a just a lot more of it found in drawer storage than is typical, which is great for those who like produce that takes up a lot of space, such as eggplant or broccoli.

The fridge door is a bit crowded, but still capable of surprising versatility. Storage is spread out over six assorted compartments. There is a full-width shelf on the bottom which pretty much stays as is, but the interesting thing about all the other shelves is that they can slide around. Two large shelves, two smaller shelves, and a dairy tray are hooked into the door in such a way that if there is any free space to their left or right sides, they can slide in those directions. This could be useful for storing large or tall items, shifting things around for ease of access, or just to change up the look if you get bored with the layout. All the shelves are quite deep as far as door storage goes, giving you ample and accessible areas to store anything from salad dressing to a gallon of milk.

The wide, open spaces in the freezer may lead to lots of stacking. The shelf is great for TV dinners and frozen pizza, while the pull-out bucket can store your frozen meats and vegetables. Regardless of how you organize your frozen goods, you'll find a grand total of 3.91 cubic feet of usable space. You lose a good chunk to the ice maker, so keep that in mind when shopping around if you prefer to use smaller ice cube trays instead of ice in bulk.

Like many bottom freezers, the {{product.brand.name}} doesn't offer a lot of door storage in its colder section. A small, shallow tray running the width of the door is great for storing loose items like chocolate or nuts for the baking aficionado, or pints of Ben & Jerry's for consumers with a sweet tooth.

Below are the manufacturers own figures for capacity, and our own measurements for usable capacity. The manufacturers figures do not take account of the shelves, drawers and other removable features, but our measurements do account for the space these take up.

Ease of Access

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The fridge shelves feel cramped, with the large amount of drawer storage compressing and blocking access to shelves. Items at the back of the fridge may be hard to get to on all but the top shelves, though the large drawers should mean easy access to produce. The fridge door, on the other hand, has expansive shelving units that can easily be reached or slid around. Frozen foods are also easy to get to due to the wide shelf and large pull-out drawer, but like all bottom-freezers, the whole section is rather low to the ground. If you freeze a lot of items, you may find yourself stooping quite a bit, which could get to be awkward and uncomfortable after a while, especially if you can't find what you want right away.

Controls

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The {{product.brand.name}} has controls that are located at the top center of the fridge interior. It consists of two meters that adjust both the fridge and freezer temperatures independently of each other. With an arbitrary scale ranging from 1-7 and a manufacturer recommended setting of 4, it lacks any real degree correspondence. If you want to know the actual internal temperature that you're refrigerating or freezing your foods, you'll have to invest in a thermometer.

The controls are incredibly straightforward - you push a button to raise or lower the temperature setting for either the fridge or freezer. The manufacturer's recommended setting is clearly marked, which is always helpful. If things seem too warm or too cold, though, the {{product.brand.name}} can't help you - there's no actual degree marking that correlates with the 1-7 scale. If you really want to know the internal temperature, you'll have to buy an external thermometer.

Water Dispenser

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Ice Maker

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A simple ice maker sits in the freezer compartment in the upper left corner. It can turned on or off by flipping a clearly labeled switch on the actual device.

Cleaning

Noise

Other Features

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Conclusion

Energy Efficiency

The {{product.brand.name}} is going to hit your electric bill hard, but it will do it in a very good way. This model is incredibly efficient, costing you noticeably less than the average mid-level fridge as far as operating costs. Given the amount of storage space it has, it also distributes that energy very effectively throughout the appliance.

Performance

For a mid-priced fridge, the {{product.brand.name}} actually did incredibly well. Temperatures remained consistent over time throughout all of the two compartments, food was frozen at a rate that would result in thawed products of a decent quality, and the moisture retention in the vegetable drawers was better than even some of the more expensive models that we've tested.

Storage Space

The amount of storage space in this fridge won't turn many heads, but it's actually got more than you may think. The fridge may not look terribly large, but it offers enough space for an average consumer's amount of groceries, enough for all but the largest families. There's a proportionally substantial amount of room in the freezer as well, making this a good fridge for folks who intend to use both compartments with some regularity.

Usability

The {{product.brand.name}} isn't the friendliest fridge in the world, unfortunately. The cramped fridge can make it hard to reach food stored in the back, and the low freezer means a lot of stooping for frozen goods or to access the ice maker. The half-width shelves are light enough to move around pretty easily, but any fridge that uses rear mounts is a bit harder to adjust than models with slits on the sides. The temperature control, at least, is very easy to use, but you'll have no idea what degree you're actually storing your food at as it uses an arbitrary scale with no actual degree correlation.