Samsung Fridge Freezers With SmartThings
Samsung's Family Hub fridge combines a 389-litre fridge and an 225-litre freezer. It's a large American model with a quality temperature control system as well as numerous innovative features.
You can make it your own with removable panels that complement your collection of matte black Rick Owens clothing and tie-dye Crocs.
All-Round Cooling
In fridges with All Round Cooling, separate cooling circuits help to keep your food fresher. In conventional fridges, a single cooling evaporator cools both the freezer and refrigerator compartments. This often means that the low-humidity air from your freezer is circulated into your fridge and it could cause your foods to dry out. This can cause food to taste bland and unpleasant.
Each shelf level is equipped with multiple vents to circulate cool air. This helps to maintain an even temperature even when you open and close the door of your fridge.
Optimal Fresh zone keeps meats and seafood fresher up to two times longer than in conventional refrigerators without freezing. Frydge is a game changer for anyone who enjoys cooking but doesn't like the hassle of defrosting frozen fish or meat.
All Round Cooling uses an All Round Cooling metal cooling plate located at the back of the refrigerator in order to hold cold air and stop the loss of it when you open the door. It also reduces your requirement for power defrosting, which saves you time and money.
The ice dispenser on Samsung refrigerators is among the most efficient we've ever tested. The patent-pending Twist Ice Maker dispensing large cubes is dispensed with an easy twist and can be kept below the fridge when not in use. This makes more space on the shelves and makes it easier to locate your favourite drinks and snacks.
You can select which way your freezer and fridge open with Reversible Doors. This lets you easily accommodate your fridge in the layout of your kitchen while keeping your fridge tidy and neat.
Samsung's Family Hub is the central control for your SmartThings interconnected home via large touchscreens on your refrigerator. It can show you a live video feed of your smart doorbell. It can also place orders for groceries using an automated inventory or suggest recipes based on what's available in stock.
Samsung refrigerators have flexible drawers on the bottom, which are an efficient storage solution. They make it simple to store taller items like pizza trays or cans of drinks. They can be turned back when not in use, and folded flat to free up space. This is an excellent option for those who like to cook and bake but are limited in their fridge storage space.
FlexZone
The Samsung FlexZone side by side refrigerator freezer features a unique 3-zone system, which allows you to add an extra freezer drawer or refrigerator compartment. This flexibility lets you design your fridge freezer to meet your storage needs and requirements. It also allows you to upgrade to a larger or smaller fridge by the addition of a FlexZone module.
The refrigerator has a stylish design that will fit in with any kitchen design. The stainless-steel finish is long-lasting and elegant. It also has an anti-fingerprint finish that keeps the surface looking fresh and new. The refrigerator also comes with an extra water and ice dispensers for added convenience.
It's a stylish fridge with an upper-right FlexZone compartment that can be converted from refrigerator to freezer. This lets you store things like ice cream, bags frozen meat, frozen vegetables or fish in the freezer. It also did well in our tests, however the 21.5-inch touchscreen's bloated apps and lack of voice control or SmartThings integration feel like missed opportunities.
There's plenty of room to store food items in the rest of the fridge, including two crisper drawers and a customizable middle FlexZone drawer. This drawer lets you pick between five different settings based upon the requirements of your fridge's freezer compartment. These include the freeze setting that is compatible with the freezer settings, a soft freeze setting for wine or deli trays, a meat and fish setting and the beverage setting for snacks, drinks and frequently accessed items.
This Samsung FlexZone side by side refrigerator is perfect for families who wish to have a fridge and a freezer in one. It's not as spacious than high-end French door models, however it offers a lot of useful features and is a great alternative for those with small kitchens.
Samsung Fridge Freezers are also very energy efficient due to their digital inverter technology. This technology regulates temperature in the fridge to ensure that it doesn't fluctuate a lot and keeps food fresher longer. Its energy efficiency has earned it the Energy STAR Certification.
SmartThings
SmartThings may not be as effective as Alexa or Google Assistant but you can still add a lot more smart devices to it. It's also baked into Samsung smartphones televisions, tablets, and tablets and some refrigerators. That may be enough to justify it for some, especially when you own multiple Samsung products.
The SmartThings App is well-rounded and polished, and includes an "if x, then y" automation section that works well. You can set things up as alarms that go off when sensors detect a flood or turning on the light when your phone senses that you're at home. It can control your fridge if you connect it to a smart socket, but we've had mixed success with this.
SmartThings requires a hub, which is not inexpensive. Samsung has a number of different options, including the SmartThings Station that you can connect to a router and use as a nightlight. There's also a more affordable SmartThings Hub Dongle that supports Z-Wave and Zigbee and Thread with support to be added soon.
Once you've got your smart fridge, smartphone and hub connected it's easy to use. The SmartThings app lets you control your fridge from anywhere with notifications sent to your phone when it's opened or closed. You can set up schedules to set the temperature, and even create reminders.
SmartThings was one of the founding members of the Home Connectivity Alliance. This alliance is working to make major home appliances from different manufacturers interoperable. In the future you could control your Samsung washer/dryer, Electrolux oven, and LG TV from the same application.
While it's not as widely supported as Alexa and Google Assistant, SmartThings does have some major players on its list, including Arlo, Nest, Belkin and Lifx. It's compatible with the Matter protocol which allows for accessories to be paired regardless of brand. For the majority of people however, combining Alexa and Google Assistant voice controls is probably the best option.
Family Hub
This refrigerator freezer is the most modern you can get. It features an LCD display of 21 inches built into the door, as well as a host of smart features. You can access entertainment apps, make notes for family members (think a huge digital version of a notepad that is stuck to the fridge), check the weather and more, thanks to Samsung's voice-activated assistant, Bixby.
The touchscreen also allows you to organize your food and recipes, with the option to add ingredients directly from an app for recipes and view what's in the fridge with internal cameras. You can also make shopping lists on the go and monitor foods to see when they'll expire. You can use a recipe app to read out the instructions while you cook.
Samsung has spent the entire year refining the Family Hub fridges based on feedback from customers. You can now create separate profiles for every member of your family so that they can customize the information and apps they can access. It's not as good as Alexa integration in your fridge, but it's an improvement over last year's model.
In addition to its entertainment and grocery management capabilities, Family Hub also acts as a controller for Samsung's SmartThings platform. It can be used to control Matter-compatible devices, such as lights, plugs, and locks.
Samsung's fridge is only a few years old and, although it still has plenty of features however, its touchscreen capabilities aren't a feature majority of people would consider essential. They're more fun, and somewhat frivolous accessories than anything else.
It could change when more software updates are made available, but for now these models are best for those who need the most complete connected fridge they can get. If you're not one of those, you could opt for a less expensive model that doesn't have the Family Hub to save some cash. If you have a lot of smart home appliances that you want to control from one screen, or if you are awed by the idea of having a fridge with a giant touchscreen, it could be worth the investment.