HOME/APPLIANCE SPECIAL..REFRIGERATOR: HOW TO BUY AND WHAT IS NEW

REFRIGERATOR:   HOW TO BUY AND WHAT IS NEW

Food items tend to rot easily during monsoon. Thus the role of refrigerator increases manifold during this season. More so when this home appliance, other than keeping the food fresh, also keeps a tab on expiry date of the stored items

    Do you remember the first fridge you ever bought? Bet, the image of an ugly white box with a noisy stabilizer would come to your mind. Talk of today, and you can see your fridge smartly adorning the reminder post-its and all that jazz. Refrigerators today spell both luxury and aethetics. Besides, as the family grows in size, the fridge grows in capacity and also in number. Your fridge has today become your loyal pal who is ready to help you when there is party at home. It overworks to make quick cubes that run out faster than the drinks on the table. The future is even better, there are industry players that talk of features that one can never imagine also. From keeping the data of expired items, to sending air in controlled manner to different directions—the refrigerators will now be no less than a wonder machine. While the choices are many, it’s important to understand which technology suits your needs the best. Here's a quick guide for good buy for you...
Right control
The thermostat controls on the fridge help you manage your fridge and its components better. While older models have dials positioned inconveniently at the rear of the compartments, now fridges allow you to control the temperature digitally, with a handy screen on the front of the fridge. Some models offer 'smart' thermostats that adjust based on the temperature conditions.
    Moisture and humidity controls in a refrigerator help retain the freshness of fruits and vegetables.This feature is particularly useful if you shop in advance for the whole week or require storing food for long periods of time during the monsoon season. The door lock option is also useful in preventing children or other people from opening the refrigerator without supervision. This way you can also ensure that the refrigerater remains at a constant temperature most of the time.
    A cold accumulation type refrigerator has an improved control system for controlling its defrost cycle. The refrigerator includes a main evaporator for producing cold air, a cooling command signal generating device for generating a cooling command signal when a refrigerator compartment is required to be cooled, a clock device for generating a time data, a refrigerating cycle for cooling the main evaporator in accordance with the cooling command signal and the cold-accumulation material in accordance with the time data from the clock device, and a defrost control device for removing frost deposited on the main evaporator. The defrost control device counts cooling operation time of the evaporator in response to the cooling command signal. If the refrigerator is a fan cool type refrigerator whose evaporator is provided with a cold air circulation fan, the defrost control device counts the operation time of the fan, and when a prescribed time count, has been completed, the defrost control device generates a defrost starting signal, whereby a proper defrosting operation begins.
Space issues
It is important to plan out where you'd like to place your refrigerator. Always note the height, width and depth of the refrigerator; you should also consider the clearances needed to open the doors fully to remove the shelves. It is better to keep the refrigerator in a well-ventilated space and not in a closed cavity.
Look and feel
There is limited range of colours in which these babies are available—black, white, blue, red and stainless steel. For the stylish owners, you now have an option to put custom style panels on some refrigerators to match your cabinets or kitchen décor. Let's look behind the fridge now. Coils at the back of the refrigerators are now a fading memory as most refrigerators come with clean backs these days as they have condenser coils that are mounted at the bottom of the refrigerator. This surely makes cleaning less cumbersome and also provides a safety cover for the compressor.
Storage capacity
A calculation of what capacity of refrigerator you require is the most primary step in the buying process. Also a division between the space in the cooler and the fridge is of primary importance. The calculation of the required capacity depends on your family size and your food habits, for example, those who have vegetable gardens may need much more capacity than those who eat out or eat frozen foods. With the fast changing lifestyles and lesser time for working professionals, families now cook less frequently and buy/store more food in the freezer.
    Deciding on the shelf space and internal structure that would suit your need, would need you to have some foresight regarding your food platter composition. Look for separators because they not only help you organise your food better but also prevent the softer fruits and vegetables from rotting. 

THE WONDER THING CALLED REFRIGERATOR MAY SPELL MAGIC SOON
TAKE 1

Future refs may have electrochomic glass panel door that would work as display panel. Feed the food item you are storing, the fridge would share various recipes made out of that food item 

TAKE 2
The refrigerators of future would also have music system installed in them. They would help you listen and even download your favourite music while storing your daily fruits and vegetables  

TAKE 3
Talk of tomorrow, and your refrigerators may turn your managers—giving you complete info of what item is going to expire when, and what are the items that are not in the stock anymore, etc  

TAKE 4
Refrigerators may one day lose their compressors and coils of piping and become solid state. These flat panel refrigerators will have solid polymer with appropriate heat exchangers

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