Beko probably isn’t one of the first brands that come to mind when you’re shopping for a new refrigerator. Companies like GE, Maytag, Whirlpool, LG, and Samsung are much better known here in the US. But Beko is a huge European company that is working to change that. Beko refrigerators and other appliances are now sold at stores all across the country. That includes nationwide appliance retailers like PC Richard & Son, as well as regional retailers and smaller local shops.
Looking specifically at fridges, Beko’s offerings set themselves apart in several key ways. In this Beko refrigerator review, we’ll focus specifically on the Beko BFFD3626SS French Four-Door Stainless Steel Refrigerator to see what makes this counter-depth fridge so special.
What is Beko?
Beko isn’t a massive consumer electronics company that also happens to make appliances. That said, it’s not a tiny company either. Beko is owned by Arçelik, one of Europe’s largest household appliance brands.
The company employs more than 30,000 people and sells its various products in more than 130 different countries. But Beko itself deals with just two specific product categories. First and foremost, Beko makes kitchen appliances. Additionally, the company has a line of washers and dryers.
When it comes to laundry appliances, Beko only offers two different washing machine models and two different dryers. This is to say the company is far more focused on its kitchen appliance business.
Is Beko reliable?
The question of Beko’s reliability is obviously a crucial one. After all, reliability is one of the most important factors when shopping for any new household appliance. That’s especially true when it comes to your refrigerator.
Even a small problem with your fridge can be horribly disruptive for your family. No one wants to deal with the headache of scrambling to find a way to keep your food from spoiling while you wait for refrigerator repairs.
Thankfully Beko refrigerators are very reliable. The company did have some issues with a couple of older models. Thankfully, those problems are long gone. Top review sites and customer reviews agree that more recent Beko fridges are quite reliable and don’t have any widespread problems to be concerned with. Even after several years of use, customer reviews suggest that reliability is a big selling point for Beko refrigerators.
I have only been testing the Beko BFFD3626SS fridge for a few months, so I can’t yet speak to this model’s reliability. In the time I have been using it, however, I haven’t run into any problems.
Where are Beko appliances from?
The Beko brand isn’t as popular as some other top appliance brands in the United States. As a result, many people wonder where Beko is from.
Beko itself is based in the UK and Ireland. Arçelik’s headquarters are located in Turkey. According to data from Euromonitor International, Beko is the #1 best-selling large appliance brand in the UK. Beko says that one out of every four households in the UK has at least one of the company’s appliances.
Is the Beko refrigerator noisy?
This is one area where the Beko BFFD3626SS refrigerator really shines.
Fridges, in general, are far quieter these days than they were even a few short years ago. But some models are louder than others. If you have a fridge in your kitchen that hums, it can get very annoying. Or, even if your refrigerator is generally quiet, some ice makers are startlingly noisy.
I’m happy to report that Beko’s four-door stainless steel fridge is wonderfully quiet. It doesn’t hum or vibrate at all while it’s running.
Also, the ice maker isn’t nearly as disruptive as some refrigerator models. Even when you remove a lot of ice from the drawer and the freezer has to replace it, the ice maker is still nice and quiet as it freezes. You’ll hear a batch of cubes slide down into the drawer from time to time, and then it goes right back to being whisper quiet.
Of note, the ice maker can produce up to 6 pounds of ice per day. And the ice cubes are a very nifty trapezoidal prism shape.
A quick update on noise
About a month after my initial installation, I did notice a noise of sorts. It’s tough to describe, but it’s a very quiet tone coming from inside the refrigerator when the cooling system is running. I can only hear it when my house is perfectly quiet, so I definitely wouldn’t call it a nuisance.
After discussing the matter with Beko, it appears as though this isn’t an issue that will impact most people.
The space in my kitchen where I’ve been testing the Beko BFFD3626SS refrigerator is a perfect fit. As a matter of fact, it’s too perfect. The fridge fits between my cabinets perfectly with almost no space on either side. The same is true on top of the fridge, and there’s when the problem lies.
The instructions in the installation manual call for at least 2 inches of space above the top of the unit. In my kitchen, there’s just under an inch of space between the top of the Beko fridge and my cabinets. Beko determined that this is the most likely cause of the faint tone I sometimes hear when the cooling system runs.
