... It is in fact a Zanussi Fridge Freezer.
Not just any fridge freezer but in my eyes it is the king of all fridge freezers. I wanted a frost free one as my kitchen carpet has been ruined through the endless times that I’ve defrosted the fridge only to find a puddle of water on the floor. ... Read review
Not just any fridge freezer but in my eyes it is the king of all fridge freezers. I wanted a frost free one as my kitchen carpet has been ruined through the endless times that I’ve defrosted the fridge only to find a puddle of water on the floor. I didn’t have anything in particular in mind and I was open to suggestions. When I saw it though I knew I wanted it. The model that was on show was ... ...have to be delivered from Zanussi itself I thought this was quite good.
I examined it when it arrived and I was very happy, they made sure it was unpacked and connected so that I could see it working and check for any damage. All I needed to do now was fill it up!
[WHY THE ZANUSSI ZX79/5W]
You are probably wondering what all the fuss is about, a fridge freezer is a fridge freezer, right? ... more
I’m in love!
Picture this? Tall, broad, immaculate, well behaved, reliable, very cool and he can hold his drink!
Perfect or what? But I’m not talking about a man, just what is it that turns me on so much?
Although all of the above would be very nice in a man it would also be very unlikely. No offence guys but if you had 5 bottles of wine and 12 cans of larger inside you would you be still standing? No, I didn’t think so.
I’m going to tell you a story about when we first met and how it was love at first sight.
[THE BEGINNING]
I walked in to the room and I admit I was looking for something perfect, something that would make me scream, oh yes! When my eyes were to capture that first image my pulse would start racing and I knew it was meant to be. I would want to take him back to my place straight away and turn him on. Would I be able to find what I was looking for? I hoped and prayed.
I looked at all the models and a few caught my eye but alas the feeling was not there. The intensity that I was hoping for, the butterflies in the stomach and the excitement failed to surface.
I was about to give up hope and was on the verge of tears when there stood before me was the most magnificent hunk you have ever seen. I had to go over and have a feel. I caressed my fingers over every curve and it felt fantastic. I closed my eyes so that I could feel every part of it and imagine what it would be like being able to do this every day.
We all know that beauty is only skin deep and it’s what on the inside that counts so I had to examine every inch.
I said, ‘open up and let me see the inner you’
It was like a blinding light! And I’m sure I could hear the angels singing (ok, it’s getting a bit stupid now)
I have never seen anything more magnificent. I asked if I could take this hunk home as now I’ve seen the light I couldn’t live without it.
What? Oh no! You are out of my league, what am I going to do. I knew that it was too good to be true and that you would only go home with some posh bird that had loads of money.
I left in tears but was determined that I would have it. I wanted it! I wanted it badly! I had to find a way.
[HOW I GOT IT]
I was determined to have it, you see if you want something badly enough there is always a way.
You may be wondering why I got all excited and what I was so excited about. You know it wasn’t a man because I told you that. It is in fact a Zanussi Fridge Freezer.
Not just any fridge freezer but in my eyes it is the king of all fridge freezers. I wanted a frost free one as my kitchen carpet has been ruined through the endless times that I’ve defrosted the fridge only to find a puddle of water on the floor. I didn’t have anything in particular in mind and I was open to suggestions. When I saw it though I knew I wanted it. The model that was on show was silver and I knew that would be more expensive than a white one. I asked the price and was told it was a staggering £600, now to me that’s a lot of money. They didn’t have a white one in stock but could get one for £500 plus the cost of delivery that at the time I think was £15.
Now, that’s still a lot of money and I was only banking on spending around £400-£450.
I made a note of the model number (ZX79/5) and it was part of the new Vivo range.
I used the most valuable tool I have, The Internet. I have made many savings over the years by searching around on the web. As I knew what I was looking for it was much easier as I could make a direct comparison. I went to one of my favourite sites, www.shopsmart.co.uk
What this does is it will do a search of online retailers and it will come up with the price and delivery charges. The number of retailers that it brings up varies depending on the product and if it is in stock.
I’m glad to say that my search resulted in a company called www.discount-appliances.co.uk coming out the cheapest at £439.99 with no delivery charge.
I was over the moon and went straight there to place an order. I’m glad to say that the item was in stock. I ordered the item on the 7/9 and it was delivered on 12/9, as it was going to have to be delivered from Zanussi itself I thought this was quite good.
I examined it when it arrived and I was very happy, they made sure it was unpacked and connected so that I could see it working and check for any damage. All I needed to do now was fill it up!
[WHY THE ZANUSSI ZX79/5W]
You are probably wondering what all the fuss is about, a fridge freezer is a fridge freezer, right? Well, I’ll tell you all about this model and what it has to offer and why I love it so much.
In some ways it resembles a robot, or at least that’s what people say when they see it!
Its dimensions are: Height 2010 mm Width 595 mm Depth 670 mm
Its power supply is 220-240V50Hz
As far as the dimensions go you will need to have plenty of room, it is very tall. If you equate it in to feet for easy reckoning it is about 6ft 6ins. It really is a monster of a fridge freezer.
One of the main reasons for getting a new fridge apart from the frost-free aspect was bigger freezer space.
The capacity in Litres and cu ft is as follows: Fridge: 246/8.7 Freezer 130/4.6 These are gross figures.
I never really new what the difference was between gross and net and how they came to the figures so I asked. Apparently the net figure is the actual space you have, the gross figure is the space you would have if all the drawers etc were taken out.
It does make a difference and you need to pay close attention to the net capacity. I tell you this as if you look at the net figures for this model there is quite a difference in freezer space.
