The names in the LG InstaView Door-in-Door refrigerator were chosen out of the two prominent functions – ability to instantly view the content of the refrigerator through a simple knock mechanism, and second is the availability of two doors system in the already well designed French door mechanism. In this article we talk about the reasons LG opted for the door-in-door system, leaving the InstaView component for another article.
The door-in-door door system is a system that used dual doors alongside the already popular French Door Design – so let’s address the French Door Design first.
The French Door Design is the design of doors where the door is opened up or closed by a system of two doors that close on each other at the centre of the doorway. The image below is an example of just such a door system.
These door were named French Door Designs because during the French Renaissance, such symmetric designs became very popular with an a number of architectural structures, but it would take a while for the refrigerator makers to incorporate them in the fridge designs.
When finally the French Door Design landed on the fridges, it did so to serve three purposes – the top being the ability to give the fridge user the full view of the interior of the fridge in one spacious glance. Secondly, the door system somehow means that a fridge of the same size and structure but with a door opening only on one side of the fridge would occupy more space (but still appear smaller) and finally the door means one can choose to save some energy by opening only one side of the door.
The saving of the energy functionality of the French Door Designs is what LG wanted to improve on when they introduced their Door-in-Door Designs on the InstaView Fridge. The Door-in-Door design is simply adding a second outer door to the French Door – Something that can be done either on both doors or just on one door.
With the outer door in place, LG was able to add storage compartments on the exterior of the inner door and interior of the outer door (see picture below); compartments that are meant to store ready to eat or drink food stuff. That is, when one opens the outer door, one can readily access food items that require not so much of cold storage or items that are supposed to be frequently utilized – or those that children are supposed to reach without much struggle.
The door-in-door adds to the energy saving philosophy of the French Door Design in that it prevents one from always opening the entire fridge whenever items that are supposed to be accessed regularly are needed. This energy is saved because when the door of the fridge is opened, the cold air trapped inside is lost. The French Door Design allows one to open the fridge’s doorway only halfway thereby being able to save some of the cold air. With the door-in-door technology however, the inner door doesn’t have to be opened most times thereby increasing the energy saving by a lot (LG is yet to quantify the amount of savings achieved by the door-in-door technology).
In addition to the energy savings, the door-in-door technology has provides convenience in the everyday use. As already stated, the compartments on the door-in-door sections allow one to store items that are supposed to be used regularly, so that most times one easily and conveniently gets the items he/she would want to use.
Next we discuss the beauty if of the InstaView screen.
Check also: LG Black Matte Door-in-Door refrigerator Balancing Form & Function In The Kitchen
