The KitchenAid KRQC506MPS is a mid-range 36-inch wide counter-depth 4-door refrigerator. It has an ice maker in the freezer but no ice or water dispenser. It uses a single variable-speed, inverter-controlled compressor with a single evaporator. The fridge has a full-width pull-out tray and the usual shelves, crisper drawers, and door bins. There are two independent compartments in the freezer section, with the right compartment a Custom Freeze Zone where you can set the temperature separately from the left compartment. Each freezer section has a pull-out tray and two deep pull-out drawers.
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Our Verdict
The KitchenAid KRQC506MPS is a decent choice for everyday use. It has excellent temperature uniformity, with very little temperature variation throughout the refrigerator section. It has superb temperature uniformity in the freezer and maintains a consistently even temperature throughout. The freezer temperature hardly varies at all as the variable-speed compressor cycles. This fridge offers decent capacity, especially considering it's a shallow counter-depth model and has an abundance of space-consuming drawers, trays, and dividers in the freezer. Produce preservation is just fair; since the crisper drawers don't retain moisture well, you'll find wilted lettuce, soft celery, and shrunken cucumbers in short order.
Fantastic temperature uniformity in the freezer.
Great temperature uniformity in the fridge.
Minimal temperature swings in the freezer due to the inverter compressor.
Produce bin doesn't retain moisture well, leading to dried-out produce fairly quickly.
Counter-depth design leads to a shallow fridge compartment.
The KitchenAid KRQC506MPS is adequate at preserving produce. Its crisper drawers retain humidity slightly better than other, less high-end models. Still, its single evaporator leads to low humidity in the fridge section, and the crisper drawers can only do so much. Produce dries out fairly quickly, leading to wilted leafy greens and dried-out, shriveled vegetables in a few days.
Produce bin doesn't retain moisture well, leading to dried-out produce fairly quickly.
The KitchenAid KRQC506MPS offers reasonable refrigerator capacity, given its shallow, counter-depth design. You can store wide items like pizza boxes side-by-side on the fridge shelves and tall items like gallon milk jugs if you move the middle shelf down to its lower position. You can adjust the height on two of the six deep door bins, and the bottom bins have dividers to keep small items like condiment bottles contained.
Full-width shelves in the fridge make storing wide items easy.
Deep door bins, some height-adjustable, which can accommodate taller items.
Counter-depth design leads to a shallow fridge compartment.
The KitchenAid KRQC506MPS delivers decent freezer capacity, though space is limited since this counter-depth fridge has only drawers and trays in the two separate freezer sections. The divider, the trays, and the drawers take up some room but offer easy accessibility, and the separate freezer sections mean you can keep some frozen food items at a different temperature than the rest of the freezer, for soft ice cream, gelato, or shaved ice dishes. However, the divider limits width, so storing wide items like extra-large pizza boxes or family-sized lasagna trays will be difficult.
Two separate freezer sections keep items organized and separated.
Counter-depth design leads to a shallow freezer compartment.
Divided freezer section limits width and total freezer space.
The KitchenAid KRQC506MPS has excellent temperature uniformity throughout the fridge and freezer. The refrigerator section has impressive temperature uniformity, with minimal variation between the shelves and the door bins. The freezer's temperature uniformity is remarkable; it's consistently uniform throughout the freezer, and there's hardly any temperature swing as the variable speed compressor cycles. You can keep temperature-sensitive foods like butter and ice cream in excellent condition regardless of where you place them.
Fantastic temperature uniformity in the freezer.
Great temperature uniformity in the fridge.
Minimal temperature swings in the freezer due to the inverter compressor.
The KitchenAid KRQC506MPS' ice-making performance is decent. The twist-tray ice maker makes enough ice for a small family gathering each day, but not enough for a large party. The ice tray can store a little over a day's worth of ice, so you still won't have enough ice for a very large event, but there should be enough ice for a small family's needs.
Produces enough ice each day for a small family's needs.
Small ice tray stores a little over a day's worth of ice.
Performance Usages
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
There's only one variant of the KitchenAid KRQC506MPS refrigerator, which we tested. Here's its label. It's available in a fingerprint-resistant stainless steel finish. Whirlpool, the parent company of KitchenAid, sells the Whirlpool WRQA59CNKZ, which is nearly identical but has more mainstream interior finishes and fewer features.
If you come across another variant, please let us know in the comments, and we'll add it to our review.
