Let's get ref!

So, we're on the hunt for a new fridge. It's a long story, so we'll just skip to the actual hunt.

Last saturday, (04/18/2013), Chea and I went to SM North Edsa so I could pay (and vent my frustrations) at a Bayantel shop at the Annex building.

While I was at Bayantel, Chea picked up Thirdy's first haircut certificate at Cuts 4 Tots at The Block building of SM North Edsa. I'll blog about it on another time.

After that, we went around The Block and found ourselves at an SM Appliance Center. We looked at some of their refrigerators. Personal refs (5cu ft) sold for around 6,000 pesos. We were looking for something around 8 cubic ft. They started at roughly upwards of 10,000 pesos for the single door models. Two door models started at 12,000, i think.

I was eyeing something cheap. Anything less than 14,000 pesos. There were several brands available that had models at that price range.

The very first refrigerator from my earliest memories was a GE brand. It was a single door variant. And it was built like a rock. I remember it lasting until I was in college.

I think it was in college (or right after it), that we decided to get a new ref. I remember owing my dad some money, and when I had enough to pay him back, I asked my dad if we can use the money I owed him, plus some money of my own, to buy a new fridge for my mom. My dad agreed, so we finally upgraded the GE ref to a 12 cu.ft. two-door LG refrigerator. It's pretty durable as it's still working at my parent's house, and it looks relatively new except for some spots of rust near the door handle. I don't think we ever had a problem with it.

So looking around, I was looking for the ones with the highest EEF (energy efficiency factor) number. They're usually printed on a yellow piece of paper and attached in front of some appliances (mostly fridges and ACs). The higher EEF number, the more efficient it is. Meaning it should save on electricity costs, although it's not a straight comparison between different sized refs.

So after looking around, we found that the highest EEF around the price range we were looking at was a Condura Go Negosyo 6.7 cu.ft. single door refrigerator. The EEF was about 282. It was a semi automatic defrost, meaning there was a button for the defrost cycle so you no longer need to unplug the ref to defrost it. It costs around 12,000 pesos I think. I can't remember.

But then, I got around to the Samsung refs and saw models with inverter compressors, or the Samsung Digital Inverter series. The 8 cu.ft. model costs around 18,995.

Go Filipino or Go Korean?

Now inverter technology is a different spin on traditional compressors, as they have more than two states. The traditional compressor is either on, or off. When you turn on an AC unit, the compressor will turn on (uses a high spike of current on starting up a compressor), and would run on a constant speed until the thermostat (checks the temperature of a room for ACs or the temp in a ref), turns it off. If the temperatures dips higher (warmer) than the setting in the thermostat, the compressor turns on again.

An inverter compressor on the other hand, turns on, and then slows down when it reaches the desired temperature. So the compressor doesn't turn off, so it doesn't use a high spike in current to turn it on again if the temperature gets warmer.

So basically, the inverter technology creates a more efficient (and oftentimes electricity saving) appliance. It's evidently true in airconditioners, but the jury's still out when it comes to fridges (and washing machines)

Now the Samsung two door model I'm looking at had an EEF of 302 (seems way better than the condura). Plus the inverter tech is more efficient. However, the power consumption is .94kwh/24hr, compared to Condura's 6.7 cu.ft. .64kwh/24hr.

The power consumption rating is an average number of the kilowatt hour used for 24hrs. Multiply that with the kw/hr rate from Meralco and over the course of a month, you should get the actual monthly electricity cost for the appliance. Although I'm not sure if that's correct, because I think I'm getting the computations all wrong. Hah.

So if you look at it, Condura wins in the power consumption rate. Plus, it's semi automatic, meaning it depends on the user how often they want to defrost.

These semi and full automatic/ no frost systems usually defrost the ref using heating coils around the freezer. And these heating elements actually use about ~150watts. So for manual or semi-automatic defrost systems, you can limit the times you defrost, saving you power usage.

On full automatic/no frost system like the Samsung Digital Inverter series, a salesman mentioned that it runs about 2-3 times every 8 hours. And each cycle runs for about 20-30mins.

So it seems that despite the new compressor technology, the Samsung Digital Series may have higher electricity costs despite the better EEF number.

Anyway, it felt like that the sales people at SM Appliances were egging me more towards Panasonic and Condura. I'm a Panasonic fan myself, but their inverter refs were around 30,000 pesos still. Despite the Condura seemingly able to save me more on electricity costs, I was still partial to the Samsung inverter fridge. I'm just a sucker for new tech.

Chea and I then decided to go to Abenson's (at the Carpark) to check on the refs there. We still looked at the same two units, although the sales personnel were pitching more for Condura and Kelvinator. (Both brands I think are from Concepcion Industries).

So still being a bit confused, we decided not to purchase right away and just went home.

I did some research that night, and found some bad anecdotes on the Condura models. Seems like quality has gone down the drain the last few years as some refs started having problems within the first year. Electrolux refs are definitely a no-no as sourcing parts from abroad is problematic. American brands seemed durable but their efficiency is atrocious.

The next day, we did a late day window shopping at Trinoma and went to Anson's which had a favorable review of offering discounts. Again, when we got to looking around the place, the sales personnel pitched the same two brands again: Condura and Kelvinator.

The same thing happened when we hopped on over to the other appliance stores in Trinoma, except at Western. They didn't have the exact Samsung model that we were looking at, so they never got to pitch for a particular make and model.

I was disappointed with the trip to Trinoma. It felt that the sales personnel were pitching for a certain brand more for something else (such as commission) rather than what would fit the buyer's needs. I actually got to the point that I wanted to look for a Samsung store and ask them to pitch their products.

Looking around the internet, I could barely find any reviews on the refs that I was looking at. So i went to my favorite forum, and asked the people there. There were a couple of Samsung Digital Inverter ref owners there, but they couldn't provide hard numbers (like electricity costs), just impressions. But since they came over from older model refs which are presumably more power hungry, I couldn't compare it to the newer, more efficient models.

So right now, I'm still on the fence on which model to get. Since I'm the one paying the utility bills, I've become more aware of electricity consumption.

Just recently, when my Intel i5 3.2Ghz quad-core, 150-watt file server died , i went to a more frugal AMD 1.6Ghz dual core APU, running at 50 watts. Since i had it running 24/7, i decided to go to the less power hungry machine even if it meant i could no longer play my favorite PC games on it. That's the price of growing old I guess.

Anyway, I'm still undecided. Hopefully, I can make a decision this coming Sunday.