Description
What the RS27T5200SR is and where it fits
This is a full size freestanding side by side refrigerator with 27.4 cubic feet of total capacity, an automatic defrost system and R-600A refrigerant. Side by side is the layout that suits a household that reaches into the freezer as often as the fridge, and it is the layout that copes best with a narrow kitchen, because both doors are half width and need less swing clearance than a French door pair. What it does not do well is wide items: a sheet pan or a party platter fits awkwardly in a side by side of any brand, and that is a structural limitation rather than a fault of this model. Samsung’s own summary leads on modern design, all around cooling, the in door ice maker and an adjustable top shelf, which is a fair description of the feature set.
Living with it day to day
The daily character of a side by side comes down to where the ice lives. Putting the ice maker in the door, as Samsung has here, is the single change that makes the layout workable, because the alternative is an ice bucket occupying the top freezer shelf where the frequently used food should be. With the maker in the door, the freezer keeps its full shelf height and ice is reachable without opening the freezer compartment at all, which also means less cold air spilling out on a hot day. The adjustable top shelf and the gallon door bins in the refrigerator side are the other two features that change daily life, because they are what let tall bottles and gallon jugs live in the door rather than eating shelf depth.
Samsung publishes no decibel rating in this listing, and no annual energy figure either, so neither noise nor running cost can be quoted from the manufacturer here. Both are worth asking a retailer for, because a side by side has two evaporator fan paths and an ice maker cycling in the door, and those are the components that make themselves heard in an open plan room. The fingerprint resistant stainless finish is a genuine daily difference rather than marketing language: it is a textured or coated stainless that hides skin oils, and on a two door front with four handle areas that is a lot of surface that would otherwise need wiping.
Controls and connected features
There is nothing connected about this model and nothing in the listing describing an app, a Wi-Fi radio or any smart platform, which sets it apart from Samsung’s higher tiers and from rivals such as the LG LMXS28626S with SmartThinQ. Everything is done on internal controls. In practice that means temperature setting for both compartments and an ice maker on or off switch, and it means no notifications, no remote temperature change and no vacation mode driven from a phone. The upside is the one that matters over a fifteen year appliance life: there is no cloud service to be retired, no app to stop supporting the model, and no firmware update that changes behavior. Every function on this refrigerator works with the house Wi-Fi switched off, permanently.
Running cost and upkeep
Two important facts are absent from this listing and should not be guessed. First, no voltage or amperage is stated. A domestic refrigerator of this class in the North American market is a 115 to 120 volt plug in appliance, normally on a dedicated 15 amp branch circuit, but that is general practice and not something Samsung states here, so the installation instructions are the authority. Second, the in door ice maker implies a cold water supply, yet the listing does not specify the connection type, the required pressure or whether a water line kit is included. Anyone buying this to replace a refrigerator that was not plumbed needs to price a water line and possibly a shut off valve as part of the purchase.
Upkeep on an ice making refrigerator is the water path. Where a model uses a filter, the filter is a recurring cost on a roughly six month cycle, and this listing does not name a filter part number, so that needs confirming from the model documentation rather than assumed either way. Beyond water, maintenance is condenser coil cleaning once or twice a year, door gasket cleaning, and replacing the gasket if it deforms. The published dimensions read 76 inches deep, 38 inches wide and 36 inches high, which cannot be right for a 27.4 cubic foot side by side: the three figures look scrambled, with what is almost certainly the 70 inch class height recorded as depth. Treat the listing dimensions as unusable and measure from the manufacturer specification sheet before committing to an opening. Buyers comparing capacities across the range will find the same measuring problem on several entries in the refrigerators section.
Highlights
- 27.4 cubic feet of total capacity in a freestanding two door side by side.
- In door ice maker keeps the full freezer shelf usable and ice reachable without opening the freezer.
- Fingerprint resistant stainless finish on a front with a lot of handled surface.
- Adjustable top shelf and gallon door bins for tall bottles and jugs.
- Automatic defrost and R-600A refrigerant, in line with current practice.
- No app dependency, so every function keeps working without a network or an account.
Things To Consider
- The published dimensions of 76 by 38 by 36 inches are internally inconsistent for this capacity and look scrambled.
- No voltage or amperage is stated, so the electrical requirement has to come from the installation manual.
- The water supply requirement for the ice maker is not specified in the listing.
- No decibel rating and no annual energy consumption figure are published here.
- Side by side layout handles wide items such as sheet pans and platters poorly.
- No water filter part is named, so the recurring filter cost cannot be confirmed from this listing.
Who it is not for
A household that stores wide, flat food should not buy any side by side, and this one is no exception. Anyone who wants app control, remote temperature monitoring or door alarms on a phone will find nothing here and should look at a connected model such as the GE Profile PVD28BYNFS. Kitchens without an existing water line should treat the ice maker as a project rather than a feature, and small kitchens should note that 27.4 cubic feet is a large appliance whatever the door layout, with the GE GZS22IYNFS compact side by side and the GE GWE19JYLFS counter depth French door both aimed at tighter openings.
