Saturday, April 5, 2008

Will it Blend?

Here’s our dilemma. The whole point of our ongoing renovations has been the kitchen. It’s just that on the way to reach that goal we decided we first had to re-do the master bathroom and restore the floor plan to its pre-1940s glory (and a few other things as well). Our kitchen appliances are destined to be replaced when the kitchen is refinished, but lately it seems that our fridge probably won’t make it that far.

At random intervals, but every few weeks or so, our ‘frost free’ fridge requires defrosting. Each defrosting session seems to correspond uncannily with some other pressing event like an impending flight, or a Christmas family gathering. This morning, although the event was only to meet a friend for a spring hike, the fridge decided it too needed to mark the first warm spring day with a good defrosting. In winter our front porch made an excellent alternative to the refrigerator. We could bundle all of our food into a cooler and send it outside for the day, only calling it back in when cold was restored to the fridge. Today, though, the weather is warm (13 degrees C) and sunny. So, in an effort to save space in the cooler and to use some of our food before it sat unrefrigerated for hours, I filled our blender with frozen berries and yogurt. In my haste, I left a spoon in the blender.

It didn’t blend.

We shoulda bought a Blendtec

It broke the blender, not the motor, but the glass container. No yogurt smoothies (unless we were prepared for crunchy style) for us.

We may be forced to buy our new fridge prematurely. We have had our eyes on a fridge that hasn’t yet been released to the market. It’s the new Liebherr 36" 2062 Series refrigerator with French doors above and two freezer drawers below.

The Liebherr 2062

The question is whether we can live with our current fridge and continue defrosting at inconvenient random intervals, or buy a different new fridge now, or wait until the Leibherr model is available. Does anyone have any experience with Leibherr refrigerators? I know they are not widely known in North America, but the compact size of some of their models has made them popular with people with limited kitchen space. This dilemma will become more pressing as temperatures rise.

8 comments:

Jennifer said...

That is a lovely fridge. Mmmm. I might wait it out, and/or buy a $100 cheapie off of Craigslist to hold you over until it's available. (You can find them free, too).

S and N said...

Thanks Jennifer,
We might wait it out. Now that spring is here we'll be going to farmer's markets more often and maybe we can eat more like Europeans--just buying enough food for a day or two at a time and then I won't worry so much about food loss. Also, we dug through our old house documents and found the manual for the fridge, so before we relinquish it forever, we'll try to repair it, wait out the long kitchen renovation, and save up for the Leibherr.

Mrs. Limestone said...

Never heard of that brand but it certainly looks very cool.

If you can, I'd wait for you to have your kitchen plans 100% done before buying an appliance. You never know what might change between then and now.

If its just your freezer, maybe switch to mostly fresh foods for summer?

S and N said...

I think we will wait. We've been through so many design changes already, that we should probably know better than to rush in. Thanks. Good advice, as ever. Perhaps you should start an advice blog.

Jan Marie said...

Where can you buy that brand?? I really like the configuration. Two freezer drawers is a nice option.

S and N said...

Hi Jan (I hope that's what the parentheses mean). Liebherr is a German brand. It is distributed in Canada by a company called Euro-line. In the States, you can find a dealer here We were impressed with the 24" wide model we saw at a Toronto interior design show. The 36" must be their attempt to break into the North American market (with our obsession with bigger appliances and stockpiling food).

My Notting Hill said...

My friend has has a Liebher - she is very happy with it. The one you've shown has been released in Canada and it looks like it should be available in the States soon. We're planning to buy one of their counter-depth models.

S and N said...

Thanks my notting hill,
I'm grateful for the endorsement. I'd love to hear what you think of yours if you beat us to it (and at our rate of progress, you probably will).
S