Panasonic 493L Premium French Door NR-CW530JVSA (Stainless Steel)

Nice Fridge, Shelves Poorly Thought Out – We wanted a fridge with plumbed ice to replace our 21 year old Amana that had plumbed ice. Only 3 on the current market would fit in the fridge space. One learns stock is not always available when needed so those 3 became a choice of 2 we could hold in our hands, not backorder. It looks good and feels quality. It is VERY QUIET. The freezer is huge for a fridge of its total capacity. The 'Prime Fresh' and "Prime Fresh+' drawers work as advertised and are flexible in use. - very good features. The vegie bin is a cavernous single wide drawer that keeps most F&V fresh for days. The ice maker produces good ice; the water dispenser works. There is a control panel on the outside door for basic adjustments. Interior lights are OK.

Now the bad points. 1) the door 'handles' are so low an average male has to bend or grab the tops of the doors to open. 2) the door shelves do not accommodate a standard 2L milk/juice without removing another shelf above, losing some storage space. 3)The low height between the mid and top shelf, and top shelf and top of the compartment limits what can be put there 4) pushing back the 'extendible' middle shelf to accommodate tall things that do not fit on the door (like a 2L container) need to be placed on the bottom shelf that causes lots of space on the mid shelf to be lost. 5) the fridge compartment is not space efficient in a practical sense. 6) the external OEM water filter is not widely available and replacement is $115 every 6 months - fortunately no worries to replace it with a generic when the time comes 7) door shelves need to be removed to take the bins out for cleaning. 8) door shelves behind the water dispenser are very shallow and not adjustable.

If the designers had done a better job with the shelves and door grips it might be the best in class on market. But they did not. In contrast I suspect it suits many Asian markets very well, and those not having 2L/3L milk/juice sized containers would never notice problems with usability. _____ Addenda Dec 2023. Re '8' in my original post, the water dispenser should have been on the left door not the right. For good practice to get an eg. 2L milk from a door shelf requires both doors be opened since one cannot store them on the right door in the too narrow too short shelves behind the water dispenser on the right door. The freezer continues to impress overall, although the ice maker consistently 'snow' that has to be cleaned regularly. Panasonic sent a tech who replaced a part that reduced it. It may be a 'feature' of taking 'efficiency' a step too far? Panasonic has been as good as they could for the 'snow' but might have been less so if the fridge failed because of tech turnaround time, like any manufacturer would have. Their service agent was pretty good. ----- Update October 2024. Over time the veggie drawer does not always have sufficient humidity so some veg gets a bit limp sooner than expected; there is no humidity adjustment - another design issue. ____ I recommend it despite the annoyances with the shelves because one learns how to do things to suit the fridge.