Again, this isn’t a serious issue by any means. But if your house is very quiet and you’re sensitive to sounds, make sure you have at least 2 inches of space above your refrigerator when you install it.
What are the Beko BFFD3626SS refrigerator’s best features?
The first thing I noticed when I began testing the Beko BFFD3626SS refrigerator is how spacious it is. This is a counter-depth fridge, which means it’s shallower than standard-depth refrigerators. As a result, counter-depth models have less space inside for food. This means it’s absolutely crucial that the design uses interior space efficiently.
Beko’s four-door fridge has a total net volume of 19.8 cubic feet. That’s well in line with the average capacity of comparable counter-depth refrigerators. But I have found that this Beko fridge makes much better use of its available space than some other counter-depth models I’ve tested.
The shelves are fully adjustable to suit your needs and there are two large produce drawers with separate humidity controls. There’s also a large drawer beneath the produce drawers that extends the full width of the fridge.
The two upper doors each have three small shelves that slide up or down to fit tall items. And the top shelf in each door has a lid to help block out odors.
Convertible compartment
One of my favorite features of the Beko four-door refrigerator is the convertible compartment on the bottom right. Compared to a standard French door fridge, this is a huge selling point for me.
Like other French door models, the Beko BFFD3626SS stainless steel fridge is split into two main sections. 13.3 cubic feet of refrigerator space sits behind the two doors on the top. Then, 6.47 cubic feet of freezer space is situated beneath that.
But unlike a typical French door fridge, the freezer portion is split into two individual sections. The ice maker and two additional drawers are found in the lower-left area of the fridge. Then, one drawer and two shelves are positioned in the lower right.
By default, both of these compartments are configured as freezer compartments. If you want, however, you can make the bottom-right compartment a fridge instead of a freezer.
For some people including myself, this is a big advantage the Beko fridge has over many rivals. As I discussed earlier, space is crucial in a counter-depth refrigerator because it has so much less storage space than a standard-depth model.
Having the ability to increase your available fridge space by 3.2 cubic feet is fantastic. That’s a 24% increase in capacity, which is obviously quite significant. I use a separate chest freezer in my home, so I don’t need much freezer space in my refrigerator.
Some other four-door fridges also have a convertible compartment, so this isn’t a feature that is exclusive to Beko’s fridge. But it’s still wonderfully useful.
NeoFrost Dual Cooling
Beko’s NeoFrost Dual Cooling system is another great feature of this four-door refrigerator. And this one is a bit less common than the convertible compartment. In the Beko BFFD3626SS fridge, there are two completely separate cooling systems. The first system cools the upper portion of the fridge, while a second system cools the bottom two compartments.
There are three main benefits to Beko’s unique cooling configuration. First, this Beko fridge can cool faster than conventional refrigerators. This is a great feature.
When you get home from grocery shopping and leave your fridge open while you pile in your purchases, the temperature can increase dramatically. In fact, warm air rushes in anytime you open your fridge. When you close it again, your fridge’s cooling system kicks on until the internal temperature lowers back down to your target. The faster this happens, the better it is for the freshness of your food.
And that brings us to the second benefit, which is efficiency. Faster cooling means less energy usage. Also, the fridge uses two separate cooling systems so opening the fridge doesn’t impact the freezer and vice versa.
Finally, the separate cooling systems prevent odors from transferring between the upper and lower compartments.
EverFresh+
This brings us to the most novel feature that Beko’s fridge offers. It’s called EverFresh+ and it sets the Beko BFFD3626SS apart from other comparable refrigerators more than anything else.
EverFresh+ is a system that combines a few different technologies to extend the shelf life of your produce. The most noteworthy tech is called Active Fresh Blue Light. When most refrigerators are closed, they’re dark inside.
But when the Beko BFFD3626SS fridge is closed, special blue LED lights glow throughout the entire interior of the refrigerator.
According to Beko, Active Fresh Blue Light extends the photosynthesis process in fruits and vegetables while they’re inside your fridge.
The company says this special blue light also helps fruits and vegetables retain more vitamins and nutrients. Produce stays fresh up to 30% longer as a result, according to Beko’s literature.
In addition to Active Fresh Blue Light, the Beko four-door stainless steel refrigerator uses what the company calls IonGuard technology. This ionizing system keeps the air inside the fridge fresh to help eliminate odors and preserve food.
