Kenmore 72023 24.7 Cu. Ft. French-Door Stainless Steel Review
$2,349.99
- Sections:
- Specs
- Design
- Performance
- Storage Space
- Usability
Specs
While the Kenmore 72023 serves as a good entry point to the world of higher-priced fridges, the Maytag MFF2558VEM offers equal performance with a lower-end design, usability, and price tag. It may not have the level of spill protection or ease of access found in the Kenmore, but it also costs about $450 less with an MSRP of $1799. If you're looking for a slightly smaller fridge or are severely limited by your budget, the Maytag is a very good buy. If you're looking to make a more substantial long-term investment, however, the Kenmore is definitely the way to go.
Design
Both fridges are stainless French-door models, and they both use half-width shelves in the fridge, but the similarities essentially end there. The Maytag is a much cheaper fridge, and it shows—there's no through-the-door ice and water dispenser (in fact, there's no water dispenser at all), freezer shelves are made of wire instead of plastic, and the temperature controls are set inside the fridge instead of on the front of the appliance. These are all facets of a lower-end design that may give the Maytag exterior a more uniform look, but the inside comes across feeling cheaper and of a somewhat inferior quality.
Performance
As far as temperature consistency goes, these two fridges both offer high levels of quality. They're not perfect—the Maytag has slightly more temperature issues from top to bottom in the fridge, while the Kenmore has the same problem in the freezer. The temperatures are all consistent over time, though, so as long as you're not moving food up or down from one shelf to another, everything should be fine. There are two substantial differences, however—the Kenmore's crisper drawer lost moisture at a rate of 0.19 grams per hour, a fairly standard rate. The Maytag's rate, on the other hand, was a mere 0.12 grams of moisture per hour, a remarkable figure that means your produce will likely last longer. Conversely, the Maytag's freezer took about 40 minutes longer to freeze room-temperature items, resulting in thawed food with a noticeably lower quality.
Storage Space
The Kenmore is no slouch in the storage department, and manages to significantly surpass the Maytag in both compartments. Compared the to the Maytag, this Kenmore has approximately one and a half cubic feet more usable storage in the fridge and an extra two and a half cubic feet in the freezer.
Usability
The Kenmore is by far the more user-friendly appliance. The eye-level ice maker inside the fridge is much easier to access than the separate unit inside the Maytag's pull-out freezer, controls are much more intuitive and have a actual degree correlation instead of the Maytag's arbitrary number scale, and the drawers are smoother to open and shut. Also, the wire shelves in the freezer offer no spill protection whatsoever, unlike the fully contained buckets in the Kenmore.
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