Sunday, September 27, 2009

Samsung Stainless Steel French Door Refrigerator Review and $200 Best Buy Gift Card Give-Away


November 15, 5pm: The Contest is now OVER. Thank you to all 3179 people who entered. The winner will be picked through a random number generator and will be posted tomorrow, November 16, and will be contacted via email.

Thank you so much for all of your entries!


This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Samsung Home Appliances


I was given a new refrigerator. For FREE.

I still can't quite believe it.

About a month ago, I received an email asking if I would be interested in a new Samsung appliance. I could choose between a washer/dryer set up, or a stove top/microwave combo or a SHINY AND NEW (did I mention
shiny?!) stainless steel french door refrigerator.

I picked the refrigerator.

It was a good choice.


I received a bunch of Best Buy gift cards to cover the cost, installation, and extended warranty of our new (and shiny!) fridge, and our whole family piled into the mini-van to go spend other people's money.


spending other people's money is much more fun than spending your own.


much more.


This is Matt. Matt was our Best Buy sales person guy, and he rocked.

I didn't know until this visit that the people working at Best Buy aren't paid on commission, and Matt ended up staying with us for a good 45 minutes answering questions about LCD TVs and pocket-sized digital cameras, and then we got into sort of a heated (yet still fun and good-spirited) debate over whether or not a fancy-schmancy vacuum is worth it (guess what side I was on...).


Our experience was excellent, and I'd go out of my way to shop at Best Buy again. I'm also pleased with the warranty and hold-your-hand troubleshooting options they offer in their warranty packages.


Our new (and shiny!) fridge was delivered about a week later. I was worried about installation, and how the mover people would get such a big appliance through the doorways, but I shouldn't have been. These guys were professional and kept the refrigerator doors off until it was in place, and they were able to navigate through the house just fine---no marred walls or nicks in the paint.

They were gone within 30 minutes, and everything was good to go.


Here's our new fridge, loaded with food:
I am blown away at just HOW BIG this fridge is on the inside, yet it isn't imposing in our teeny tiny kitchen. It's 29 cubic feet, and our old side-by-side was 21.8 cubic feet. I thought our old fridge was small, but I never really knew how small until I started loading the new fridge and freezer and had so much room left for more goodies.

I really appreciate how the shelves fold up if you've got a large pan (or slow cooker insert!) to put in, or a tall bottle of champagne or something----those are some really cool features.
I also really like the long flat drawer with the divider that we've decided to put all of our salad-making-stuff into. We routinely have little tupperwares of beans or chopped tomatoes, and they just ended up getting lost and forgotten in our old refrigerator.

The freezer with the pull-out drawer concerned me. I didn't know what it would be like, or if I'd like having the freezer down low. I love it. The bottom drawer is big---and can easily fit a few frozen turkeys, something my old freezer couldn't handle. The top pull-out drawer is ideal for frozen meat packages, or cardboard boxed items like waffles, pancakes, and pizza.

The ice and water maker is much better than we had previously----ice doesn't take a million years to make, and the pull-out container for the ice works well. Adam filled the cooler up with the freezer ice yesterday, and by the time he returned from soccer (90 min or so later) it was half-full. This would have taken 2 days with our old set-up.

The last thing I'm going to write about is the alarm. I LOVE THE ALARM. If the kids stand and browse at the fridge too long, a dinging alarm sounds until they close the doors. This is such a wonderful and practical feature. Thank you for adding this, Samsung. It keeps me from screaming from the other room "you're not cooling off the whole house again, are you?" and wakes the kids up when they are day dreaming in front of the open doors (do they really think new food is going to magically appear?)


If you happen to be in the market for a new refrigerator, I highly recommend our new fridge. It is most definitely the nicest piece of furniture we own.

Now, let's have a give-away!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The lovely people at Samsung would like to know which Samsung product would make YOUR life easier?

Your choices include:
Fridge (RFG297AARS)
Microwave OTR (SMH9187ST)
Range Electric (FTQ387LWGX)
Dishwasher (DMR78AHS)
Washer (WF448AAP)
Dryer (DV448AEP)

Leave your answer in the comment section, and 1 lucky commenter will be chosen randomly to win a $200 Best Buy gift certificate (just in time for holiday shopping!)


Please note: you are entering to win a Best Buy gift card for $200, NOT a Samsung appliance. You can use the gift card for anything of your choosing at Best Buy.

Rules (please see here for official rules and further details):




  • No duplicate comments.

  • You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.

  • You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.

  • This giveaway is open to US-Residents, age 18 and older

  • Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail (PLEASE leave a valid email address!!)

  • You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
The Contest ends: NOVEMBER 15th at 5pm (you've got a LOT of time!)

But wait, there's more!


You have 8 chances to win---there are other bloggers hosting contests, and all of the
details and links are posted on this post at BlogHer.com.

My fingers are crossed for each one of you (and now it's hard to type...)