Why You Can Trust CNET Whirlpool WRB322DMBB Bottom Freezer Refrigerator review: Buy this bottom freezer fridge for the cooling power
If you want bells and whistles, look elsewhere -- but if you want near-perfect performance at a price that's more than reasonable, then this is the fridge for you.
- 10 years product testing experience with the CNET Home team
The Whirlpool WRB322DMBB is a good fridge. Yes, it's plain-looking inside and out, and no, there's nothing unique about it. It doesn't have any flashy features. It isn't as stylish as today's French door models are. It won't make your neighbors jealous.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
But this is a good fridge -- a really good fridge. At $1,400 (or $1,500 if you want it in stainless steel), it offers cooling performance that's as strong as any refrigerator we've tested, including ones that cost thousands of dollars more. Basic build aside, it's a solid option, solid enough to unseat last year's LG LDC24370ST as our pick for best bottom-freezer fridge. If you're shopping for a bottom freezer and you value performance, I'd have a hard time finding a reason to recommend anything else.
The Clark Kent of refrigerators
You'll find 15.6 cubic feet of storage space in the body of the fridge -- a decent amount of room for groceries.
Bottom freezer fridges flip the script on the traditional top freezer build that many of us probably grew up with. Like the name suggests, bottom freezers put your frozen goods down below the fridge compartment. This makes it more comfortable to reach fresh groceries, though you will need to bend over a bit to grab a frozen pizza.
As bottom freezers go, the WRB322DMBB is a pretty basic one, with a plain-looking 22.1 cubic-foot interior. 15.6 of those cubic feet are allocated to the fridge compartment -- that's a bit better than the 14.8 cubic feet in the Kenmore Elite 78022 and the 14.9 cubic feet in GE's Artistry Series bottom freezer, but not quite as big as the 16.4 cubic feet in the LG LDC24370ST or the equally-sized LG LDCS24223S that replaced it this year.
Both of those LG fridges sit atop the bottom freezer storage space scoreboard, but the WRB322DMBB isn't far behind. We had no trouble finding room for all of our test groceries, and we were very nearly able to fit all six of our large-sized stress test items in, too (the party platter didn't quite make it in). All in all, it's a very solid result for a relatively inexpensive bottom freezer model.
Whirlpool vs. the bottom freezer competition
| Whirlpool WRB322DMBB | LG LDCS24223S | Kenmore Elite 79029 | GE Artistry Series ABE21DGKBS | GE GDE21EGKBB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fridge capacity | 15.6 cubic feet | 16.4 cubic feet | 14.8 cubic feet | 14.9 cubic feet | 14.9 cubic feet |
| Freezer capacity | 6.5 cubic feet | 7.7 cubic feet | 7.3 cubic feet | 6.0 cubic feet | 6.0 cubic feet |
| Total capacity | 22.1 cubic feet | 24.1 cubic feet | 22.1 cubic feet | 20.9 cubic feet | 20.9 cubic feet |
| Ice maker | Yes (in freezer) | Yes (in freezer) | No | Optional (+$89) | Yes (in freezer) |
| Water dispenser | No | No | No | No | No |
| Available in stainless steel | Yes (+$100) | Yes (+$100) | Yes (+$200) | No | Yes (+$100) |
| Energy Star-qualified | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Yearly energy consumption(kilowatt hours) | 584 kWh | 608 kWh | 589 kWh | 488 kWh | 572 kWh |
| Yearly energy cost ($0.12 per kWh) | $70 | $73 | $71 | $59 | $69 |
| Efficiency (yearly energy cost per cubic foot) | $3.17 | $3.03 | $3.21 | $2.82 | $3.30 |
| Suggested retail price | $1,400 | $1,500 | $1,800 | $1,200 | $1,550 |
| Lowest retail price (as of 7/29/16) | $1,165 | $1,300 | $1,250 | $1,075 | $1,395 |
The klutzy crisper bins come out way too easily.
Less solid: the interior design. Specifically, I'm talking about the drawers -- they're wobbly and plasticky, and they don't catch very well when you open them, which caused me to accidentally yank them all the way out of the fridge on several occasions. They're my least favorite thing about this refrigerator.
Still, there's some good stuff going on in there, too. Spill-proof shelves and humidity sliders on the crisper bins are always appreciated, and with a total of eighteen resting spots, you can rearrange the in-door shelves to your heart's content -- that gives you a lot of flexibility over what you put in them.
Those are admittedly about as low-key as fridge features get, though, especially compared to models from Kenmore and LG which feature things like foldable shelves and pantry drawers that run the width of the refrigerator. It all adds up to a model that reminds me a bit of Christopher Reeve's timeless take on Clark Kent: boring, forgettable, and a bit klutzy. But just like Clark Kent, this fridge has a powerful secret -- which brings us right to:
Super-powered performance
Over 72 hours of tests at the default setting (typically 37 degrees F), the WRB322DMBB came through like a champ, returning average temperatures in that 35-37 degree sweet spot. Better still, the temperatures all stayed true to those averages, with nice, steady lines that don't rise or fall too much in that graph above. Our regularly scheduled door openings (those spikes in each line) only raised temperatures by a few degrees, and the fridge was always able to pull temperatures back down in short order. Translation: this refrigerator packs a serious punch when it comes to cooling power.
Performance was just as steady at the refrigerator's coldest setting, albeit a lot colder, obviously. Temperatures throughout the body of the fridge all held tight within about a 1-degree range -- an exceptionally low amount of variance. You probably wouldn't want to dial down to this setting unless you wanted your milk to freeze, mind you, but it's still good evidence in support of the fridge's ability to hold the cold.
The freezer also performed exceedingly well. We kept at it at the default setting during both tests to see if a change in the fridge compartment would affect temperatures down below. The WRB322DMBB laughed in our faces and yielded identical temperatures in each test. Those temperatures fall right in the center of the 0-5 degree range you typically want from your freezer. Like the fridge up top, those temperatures never rose very much during our door openings, nor did the freezer ever fail to pull them right back down.
Sure, a refrigerator's cooling power isn't the easiest thing to get excited about. But please take it from me, a guy who spends way, way more time thinking about refrigerators than he cares to admit: this kind of cooling power can only be summed up as "ass-kicking." I give the WRB322DMBB a 10 out of 10 for performance, and if I could give it an 11, I would.
The verdict
Buy the WRB322DMBB for the exceptional cooling performance, but only if you don't need your fridge to come packed with features or distinctive design touches, and only if you're willing to tolerate the less-than-impressive build. At $1,400, I say those are fair trade-offs for performance as stellar as this, but I also wouldn't blame you for wanting something flashier.
If you want a bottom freezer that's a bit more eye-catching, then check out the retro-styled GE Artistry Series fridge -- it looks terrific, offers passable performance and retails for $200 less than the WRB322DMBB. If it's features you're after (and if you're willing to spend a little more), then check out the bottom-freezer lineups from LG and Kenmore, each of which offers more bells and whistles than you'll get here. All are recommendable, but nothing tops Whirlpool in terms of performance.