KitchenAid Five Door Refrigerator: Why People Actually Spend This Much on a Fridge

You’ve seen it. That massive, towering piece of stainless steel in the middle of a high-end kitchen showroom that looks more like a piece of professional laboratory equipment than a place to store your leftover lasagna. It’s the KitchenAid five door refrigerator, specifically the KRMF706ESS model, and it has basically become a status symbol for home cooks who are tired of losing a cucumber behind a gallon of milk.

Honestly, most people look at the price tag—which usually hovers between $3,900 and $4,500 depending on the finish—and wonder if it actually does anything different than a standard French door setup. It’s a fair question. Why do you need five doors? Is it just a gimmick?

The reality is that this fridge solves a very specific problem: the "black hole" effect of deep refrigerator drawers. When you have one giant freezer drawer at the bottom, everything gets buried. You find a bag of frozen peas from 2022 at the bottom of the pile and realize you’ve wasted thirty bucks in groceries. The five-door design tries to kill that problem by slicing the storage into specialized zones.

The Soft Close Drawers Are the Real MVP

While everyone talks about the five doors, the two middle drawers are what you’re actually paying for. These aren't just extra cubby holes. They are temperature-controlled. KitchenAid calls the left one the "Herb Storage" or produce drawer, but the right one is where the magic happens. It has five preset temperatures. You can set it specifically for meat and fish, greens, drinks, or even deli snacks.

It's weirdly satisfying.

Instead of opening the entire fridge and letting all the cold air out just to grab a Diet Coke, you just pop the small drawer. It keeps the rest of your food at a stable temperature. This is actually a big deal for food preservation. Fluctuations in temperature are what kill your strawberries. By isolating the items you grab most often, the main cavity stays at a rock-solid 37 degrees Fahrenheit.

The drawers also feature soft-close glides. It sounds like a luxury car feature because it basically is. You give the drawer a nudge and it glides shut silently. No slamming. No rattling glass jars. If you have kids who tend to leave the fridge cracked open, this is a lifesaver.

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Inside the KitchenAid Five Door Refrigerator: Wood Finishes and Platinum Interiors

If you open the main doors, you aren't greeted by that sterile, hospital-white plastic that most fridges have. KitchenAid went with a "Platinum Interior." It’s a silvery-grey finish with LED accents that makes your mustard look like it’s on display at a gallery.

Is it necessary? No. Does it feel premium? Absolutely.

There are also wood-look accents on some of the shelving. This is a polarizing choice. Some people love the "furniture" feel it gives the appliance, while others think it's a bit much for a kitchen. But the functionality is hard to argue with. The shelves are spill-resistant, meaning they have a slight lip that prevents a spilled carton of juice from dripping down onto every single shelf below it.

Let’s Talk About the Ice Maker

The ice maker is in the door. This is a controversial design choice in the appliance world. By putting the ice maker in the door, KitchenAid frees up a massive amount of space on the top shelf. Usually, an ice maker takes up about 20% of your top-shelf real estate.

However, door-mounted ice makers are historically the most common point of failure for any brand of refrigerator. Because the ice is being made in a warmer environment (the door) than the freezer, it has to be heavily insulated. KitchenAid’s In-Door-Ice system is better than most, but it’s still a complex piece of machinery. If you live in an area with very hard water, you absolutely must change the EveryDrop filter every six months, or you’re going to see the ice production slow to a crawl.

Does the Preserva Food Care System Actually Work?

KitchenAid pushes their "Preserva" system hard. It’s basically two independent cooling systems. One for the fridge, one for the freezer.

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In a cheap fridge, the air from the freezer is blown into the fridge to cool it down. This is bad. Freezer air is incredibly dry. It sucks the moisture out of your vegetables. It also carries odors. Nobody wants their ice cubes tasting like the leftover onions in the crisper drawer.

