European Fridges

[pumper]

How do you folks on the other side of the pond manage with only an undercounter fridge? Do you have to do grocery shopping several times a week? It would definitely be more economical than running a 20+ cubic foot fridge, but I don't know if I could keep my grocery list so short, especially when things are on sale.

 

[aquacycle]

Hi there,

Well, you're speaking to a person who owned the tinyist fridge/freezer in existence in his flat (see link) and we only shopped once a week for 2 of us. My mum - she has an undercounter fridge and freezer, and she only shops once a week. Bearing in mind, there is nobody home during the day so we only really have 1 main meal a day in the house. When I was younger, however, and there was both my parents at home and 4 kids, we did shop twice a week. I think it's just a case of "we deal with what we have" lol

http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/store/dix_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0624263652.1262480487@@@@&BV_EngineID=cceiadejfgehledcflgceggdhhmdfnm.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=825909&category_oid=-28941

 

[hoover1100]

to be honest

Everyone I know has a full size fridge freezer, and often a second one in the utility room or garage.

My parents had just an undercounter fridge when I was first born, but it was soon upgraded to a full size fridge freezer.

I don't know anyone that has anything smaller really, not families at least.

This is my Mum's 2006 Whirlpool model, on the small side compared to most fridge freezer's I see, theres a larger Hotpoint Mistral Plus from 1997 in the garage too, but thats basically empty.

Matt

 

[ronhic]

Most...

....Brits and Europeans have generally moved to fridge/freezer combinations...especially if their kitchens have been revamped.

From my experience of living in the UK and visiting my partners relatives in Germany from 2000 to 2004, only once did I see an undercounter fridge and freezer used - and they were our neighbours in the UK....they went for a wall oven in their kitchen rather than a tall fridge and had integrated under counter fridge and freezer instead along with a washing machine and a condenser dryer....not bad in an 8'x8' kitchen where, with the exception of the wall oven, hob, sink and the pantry unit, there was still about 10' of bench space

It should be remembered that space is often at a premium in a European household and a separate laundry is not always in a house let alone a flat. It is normal for Brits to have their washer in the kitchen along with all the usual 'kitchen' white goods....having under bench fridges and freezers makes good sense in many ways though - it enables more bench space...

 

[panthera]

We store

quite a few things in American fridges which we don't store in smaller, European fridges.
That makes up for most of the space difference.
And, yes, the preponderance of small shops throughout residential neighborhoods (in Germany, at least) mean you can and do go shopping for fresh things more frequently.

As many above have said, separate freezers are common - even I have on in my tiny flat.

 

[foraloysius]

Only two friends of mine have an under the counter fridge. But those are the one without a freezer compartment. They chose them so they had more counter space. Both have a separate freezer so they have enough storage space.

I have what we call here an upside down model. Fridge on top, freezer at the bottom. Mine is a freestanding one, most people I know have a built in one.

 

[launderess]

As In The States

More and more European/UK housewives work outside the home, thus do not have time to go to the shops/market daily or every other day, hence the need for larger fridges and or freezers.

Frozen produce,veggies, meats,cod steaks, et al all come in handy when one is has to put dinner on the table after a long commute home. There is also a large number of single men and women living on their own, who because either of long work hours and or like eating dinners for one, need large freezers because they tend to shop weekly.

L.

 

[favorit]

fridge drawers

Hi Pumper,
as Keven wrote in Europe we still have (much less than in the past) also small grocery shops, even in small mountain villages. Also as Matt wrote many people have additional fridge(s) and freezer(s) in garages/storages or even a side by side twin set in the kitchen. To us makes more sense turning off the additional fridges when not necessary rather than running an often empty french door big fridge freezer.

Anyway once I was given a flat @ work. There I had a undercounter frige-freezer that was installed in the dishwasher niche under the sink. It was a pain to cope with the needs of four people, we had to store things as they were Lego bricks *LOL*

In the pic there's a fridge drawers unit from IKEA. I guess it is made from Indesit Co as here is available outside of ikea as Ariston Hotpoint

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/40123872

 

[mielabor]

Well, I can manage with this fridge...

With some effort I can put 9 one-litre cartons of yoghurt inside

I go to the supermarket every day, so I don't need a large fridge right now.

 

[foraloysius]

Now Theo, I think we are looking forward to the results of the yoghurt test...

 

[mielabor]

OK,

I'll buy some extra yoghurt this afternoon!

 

[toggleswitch2]

~Frozen produce,veggies, meats,cod steaks, et al all come in handy when one is has to put dinner on the table after a long commute home.

Often a NYC commute is up to an hour (or even 1.5 hours when there is a bus involved after mutliple subway trains) to stay within city limits, and up to 2 hours(one way) to get to suburbs (sometimes in other states). In Europe that duration of time gets one to another country.

Similarly some of our newer suburbs are not built with a central town with streets and roads surrounding it. One does not-- indeed can not-- walk anywhere, so daily shopping is impractical to impossible, really.

 

[mielabor]

For Louis...

I just bought some yoghurt to prove my statement. I was a bit unlucky as I had to go to a second shop as the first one didn't have any fat free yoghurt left on the shelve. I also couldn't buy Ecover detergent as that shop did close early because of annual stock-taking and I was just 10 minutes too late. Anyway, I did manage to get sufficient cartons of yoghurt.

 

[mielabor]

All inside...

My refrigerator completely filled up.

 

[foraloysius]

Wow! Well done Theo!

You have a preference for De Zaanse Hoeve yoghurt?

 

[mielabor]

"Zaanse Hoeve" is the cheapest brand of yoghurt at Albert Heijn supermarket and I have no problems with the taste and consistency. It's similar to the AH brand in my opinion. Sometimes I go to other supermarkets: the "Zuivel" brand is from C1000. C1000 also has "Campina", but I don't like that very much and it's also more expensive.

 

[foraloysius]

De Zaanse Hoeve is not bad, similar to AH's own one IMHO. I don't like AH's Bio yoghurt. I love the Bio+ yoghurt Jumbo supermarkten is selling. Perhaps other supermarkets have that one too.

Now back to fridges. What's the brand of your fridge?

 

[mielabor]

My fridge is from Dometic. It is a very small absorption type fridge for offices, campings etc.

I have borrowed it from my work to replace my old fridge that was very energy inefficient. Even though the Dometic is an absorption fridge it consumes about half the energy of what my old fridge (compressor type) consumed. It is much smaller though, but I can manage with it for the time being. I was looking for a fridge with A++ rating for energy, but those are all 60 cm wide, which is to large for me. I am waiting for 50 cm wide fridges with A++ rating...

 

[foraloysius]

Why do you need a 50cm fridge? It looks like a 60cm fridge would fit on top of your dryer.