Samsung 36-Inch Counter Depth 4-Door French Door Refrigerator with Family Hub™ Review

Our Rating: 4/5 (See: How Leaf Score is calculated)

Product Highlights

• Has a through-door ice and water dispenser on one side and a large interactive touchscreen on the other
• Family Hub™ feature allows you to look inside your refrigerator even when you’re not home
• Exceeds Energy Star® requirements with an annual power output of just 662 kWh

Overview

The Samsung RF23M8590SG 36-Inch Counter Depth 4-Door French Door Refrigerator with Family Hub™ is an innovative appliance likely to appeal to early adopters of new technology (View Price on The Home Depot). With a through-door ice and water dispenser on one side and a huge interactive touchscreen on the other, this refrigerator is both a food preserver and a home entertainment system, and it still exceeds Energy Star® requirements with an annual power output of 662 kWh. Indeed, if you ditch your TV and just use the refrigerator, you might even save on your energy bill with this beast!

The Family Hub™ feature is really what sets the Samsung apart from similarly sized high-performance refrigerators. This hub lets you create shopping lists, coordinate schedules, play your favorite songs and movies, and connects with a plethora of smart home appliances. Like the Liebherr Monolith, this technology let’s you look inside your refrigerator (using 3 in-built cameras) even when you’re out and about, so you never miss getting a grocery item again. Voice memos allow you to add items to your shopping lists, and you can also automatically assign expiration notifications and nutritional information, making it easy to plan meals and minimize food waste.

You can also order takeout and groceries, then check who’s at the door, right from your fridge, and, when it’s time to go to bed, you can use the Family Hub to turn off houselights and lock the front door, as long as these are hooked up to the Internet of things. Parental controls help keep the feature safe for kids. And, speaking of kids, this stainless steel model is fingerprint-proof.

As for the refrigerator function itself, this model features energy-efficient LED lighting, a CoolTight door with door alarm, a filter indicator, and 12.5 cu. ft. of storage space. There is 1 slide-in shelf, 1 foldable half shelf, 2 fixed shelves, and 1 full width metal shelf on crisper. This model includes 7 door bins, with gallon storage.

Below the refrigerator is a 3.1 cu. ft FlexZone Drawer™ that has a Smart Divider that sections off food to cool at different temperatures for flexible storage. The built-in Autofill Pitcher automatically refills, providing cold water anytime you need it and the option to infuse your favorite refreshing flavor, and it’s easy to store tall bottles or a giant cake thanks to the adjustable shelves that go from standard to slide-in or flip-up. 

The Samsung Twin Cooling Plus® air circulation system helps prevent odors transferring between fridge and freezer. The ice maker in the freezer has options for crushed and standard ice, and this model offers a total freezer capacity of 6.6 cu. ft. with one drawer divider and LED lighting.

This model is not ADA compliant, nor does it have a Sabbath mode. This Samsung model comes with a 1 Year All Parts and Labor warranty and a 5 Year Sealed System Parts and Labor warranty.

Like Dacor, Samsung have recently been awarded the EPA Energy Star® Emerging Technology Award (2017) for Innovative Refrigerant Systems. This award recognizes forward-thinking manufacturers and system designers by distinguishing promising technologies that offer savings and sustainability. Winners must demonstrate their commitment to manufacturing low-Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerant systems that offer customers and end-users additional energy savings along with superior product performance. 

To be eligible for the EPA’s award, refrigerators must contain a climate-friendly refrigerant with a GWP less than 15; demonstrate an energy efficiency gain of 5 percent or greater; establish that efficiency gains are isolated to the refrigerant or components needed to support the refrigerant system; and use a refrigerant that has been approved for use in the U. S. market, and listed as acceptable by EPA’s Significant New Use Alternatives Policy (SNAP) Program, such as r600a.

This model by Samsung uses r600a as its coolant and cyclopentane as insulation, instead of chemicals linked to global warming and ozone depletion.

Samsung vs. Dacor

If you’re in the market for a huge family refrigerator, the Samsung RF23M8590SG is an excellent option. It is one of the few available in the US that is HFC-free, and it is energy efficient for its size and performance. Add to that the fun and functionality of the Family Hub™ system and this is an impressive appliance with no clear competitors. Indeed, its closest rival is the Dacor DRF36C100SR, which doesn’t have quite the same degree of functionality and uses almost the same amount of power annually.