When it comes to fruits and vegetables, there are also special tops on the produce drawers that help promote airflow from the IonGuard system. This, combined with Active Fresh Blue Light, dramatically extends the shelf life of fresh produce.
There are some tricks that anyone can use to keep produce fresh as long as possible. That said, nothing I’ve tried has worked as well as Beko’s fridge.
Do EverFresh+ and Active Fresh Blue Light really work?
In a word, yes.
I didn’t believe it until I tested it myself. But the EverFresh+ system with Beko’s Active Fresh Blue Light technology truly does work.
Beko’s EverFriesh+ system is quite incredible. Active Fresh Blue Light, IonGuard, and the special design of the produce drawers combine to keep fruits and vegetables fresh and firm for weeks. It’s remarkable.
Lettuce and other leafy greens typically begin to wilt within about four or five days in my old fridge. But in the Beko BFFD3626SS refrigerator, the same leafy greens stayed crisp for weeks. Fruits also stayed fresh much longer during my tests.
Testing performed by leading European testing and certification company SGS found that produce stays fresh for up to 30 days. This is likely in ideal conditions, not in a home where the refrigerator is opened and closed several times each day.
In my testing though, I found that produce still stayed fresh for up to four weeks while the fridge was being used normally. That means you’ll save money by wasting less food, and your produce will taste better too.
How to clean your Beko refrigerator
Several of our readers have purchased this Beko refrigerator model after reading my review. Unsurprisingly, most of the feedback I’ve received via email is positive.
Readers do seem to have one common question, however: How do I clean the Beko refrigerator doors?
Anyone with stainless steel appliances knows that the surface looks fantastic… as long as it’s clean. When fingerprints and other marks build up, it looks terrible.
In the case of this Beko fridge, the company uses a fingerprint-resistant stainless steel finish. It’s better than standard stainless steel, but it still gets marked up. What’s more, I have found that standard options like Weiman stainless steel cleaner & polish do not work. That’s most people’s secret weapon, but it’s not effective at all on this finish.
So how do you clean a Beko fridge? Believe it or not, the answer couldn’t be simpler: Water.
Take a paper towel and quickly swipe it under the faucet in your sink. You just want a tiny bit of moisture, not a soaking wet paper towel. Then, use it to clean the door of your refrigerator in circular polishing motions.
Use one paper towel for each of the four doors. When you’re done, your fridge will be shining like new.
Beko refrigerator review: The verdict
Pros
The Beko BFFD3626SS French Four-Door Stainless Steel Refrigerator is a fantastic fridge. It offers all the basic features you might be looking for in a counter-depth refrigerator. On top of that, it adds novel features like EverFresh+ to keep your fruits and vegetables fresh for what seems like an impossibly long time.
It’s also worth noting that this Beko refrigerator is visually stunning. The fingerprint-resistant stainless steel has a gorgeous finish and the four-door design is great.
I also really love the design of the handles, which combine stainless steel rods with chrome brackets for an awesome industrial look. Several brands have adopted this look in recent years, and it’s very sleek.
The 19.8 cubic foot capacity seems even larger thanks to the efficient use of space. The shelves are fully configurable inside the fridge, and the shelves in the doors can also be repositioned. Interior theater lighting is wonderfully bright so all your fridge’s contents are clearly visible.
There’s also a concealed filtered water dispenser inside the fridge with a nice, fast flow rate. An exterior water dispenser might’ve been a bit more convenient, but it would also spoil the streamlined look of the fridge. For that reason, I prefer the concealed dispenser.
Cons
As for complaints, I don’t have many to speak of.
The control panel at the top of the fridge may be a source of annoyance for some buyers. This is because many of the buttons don’t actually function the way they’re described in the user manual. Of course, it generally only takes a minute or so to figure things out when there are discrepancies.
Families that tend to keep lots of frozen food on hand may run into issues with the four-door fridge design. Because the bottom freezer is divided into two separate compartments, larger frozen items might not fit.
For some people like me, however, this is actually a selling point. As I mentioned, I converted the bottom-right compartment from a freezer to a fridge since most of my frozen items are stored in a chest freezer.
Where to buy a Beko refrigerator
The Beko BFFD3626SS French Four-Door Stainless Steel Refrigerator retails for $3,249.97. You can find nearby retailers using the search tool on Beko’s site.
This review was originally published on August 27, 2021. It has since been updated by the author with new information.
