The Whirlpool WRT311FZDW is a budget 33-inch, standard-depth, top-freezer fridge. There's an optional in-freezer ice maker, available for purchase separately. It uses a conventional fixed-speed compressor and a single evaporator in the freezer for cooling. The refrigerator has three removable frameless shelves installed in any of five positions and three half-width door bins installed in any of 12 positions. There are two crisper drawers at the bottom to hold produce. The freezer is very basic, with a single full-width wire shelf and two full-width door bins.
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Our Verdict
The Whirlpool WRT311FZDW is a decent choice for everyday use. Its simple interior design leads to very good storage capacity in the fridge and freezer. It gives you flexible options for positioning the fridge shelves and door bins to accommodate tall or large items like bottles or gallon milk jugs in various locations. The temperature uniformity is great, though the fridge door bins are warmer than the rest of the compartment, and the fixed-speed compressor with mechanical thermostat leads to large temperature swings in the freezer as it cycles. Produce preservation is worse than other budget single evaporator fridges since the crisper drawers don't seal well, causing leafy greens to wilt, celery to go soft, and other vegetables to dry out and shrivel up quite quickly.
Good temperature uniformity in the fridge and freezer.
Good fridge capacity.
Flexible fridge shelf and door bin placement options, lots of clearance for tall items.
Poorly-sealing crisper drawers mean mediocre produce preservation.
Large swings in temperature in the freezer as the compressor cycles.
The Whirlpool WRT311FZDW delivers mediocre produce preservation performance. The produce drawers have large gaps and don't seal well, so they don't retain moisture as well as other fridges. Produce dries out quickly, leading to wilted lettuce and soft celery. The unit's single evaporator creates low humidity in the fridge compartment, so produce stored outside of the drawers will fare even worse.
Poorly-sealing crisper drawers mean mediocre produce preservation.
The Whirlpool WRT311FZDW offers good refrigerator capacity. This is due to its basic design, which is without thick shelves or many pull-out drawers, leaving lots of room for storage. There are flexible placement options for the fridge shelves and door bins, allowing you to store wide items like pizza boxes, tall items like gallon milk jugs, or large items like family-sized lasagna trays in multiple locations in the fridge.
Good fridge capacity.
Flexible fridge shelf and door bin placement options, lots of clearance for tall items.
The Whirlpool WRT311FZDW delivers very good freezer capacity. Since the freezer layout is so simple, you can use almost all the interior volume for storage, especially if you don't install the optional ice maker. You can fit tall and wide items, like ice cream tubs, large pizza boxes, family-sized lasagna trays, or a couple of boxes of chicken pieces.
Very good freezer capacity.
The Whirlpool WRT311FZDW offers good temperature uniformity. There's very little difference in temperatures between shelves in the fridge and in various locations in the freezer. However, the door bins are a few degrees warmer than the fridge shelves, so you shouldn't place especially temperature-sensitive items like butter here. The fixed-speed compressor and insensitive mechanical thermostat also create large swings in temperature in the freezer as the compressor cycles. It's not enough to thaw frozen food, but it might affect certain frozen items like popsicles or ice cream.
Good temperature uniformity in the fridge and freezer.
Large swings in temperature in the freezer as the compressor cycles.
The Whirlpool WRT311FZDW delivers good ice-making performance. Its ice production rate is adequate for small family gatherings, and its ice tray capacity is great, storing enough ice for larger events. The ice maker has a more reliable ejector design and is constructed mostly of metal. It's optional and can be self-installed.
Great ice tray capacity.
More reliable ejector-style ice maker design.
Performance Usages
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The variants of the Whirlpool WRT311FZD all have the same design and differ only in the surface finish and color. We tested the White model; here's the product label.
| Model | Surface Finish / Color |
|---|---|
| WRT311FZDW | White |
| WRT311FZDZ | Fingerprint Resistant Stainless Steel |
| WRT311FZDB | Black |
| WRT311FZDT | Biscuit |
| WRT311FZDM | Stainless Steel |
If you come across another variant, please let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Popular Refrigerator Comparisons
The Whirlpool WRT311FZDW is a budget 33-inch top-freezer refrigerator. It offers impressive capacity, but that's really all there is to say in terms of standout features. Its closest competitor, in terms of sizing, pricing, and general feature set, is the GE GTS22KGNRWW, which outperforms it in a few key ways. The GE does a better job of minimizing temperature swings inside its freezer, the result of a more accurate mechanical thermostat, and can retain more moisture in its crisper drawers, keeping produce from drying out and wilting, and it does a better job of preserving a stable set of temperatures along its door bins. Beyond that, the GE's optional ice maker can produce more ice in the span of a day.
