Appliances - The Basics

As well as new flooring, most of my customers choose new appliances when buying a new kitchen. This may involve a couple of pieces or a wholesale change of all of them. Where do you begin? Here are some basics to help you decide.

Starting with refrigerators, most of you will know that these are the single most difficult appliance to place properly in your kitchen, simply because they are so darn big! Usually they stick out past the counter top and they generally cannot be placed at right angles to a doorway because they would jut out into it. Several manufacturers, Amana and Sub Zero come to mind, make 24 inch deep fridges to eliminate this problem. This creates another problem, since these units are usually 48 inches wide and take up more space laterally.

There is no easy solution but you might want to think about purchasing a unit which disperses it's heat out the bottom front instead of using coils at the back. This would allow you to set the fridge back into the wall, even going as far as carving a niche for it in the wall as I did in my house. My three door unit is at right angles to the door and doesn't impede access at all, plus it is exactly counter depth.

As for features and size, I will leave that up to you to figure out. The newest and therefore trendiest units have freezers at the bottom which makes all kinds of sense to me although I prefer the easy access that my three door unit provides. As for things like water coolers and ice makers, check out how much freezer space you loose by choosing these options. A jug of water in the fridge section will work just as well to keep water cool and, given a bit of time, the chlorine in the water will disappear.

Check out the electric economy ratings too when purchasing refrigerators and other appliances. I would even suggest using these ratings in comparison to your current appliance ratings to decide if you need new ones. Seeing as how those stickers never want to come off anyway, they are probably still on your old appliances somewhere!

If you are looking for a new microwave, check out the range hood/microwave units. These have been around for at least twenty years and make all kinds of sense. Next to refrigerators, the microwave is the most difficult to place. You either loose counter top space or, if you use a

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