Panasonic 421L Bottom Mount

Fridge did its job perfectly for ten years – Good Quality paint/finish Magnets did not damage it. Did the job well for ten years. At times can be noisey. But this was rare, and likely common. Easy to clean I found. Show details

Great Fridge – I purchased this Fridge/Freezer from 100% Rangiora in North Canterbury in New Zealand in May 2019. The efficiency of 413KWh per year was way better than the 18 year old Westinghouse model it was replacing. When the Panasonic compressor cranks up then you can hear a low level high pitch whine but this is no different (and probably better) than… Read more ·  1

the Westinghouse it is replacing. I don't find the noise a problem and I was expecting some level of noise when the Panasonic is operating however I suppose it depends on the individual kitchen set up. Fridge looks great and plenty of space. I quite like the plastic compartment on the top of the freezer as you can store commonly used items. The Panasonic also 'learns how often you open the doors and correlates this with an inbuilt light sensor to make it even more energy efficient.

Good fridge but a bit noise – Purchase the fridge a few years ago. The reason I bought was because I personally like Panasonic brand. It’s a bit noise when it is operating, especially at night, you can easily hear it. I had one called warranty to come , because the noise got bigger. The guy came over and said the plastic part was losen at the back no other issue. Since then it has bee working fine except from the noise.  Show details

Plastic shelves easily broken – I have had this fridge for some years (over 5) and have had to replace all the the shelves the door and freezer as they become brittle, crack and break. The big freezer drawer is a bit clunky to use. It does not have a noise issue as others have reported.  Show details

Can’t fault it – We had this fridge for approx 5yrs and have just recently upgraded - Only because we needed a bigger fridge due to now having a family. had no issues with fridge. Was very surprised by Panasonic as didn’t know they did fridges. Very impressed. Quiet. Well made. And functional. It served us well. Especially loved the freezer drawer. Lots of space. Highly recommend this fridge.  Show details

Noisiest fridge we've ever had – Works well BUT the noise when it decides to play up rattles throughout the whole house. Had a call out last year about the noise and was told the door is being left open. No way Hosea! It's this darn fridge. The noise gets embarrassing when visitors are here. And naturally it's now just gone out of warranty by one Month. Wonder if Panasonic will consider my warranty seeing it's just out.  Show details

Noisy Refrigerator – I had this fridge for 3 years now and it started to make a strange noise but it is still working perfectly fine. I would not recommend this fridge to any one. Please avoid Panasonic fridge at any cost. Overall I would give this fridge 2 out of five stars.  Show details

Absolute Rubbish – Just over one year old. Very noisy and the front door is so thin that if you sneeze it dents and marks. It looks like an old refrigerator. I would not recommend this item to my worst enemy. Panasonic was such a respected brand. Not this product.  Show details

Noisy – Wish we'd never brought this as the noise is so bad at times. Not happy with the fridge. Temperature is alright but the noise when it decides to play up is bad. Goes right through the house. It's still under warranty. Wish we could change it. How about it Panasonic. We've always purchased Panasonic for years. This is the first we've complained.  Show details

Too cold! – This fridge runs at 2.7 deg C on its lowest setting! Anything in the chiller draw freezes. Freezer too cold on lowest setting leaving ice-cream hard? How much power it uses to keep everything so cold.. Tech coming this week so will see. Good Guys were quick to respond. Add it. Good Guys Ballarat were fantastic. Replaced unit with new fridge. All… Read more

good. Panasonic customer service were struggling. Several calls, several useless suggestions only to then refer me to a repair man who turned out to be a washing repairer only!! Great if I want to throw my jeans in the fridge to cool down!!!

Wouldn't buy it again – Design of the fridge is great, lots of room. Worked great for the first 3 months. Now the top 2 shelves don't seem to be very cold. I have not changed anything and my fridge is not over full. I had to throw out a few things today because it just doesn't seem to be working right. It's more like a esky then a fridge. Yet down the bottom is very cold!

Love it – Have had this fridge for a year now and can't fault it. Contrary to some reviews I find this fridge quiet. It does make some sounds and there have been times I have had trouble working out that it's actually the fridge making the sound I can hear, it's not the steady droning sound I have been used to from previous fridges. I definitely have not… Read more

had the high pitch sound other people have reported. Maybe there are some lemons out there?? The shelving and drawers are solid as is the unit in general. It stays cold, recovering from being opened and closed a lot quickly. Vegetables and fruit seem to stay fresh for a long time in the crisper and the meat drawer keeps meat just off frozen. Having had top mount fridges previously we notice how easy the bottom mount configuration is to live with. No science projects hiding up the back of the bottom shelf !! Highly recommend.

