Great size for a self contained studio space Appliances Online removed the big old failed fridge which was very much appreciated.

My ordering and delivering processes of the CBM231NW2 went very smoothly 😊 My first issue relates to the build quality and my second issue relates to performance. As mentioned, I wanted a left-hand hinge. The conversion process was simple and mostly easily completed. What was a problem was the 8mm screws in the centre hinge. The other hinges 8mm screws were easily loosened with a 3/8” drive socket set i.e. not a 1/2” drive. With the centre hinge one of the 2 screws was very tight but just manageable. The other screw was clearly severely over-torqued at manufacture. Like most sockets my 6-sided 8mm socket has a slightly rounded internal entry for ease of slipping over a hex head screw/bolt. No matter how much pressure I applied to keep that socket on the screw head it would ride-up when torque was applied. I tried a second socket but same problem. Then I decided it needed my cordless impact wrench so that I could use both hands to apply pressure whilst operating the trigger. The socket still rode up under torque. Finally I took that socket to my shed and ground 2mm off the end to remove all of the rounded entry. It was only then that I had success in cracking the screw loose and removing it. Clearly the 8mm screw had been ridiculously over-tightened at manufacture ☹ Happy with the door-swing conversion process that I completed by only tilting it only a little to access the bottom 8mm screws. I sat the fridge in its working position and left it till the next day when I connected power and switched it on. Using Fast Cool it was looking good after a couple of hours and I switched it to setting 5 i.e. the coldest. The fridge and freezer temps were heading towards nominal. My test devices are a Food Grade quality digital thermometer that I checked calibration by stirring melting ice and it was within 0.2c of zero. It also has Max and Min logging. The other thermometer is a common fridge type digital that I compared with my Food Grade one. At around 4c and -15c it was within 0.3c of my Food Grade one. Both good enough for valid testing. The next day with the still empty fridge/freezer I tested the fridge coldest by rotating the air-flow knob clockwise to coldest fridge. I have my Food Grade thermometer probe in a glass of water (for max thermal inertia) and placed on the centre of the crisper drawer shelf. After many hours the lowest achieved temp was 2.0c. Whilst this occurred the freezer temp was no lower than -14.5c and measured between 2 common freezer blocks, again for thermal intertia. Doing the opposite with the fridge air-flow control wound max anti-clockwise the freezer air temp got down to -22.0c but the fridge temp rose (as expected) to nearly 5.0c. At that stage it was not looking good in terms of your claim of a fridge temp between 1c and 2c I then decided to be realistic and populate the fridge with its regular contents. Mostly small and medium sized bottles plus my regular 2.0Lt orange and 1.5Lt cranberry juices. New problem. The common Coles 2.0Lt orange juice container won’t fit in the fridge door bottom shelf as the shelf is too narrow ☹ It will squeeze into the centre of the shelf only by slightly bending out the shelf. In fact, many shelf positions in the door and cabinet are not well designed. In the fridge door the top 2 shelves are too close together to make the 2nd shelf useful. The middle shelf position is too low preventing wine bottles standing. The same issues in the fridge cabinet. Even with the lowest shelf removed a wine bottle would not fit on the crisper tray level. Also re the door design is annoyingly no door handle or finger recess near the centre or on the top. I expect to have a top recess to mirror the bottom finger recess. The bottom recess is too difficult to grab whilst holding an item in each hand. I’ve had 24 years of opening my F&P fridge with orange juice and cranberry juice in each hand. Why not have a finger recess on the top? The trouble with digitally controlled temperature is their cold limit. On my 24 year old F&P fridge it had an analogue knob numbered 0 to 8. When set on 4.5 the fridge was about 1.5c and the freezer -20c. The temp knob could be wound around to much colder i.e. increase the compressor duty cycle. That capability was of course not needed but at least existed. The CHiQ digital has no such option. I hate things that cannot operate beyond their normal use range. How would you feel about owning a car that was speed-limited and not exceed 110kph despite having the actual ability to do 160kph? After 2 weeks of extensive testing with a typical populated fridge and freezer the compromise temps are freezer – 14.5c to -16.5c and fridge 2.0c to 3.0c. Neither is satisfactory but merely due to the digital control. I considered measuring the actual compressor run duty-cycle as that would reveal actual capability. In winter I'd expect about 50%. Better ranged temp controls could increase that for colder compartments.

Perfect for my small city apartment. Bonus wine rack and the freezer drawers makes so much sense for accessibility. Fits my weekly shop with room for more.