Popular Refrigerator Comparisons
The KitchenAid KRQC506MPS is a high-end counter-depth refrigerator. Its 4-door configuration doesn't present many on-paper advantages over more conventionally-designed counter-depth French-door fridges, with this model offering less interior space in its fridge cabinet than the Bosch 800 Series B36CT80SNS, not to mention less interior flexibility due to its full-width shelving. If you're looking for more freezer space, the side-by-side KitchenAid KRSC703HPS is worth a look, though it has even less fridge space. The KRQC506MPS has a relatively basic cooling system for a unit at this high a price point, too, with the aforementioned KRSC703HPS featuring separate evaporators for the fridge and freezer to extend the lifespan of fresh produce. The Bosch goes a step beyond that with separate compressors for more precise temperature regulation. The one area where the KRQC506MPS stands out is its impressive temperature uniformity, though it isn't as though its rivals are slouches in that respect either.
The KitchenAid KRQC506MPS and Samsung Bespoke RF24BB6600QL are differently-designed 36-inch counter-depth fridges, with the former being a four-door model and the latter being a French-door unit. The KitchenAid has a smaller refrigerator cabinet, but offers more total space in its freezer cabinets, though it is worth noting that these compartments are partitioned, which makes it harder to fit really large boxed items. The KitchenAid also does a better job of maintaining uniform temperatures in its freezer and fridge cabinets, especially in the latter compartment's door bins. That said, the Samsung's dual-evaporator design results in noticeably better produce preservation performance, so delicate greens like lettuce or celery will last longer.
Test Results
The KitchenAid KRQC506MPS' refrigeration storage capacity is reasonable. It's a counter-depth fridge, and the freezer section is a little taller than other designs, which takes space away from the refrigerator section. This arrangement makes the compartment a little space-constrained. There are two full-width glass shelves, and you can alter the height of the bottom shelf. Below this is a full-width pull-out tray with an attractive wood finish, though it's painted on tan-colored plastic. Underneath the tray are two crisper drawers, sitting side by side.
Each door has one deep bin at the top, one deep height-adjustable bin in the middle, and one divided bin at the bottom.
This refrigerator offers decent freezer storage capacity. The freezer section is divided into two sections with a divider in between so that you can set the temperature in the right section independently of the left: 0 °F, 10 °F, or 19 °F. The divider, drawers, and trays take up space, and there's no room left for door bins, so the capacity is limited in this counter-depth freezer section. The door bins are narrow, and you'll have trouble storing wide items like frozen pizza boxes or family-sized lasagna trays, even with these items on their side, because the drawers aren't deep enough. The machine compartment is located at the bottom and juts out into the freezer compartment, limiting the bottom drawer depth on both sides. On the upside, this freezer's use of drawers and trays allows easy access.
The KitchenAid KRQC506MPS uses a single evaporator with a single variable-speed inverter-controlled compressor. An inverter compressor can vary its speed based on load. Such compressors draw less power than fixed-speed compressors and provide better control over fridge and freezer temperatures, with smaller temperature swings as the compressor cycles. However, these designs can be slightly less reliable since they depend on many electronic components in an inverter control board.
This fridge has a small, in-freezer ice maker, making eight ice cubes per batch. It uses a twist tray ice maker, which can be less reliable over time than an ejector-style ice maker. The twist tray design uses a twisting force on a plastic tray to eject the ice cubes. Since plastic gets brittle over time, especially at lower temperatures, there's an increased risk of the plastic cracking as the ice maker ages. However, this ice maker is in the freezer compartment, improving reliability. Some refrigerators, especially French door-type refrigerators with an ice dispenser in the door, have an ice maker in the refrigerator compartment. Having the ice maker in the freezer is a more sensible design choice since you don't have to keep an ice maker below freezing using special ductwork leading from the evaporator to the refrigerator compartment, while the rest of the fridge air is above the freezing point.
The KitchenAid KRQC506MPS shows great temperature uniformity in the refrigerator. There's very little variation between shelves. The lower door always remains slightly warmer than the rest of the fridge, although this isn't enough to have a noticeable effect on food, even temperature-sensitive foods like butter. Also, the door bins are only slightly warmer than the rest of the fridge, so you won't be too concerned about food in these locations.
This refrigerator has outstanding temperature uniformity in the freezer. There's almost no variation in various locations throughout the freezer. And aside from the normal temperature swings during defrosting, the temperature hardly budges as the variable speed inverter compressor cycles.
The produce preservation is fair. The single evaporator leads to fairly low humidity in the refrigerator, and the crisper drawer doesn't keep humidity high enough to prevent produce from drying out fairly quickly. It doesn't retain moisture as well as the GE GTS22KGNRWW, for example. This lower humidity leads to wilted lettuce, soft celery, and shriveled cucumbers in a short time.
The ice maker's production rate is decent. It'll produce enough ice for a few drinks in 24 hours. This isn't enough for a large event, but it will be adequate for a small family.
The ice maker capacity is satisfactory. There isn't much room for ice in the cramped freezer, and the tray holds a little more than a day's worth of ice before it's full. You could manually move some to the tray's right side for storage, but that tray section is half the size of the ice tray. Overall, you'll only be able to store ice for a medium-sized family gathering, nothing too big.