In the beginning, when they were still called ice boxes, refrigerators had a single door. By the middle of the 20th century, two-door top-freezers were commonplace, and were followed by a couple variations on the theme: the bottom-freezer and the side-by-side. In the late 1990s, three-door French-door refrigerators started gaining favor, and in the last few years sales of four-door refrigerators have really picked up. What's next? Alas, the five-door fridge will have to wait. But the new Kenmore Elite 7206 refrigerator, which recently arrived in the Consumer Reports refrigerator lab, offers an industry-first door innovation dubbed the Grab-N-Go.

The exclusive feature on this claimed 31-cubic-foot refrigerator consists of an extra compartment in the top right door that swings opens with the push of a button. The Grab-N-Go is designed to access snacks, beverages, and frequently used condiments. Besides convenience, it supposedly saves energy by preventing cool air from escaping the refrigerator's main compartment.

While we haven't tested its performance, the Kenmore Elite 7206 is Energy Star-qualified, meaning it should save you money, especially if you're replacing a much older refrigerator. That's a good thing, since the model's $3,360 price tag is higher than other French-door refrigerators in our Ratings by a wide margin. You do get some other nice features for the money, however, including a slim icemaker that conserves interior storage space, an ice and water dispenser that's tall enough for pitchers and water bottles, a temperature-controlled meat/deli drawer, and LED lighting.

Performance-wise, the Kenmore Elite 7206 cools the refrigerator and freezer separately, a technology that in our tests has been shown to maintain higher humidity levels in the fresh-food section, good for food preservation. The fridge also features Kenmore's Multi Air Flow Technology, which is supposed to provide uniform cooling by circulating cold air evenly throughout the unit.

It will be several weeks before our tests of the Kenmore Elite 7206 are complete. If you can't wait that long, our refrigerator Ratings contain many recommended models, including French-door units that cost a couple thousand dollars less.