Top Freezer Refrigerators

Top Freezer refrigerators are a very popular style today...

If you are in the market for a new refrigerator, an important decision you will have to make is whether or not the refrigerator you purchase has a freezer that is located on top or on the bottom. There are a lot of different opinions about which configuration happens to be best. In my opinion, top freezer refrigerators are the safest bet. Why? Primarily because it has the potential to save the day should you ever injure your back.

Let's face it, accidents are part of life. You could be walking down the street and stumble on something that was left on the sidewalk and find yourself with an injured back. I know that this may sound ridiculous, but it happens. Now imagine you're back at home and you like to make yourself a quick and easy microwave meal. What happens if you have a bottom freezer? That means you need to bend down the slide to freezer open and read your microwave meal. I don't know about you, but the last time I injured my lower back I was barely able to move -- let alone bend over to reach into a freezer! With a top freezer refrigerator, the aforementioned hypothetical situation will not be a problem. All you have to do is simply walk up to your refrigerator and open up the freezer which will be at eye level.

There are also some stylistic considerations to take into account. Some people really do not like the idea of having a freezer located at the bottom of one's refrigerator. They simply prefer having the freezer on top. Believe it or not, very few refrigerators have their freezers configured to be on the bottom. The overwhelming majority of refrigerators are top freezer setups.

There is actually a historical reason for this. In the past, refrigerators provided an environment in which to keep food cool that was powered by large ice cubes. These large ice cubes were typically placed on the top part of the refrigerator. Because cold air has a tendency to travel downward, the cold air from these large ice cubes would travel down into the body of the refrigerator itself. The area where these large ice cubes had typically been located began to be referred to as the freezer. Do you understand? In other words, had early refrigerators located the large ice cubes on the bottom part of the refrigerator, the cold air would not have reached the food. Why? To repeat, cold air typically goes down (not up).

Here's the bottom line: if you're in the market for a new refrigerator, one of the decisions you will have to make is whether or not to purchase of refrigerator that has a freezer that is located on the top of the refrigerator or one that is located on the bottom of refrigerator. Nowadays, there is no practical advantage to having it set up either way. In other words, the freezer has no effect on whether or not the rest of the food in your refrigerator remains cold...