Doesn't get cold enough – I purchased this fridge 3 years ago. It doesn't get cold enough. Milk frequently goes off. Things take a long time to cool down. I suspect something is wrong with the thermostat, or the fridge just isn't good. I've called for a service, and hopefully it can be fixed as this is the most used item in my home!

3 strikes you are out - not good enough Panasonic – 24 hours in and about to throw it off the balcony if the noise keep going. It's like cicadas have setup a nest in the kitchen, high pitched and very annoying in my super quiet apartment. There is nothing much in the fridge yet so will give it a few days and see if it settles in.. but I suspect a call to Panasonic will be coming soon. On sale… Read more

at the good guys, they told me it's a run out model now.

** Update 1 week later **

Have had the fridge replaced today - thanks Good Guys. The sound is still there right now - but will give it some time to settle in and see. It's not as bad as the last one, but still not good enough.

** Update 3 weeks later **

Just had the 3rd fridge delivered - great service from Good Guys.

I'm hoping this will be the last, but I'm not optimist about it.

** Update 4 **

3rd fridge is also a lemon, do they do any quality assurance at Panasonic on this model ?

Back to Good Guys and fantastic service from Artarmon branch. Store manager advised other customers have also reported the same and they are happy to swap it for another brand or provide refund.

Not many options in bottom mount fridge around this size - Fisher and Paykel looks like a possibility but it's a lot more expensive.

** Final Update **

Switched to Fisher and Paykel bottom mount which is the closest I could find around the same size as the Panasonic, and whilst it's not super quiet, it's a huge improvement over the Panasonic.

Lovely design as well.

Great Fridge – I recently purchased this fridge after a terrible experience with another brand. I absolutely love this fridge. It is quiet, keeps everything so cold & this is the first bottom freezer model I have had. Love the bottom freezer. Just waiting on my Tupperware to arrive that was part of the promotion when I purchased the fridge. It has been a few weeks so hoping it arrives soon. :)  Show reply

noise – Purchased the fridge and received it today. As soon as we plugged it in has this annoying loud noise. Thought the noise would have gone by now but still there and been a few hours already. Much louder then my old fridge might have to call the manufacturer tomorrow to see what the problem is as some reviews say their fridge is quiet

Quiet and Noisy – Sometimes my fridge is so quiet you think it's not even on. But when it starts doing its thing, the high pitch noise nearly hurts my ears, even with the TV on. Not sure if this is normal or not. Otherwise it's a very smart looking and nice fridge, it's also a good size if you don't have much space, don't want a big fridge or on a tight budget.

A very quiet frig – Having read many reviews regarding this frig being very noisy I was very hesitant to buy one but was the only bottom freezer type that would fit in our frig space. Surprise, surprise - it is very quiet, certainly quieter than our old one. So I don't know what all those bad reviews were about. The only thing we didn't like is that we had to take one shelf out, making 2 shelves instead of 3, in order to fit all the taller items..

Door Configuration – Would love to purchase, but I am told this frig is only available with a right hand hinge - we need a left hand hinge for it to work with our kitchen design - wall on the left, food bench on the right. Other brands have a choice - pity not available with Panasonic.

Awesome fridge – We have had this fridge for over a month now and love it. It is super quiet (the quietest I've ever owned). Like others, I read reviews and was sceptical on getting it, but trust me, if it's loud then something is wrong - we hardly hear it. It has plenty of storage and seems economical. Yes it would have been nice to have a built in door alarm,… Read more

although haven't needed it. The economy mode seems to work well, the chill drawer does exactly as promised (near zero degrees), only had to do a slight temperature adjustment after leaving it for a day, and works better than expected. Would recommend to anyone. We got this on sale so opportunity exists to pick one up at a great price.

Smart Looking Fridge – This frig looks smart is very economical and has a great arrangement of shelves. Having read about its noise on this website it was initially quite noticeable because unlike my previous frig it is high pitched. Having said that the frig is very quiet and what noise it makes is unremarkable. This is my first fridge with glass shelves and they… Read more

are very good because they make things easy to see and are stable.

The advertising makes claims about keeping fruit and veg fresh I may be imagining things but this would seem to be an accurate claim.

