LG's magical sliding fridge drawers: how did we ever live without them?
Sure, we know you get most of your hot, breaking fridge news from our pals over at Fridgegadget, but if you'll excuse us just this once as we bring to you news of LG's latest and greatest: the "Ultra-Capacity 4-Door French-Door Refrigerator." This little number not only has the "world's largest" water and ice dispenser, but has push-button automatic sliding freezer drawers. Check out the enthralling video after the break -- you won't be sorry!






















great...for all those people who can't get their hot pockets out of the freezer manually. Seriously though, for how much money I'm guessing this costs, I'd want a built-in model.
My fridge and freezer keep my food cold. How does this one do that better?
Perhaps these thoughts might help...
The French-door slide-out bottom freezer section prevents cold air from "flowing" out when open, and are easy to access. The non-freezer section has a separate sealed-off high-humidity cooling system that keeps veggies fresh longer. Besides, freezer odour stays in the freezer (and vice versa). They use cool and efficient LED lights. And they use many of them, evenly lighting up the fridge. Samsung too has a similar one. I especially liked a model similar to the RFG299AARS (Not sure about the exact model number and if it is available in the US, but I've seen this in Korea and should be out state-side soon) that has an LCD touch-screen with WiFi and a card-reader. They'd work great doubling up as a digital photoframe in the kitchen with news and weather as extras (when not showing other interesting statistics like power consumption, inside temperatures etc.)
Engadget is showcasing appliances now. This is like Autoblog doing a story on a Toyota. It's just not fun.
This will obviously need some sort of extended warranty....and I hope the warranty on this will be no less than 5years or if its lifetime it would be better.
LG's kicking some butt in the appliance market.....
i want 3
It will never beat the iFridge.
What, no built-in LCD tv?
i'd gurss it's more energy efficient than standard style since you only open parts of the fridge, not all of it.
Needs to open/close at least 30% faster though, unless the elderly is the target market, why do such things so often move just too slow, who thought up those standard speeds? They are like perfectly made the too slow that you'd need to be annoyed.
I can see it now:
LG sued after a child decided to play high and go seek. He found the best spot, got in the drawer, reached up, pressed button and it closed. Child found when father decided to make a stiff drink on the rocks.
I hope LG built in a don't freeze items if they are warm feature.
Evolution in action.
Cool, then LG can sue the parents for smearing their product name and get a million from the idiots.
T
Why do they call the bottom fridge compartment french doors? Isn't the swinging doors considered french doors? Why is it french and not American???
Yeah, weird naming it has nothing to do with French stuff
Maybe it's just like "french" fries... which again has nothing to do with France.
They are called French doors because they automatically retreat with just a little push.
They're french doors because there's always two, when one can do the job just fine.
IM UP FO' SOME FRIDGEGADGET
This is nice! The drawer motion is motorized in both ways. Not only it slides open, it's also closed with a touch of a button too. That means you can cram a whole bunch of food in it, and then have it packed in, trash-compactor style. Actually someone also needs to invent motors for wardrobe/closet drawers too.
If you can stuff a 200LB body in to a freezer, then its a refrigerator you should buy. Just in case... your mother in law decides to visit.
i worked on the advertising campaign for these things, they are beautiful, but weigh nearly 400 pounds sans shelves and drawers.
I want. But I have a 3 year old and an almost-5-year-old. Those buttons would get pressed every 2 seconds until the drawer just plain broke.
Why doesn't the frozen TV dinner jump out and cook itself? Useless.
geez, how lazy can we really get? How soon before the food is tracked with RFID tags, new food is automatically ordered and delivered via peapod, then the food is transferred to a microwave via conveyor belts, then it's brought to us by our butler robot so we never have to leave the couch?
Hey wait a minute, that's not a bad idea :-)
Looks pretty good, actually, for people with chronic ailments (crippling arthritis, for instance) or other disabilities that it pains them or can be unsteady to bend over. This eliminates the need to exert force while you're in a vulnerable/unstable position. Yes, you still need to bend over to remove the items, but this can save a step.
Clearly not for everyone, though...as the smart-ass comments would suggest.
what happens if the lights go out and you need an ice pack in the freezer?
Hopefully the fixed the problem with their last 4-door fridge and made it Energy Star qualified for real this time. The Department of Energy whacked them big time (recall of product, plus made LG pay part of purchasers energy bills) for their last model after it was discovered that having the ice maker on made it an electricity hog.
Honestly, I care about energy efficiency much more than automatic doors.
That said, if they fixed the efficiency problem I just may buy one of these suckers.
Don't tweet me that the milk is low. Tweet Amazon so they'll bring me more. And cookies too.
I have an Idea, Engadget! Make THIS a "Recession Antidote!"
Check out WWW.RFRGRTR.COM and weep.
...for joy?
Great... but what happens when the power goes out?
I have found my new sock drawer.
Socks on the rocks.
Ok bedtime now.
"It also has a safety feature; if you get your hand caught in it, it's gonna GHAAHRLAGARLGAROOHHGODSOMEBODYSHUTTHISTHINGOFF!!!"
Well this isn't "new" tech, it's been around in asia for awhile. I've been living in Asia for 3 yrs and I thought this was a lame idea until you realize how HEAVY the freezer drawer/door gets when it's loaded with things. Sure, I can open it fine but for girls/elederly it is very convenient feature.
Arch.. I too am really depressed about no Fridgegadget blog to rss feed. *sadness*
$3500? Pass.