Fridge: 242/8.6 Freezer 95/3.4
The fridge capacity hasn’t decreased much but you loose a whole 35 litres or 1.2 cu ft of storage space simply by adding the pull out drawers. Obviously you need them as it would be rather untidy without, but don’t be conned in to thinking you have massive freezer space. It was enough for me though and I loved the large fridge capacity.
[THE FRIDGE]
The fridge itself has a chiller store which is ideal for storing fresh meet etc at the right temperature, a crisp n fresh pull out drawer to store all your salad and vegetables. It’s also great for keeping popadums fresh until the next day; doesn’t it just bug you when they go all soggy?
There are two glass shelves and they are of course made from safety glass. One is quite high up and my husband loves this for putting his cans of bear out of reach. You can adjust them if you wish. In between the glass shelves is a horizontal bottle rack. This is fantastic as it uses up space that will normally be wasted. It holds five bottles and is ideal for wine as they are just the right shape. It will hold other bottles but 2 litre coke bottles are a bit of a squeeze.
As you open the fridge door on the inside you will find four compartments. The bottom one is a drinks store and is ideal for holding 330ml cans of pop, it will hold about 5. The two shelves above are great for storing milk and jars of pickles etc.
If you by the 2 litre bottles of milk it will hold them but probably only about two.
The top shelf has a lid that closes down. This is quite high up and is ideal for hiding the chocolate biscuits away from the kids.
You can set the temperature yourself by turning a dial at the top of the fridge, this is useful if you want some drinks to be ice cold or if the temperature increases outside. It’s surprising how the weather can have an effect on the temperature inside the fridge. This is also affected if you keep opening the door so try not to do this so often.
If the temperature gets too high an alarm will sound so that you can make the necessary changes.
[THE FREEZER]
The freezer is on the bottom and has four compartments, all are pull out drawers which I prefer to the drop down type. I find those difficult to see in to and hard to pack neatly.
The bottom one is what they call a maxi store, it is the largest of the drawers and utilises a lot of space, right to the back of the fridge.
The next one up is a standard drawer that I keep things like pies, fish fingers and the like in. It really is up to you where you prefer to store each different type of food but the next drawer up is a fast freeze compartment. The idea of this being that if you are going to buy fresh meat that needs freezing you can press a little button situated in the fridge that will prepare this drawer to freeze fresh food much quicker than normal. This is an excellent idea as the faster the food is frozen the healthier it will be.
The very top drawer is only slim and is ideal for storing ice cubes.
You can set the freezer temperature by using a small coin to adjust a dial that is situated with all the other controls in the top part of the fridge.
If you leave the freezer doors open for a certain length of time or the temperature drops an alarm will sound. This is brilliant if you have kids, as they always seem to be in too much of a rush to close the freezer doors properly.
[BACKGROUND TO ZANUSSI]
Back in 1916 in a small workshop in Pordenone, Northeast Italy, Antonio Zanussi a 26-year-old son of a blacksmith started the business. In 1946 Lino Zanussi, Antonio’s son took over. By 1951 they had a work force that had risen from just 10 to 300 and they invented the first gas cooker. 1954 was a crucial year and its first fridges were to come off the production line. In 1964 it introduced the first fridge with a –12 degrees freezer compartment. By this time they were manufacturing many different products and unbelievably they launched the first dishwasher in 1965.
Zanussi (the appliance of science) are a brand that are well known around the world today and it was the name that made me think I would be getting value for money. They are part of the Electrolux group who are also well known.
The Electrolux group is the world’s largest producer of powered appliances for kitchen, cleaning and outdoor use. More than 55 million Electrolux Group products (such as refrigerators, cookers, vacuum cleaners, chain saws and lawn mowers) are sold each year to a value of approx. 14 billion USD in more than 150 countries around the world.
(Taken from the instruction booklet!)
[OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION]
In recent years the government are trying to make homeowners more energy conscious and you will find products are now labelled with how energy efficient they are. Some will be approved by the Energy Efficiency Council. As well as being good for the environment they will also cost less to run. It may not seem like a lot but appliances such as fridge freezers are permanently switched on. Over the years you could save a considerable amount of money by choosing an energy efficient product.
It wasn’t something that I looked for as I was already in love with this particular model but for those of you who are interested the energy consumption for the year is 492.75 kWh and for the day 1.35 kWh. The freezing capacity is 10KG in 24 hours.
This means the energy efficiency rating is a ‘Class B’ that really isn’t bad and I’m quite happy with that.
The refrigeration system and the insulation of the appliance do not contain CFCs or HCFC’s, this has to be another plus to reduce global warming.
If you want to check out this product the url is below, I don’t know if it is still available as I bought it 11 months ago.
http://www.zanussi.co.uk/node80.asp?prodid=1675
I have checked with www.discount-appliances.co.uk and the new model (ZX99/5W) is available for a fantastic price of £449.99 including vat and delivery. The main difference seems to be that the new model is ‘A Class’ energy efficient.
[OVERALL OPINION]
I have to say that I am very proud of my frost-free fridge freezer and I always point it out to my visitors if they’ve not seen it before.
The only thing I’m not very happy about is the noise. The motor runs more or less all the time and it is quite noisy. Not jet aeroplane noisy but enough to cause a bit of a distraction.
One of the best features has to be the alarms when the temperature drops or the doors have been left open. When you get back from the supermarket and you’re filling your freezer you may find yourself wondering what the beeping noise is! You will eventually realise it’s because you’ve got the freezer doors open.
It is a good all round product and if I had to make my choice again I would still make the same one.
Fridge 10/10
Freezer 8/10
Overall 9/10
Definitely recommended.
Thanks for the read; I’m just off to stroke my fridge!
