How to choose the best fridge freezer for your kitchen

Freestanding fridge freezers can be placed anywhere in the kitchen. As they are not built-in, these versatile appliances can move with you to a new home.

Integrated fridge freezers, also known as "built-in" fridge freezers allow you to attach one of your kitchen cupboard doors to the front, thus making it blend in seemlessly with your kitchen units providing a streamlined look.

A larder fridge does not have a freezer compartment. In constrast, a fridge-freezer comprises of both fridge and freezer compartments.

When considering size, there are two things to consider:

• the physical dimensions. This is especially important if you have a specific space where you plan to locate the applicance.
• the internal storage capacity. This is normally determined by the size of the household (e.g. a family of 4 will typically need more storage than a family of 2). However, that's not always the case. For example, if you have pets on a raw food diet, or like to freeze dinners in advance, you may need larger freezer space).

Undercounter fridge freezers, etc are normally around 60cm wide and around 85cm high. In terms of capacity, this depends on the design, phystical size, and whether it's a larger fridge, etc, but as a guide these wll have a capacity of 75 to 200l. 

Freestanding fridge freezers are also typically around 60cm (596mm) wide, but can vary in height depending on what capacity you need, and can vary from 72cm to over 200cm. The taller unit can have a capacity of 200-300l.

An American fridge freezer, which is also known as a side-by-side, is a large appliance that combines a fridge and freezer into one unit and typically features two vertical doors side by side.

Many American fridge freezers include ice or water dispensers within the external surface of one of the doors.

Whilst these can also vary in width, typically an American fridge freezer will be around 91cm wide with a capacity of around 500 to 600l.

A French fridge freezer is similar to an American style, but instead of 2 of 4 doors, they typically have an upper section which consists of 2 doors, and a lower section which consist of 2 draws.

As cold air sinks, the 2 draws are normally for the freezer compartment, and the upper section contains the fridge, although with some of our models you can actually choose!

The most ideal temperature for your fridge is between 37°F (3°C) and 40°F (5°C).

Your freezer should be 0°F (-18°C).

When making any adjustments, it can take up to 24 hours for the new temperature to settle to the new level.