[woodruffw]

Serious question: what "must-have" technology has been added to fridges in the last 5 (or even 10) years? It's hard for me to imagine even wanting to upgrade that often. I could see upgrading for significant energy savings, but it seems like that's already mostly been picked bare.

(I rent, and I have what seems like a pretty modern fridge. The only real innovation I can discern between it and my childhood home's 20+ year old fridge is that it beeps when it's been left open for more than a minute.)

[Arainach]

My refrigerator is the one appliance in my house I haven't had to replace yet, but depending on the age and your budget there are a number of nice features including:

* Better organization - pull out can drawers or exterior-facing small doors so you don't need to expose the whole contents of the fridge to warm air just to grab a can of soda or the ketchup

* Water and ice dispensers - not brand new tech but I've owned plenty of fridges without them (even bought one such fridge within the last 10 years) and much prefer to have them.

* More temperature zones

* Better internal organization

* Significantly better energy efficiency

* Reduced noise

I don't want to have to replace appliances (or cars, or most anything) every 5 years, so I'm glad there are a range of options, but there do continue to be quality of life improvements.

[woodruffw]

This is a helpful list, thanks. I don't think the efficiency improvements have been significant in the last 20 years (see adjacent comment), but anecdotally I think you're right about water/ice dispensers becoming more common (and popular). Same with temperature/humidity zones.

[dzhiurgis]

If you have no imagination - look at Japanese fridges.

Couple of really nice ones - vacuum chamber for meats, humidity controlled area for vegetables.

Or just being able to put hot food without worrying it will spoil everything else (probably ok with most modern fridges tbh).

[woodruffw]

I think my parent's 20+ year old fridge had humidity zones.

(But practically: I don't think the domestic Japanese refrigerator market is available to me, at least not without going through some very expensive and individualized import process. So maybe I'd like to buy one of these, but they're not immediately available to me on a 5 year cycle anyways :-))

[dzhiurgis]

Yes most fridges have a zone within a fridge for veges (i.e. mine is missing a seal so everything is drying up), but it's not same as an actively controlled completely separate zone.

[m463]

similar to efficiency is keep cold time during a power outage.

It's possible the food you lose could cost a significant portion of the fridge price.

I have always wondered about that when I see the LG fridges with glass doors (knock to light up). I don't think the R value of even a great glass door can be very good.

[rmbyrro]

I think they've gotten more energy efficient over the years

[woodruffw]

I think I addressed that. I would definitely buy a 2000s fridge over a 1970s one. But energy efficiency improvements appear to be largely stagnant since the mid-2000s[1].

[1]: https://appliance-standards.org/blog/how-your-refrigerator-h...