Test Results
The Whirlpool WRT311FZDW offers good refrigerator storage capacity. It makes the most of its space with three thin frameless glass shelves. You can position the top or middle shelves at five heights to accommodate tall items like bottles or gallon milk jugs on nearly any shelf. One of the crisper drawers is wider than the other, allowing you to store longer produce items like carrots, leeks, or large romaine lettuce heads. You can position the three half-width door bins in any of 12 positions. At the top, there's a covered dairy bin and a shelf that you can flip up to clear tall items like bottles in the door bin underneath. There's a full-width bin at the bottom of the door, with plenty of vertical clearance for tall items.
This refrigerator offers very good usable storage capacity in the freezer. Its simple design reduces wasted space, with only a single wire rack shelf and two full-width door bins. Though the shelf and bins are at a fixed height, you should be able to easily accommodate tall items on the shelf, like ice cream tubs and one or two large boxes of burgers. The door bin front brackets are a little low, so you should exercise caution putting tall, top-heavy items in the bin that may fall out if you open the door quickly.
The optional ice maker and its large ice tray take up a fair amount of space, and if you decide to go without these, you can have a usable freezer volume of 6.01 cu ft (170.2 L).
This refrigerator has a very basic mechanical design, with a single evaporator in the freezer section and a single fixed-speed compressor.
This fixed-speed compressor always operates at full speed when cooling is required, unlike inverter-powered compressors that can vary their speed based on cooling load. This means it consumes more power and can't control temperature as well as an inverter-powered compressor.
This refrigerator comes without an icemaker. You can purchase one directly from the manufacturer (part W11517113) and install it later.
It's an ejector-style icemaker, which is a more reliable design than a twist-style icemaker. In this style, a nozzle pours water into a metal mold. Once it's frozen solid, a heater underneath gently heats the mold enough to thaw the ice touching the mold, detaching the ice cubes. Fingers on a rotating plastic arm push the ice cubes out, where they fall into the bin beneath. Another arm senses when the bin is full and stops ice making.
This is more reliable than a twist-type design, which casts the ice in a plastic tray and twists the tray to pop the ice out. The plastic can get brittle in a freezing environment, and with repeated twisting, it can crack.
The Whirlpool WRT311FZDW exhibits good temperature uniformity in the refrigerator. There's very little temperature difference between shelves, so you won't have to worry about produce freezing or butter getting too soft, depending on shelf placement. However, the door bins are considerably warmer than the rest of the fridge, so you should keep temperature-sensitive items like milk or cream outside of the door bins.
This refrigerator has excellent temperature uniformity throughout the freezer section. While there's very little difference in temperature in various locations in the freezer, the cooling system has poor temperature control, leading to large swings in temperature as the compressor cycles on and off. This is due to the fixed-speed compressor and a less sensitive mechanical thermostat. There's no cycling during the cooling period, like when you add food to the freezer, and these cycles are only present once the freezer reaches its temperature setpoint. Therefore, there's no danger of food thawing or its quality being affected as the compressor cycles.
The Whirlpool WRT311FZDW delivers mediocre produce preservation. The produce drawer doesn't retain moisture very well, so the drawer's contents dry out. Lettuce will wilt and celery will become soft and floppy fairly quickly, losing its crispness and snap.
The produce drawer doesn't seal well. There are large gaps on top of the drawers underneath the bottom shelf, and these allow moisture to escape. The produce drawer's moisture adjustment vent opening is tiny by comparison, so opening or closing this vent won't improve performance.
The single evaporator creates a dry environment in the fridge, so if you store produce outside of the drawers, vegetables will dry out even more quickly.
The ice maker produces a reasonable amount of ice in 24 hours. It's not much compared to other fridges, even ones with a similar ejector-style icemaker, but it should be enough for a small family meal. For a larger gathering, you'll have to make and store ice for several days.
