Types of Refrigerators
Best Refrigerator under 20000 mostly comes in two types; and they are as follows:
01. Single Door Refrigerators
Single Door Refrigerators are still the most widely used refrigerators in India.
They come in a capacity of 150 liters to 250 liters. It has a single door with the freezer featuring inside the refrigerator. They are economical as well. Mostly they operate on the direct cool technology.
Cons: Auto defrosting feature is generally not available with the Single Door Refrigerators. If you have to defrost, you have to do it manually at a regular interval.
- Direct Cool
- Manual Defrost
- Ideal for small families
- Digital Auto defrost is also found in a few latest models
02. Double Door Refrigerators
Double Door Refrigerators are also called Top Mount Refrigerators. The freezer has a separate door, separate heating element takes care about the formation of frost and you do not have to worry it. That’s why they are also called frost free refrigerators and you do not have to do manual defrosting.
- Frost Free
- Separate Freezer mounted on Top
- Large Freezer as compared to single door
- Capacity 250 liter to 650 liter
Categorization based on Defrost Type
Based on the defrosting technology refrigerators can be categorized as:
1. Direct Cool Refrigerator
The Single Door refrigerators, which do not have separate freezer, runs on this mechanism; that is why they are also called Direct Cool Refrigerator. They are the most affordable ones in the market.
- Instant Cooling capacity
- More Pocket Friendly
- Manual Defrosting mechanism
- Smaller in size than Frost free
- Consumes Less energy
2. Frost Free Refrigerator
Manual defrosting is not required for the Frost Free refrigerators. The come in much bigger size as compared to the Direct Cool Refrigerator.
- More on the expensive side
- Completely Frost Free
- Consumes More Electricity
- Bigger in size than Direct Cool Refrigerator
Convertible Refrigerators in India
The main concept of convertible refrigerator has originated from the winters when most families do not require a freezer especially in north India. Moreover if you are a vegetarian, then you do not require at all storing frozen foods like fish and meat.
That is why the convertible refrigerator can help you in converting a freezer compartment into a regular freeze portion so that you can store more fruits and vegetables and other cooked items.
In a convertible refrigerator, the freezer box unit and the refrigeration compartment are independent of each other.
Inverter Technology
Inverter Technology works on the principle of reducing load of the refrigerator. They actually never turn off the compressor, because every time it turns off and on, it creates some pressure load on the compressor.
Instead, it adjusts its power and how much cooling to go for based on inside and outside temperature. It does all the adjustments by itself. When the temperature falls below the set levels, the inverter will automatically switch the compressor to a less moderate capacity.
That’s why they are referred to as smart or intelligent compressor. This saves a considerable amount of electricity. It had been observed that inverter technology does 20 – 30% less electricity consumption. Thereby it is more pocket friendly.
Power Consumption
Usually, Single Door refrigerators are more energy efficient, since consumption of energy and power is 30% to 40% less in case of them.
While buying the refrigerator brand check for the power consumption in the form of BEE star rating. These are universally accepted ratings, and the higher the rating, the lesser is the power consumption.
Uniform Cooling Technology
Since the time when refrigerators came in India, in the 80s , 90s we are used to seeing refrigerators of single door models, where you could see that the cooling takes place only near the freezer compartment, where ice are been made. That’s why the rest places are not uniformly cooled.
Modern Refrigerators are made with Uniform Cooling Technology used, where there are multiple air vents located and strategic places to ensure that cooling takes place at each and every corner of the refrigerator.
Even if you open and close the refrigerator door frequently cooling is not disturbed with the aid of this technology.
- Whirlpool has 3D Airflow technology.
- Haier refrigerators are equipped with the 360-degree airflow
- LG refrigerators have Ice Beam Door Cooling technology with cooling 35% faster than conventional systems.
- Samsung, Godrej, and Hitachi models had featured dual fans to discretely cool the fridge and freezer.
Deodorizer
Sometimes your fridge can smell bad because of rotten vegetables or fruits or meat or fish. Deodorizer keeps the fridge from smelling bad.
The deodorizer removes the odor particles to keep the air fresh by good ventilation.
Before buying your fridge, you can always check if your refrigerator has the deodorizer option or not.
Water Dispensers
Some models come with inbuilt water/ice dispenser. You will find this mostly in the side-by-side door refrigerators.
You can fill up your glass using the water dispenser. Thus, you do not have to open the fridge to get your glass of cold water.
Vegetable Crispers
Moisture absorbing technology is very important nowadays to keep your fruits and vegetables crisp and fresh.
Whirlpool was the first to introduce this technology and it slowly revolutionized the industry.
Nowadays, latest refrigerator models are coming up with the Advanced
Zeolite Technology, which takes care of fruits not to get over ripened.
LED Lights
LED lights are more long-lasting and they are more energy saving since they consume less power than the conventional lights inside the fridge.
Even modern refrigerators are featuring with led lights inside the freezer.
Modern day refrigerators are coming up with the motion-sensing lights that automatically switch on when you open the refrigerator.