Midea MRQ22D7AST French-door Refrigerator Review

About the Midea MRQ22D7AST French-door refrigerator

• Style: French-door
• Dimensions: 69.88" x 35.81" x 29" x (H x W x D)
• Depth: Counter-depth
• Measured capacity: 9.7-cu.-ft. fridge, 4.0-cu.-ft. freezer
• Finishes: Stainless steel
• Special features: PerfectChill drawer, three cooling zones, full-width glide-out tray, MsmartHome app support
• Dispensers: Through-the-door ice and water
• ADA compliant: No
• Energy Star rated: Yes
• User manual: Midea MRQ22D7AST French-door refrigerator manual

The front of the Midea MRQ22D7AST is stainless steel with few flourishes. The pocket handles of the flex and freezer drawers are lined with black plastic. The left-hand door houses the fridge's through-the-door water and ice dispenser.

Opening the top two doors by their robust handles reveals a fridge interior illuminated by LEDs. Each door is lined with a standard array of bins, though their positions are fixed. There's an ice maker in the top left corner. Shelves feature spill-capture lips around the front and sides but curiously not the back. The bottom stainless-steel tray slides out, and under the tray are two crispers.

It has a full-width glide-out tray that makes handling large platters a breeze. It features the debut of the deli net, a fixture that affixes to the underside of a shelf and is equal parts useful and whimsical.

Its flex drawer can be used as spare freezer or fridge space. Opening the flex drawer reveals the fridge's control panel as well as a partitioned storage area that's great at keeping cans organized.

The freezer drawer is a large bin with a shelf extending over the top. The left half of the top shelf can be configured either as a large ice reservoir or just plan freezer storage.

The fridge also features Midea's MsmartHome app support, which lets you change settings or will notify you when the door is left open.

What we like

Its temperatures are exactly where they need to be

Fridges need to maintain a relatively narrow band of temperatures: They need to stay above 32°F to prevent freezing and under 40°F to prevent spoilage. In the freezer, temperatures need to stick as close to 0°F as possible to ensure proper freezing and to prevent freezer burn.

Not only does the Midea MRQ22D7AST thread this needle, it does so easily. Temperatures average a near-perfect 37.3°F in the fridge, and the freezer hovered around a safe -1.31°F.

We also found temperatures in the flex drawer were accurate. Setting it to 30°F yielded food chilled to precisely 30°F.

Its crisper drawers hold on to humidity

Crispers seem to be on the rise recently, with different companies launching all new technologies designed to keep your veggies fresh.

While this Midea refrigerator keeps its crispers relatively low tech by comparison, that doesn't mean they're slouching when it comes to humidity retention.

The basic balancing act your crispers need to do is to hold on to most—but not all—of their humidity. Creating a perfect seal can mean fruits and vegetables will rot faster, but letting humidity escape quickly leads to wilting.

The Midea MRQ22D7AST strikes a good balance by letting out less humidity than the average fridge. This will cut down on premature wilting and let your fresh produce stay fresher for longer.

It features innovative and useful storage solutions

The Midea MRQ22D7AST has a few fantastic storage fixtures, a few of which we simply haven't seen before.

We'll start with the familiar: This fridge has a custom-temperature flex drawer. We love flex drawers for how much customization they allow users, though how useful they are will ultimately depend on the user.

A flex drawer is a standalone compartment with its own temperature controls. In this case, these controls allow you to set it to anything from 30°F for meats and seafood up to 41°F for perfectly-chilled beverages.

While this isn't the widest temperature range we've seen, it's enough to give you extra space for ice-cold drinks or slightly warmer temperatures for food you don't necessarily want to be ice-cold when you serve it.

Now we'll get into the more interesting innovations, starting with: The deli net.

What's a deli net, you may ask? Well, it's a silicon net that hangs below a shelf and allows you to keep smaller items secure, organized, and within easy reach. The intent is to put deli meat packages in there, where they can be kept safe from getting crushed by, or hidden behind, other items.

The deli net may not be the most mind-blowing feature we've ever seen in a fridge, but we have to admit: It's surprisingly useful, and we are fans.