Looks good but very noisy!! – Good looking fridge and good size but unfortunately i got a NOISY one that makes all sorts of noises at random times thru out the day. I was expecting more noise than usual as it has an inverter fan but this noise is not normal. After calling Panasonic a few times they agreed to send a technician around and of course the fridge was quiet so I… Read more

showed him a video I had recorded and he laughed and agreed that it sounded like a cow mooing but said thats normal and all fridges make noises and just to ignore it?? He also said the noise is from the pressure which I don't understand - He repositioned the fridge which helped a little bit but the noise was still there just less frequent!

After a lot of persistence they agreed for us to exchange or return it.

Its a shame that it was so noisy as i liked everything else about the fridge but the noise was unbearable!

The high pitch noise is noticable, but extremely efficient and conveinient fridge – Ok, so the high pitch noise exists but as far as I'm concerned, its background noise at best. My fridge sits less than 10m line of site from our living room and when the tv is on, I don't notice it at all. Our bedrooms are just down the hall and we don't notice the fridge at all! Onto the good stuff. I bought this fridge purely because I was… Read more

sick of the 202 litre fridge I had to panic buy when I found out our 475 litre wouldn't fit down the access of our new apartment while moving. After an afternoon researching, this fridge was the only on in the 400 litre plus range that would fit down the narrow passage that accesses our place. If capacity is what you're after while being limited by access, this fridge is one to consider!

Onto the performance, this fridge is amazing. fresh food and vegetables last considerably longer in the chiller bin than other fridges I have had. My parrter has a bad habit of not wrapping cut fruit and vegetables before putting them in the fridge so I often find tomato or pear halves that are days old still good enough to eat and not brown or dried out. The meat draw is also excellent. I keep all my fresh meat in the draw and it maintains its freshness for almost a week after purchase. The draw is meant to chill to just above zero degrees Celsius, so I keep my beers here and they keep perfectly! The wide door

The freezer excels in cooling and maintaining sub zero temps. Frest ice can be made in mere hours and freezes large amounts of unfrozen meat over night no problem (I often buy whole cuts of rib fillet, some 4kg of beef cut up and bagged into individual bags). The draw type setup is extremely handy although it wasn't my favorite feature to begin with, but has grown on me very much after a few months of use!

Now to the economics, last quarter our power bill was aver $600, while our most recent bill came in at sub $400 with the only major change to our usage was the old fridge.

I can't recommend this fridge highly enough, I was at first worried about the other reports of the noise inverter, but it won't keep you up at night, it won't ruing your TV viewing, nor dinner table conversations. If you're in the market for a low $1000 fridge, I'd definitely recommend this fridge. After all, the inverter also comes with a 10 year guarantee!

Great, Can't fault this fridge, Happily recommend it – We are very happy with our fridge. The only true stainless steel appearance that is magnetic. I challenge anyone to pick that it's not actually stainless. Nice bright L.E.D light. adjustable temp function on the door. (Econavi) function that works out how often and when the door is opened so it can adjust the temp at the right times by the right… Read more

amount, great energy saving function. I haven't found it to be noisy at all, quite the contrary. There is a POTENTIAL point that MIGHT cause a rattle. It has a heat return pipe in the water catch tray. The tray is for droplets generated by dehumidifying when defrosting and cooling. Every modern fridge has a catch tray. The heat return pipe sits very close to the bottom of the water tray and is designed to evaporate water caught in the tray, so it needs to be close to the bottom. When the compressor starts it creates some heat, as is perfectly normal. That heat is partially transferred via the small black pipe sitting in the catch tray. If it is in contact with the bottom of the catch tray it can rattle. All compressors cause some vibration, that's why they are mounted on rubber mounts, to fix it simply lower the tray slightly or CAREFULLY bend the small black pipe up 1 or 2 mm. Problem solved. It really is so very easy, IF it does make that noise. That is EXACTLY what I did. Bear in mind that the closer the pipe is to the bottom of the tray the less water will be able to gather, hence the reason it is made to be so close to the bottom of the tray. I can't understand why some people write such critical reviews without even trying to find out what a problem is or making any attempt to solve it. The cold hard facts are regardless of what appliance we buy and whether it be the top of the range, bottom of the heap or anywhere in between all appliances are mass produced and occasionally problems arise. I accept that generally speaking premium products are usually built better, will generally last longer, have better features and less niggles/problems BUT it does not make the very best products immune from problems. Paying the highest price for the best brand is NOT an 'absolute' guarantee that it will last longer and/or have less problems than it's cheapest rival. As far as I am concerned this fridge works very well. It has great features most of which I haven't mentioned, We (my wife and I) consider it to be excellent value for money. I spent a significant amount of time researching all the new appliances we purchased for our new kitchen. We purchased some different brands depending on the item and price was not the highest motivating factor, indeed it was one of the lowest. Build quality, usability, efficiency, features and suitability for us, were more important to us than cost. My view has always been if I spend $1 for an item that isn't suitable it is $1 wasted. If I spend $2 on an item that is suitable it's $2 well spent. So far all the appliances we have purchased have been great. We also bought EVERYTHING from the same person. Ruby at Harvey Norman in Frankston. The reason is we found her knowledge and advice very helpful and she knew what we wanted and so was able to recommend products that match our needs etc. It is much better if you can deal with a single person you feel you can trust especially when buying a lot of new appliances.

