Need help selecting a Refrigerator, never bought one before

nanoneo

nanoneo

Adept
Was using my roomate's fridge till now, but he's moved out and taken his fridge with him. I really need a fridge, but am willing to wait a bit if the prices will come down. I'm hoping this is the case now that the summer in Mumbai is over.

Primarily I'm looking at buying a 180-200 litre fridge. Budget is around 10K but I can stretch it to 12.

As far as features are concerened am looking for energy effeciency and durability. I want the fridge to last at least half a decade with a little maintainence. Single door models are fine too.

Now I've been to several shops, and what I've understood is that Samsung and LG are the best brands in the budget. Whirpool and Videcon are a bit cheaper, but I have never used a Whirlpool product so I have no idea if the products are good.

Also, do the star ratings make any difference? How much more energy effeicent is a 5 star when compared to a 4 or a 3 star.

PS: Has anyone bought a fridge online? Any particular site recommended? Ezone online? Letsbuy?
 
^^You can buy the fridge online from letsbuy by applying the RCOMLB1 or ICICILB coupon and get a good discount. Off course whatever fridge you choose, i suggest to check it physically in an electronics shop near to your place.
 
Have heard bad stories of whirlpool ones going bad.
But their prices are cheap and with letsbuy discount i bet you can take the risk for a lower priced fridge.
For something on a higher price range i would have suggested you check out LG or samsung.
Had got one myself. An 180 litre from the likes of lg would cost you near about 13k.
P s. I got a samsung 315 litre fridge priced at 24k in all major outlets at a discounted price of 20.5k :p.
Thanks to my mom.
 
Whirlpool is any day better than Samsung. Have a Whirlpool F26E that has been running for 6 years now without any trouble. I've seen countless samsungs fail in the same time.

If you can afford a Panasonic/Sharp/Hitachi/Westinghouse/GE, get those else get a Whirlpool.
 
Recently bought a 190 litre videocon refrigerator as it has a 5 star rating,looks very good and came with a free stand :p got it from a normal store for 10k instead of online as friends wanted it to be delivered within one day :lol:
 
Ok, was going to stay away from whirlpool, now not so sure. Samsung 190 litre does fall in my budget though. Its around 11 K

Thanks for the suggestions guys, but can anyone carify the energy efficiency rating? Whats the difference between a 3, 4 or 5 star rating? What does it translate to in the real world?
 
The higher the energy efficiency rating, the lower is the power consumption (and hence your electricity bills). So, in the long run, the 5-star rated equipments would save you more than the extra amount you pay to buy them over a lower-rated one.
 
Yes I understand that part. However, whats not clear to me is the real world difference between a 4 and a 5 star. If the real world difference is not much, I might as well get a 4 star
 
With a refrigerator which runs 24/7, buying a 5 star is a given. Unlike an AC which only runs for specific duration, you'll easily recover the cost of a 5 star refrigerator in a year. In fact panasonic/sharp now has inverter refrigerators which will consume even lower power.

My next fridge is gonna be an inverter model for sure.
 
Kelvinator is still available ?? Or is it that whirlpool has bought kelvinator or something ??

We have a 20+ years old kelvinator 165 liter fridge at home and still works well. :D
 
Chaos said:
With a refrigerator which runs 24/7, buying a 5 star is a given. Unlike an AC which only runs for specific duration, you'll easily recover the cost of a 5 star refrigerator in a year. In fact panasonic/sharp now has inverter refrigerators which will consume even lower power.

My next fridge is gonna be an inverter model for sure.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Will be on the lookout for a 5 star model then. Might up the budget by a couple of grand just for that.

@raksrules - Yes kelvinator is still around, but all the dealers tell me that they are just rebadged pieces and since the electrolux takeover they are unreliable machines

Edit - Videocon fridges are still good right? All the dealers I've visited are pushing videocon as a quality albeit cheaper brand.
 
All i hear is videocon service is crappy,they screwed up the brand electrolux,kenstar etc

You can go for LG ones they have a higher efficiency then other brands.Whirlpool are also good but they don't have removable door gasket,(but don't bother if you are not into cleaning the refrigerator.

The single door direct cool ones are more efficient.Whirpool has launched a frost free single door refrigerators which are again more efficient then the 2 door versions.
 
After some research I've realised that there is no advantage to buying a fridge online. There are very few options. The only site that offered any variety in models isezoneonline.com . But theres something iffy about them too. They ask you to enter the pincode before you buy and every single Mumbai and Chennai pincode I entered resulted in a "We don't service this area error".

Also, the prices in store are lower than the online prices. The only exception being letsbuy.com. But thats only after you used the ICICILB coupon.
 
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