What made us buy ?
Inorder to earn my bread & butter, I had to be in Goa for quite sometime. Since I stayed all by myself in a rented apartment, my girlfriend then (now my wife), used to get me some delicious recipies from her mom’s kitchen. I needed space to preserve them and eat at leisure. She was after me to buy a fridge, now that we were about to settle down together too. Knowing that there was no escape, I humbly bowed to the Your wish is my Command, afterall I wanted to prove myself as a good natured husband :-). Off we set on a hunting spree across town in all the exclusive showrooms of BPL, Kelvinator, Samsung and ofcourse Godrej. We also made it a point to pay a visit to the local dealers inorder to mix-n-match and compare the various brands and their models side by side. We had narrowed down to the double door category since it was the latest in the market. For our requirement the 185 lts seemed appropriate. The BPL model was very good as far as space inside is concerned but the outer looks weren’t appealing ... is this considered normal in guys :-). The Samsung model appeared a lot more bulkier for it’s capacity. So, we zeroed upon this Godrej model, there was also another attraction ... good value for money. We were to get a 36 piece dinner set from LaOpala worth Rs.3000/- for free PLUS a scratch card(who knows we could be rich overnight !). Itch itch .. scratch scratch ... lo and behold ... we got ourselves a 6 cup coffee set again from LaOpala :-). Some gain for the Rs.16000/- we had put into it. This was way back in 1999.
Outstanding features !
The appearence is pleasant with one bald head, invisible neck, no arms, a rather plain body(no handles) and short and stout legs. We had chosen a grey coloured one. The odd thing was, it had five legs !!! ... an extra one for the door as it has a sizeable amount of space to stack away your day-to-day items and tends to gets heavy and hence needs support. During the normal operation, it makes it’s presence felt by humming and so also when it draws power, the relay switch makes a loud noise.
Top Area : The top area is strictly the freezer compartment and should be used for stacking items desired for long term usage. These could include ice-creams, fruit-salads, dry-fruits and ofcourse un-cooked non-vegetarian flesh/meat. Formation of ice in the ice-cube-tray is a fast & easy process. Unlike in the earlier models, this compartment is fully of plastic and there are no traces of steel. The door area has place holders to keep small sized containers (store-aways), and we normally use it to keep masala/sambar powder packs, cashew-nuts and so also Nescafe bottle. The coffee powder remains free-flow during it’s entire life time. There is absolutely no frost built-up ... thanks to the frost-free techology which keep us away from the weekly chores of throwing away the water collected at the bottom tray in the older versions.
Lower Area : This is the general compartment and has 4-5 sub-compartments(depends upon how you want to re-structure it). The first one amongst them is the chiller, basically a semi-transparent plastic tray useful to store away milk packets and milk products(cheese, butter etc). The next 3 metal grill-trays are for storing away prepared food/leftovers in vessels/dishes etc. The bottom most is semi-transparent plactic box to store away fruits and vegetables. A small container which fits into this box could be used to store tomatoes(or delicate fruits) without the fear of them getting squashed. This box has a plastic striped tray to cover it’s top and can be used as a platform to keep light-weighted fruits and/or extra vessels.
Door Area : This requires a special mention as it provides significant amount of space. You could store here almost anything you could think of from beverage(juices, drinks, concentrates) to ketchups/sauces, water bottles, eggs(upto 18), lemons, chocolates and daily frequent requirements in the kitchen including vegetables. There is also a small container provided especially for the little ones at home called the Junior’s Corner. All these gadgets can be dismantled and re-arranged for one’s needs. This also helps during the occasional cleaning, leading to the good health of the fridge.
Experiences :
1. A good stabilizer is recommended, we have a V-Guard(Rs.1100/-).
2. The sides of the fridge get warm/hot and this is normal during the operation of the fridge. However keep the temperature setting to the optimal level (climate dependent)as per recommendations in the Operation Manual.
3. Vegetables stay healthy for a longer duration provided you stack them in a polyethylene bag with some breathing holes. Ofcourse some need to be air-tight !.
4. Food(heated/cooked) needs to be brought to the normal room-temperature before stacking away in the fridge. This also helps save electricity.
5. In the past 3 years, we had to change the bulb(220 V, 15 W) thrice. I really donot understand why it gets burnt. This feature is mostly observed in Godrej.
6. Frequent transportation(in case of transfers) should be avoided. Shifting our frigde from Goa to B’lore made us shell out to replace our thermostat.
7. Service here in B’lore is indeed very prompt and good. Just call up the customer service center at Kasturba Road and you are sure to have the serviceman at your house within 24 hrs.
8. There are better ones in the market today ... you should do a survey of your own.