Most Influential Home Products of the Decade, Part I: French-door refrigerators, low-VOC paints

December 14, 2009 5:27 PM

French-door models have come of age.

While Y2K got get this decade off with more of a whimper than a bang, there have been some seismic changes in the home arena over the first decade of the new millennium. A housing boom led to a disastrous real-estate collapse. Green became more than just a color. And the leaps made in the world of high tech influenced how we live at home as well as at work and on the road.

As we near the end of 2009, the folks who produce the home and yard content for Consumer Reports, including lab technicians and testers, engineers, product-information specialists, and editors, decided to look back to see which products have been the most noteworthy this decade. Sure, some of the picks debuted before 2000, but they rose to real prominence or brought about significant change only sometime over the last 10 years. Our top 10 list doesn't include consumer electronics, such as televisions, computers, and DVD players, which fall under the purview of our Electronics colleagues.

We'll post the remainder of the top-10 list before the end of the year, er, decade. Think there's a product that deserves mention? Post a comment below. If you don't see the comment field, click on the headline above or "See the Full Article" below and scroll to the bottom of the page.

French-door refrigerators
Each of the basic refrigerator configurations has its drawbacks: Top-freezers require some bending to reach the lower refrigerator shelves. The wide-swinging door on some bottom-freezer models can be a problem if you have a narrow kitchen. And while side-by sides bring attractive vertical lines to refrigerator design, it can be tough to fit wide items like a full-size pizza box in their refrigerator compartments.

Enter French-door refrigerators. Although we had tested them as far back as 1966, it wasn't until four or five years go that they made much of a splash in the market. In a 2005 refrigerator report, for instance, French-door models received kudos for combining the streamlined form and function of a side-by-side with the double-wide accessibility of a bottom-freezer.

Several of the highest-rated bottom-freezers four years ago were French-door models. Today, nearly all are, and manufacturers like LG, Samsung, and Whirlpool (covering such brands as Amana, GE, Jenn-Air, Kenmore, KitchenAid, LG, Samsung, and Whirlpool) have equipped them with external water dispensers, digital controls, LED lights, spillproof shelves, and other features you might find très magnifique.

If you're in the market for a new fridge, see our buyer's guide to refrigerators, which includes ratings of bottom-freezers, built-ins, side-by-sides, and top-freezers (available to subscribers). Also learn about the $300 million State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, aka cash for clunkers for appliances.

Low-VOC paints
Ten years ago, there was plenty of green paint to go around, provided you were willing to redo a room in lime or pine or emerald. But very few paints with low or comparatively lower levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were available, and those that did exist often performed poorly.

In the last few years, increased consumer demand for greener paints and tougher VOC regulations in several regions and states have spurred more manufacturers to bring low-VOC formulas to market.

Today, several of the most promising paints we're testing for an upcoming report contain less than 50 grams of VOC per liter (g/l), significantly less than the 380 g/l that federal law still allows for nonflat interior coatings. Our March 2009 story on interior paints offers more details on low-VOC finishes.

If you're planning a painting project at home, use our free buyer's guide to and ratings of flat, low-luster, and semigloss finishes (available to subscribers) to find the best paint for your home.

—Daniel DiClerico