The Whirlpool WRQA59CNKZ is a 36-inch counter-depth four-door refrigerator. Mechanically speaking, it's a near-identical twin to the KitchenAid KRQC506MPS, with an inverter-controlled compressor and single evaporator. Its freezer section is partitioned, allowing you to organize groceries a little more easily. As a cheaper, more mass-market alternative to the KitchenAid, it foregoes the latter's fancy aesthetic touches, like the wood-vinyl-wrapped shelves and metal cooling plate at the back of the refrigerator cabinet.
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Our Verdict
The Whirlpool WRQA59CNKZ is decent for everyday use. It doesn't do the best job of keeping fresh produce crisp, so you might want to look elsewhere if you regularly buy foodstuffs like lettuce or celery. Storage capacity is also far from show-stopping, especially for a 36-inch unit, but the latter is par for the course for a counter-depth fridge. That being said, the fridge does provide great overall temperature consistency in both the fridge and freezer, so you can place temperature-sensitive items wherever you please without anything spoiling prematurely.
Impressive temperature uniformity inside fridge.
Temperature consistency in freezer is excellent.
Pull-out drawers allow you to efficiently organize and access frozen items.
Limited storage flexibility inside fridge compartment.
Partitioned freezer compartments can make it difficult to fit large boxed items inside.
Produce bins don't seal well.
The Whirlpool WRQA59CNKZ's produce preservation performance is mediocre. Its single-evaporator design and poorly sealed crisper drawers result in significant moisture loss in delicate produce like celery or lettuce. You can expect to begin seeing wilting in these sorts of foodstuffs within the span of a week or so, even less if you keep these items outside the crisper drawer.
Humidity level in fridge cabinet is low.
Produce bins don't seal well.
The Whirlpool WRQA59CNKZ's refrigeration capacity is alright. It isn't the most flexible space, with no split shelving and only a single movable full-width shelf. As a counter-depth unit, the space itself is also quite shallow. On the upside, the door bins are reasonably spacious, and there's no in-door ice maker to take up valuable real estate.
Fairly large door bins.
Limited storage flexibility inside fridge compartment.
The Whirlpool WRQA59CNKZ has good freezer capacity. The space is partitioned and comprises mainly of pull-out drawers, making it a hassle to fit really wide items, like boxed family-sized meals, but the lower bins in either section are big enough to fit something like a Thanksgiving turkey.
Pull-out drawers allow you to efficiently organize and access frozen items.
Partitioned freezer compartments can make it difficult to fit large boxed items inside.
The Whirlpool WRQA59CNKZ's temperature uniformity is excellent. Cool air is evenly distributed across every shelf in the fridge, with even the warmest door bins being a couple of degrees warmer than the main cabinet. The same goes for the freezer, so you can store items like ice cream in any area of these cabinets, without it freezing to a rock-hard consistency in one spot or overly soft if left in another.
Impressive temperature uniformity inside fridge.
Temperature consistency in freezer is excellent.
The Whirlpool WRQA59CNKZ provides satisfactory ice-making performance. The twist-tray style ice maker can provide enough ice in a 24-hour period for slinging drinks at a family dinner, but the freezer's small ice tray means that you'll likely need to purchase a bag of ice or two for larger get-togethers.
Ice making rate and ice tray capacity are well-suited for smaller gatherings.
Will struggle to produce enough ice for larger gatherings.
Performance Usages
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
This fridge is only available in a single color variant: Stainless Steel. For those interested, here's the product label.
If you come across another variant of this refrigerator, let us know in the comments below so that we can update our review.
Popular Refrigerator Comparisons
The Whirlpool WRQA59CNKZ is a mid-range counter-depth four-door fridge. It's a mechanical cousin to the pricier KitchenAid KRQC506MPS and performs in a near-identical fashion overall. There's good and bad in that statement, with this unit providing excellent temperature uniformity and an interior that makes it easy to organize your groceries. That said, traditional French door models like the LG LRFLC2706S will be better able to accommodate larger items in the freezer, since the space in the latter isn't sectioned apart. The Whirlpool's produce preservation performance also lags behind units with dual evaporators like the Samsung Bespoke RF30BB6200QL, which promotes a more humid environment inside the fridge.
