We test all fridge freezers in the Trusted Reviews Home Technology Lab. Our main tests concern how well a fridge freezer will keep your food, and that means measuring temperatures to see how stable they are. To do this, we load the fridge and freezer sections with freezer blocks, to mimic a load of food, and set the fridge to 4°C and the freezer to -18°C.
We then add temperature probes to the top, middle and bottom of the fridge and freezer sections, taking a reading every 15 minutes. We also use an automatic door opener/closer to mimic fridge use. After two weeks, we can see how stable the internal temperatures are.
By measuring power use at the same time, we can estimate yearly running costs, too. We quote both a yearly figure and a cost per litre of space, so it’s easier to compare a large model with a smaller one.
Fridge freezers aren’t just about temperatures, but how easy they are to use. For that, we load each model with a variety of different food items, including pizzas, large milk cartons, condiments and drinks cans, finding out how easy it is to store items.
