In Part One, we covered the problems of our fridge freezer going on the blink and how we failed to find a way to fix ourselves.
Time for a new fridge!
Reluctantly admitting defeat on the DIY repair front, we headed off to the web to find a replacement, spurred on by a growing need for cold beers.
Being gadget freaks (albeit ones with a limited budget) we set about investigating the spec sheets of various keenly priced contenders, and took a trip up to Curry’s for a physical investigation of what was on offer.
Half an hour later we’d learnt that:
a) Fridges really are boring things
b) The designs have barely moved on in decades. C’mon Dyson, work your magic! Or Jobsy! Sort us an iFridge.
c) Anything under £300 is exceptionally dull and things only get interesting on the groovy features front above £700.
d) We couldn’t afford any of the groovy ones.
After several hours of dedicated refrigerator-based study online we also learnt that twin thermostat fridge freezers are the best, faddy antibacterial coatings are viewed as a mixed blessing, you shouldn’t fill fridges to bursting point and fridges with a high energy efficiency rating (A, A+ or, best of all, A++) are the way to go.
Suitably armed with info, we looked for a fridge that was energy efficient, looked good, had twin thermostats, was frost free and reasonably quiet and, of course, had some buttons and lights to entertain us.
A bit above our upper price limit but heartily endorsed by one and all, we took a closer look at the LG GR419BSCA, which sports a shiny stainless steel design, an ‘A’ energy rating and a cool feature which gets the fridge to bleep at you if you leave the door open. It’s also got a ‘Magic Crisper’ which suggests the involvement of Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee (which would be a bit scary).
We looked at a host of websites to see if we could bump the price down, and found that once we’d taken into account delivery deals and times – and compared charges for picking up and recycling the old fridge (some offer this for free, others charge up to £20) – prices were still a bit more than we wanted to pay.
On a whim, we thought we’d try out one of those voucher sites that claim to save you money by listing all the current discount codes for major retailers.
We always assumed that they’d either be well dodgy or involve a ton of faffing about with registering, but a quick search took us to shop codes.co.uk/ where we were able to slap in the shop’s name and instantly be served up with a code for claiming a £30 discount.
We tried adding it at the end of the buying process and – yes! – the discount code worked. Thirty quid saved in about three mouse clicks. Result!
We’ll have the fridge in a couple of days and tell you if it’s any good.
Online voucher sites
ukfrenzy.co.uk/
hotukdeals.com
moneysavingexpert.com forums
www.quidco.com this apparently gives you 3.5% back on “genuine tracked transactions completed wholly online” but requires preregistration.
Fridge-based sites
Spares: find spare parts online
Slightly obsessive fridge-freezer tech site