By using two separate evaporators, the KitchenAid five door refrigerator keeps the fridge humid and the freezer dry. Your ice stays tasting like ice, and your spinach doesn't wilt in forty-eight hours. Most high-end brands like Sub-Zero use this dual-cooling method, so seeing it in a KitchenAid (which is owned by Whirlpool) at a lower price point is a win for the consumer.

The Measurement Problem

You need to measure your kitchen. Then measure it again.

This fridge is a beast. It’s 36 inches wide, but it’s deep. It is a "Standard Depth" refrigerator, not "Counter Depth." This means it’s going to stick out past your cabinets by about 4 to 6 inches. If you have a narrow galley kitchen, this might feel like a literal elephant in the room.

• Height: 70 1/8 inches
• Width: 35 13/16 inches
• Depth: 36 1/4 inches

Don't forget the door swing. Because it has five doors, you need clearance on both sides to fully extend the drawers. If you place this right next to a wall, you won't be able to pull the internal bins out for cleaning. It’s a common mistake that leads to a lot of frustrated returns.

Reliability and What the Repair Guys Say

If you talk to appliance repair technicians—the guys who spend their lives looking at broken compressors—they generally give KitchenAid a thumbs up, but with caveats.

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The Whirlpool parent company means parts are easy to find. If a sensor goes out in five years, you won't be waiting six months for a part from Europe. That’s a massive advantage over some of the ultra-luxury boutique brands.

However, more doors mean more gaskets. More gaskets mean more places for cold air to leak if they aren't cleaned. You have to keep those rubber seals wiped down. If sugar or juice spills on the gasket of one of those middle drawers, it becomes sticky. You pull the drawer, the gasket tugs, and eventually, it tears. A torn gasket leads to frost buildup and a struggling compressor.

The Hidden Features Most People Miss

There is a "Measured Fill" option on the water dispenser. You can set it to dispense exactly 8 ounces or 1 cup. It’s surprisingly handy for cooking or filling water bottles when you're multitasking.

The "Slide-Away" shelf is another sleeper hit. The front half of the top shelf slides back to make room for tall items like a bottle of wine or a large pitcher. It’s a small thing, but it prevents you from having to rearrange the entire fridge just because you bought a tall bottle of orange juice.

Is It Quiet?

For a fridge with two cooling systems and an ice maker, it’s remarkably quiet. You’ll hear a low hum when the compressor kicks in, and the occasional "clunk" of ice dropping, but it’s not the rattling monster of decades past. It’s rated at around 43-45 decibels, which is about the same as a quiet conversation.

Actionable Steps Before You Buy

If you’re leaning toward the KitchenAid five door refrigerator, don't just click "buy" on a website.

1. Check your doorways. Measure the narrowest point of entry into your house. Many people buy this fridge only to realize it won't fit through the front door or the laundry room door. The delivery team can take the fridge doors off to gain a few inches, but even then, it's a tight squeeze.
2. Verify your water line. This fridge needs a standard 1/4 inch plastic or copper water line. If your existing line is old or crimped, the "Measured Fill" feature won't be accurate because the water pressure will be too low.
3. Look for the "ESS" suffix. The KRMF706ESS is the classic stainless steel. If you see "EBS," that’s Black Stainless. Black Stainless looks incredible but be warned: it is a coating. If you scratch it with a ring or a rogue magnet, the regular stainless shows through underneath, and it is almost impossible to repair.
4. Test the drawers in person. Go to a store. Pull the drawers. Feel the weight. If you find the resistance of the soft-close drawers annoying rather than luxurious, this isn't the fridge for you.
5. Plan your zones. Think about what you actually buy. If you don't buy fresh produce or deli meats, those middle drawers are wasted space. But if you're someone who preps meals or has kids who need easy access to snacks, it will change how your kitchen functions.

The KitchenAid five door refrigerator is a powerhouse of organization wrapped in a very pretty package. It isn't the cheapest option on the market, but for people who treat their kitchen like the heart of the home, the efficiency and temperature stability usually justify the investment. Just make sure it actually fits in your kitchen before you fall in love with the LED lights and the soft-close glide.