GE Profile: It’s Cool Inside. General Electric Profile PGSS5PJXSS Stainless Steel (24.9 cu. ft.) Bottom Freezer French Door Refrigerator
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This has been one of those emotional buys rather than planned. Yet, we’re happy as we can be and sometime a good value doesn’t have to be cheap. Blame the “leap year sales” if you must, but it was the main reason for extending our search to this model. At the offered price of $1800, this was a great deal compared to the $2700 MSRP. But price isn’t everything and this particular model from GE has a few features that may make it worthwhile — though not essential.
IN A NUTSHELL
This refridgerator has been a stylish addition to our kitchen since March 2008 with just the right features to have visitors ask about it. Of course the LCD screen and the French door design as well as dual drawer freezer have a major part in that, no to mention the cool LED lighting inside the fridge which is noticeably crisp looking and more evenly distributed than a typical light bulb.
Inside, the flexibility to arrange shelves as well as the slide-out top shelves make for an intelligent arrangement of storage units depending on your needs. The three enclosed compartments can be controlled individually which is a great plus for different foods to be stored.
The freezer, on the other hand, is well placed and the idea of two drawers is certainly a good one too, but the placement of the ice maker in the bottom drawer is limiting both storage and access. In fact, the most cumbersome part is the “overflowing” ice compartment which is hidden away.
Overal, we’re very happy with this fridge and the shortcoming sure don’t weight heavy enough to distract from the cool design features. Of course, with nearly 25 cu.ft. of storage it’s neither small nor easy to transport. Keep that in mind when picking it for your kitchen. (We were lucky to have a double door in the back of the kitchen to even get this thing into the right spot.)
DETAILS
Design: [****-] Stainless Steel front has become a standard fixture in kitchen appliances and the question is really more whether one can see fingerprints easily or not. The GE is one of the few models where it takes a while for prints (smudges) to become visible. The associated “coarse” grind marks do well in keeping the surface looking clean. The body is painted Grey which is a recent trend which may or may not stick around, but unimportant when integrating the device in your kitchen anyway.
“Green”: [***–] Bells and whistles outweigh the energy consumption concerns on this model. With an average annual usage of 595 kWh, GE is right at the top of the range for comparable models — hardly a recommendation for energy misers. This is surprising considering the LED lighting and the in-door water dispenser. The EnergySaver mode accounts only for a minor reduction. Either way, if CO2 footprint and overall cost are of your concern, this particular GE Profile may not fit the bill. There is no information available on environmental impact of the used materials or processes, which pretty much indicates that the manufacturer did not make considerations in that regard. (This has been common for the US so far.)
Layout: [****-] The french door design for the fridge portion divides the door size in half and allows easy access even in tight quarters. The divider moves with the right door in a clever tilt mechanism to grant full access to the inside (i.e. wide items). The internal shelfs are adjustable within typical GE standards and overall the crispers and door compartments reasonably well designed. Of course the limited can holders (4) may be a restriction in both quantity and the fact that it limits the fit to standard sized cans.
Lights: [*****] A cool detail is the LED lighting which may not seem much, but it’s bright and distributed to allow a more even lighting. It’s still just from the top unlike one LG model I saw with lights running down the back like a spine. Yet, it’s efficient and looks great in the GE as well. However, it’s just a small portion of energy use and therfore doesn’t really show in form of lower overall power consumption. Nevertheless, it looks cool!
Freezer: [***–] One of the main reasons for picking this model was the divided freezer into two drawers which allow individual access to two “layers” instead of one big compartment. So in reality that means that frequently used items (i.e. frozen dinners) can go into the upper (shallow) drawer, while long-term or large items can go in the lower. This way the temperature is better maintained for things that require opening the doors often (when in the upper drawer). So far so good, but in actual use there are a few issues with the GE design as the baskets drop anything small directly on the floor and the light cover makes the top drawer a bit small and overall it turns out to be tight once you take the ice drawer into consideration. The doors don’t actively pull shut and it happened to us twice that the warning switches were triggered enough to disable the alarm that the door was slightly open. Leaving it that way overnight really raised the temperature (to 12F).
Ice Maker: [**—] This model does indeed offer automatic ice “cubes”, even if the in-door dispenser only supplies water. Located in the lower drawer of the freezer, access isn’t all that convenient and thermally speaking it’s a bit inefficient to have to open that drawer for every serving of ice. It would have been a better idea to have it available in the top drawer. Why? Cold air sinks to the bottom and when opening only the top layer, the remainder of the freezer remains untouched — similar to the freezers in the grocery store. The shelf to hold the ice cube tray also clutters the storage space up and reduces true capacity for large items.
Noise: [****-] We upgraded from a rather old value model and the difference in noise is certainly significant. In fact, the GE Profile is so quiet that under normal daytime environment the question may come up whether it’s still running. When it’s really quiet at night (we’re living in a very quiet neighborhood), it’s no question that the noise is noticeable. We’re running the fridge in EnergySaver mode and typically don’t use TurboCool either. Any of those features may more or less influence the noise level. The ice maker is practically the noisiest part of the fridge and it’s noticeable when refilling or punching the “cubes” out. Other than that it’s fairly quiet. Every now and then there is a funky metallic noise much like a quick flick on a bell. Once you figured out that it’s the fridge that’s doing this noise it’s easily ignored, but it initially sent me out on hunt to find the cause for this “weird” noise in the whole kitchen.
Extras: [*****] The main focus point is likely to be the LCD screen that’s integrated in the control panel and the water dispenser. While not essential, it’s a flashy little gadget which adds some functionality like the very useful water metering in order to dispense exactly the needed amount. Simply program the needed volume and the fridge dispenses as long as the front switch is activated. it can be interrupted (for a short time) by simply replacing containers and still continue to keep track. Very useful! Another feature is the child lock which doesn’t keep your offspring out of the fridge but rather disables the water dispenser to avoid experimenting toddlers.
%26copy; 2008, theuerkorn
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