I love my LG Stainless Steel Bottom Mount Freezer Refrigerator

My wife and I just purchased a new home earlier this month, and of course one of the first things we needed to buy was a refrigerator. Before we started shopping, we knew that our fridge would have to be either black or stainless steel. Our kitchen is done with black granite countertops and deep brown mahogany cabinets, so a plain white fridge would have looked tacky. After comparing models, we decided that a sleek stainless model would best fit the motif of our kitchen. After shopping around for well over a week, we eventually settled on this LG LBC22517 Stainless Steel Bottom Mount Refrigerator.

Refrigerators these days come in three main designs. The first is the classic style with the freezer on top. Second, you can get them with the freezer on bottom. Third, and my least favorite, are the side-by-side options. I found that most appliance stores have more of the side-by-side models than anything else, but personally I can’t stand them. With side-by-side models, you get cheated out of interior space because that divider wall between the freezer and refrigerator is counted into the total cubic feet of the fridge’s capacity. Unless you buy a huge one, there just isn’t enough space in the freezer section.

After comparing many different types of designs, we decided that the bottom mount freezer was the best. It makes more sense for the refrigerator part to be on top where it is more easily accessible. On this model LG fridge, the freezer part is on the bottom and offers a big tray that you can pull out and put your frozen goods in. It’s sort of like placing items in a grocery cart. Some model refrigerators have the trays come out when you open the door, but not this one. It should also be noted that parents of small children may have some safety concerns for kids trying to hide in this lower area of the freezer.

We did have some concerns over fingerprint smudges with the stainless doors, but it really isn’t that big a problem. My wife and I don’t have any children, so we don’t have to worry about tiny palm prints all over the doors. This fridge will show streaks and marks if you touch it, but the surface is also easy to clean. We use Sheila Shine stainless cleaner to keep it looking brand new. Another thing is that you can’t put magnets on the stainless doors, though the rest of the fridge’s body is black and will take magnets on the sides.

What drew us to this LG fridge was a combination of design, features, and price. The stainless steel doors are sleek and modern and really look great in our kitchen. The slightly reflective steel absorbs the colors around it and blends in well with everything else. The 22 cubic foot capacity is more than what we need for space and the shelves inside and on the door are all fully adjustable. One thing I really like about the tempered glass shelves is that you can see through them to what’s underneath, which means less digging through the back of the shelves to find last week’s leftovers. Another cool thing about the shelves is that they are slightly indented in order to catch spills.

When in use, this fridge very quietly hums along. Our kitchen is next to the living room, and we can’t hear the compressor kick on unless it’s very quiet in the house. With the TV on, we never hear it. The icemaker is very quick and efficient and lets you choose from three different size cubes, which is a nice feature.

We visited Sam’s Club, Sears, Best Buy, and Lowes before finally deciding to buy this model at Home Depot because of some promotions they had going on. It retailed for $1149, but we got a $100 rebate for also buying a $199 LG Microwave to go along with it. Home Depot also gave us a $100 gift card for the appliance purchase, so we racked up a good deal when it was all over. There were many other brands of similar refrigerators with much higher prices, but we thought this LG was the best deal. It wasn’t the cheapest model available and certainly wasn’t the most expensive.

As you can see in the above photo, the handles are mounted on the left side of the fridge. We needed to move the handles to the other side in order to best fit our kitchen, and Home Depot will do this for a penny. However, when the two buffoons that delivered it tried to remove the doors, they couldn’t figure out how. They obviously didn’t try very hard because later that night my brother in-law and I did the job in about a half hour while grumbling about Home Depot delivery service. I was not home when the fridge was delivered. Otherwise, I would have helped those guys figure out how to change the doors before they left. Lucky for them, my wife is a lot more tolerant of that sort of thing than I am.

I’ve had this fridge for a couple weeks now and am very pleased with it. Every person that visits our new home has commented on how nice it looks and how it sets off our kitchen. LG, which stands for Life’s Good, makes a wide variety of electronics and appliances and I would definitely consider their products in the future. This refrigerator is also available in a cheaper white model that has all the same features.