Sooner or later, there are two appliances just about every homeowner decides to replace in a kitchen: the stove and the fridge. Yes, you might want a new dishwasher (or several) over the years, but while you can live without a dishwasher, it’s hard to get much food prepared (or preserved) in a home without a range and a fridge/freezer combo. The problem is that with planned obsolescence emptying our wallets and polluting the earth, it’s harder today to find appliances that will last for decades than it was when our grandparents were stocking their homes.
The good news is that there are still some manufacturers out there focused on quality, long-lasting appliances that also manage to look good at the same time. One of those manufacturers is Thor Kitchen. If you want a buy-it-for-life 30″ gas range, it’s hard to do better than the Thor Kitchen HRG3080U, which we reviewed here and found better than nearly any other stove in the $1,000-2,000 price range. Today we’ll review an equivalent high-end, yet affordable refrigerator from the same company: the Thor Kitchen HRF3601F 36″ Cabinet Depth French Door Refrigerator to see if it works as well as it looks. Our thoughts in ten seconds are to buy it if you want a huge, well-built fridge and freezer for under $2,000; it’s worth every dollar. Our full review is below, and you can buy the Thor Kitchen HRF3601F here.
Pros, cons, and key features of the Thor Kitchen HRF3601F 36″ French door fridge
The HRF3601F 36″ stainless steel, counter depth French door refrigerator is the only full-sized fridge available by Chino, California-based Thor Kitchen. Fortunately, it’s good enough to stand completely on its own. A veritable behemoth, it features a dual-door “French” design with a double drawer freezer underneath. The refrigerator can fit 15.2 cubic feet of food while the freezer has a 5.7 cubic foot gross capacity, resulting in a total capacity of just under 21 cubic feet, or 20.85 to be precise. The appliance features independent cooling systems for the fridge and freezer compartment to ensure consistent temperatures and humidities and the freezer includes an automatic ice-maker. The unit runs on 115-volt, 60 Hz AC and draws 2.7 amps while running and 3.5 amps while defrosting. Its energy consumption estimate is 623 kilowatt hours per year under average use conditions. It is 35.75 inches wide, 69.9 inches tall, and 28.75 inches deep while weighing 293.2 pounds. The HRF3601F, like nearly all Thor Kitchen appliances, is covered by their 2 year parts and labor warranty.
How much room is in the HRF3601F refrigerator, how easy is it to use, and how well does it keep food fresh?
It’s easy to state “21 cubic feet of internal capacity” when rattling off stats, but that doesn’t always give you an idea of how much space is actually usable in a fridge and freezer. We’ll go into that here.
For starters, the fridge makes good use of its 15 cubic foot capacity through four adjustable half-width tempered glass shelves, four gallon-sized storage bins, a retractable shelf for taller items, a full-width chiller drawer, and a pair of humidity-controlled fresh food drawers. To put it simply, you not only have a lot of room in the fridge, but also the means to organize your food to keep it fresh longer. The fresh food drawers and independent temperature and humidity cooling systems for the fridge do a good job in keeping vegetables crisp and lengthening the lifetimes of fruits.
Below the fridge, the double drawered freezer allows you to access and organize your frozen goods without too much trouble, even though it does require a bit of stooping and digging to make the most of the cavernous internal capacity. The top freezer section is divided into two sections; one is for the ice maker and storing ice while the other is for general storage. The low compartment is also divided into two sections but does not include a sliding bin.
Setting up and programming the HRF3601F – temperature, humidity, noise
The counter-depth French doors are not only aesthetically pleasing, they’re also easy to open, shut solidly, and fit flush with counters and cabinetry. The fridge itself is straightforward to use; aside from plugging it in and setting your desired temperatures and humidity levels via the digital display, there’s nothing else to do. Do keep in mind that you’ll need to connect the fridge to a water line, however, if you want to use the automatic ice-maker.
When operating, the fridge is essentially silent; you’ll only hear it when using the ice maker or when the cooling motor kicks on after leaving the doors open for an extended period of time. We’d estimate the maximum ambient noise level as around 30 decibels, which, for all intents and purposes, will be inaudible in most homes.
How reliable is the HRF3601F, and how much value does it provide over more expensive fridges?
In terms of value, we’d consider the HRF3601F to be one of the absolute best deals in full-sized, stainless steel French door fridges today. It has a monstrous capacity yet remains small enough to fit in a normal-sized kitchen. It’s attractive, solidly built, and isn’t overloaded with complex, failure-prone electronics, meaning you’re likely to be able to continue using it for decades. There are certainly more expensive fridges on the market, but in our experience, the difference in performance between a $10,000 fridge and a $2,000 fridge like the HRF3601F isn’t nearly large enough to justify the additional $8,000 that could go toward other things (like a matching 30″ gas range). When it comes to food preservation and long-term reliability, the HRF3601F is built to last and built as well as fridges costing several times as much. And that’s good enough for us.
Is Amazon’s professional expert installation with the Thor Kitchen HRF3601F worth it?
To round up our thoughts, we’d also recommend choosing the “include installation” option when you buy the HRF3601F from Amazon in the United States. We’re not suggesting it because the fridge is complicated to set up, because it isn’t; you aren’t dealing with explosive gases the way you would when installing a gas range. However, you are dealing with an appliance that weighs 302 pounds when you add the weight of the huge box it comes in, and it’s a large, heavy, somewhat awkward beast to move from your driveway inside your house and to your kitchen. If you don’t have a few strong friends readily available, paying a bit extra to get your old fridge unhooked, hauled away, and responsibly disposed of and your new fridge moved in, unboxed, installed, and double-checked in front of you is probably a good idea.
You can buy the Thor Kitchen HRF3601F 36″ French door refrigerator here on Amazon. If you’re looking for a quality range for under $2,000, we’d heartily recommend the Thor Kitchen HRG3080U 30″ freestanding gas range here.
Canadians, unfortunately, the HRF3601F is not yet available. However, you can buy the Kenmore 71215 top freezer refrigerator here on Amazon. For an all fridge, buy the Danby DAR110A2LDB all fridge here. For a dedicated freezer, buy the Danby Premiere chest freezer with a 7.2 cubic foot capacity here.. For a high-end, reliable gas range from Thor Kitchen, we suggest the Thor Kitchen HRG3080U 30″ freestanding gas range.
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