JJ Lighting & Electrical - Home Electrical Centre

Yes,  I know what your thinking.  Panasonic make camera’s and TV’s right,  what are they doing selling fridge freezers?  If I’m honest,  a year ago I would have been just as sceptical,  but not anymore.

You see, one of my bugbears with, say Samsung, is that they have their finger in too many pies and a jack of all trades yet master of none,  and I was concerned that Panasonic was going down a similar road.  How wrong I was.

Previously we reviewed their washing machine,  which is still impressing me.  Really well made,  high spec and a great price.  It was based upon the washing machine that I decided to give the Fridge Freezer a go.

First impressions are very good.  It’s well packaged and once unboxed the qulaity of the finish stands out.  From the beautiful gloss panelled front,  to the LED lighting,  it screams quality.

Panasonic have decided to produce a machine that stands out from the crowd,  cosmetically and in quality.  The front of the machine is Gloss white,  like an iPod,  framed by full length recessed silver handles.  This makes it easy to open and looks loveley.

In the centre of the fridge door,  there is a large LCD control panel,  giving the user a clear indication of internal temperatures without the need to open the doors.  The temperature can also be adjusted on this panel.  In addition to these functions,  there are also controls for the Vegetable compartment,  Super Freezer and the Vitamin safe, Energy save and Hygene active systems (which we will come to later).  There is also a very usefull child lock feature which locks all the buttons to keep away busy hands.

The Hygiene active feature is an Anti-bacterial deodorisng fan system,  designed to keep smells from building up in the fridge comparment.  A unique feature so far as I can see.  It also has a Vitamin safe function which helps preserve Vitamin C in fruit and vegetables.  Of course these extra features use more energy,  so you can turn them off when you are not using them.  In addition there is an Energy Saving feature which can be used when the machine is not going to be opened,  i.e. overnight or whilst you are at work.  All the while the LCD dispaly shows how hard the motor is working,  again to let you know how much energy is being used.  A very nice feature.

The reason it has this is down to the Inverter motor,  designed to run at a low level constantly instead of powering up and down frequently and wasting energy. Again a unigue feature to the Panasonic and making it A+ Energy rated

Inside the fridge, the shelves and trays are illuminated by bright clean LED lighting.  The Fridge itself has a large draw and 3 glass shelves,  all trimmed in silver. There is also a useful bottle rack and the usual door furniture.  Below the drawer is the “Fruit and Vegetable Chiller”  a Large seperate draw on rollers,  designed to keep fruit and veg seperate.  Again a great size with its own temperature control on the front control panel.  All the plastics feel robust and well made and the fit and finish is excellent.  The total Fridge capacity is 227 litres.

The freezer is of course Frost free,  and like a lot of machines on the market at the moment,  isn’t massive.  It features 3 large drawers,  one with a built in Ice Cube tray,  and thanks to the advanced insulation materials being used,  capacity is 82 litres,  despite its small appearance.  Of course Panasonic are aiming this machine at the modern, fresh food cooking consumer, and compared to the competition,  they are doing a good job of it.

Overall,  the appliance looks and feels fresh in a fairly dull market.  Quality feels as good as Liebherr,  whilst the spec is as good as any machine I’ve seen.  Pop in to see how it compares to the Siemens and Liebherr equivalents.

The Panasonic Fridge freezer is in store NOW!