Awesome – Had this bad boy for over two weeks now and I couldn't be happier. I've got it set to the lowest setting and it is absolutely superb. Crisper is great - it keeps fresh produce fresher for much longer. Best fridge I've ever had. Recommend this highly. I'm not sure about the noise other people are reporting - mine is as quiet as a mouse. Smudges easily.

Incessant High Pitched Motor Noise – Only a week old and already I am looking for a replacement. I can deal with the occasional noisy gurgling, but the constant incessant high pitch motor noise is driving me crazy even at the lowest settings for fridge and freezer. Our previous 15yr old Bosch didn't make half the noise this one does. It is very disappointing as the overall design of… Read more

the fridge is good. I will not be buying another Panasonic. This one will be up for sale very soon. Pull out freezer, general design Extremely irritating high pitched motor noise

Love my new fridge/freezer – Have had my 415L Panasonic NRBW415VWAU fridge/freezer for about a month now and I love it. Well lit, shelf spacing good as are both the crisper and dairy drawers. Took a bit of getting used to the dairy drawer being under the veg. crisper. Getting used to but happy with the drawer freezer. Runs quietly. It's good to open the door and my vegetables are at eye level and I'm not bending down to the bottom of the fridge anymore. Well lit.  Show reply

Can't fault it – Have owned it for more than 2 months now (yes it's not a long time) but it's been silently humming away doing it's just extremely efficiently. Just like the ol electroluxes only with a quaint green light to show you how efficient it is. The fridge itself has a slide out freezer draw which takes a bit of getting used to but works wonders, nice… Read more

little touch. Only problem is its somehow now dented :s. Hopefully a bit of dry ice and a hair dryer and it'll be as good as new Cold, slide out freezer, silent Dents if you hit it hard enough

Super Quiet !! – I have the NR-BW415XSAU The Approx power usage results: 62 watts max, in ECONAVI mode. 130 watts max in normal mode. 215 watts max on Defrost cycle i am sitting 8mtrs from this fridge and i can just hear it slightly, The TV is muted. Doors closed Seems to be like Dr Who's Tardis, Spacious Plus ! Bright LED lights that are placed at the… Read more

front top and not at the back like other fridges, the LEDs cannot get covered by food items, you can see everything with no porblems..

Big Shelves, and the 2 crispers are great...

I wasnt sure about the freezer drawer, but now i really ike the idea. There is a sliding top shelf in there.

On medium fridge setting there has been consistent and even cooling at approx 2c Energy Efficient, Very quiet, Smart EcoNAVI David must have goten a Lemon !

I absolutely love this fridge – This fridge is everything the claims say, economical, smart, keeps food fresh, no mould or nasties even When things get a bit old. Crisper and chiller box are awesome. Spacious. I can see everything in it and I love the pull out freezer. I am absolutely in love with this fridge. And it's quiet which was probably my biggest worry because i have… Read more

had a Westinhouse and Fisher & Paykel both of which drove me nuts with rumbling compressor sound. Love love love. Love it. Food kept crisp and fresh, even temperature, chiller box is awesome I use it for meats fridge, homemade sauces and curries anything that can handle being kept at 0 degrees yet not frozen. Quieter than the Westinghouse and fisher paykel I had previously by far. It's clever, if I were a professional cook I couldn't be happier

Noisier than my 20 year old fridge – Panasonic were no help in solving this problem.this fridge is not smart at all. Noise starts at 10pm every night with defrost feature, but also noisy in mornings and any time of day with gurgling fluid sounds which Panasonic thinks is normal. They never got back to me even one month later. Don't expect to hear back from Panasonic. My parents have a new f and p fridge and never hear even half the sound . Very noisy