Storing food there was simple and easy, we liked how it allows users to better customize their storage space, and it freed up the otherwise unusable empty space directly underneath a shelf. We wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing more fridges with such a feature.

In addition to the deli net, this refrigerator also features a full-width glide-out tray just above the crispers. This tray slides out easily, giving you better access to a large platter or other items stored on top of it.

While it doesn't necessarily have the same clean and simple use case as the deli net, we like the glide-out tray. The tray itself looks and feels well-built, and its smooth gliding makes the fixture feel high quality. It also does give you more angles of attack when trying to figure out the best way to get a large platter from the fridge to its serving station.

Those who entertain a lot will get the most use from the glide-out tray.

Its extras all add value

While we've covered a few of the Midea MRQ22D7AST's storage features, it still has more surprises in store.

For starters, this refrigerator features Midea's MsmartHome app support, which lets you control settings remotely and can notify you if the door is open.

The fridge also features a through-the-door dispenser for both ice and water. If you haven't had a through-the-door dispenser before, they're so convenient it can be game-changing.

We also liked that we could turn off the ice-maker in the freezer, because opting out can free up a lot of storage space.

What we don’t like

The crispers aren't labeled clearly

If this seems like a small complaint, you're right—there really isn't a lot to dislike about the Midea MRQ22D7AST!

The one detail we had a bone to pick with, however, was how the crispers are labeled. Each crisper has a humidity slider. Moving it to either extreme setting will display an icon of either one water droplet or two.

So which one means your crispers are retaining as much humidity as they can and which one means they're letting all that humidity escape?

If you guessed that the single water droplet means less water is being retained, you'd be wrong! As it turns out, one droplet retains the most humidity while the two droplets will keep the drawer dryer.

Again, this isn't a huge deal—once you know which symbol is which, it's easy to remember—but it could potentially cause someone to use their crispers in the exact opposite way than they intended.

Given how perfect so many design elements of this fridge are, this seems like an odd misstep.

The glide-out tray can leave a tiny gap to the crispers below

When you extend the glide-out tray, you're not just exposing the open tops of the crispers: There's a pane of glass there to help provide a barrier against items pitching over and into the drawer below. When the tray is fully extended, however, there's about an inch-wide gap between the back of the tray and the start of the glass pane.

This is just wide enough to be able to pinch some fingers, or to allow thinner objects to fall into the crispers.

Again, this is a minor issue. As long as you're aware of the gap, you can take steps to make sure nothing falls down into it and that all fingers remain clear.

What owners are saying

The Midea MRQ22D7AST is new to the market, not from a major brand, and not yet being sold at all major retailers. As a result, there aren't many user reviews currently posted online.

Based on the handful of reviews that are posted, however, most users seem to love their Midea MRQ22D7AST. The most common point of praise is the overall look of the appliance, which owners think is attractive, modern, and sleek.

As we see more reviews posted, we’ll update with more of the positives and negatives from Midea owners.

Warranty

Midea features an industry-standard one year warranty that covers parts and labor. Additionally, parts for the compressor are covered for up to a decade. We're happy to see Midea go above and beyond to guarantee one of the most important parts is good for up to 10 years; it really helps make the purchase seem like more of a long-term investment.

Should you buy the Midea MRQ22D7AST French-door refrigerator?

Yes—If you love its look and it fits in your budget, this fridge has it all

From its stylish look to its useful features, the Midea MRQ22D7AST is one of the better French-door fridges we've tested to date.

In terms of performance, while you can technically do better, the Midea MRQ22D7AST is about as good as it gets when it comes to maximizing the shelf life of your food. We love how the fridge looks and feels to use, it provides some great storage options for a counter-depth unit, and we are immediate fans of the deli net.

The only downsides we could find are incredibly minor. Really, the only thing that's holding back the MRQ22D7AST is its value when compared to other top-of-the-line French-door fridges. An aesthetics-forward appliance like the Midea MRQ22D7AST will obviously be priced at a premium, but whether or not that premium seems appropriate will fall on personal preferences.

Currently the best fridge we've tested to date (and a good alternative to this fridge) is the Frigidaire Gallery GRQC2255BF, which has similarly excellent performance, many of the same features, and manages to cost less than this Midea.

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