Seems Like It Would Be Public Knowledge.

You know what refrigerators are actually for? I mean, other than the usual "keeping food fresh for longer periods of time," and as a place to put those hundreds of magnets collected from family trips.

Ice cubes, people. They produce ice, as if by magic, and now you can get ice cubes and filtered water with the push of a lever, and you don't even have to open the door. Your own personal ice machine, right there, running 24/7, open all night...at your beck and call should you need more ice cubes.

When I bought my house, I was gifted with a leviathan of a refrigerator. A huge monster, dominating my little 10 X 10 kitchen, and I'm pretty positive than had I the sheer brawn it would take to remove the beast and replace it with my own fridge, I would have. I honestly had no idea how something that large got inside the house in the first place. It measured a full 36-inches in width, and my biggest door opening was 33-inches. It was my first experience with a French door fridge, which I was willing to deal with. I mean, after all, it had an icemaker. But, no filter, so I bought water by the gallons, and never left Public without a bag of Reddi-Ice. I'm touchy about my water.

The Leviathan finally gave up. The compressor went out, water constantly flooded the floor and as the fridge finally stopped doing the aforementioned "keeping food fresh for longer periods of time," I happily went in search of affordable replacements, and this time, determined to have my beloved filtered ice and water through the door.

The one thing I was most concerned with was the ice cubes. I didn't want those huge crescent-shaped cubes that didn't fit in wine glasses, which the Whirlpool Elite (a.k.a. The Leviathan) spewed forth. Petty, I know, but it was one of those deal-breaker weirdnesses of mine.

I soon found that no manufacturer bothers with a description of what their ice cubes looked like. Not one single one. Comments on pages of comparisons between this machine and that only droned on about "noisy when dropping ice into the bin," or "the alignment of the doors doesn't seem right," and not one word about the dad-gummed ice cube shapes. I e-mailed manufacturers, and got no replies, except for Bosch, and they said they had never been asked that question and they'd have to research it. I found out that a new Bosch refrigerator was well in excess of $3,000, so I could pretty much rule out buying one of those, even if the ice cubes came out in the shape of tiny little hearts.

So, I had to go into the search mode without benefit of the ice cube shape. I settled on a scratch-and-dent model of a lovely Frigidaire Gallery series, and I am happy to report that the ice cubes are quite small crescents, and the crushed ice function is divine. And, it's not mind-numbingly loud. Even when it is dumping ice into the bin.

I'm considering starting a web page just for ice shape comparisons in all the refrigerator models. There's got to be others like me who think about this stuff...

P.S. The Leviathan was removed by taking a door off the hinges, and removing the doors of the fridge before scraping it out of the front door, taking a good bit of the weatherstripping and door jamb with it. I'm still suspicious that they must have built the kitchen around the damn thing.