If you're shopping for alternatives, see our recommendations for the best counter-depth refrigerators, the best French door refrigerators, and the best refrigerators.
Test Results
This unit has an okay refrigeration capacity. As is expected for a counter-depth unit, this section is shallow, which can make it challenging to fit items like larger casserole dishes. The shelves are also full-width, and with the exception of the middle shelf, have only a single position; you'll need to lay taller bottles flat, or stuff them into the door bins.
The door bins are reasonably spacious, with enough space to fit bulky items like milk jugs. However, they aren't exactly the most flexible storage solution, as you can only adjust the position of the middle bins on either door and only to a minor extent.
The Whirlpool WRQA59CNKZ has good freezer capacity. The partitioned compartment uses pull-out drawers to make it easy to access and categorize frozen items. That said, unlike the
KitchenAid KRQC506MPS, the middle drawers are shorter in height, making it a little easier to grab items without having to pull either drawer out completely. While this setup keeps groceries neat and organized, it can be a bit of a nuisance if you regularly purchase bulky items: the lower bins in either section are big enough to accommodate something the size of a Thanksgiving turkey, but you're likely to find it challenging to fit bulky boxed items.
Like the KitchenAid KRQC506MPS, this unit uses a single evaporator with a single inverter-controlled compressor. An inverter-controlled compressor provides superior on-paper temperature regulation and efficiency to a fixed-speed unit, as it can vary its speed based on the required load instead of constantly cycling on and off to maintain a setpoint. However, these designs do introduce further potential failure points in the inverter control board itself.
On the flip side, the Whirlpool WRQA59CNKZ has a single evaporator. Compared to a dual-evaporator unit, that's one less potential failure point, but it does result in a drier fridge compartment, resulting in inferior produce preservation performance to most comparable dual-evaporator alternatives.
The Whirlpool WRQA59CNKZ has a twist-tray ice maker, factory-installed in the freezer. The method of operation is simple: Ice is frozen into cubes in a plastic mold, which a motor then twists to force the cubes out and into the ice tray below. That said, the plastic mold can be rendered brittle from repetitive thermal shock and mechanical stress, and eventually crack.
That said, an ice maker located in the freezer is a good starting point. The fridge doesn't need to maintain an independent microclimate to promote ice formation, as is the case for an in-fridge ice maker with a through-door ice dispenser.
The temperature uniformity is great. Whirlpool's 'TotalCoverage Cooling' design works well in this instance, with cool air being evenly distributed across every shelf in the fridge. Even the door bins, traditionally the warmest section of any fridge, are only a scant few degrees above the baseline set within the main cabinet, so you can store temperature-sensitive foodstuffs like milk inside without worrying that it'll spoil faster than expected.
The Whirlpool WRQA59CNKZ's in-freezer temperature consistency is excellent. There's little overall difference in temperature from the top to bottom shelves in both cabinets, with the middle sections actually being the coolest, admittedly only by a little more than a single degree. As a result, you can store items like ice cream in any area of these cabinets, without worrying that it'll feel soft in one section and hard and unscoopable if placed in another.
Produce preservation performance is mediocre. The unit's single-evaporator design and poorly sealed crisper drawers conspire against it in this regard. The former results in a dry main fridge cabinet, and the latter results in moisture escaping from delicate produce to leak out of the crisper drawers. You can expect to see visible wilting in greens like celery or lettuce within a week or less if you leave produce outside of the main crisper drawer.
While the KitchenAid KRQC506MPS also isn't a stellar performer in this regard, it does do better than the Whirlpool, with its produce drawers sitting closer to flush with the shelf above, helping to seal in more moisture.
The ice maker's production rate is good. It'll do just fine if you're serving iced drinks for a three- to four-person dinner, but you'll need to start filling a bucket with ice well in advance if you're expecting company.
The ice maker capacity is decent. The tray is only really capable of holding a little more than a 24-hour batch of ice, so you'll likely need to store ice in either a larger container, or simply buy a bag of ice or two for larger events where you'd expect to serve a lot of iced drinks, like a backyard barbecue or a cocktail party.