Walk into a Korean apartment and open the kitchen. The refrigerator will likely be large — noticeably larger than what you might find in a comparably sized home in Europe or even in parts of the United States. In many households, there will be two. One standard refrigerator, and beside it or in a separate utility space, a second unit dedicated entirely to kimchi.
To a foreign visitor, this can seem like excess. Korean apartments are not especially large. Korean kitchens, in particular, tend toward the compact. Yet the refrigerator — sometimes standing 180 centimeters tall with a capacity exceeding 800 liters — occupies a prominent and unapologetic position in the room.
This is not a consumer quirk or a marketing success story. It reflects something structural about how Korean households eat, how they shop, and what they expect a kitchen to hold.
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| In Korean kitchens, the refrigerator is rarely the smallest appliance in the room |
The Kimchi Variable
Any explanation of Korean refrigerator size has to begin with kimchi. Not because kimchi is exotic or ceremonial — quite the opposite. It is an everyday food, eaten at nearly every meal in most Korean households, and it requires specific storage conditions that most standard refrigerators are not designed to provide.
Kimchi is a fermented food. Its flavor and texture change continuously based on temperature. Too warm, and it over-ferments quickly, turning sour and soft in a matter of days. Too cold, and fermentation slows to a near stop, which is sometimes desirable for long-term storage but not for kimchi that is meant to be eaten fresh. The ideal range is narrow — typically between 0°C and 5°C — and it needs to remain stable.
Standard refrigerators cycle through temperatures as the compressor turns on and off. The door is opened frequently. Items are moved around. For most foods, this variation is inconsequential. For kimchi, it matters. A dedicated kimchi refrigerator maintains a consistent internal environment, often with compartmentalized zones for kimchi at different stages of fermentation — freshly made, mid-ferment, and fully aged.
Beyond temperature, there is the matter of smell. Kimchi is pungent. Storing it alongside other foods — dairy, fruit, cooked leftovers — affects everything around it. A separate unit solves this problem entirely.
The kimchi refrigerator became a standard household appliance in Korea during the 1990s, when apartment living had largely replaced traditional homes with outdoor storage pots buried in the ground. That practice — called kimjang storage — used the stable cool temperature of the earth. The kimchi refrigerator was, in practical terms, a technological replacement for the buried pot. It was not a luxury addition to the kitchen. It was a solution to a real problem created by urbanization.
How Koreans Shop
The size of the main refrigerator is shaped, in part, by how Korean households shop.
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| Buying in bulk at traditional markets is still common across Korean households |
In many urban areas across Europe and parts of the United States, the dominant grocery habit is frequent and small. A few items picked up daily or every other day, often from a nearby shop. This model requires less storage because the supply chain between the store and the kitchen is short and regular.
Korean shopping habits have traditionally operated differently. The large weekly shop — sometimes at a traditional market, sometimes at one of Korea's major hypermarket chains — involves buying ingredients in substantial quantities. Cabbage, radish, garlic, green onion, meat, and fish are often purchased in volumes that reflect cooking for multiple meals across multiple days. Sauces, fermented pastes like doenjang and gochujang, and various dried or preserved ingredients are bought in large containers.
This is partly economical — buying in larger quantities from markets tends to be cheaper per unit. It is also practical in the context of Korean cooking, which often involves making dishes that are eaten over several days rather than prepared fresh at each meal. A pot of soup, a batch of braised vegetables, a container of marinated meat — these are made once and consumed across a week.
A kitchen that operates this way needs storage capacity to match. A compact refrigerator becomes a point of friction rather than a neutral appliance.
Two Refrigerators, One Kitchen
The two-refrigerator household is common enough in Korea that apartment layouts increasingly account for it. Many newer apartment floor plans include a designated space in the kitchen or an adjacent utility area specifically sized for a kimchi refrigerator. Appliance brands market kimchi refrigerators as a standard product category, not a niche one, with the same design attention given to the main unit.
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| Many Korean households run two refrigerators simultaneously — one for kimchi, one for everything else |
For households without the space or budget for two separate units, larger refrigerators with dedicated kimchi zones have become a popular alternative. These models include a compartment with its own independent temperature control, isolated from the main refrigerator section. It is a compromise, but one that reflects the same underlying need.
The two-unit system, where it exists, also creates a practical division that Korean households find useful. The main refrigerator handles daily items — vegetables, dairy, leftovers, drinks. The kimchi refrigerator holds fermented foods, long-term storage items, and seasonal preparations. The division is intuitive once you understand the logic, but it requires space and acceptance of the fact that the kitchen will be organized around two large appliances rather than one.
What the Size Actually Reflects
Korean home cooking involves banchan — the small side dishes that accompany rice at most meals. A typical Korean dinner might include rice, soup, and anywhere from three to seven small dishes: seasoned spinach, braised tofu, stir-fried anchovies, kimchi, pickled vegetables, and so on. These dishes are not made fresh at every meal. They are prepared in batches and stored in containers, pulled out as needed, replenished when they run low.
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| Banchan culture means multiple small dishes need to be stored, accessed, and rotated regularly |
This means the refrigerator at any given time holds not just raw ingredients for future cooking, but also a rotating collection of prepared dishes in various stages of consumption. Each banchan occupies its own container. The containers stack, but they take up real space. A small refrigerator fills up quickly, becomes difficult to organize, and makes the daily act of pulling out and returning containers impractical.
The large refrigerator, in this context, is not about abundance. It is about manageability. A well-organized 800-liter refrigerator with clear containers and consistent zones is easier to use day-to-day than a packed 400-liter unit where nothing is easily accessible.
Korean appliance manufacturers understood this early and built product lines around it. The result is a domestic appliance market where refrigerators are large by global standards, and where two-unit households are considered normal rather than extravagant.
A Functional Answer to a Specific Kitchen
None of this developed through marketing pressure alone. The size of Korean refrigerators reflects a kitchen culture that ferments food at home, shops in larger quantities, cooks in batches, and serves meals with multiple prepared components. Each of these habits, on its own, pushes toward more storage. Together, they make the large refrigerator not a statement but a baseline.
Visitors who notice the size of Korean refrigerators are, without realizing it, observing the physical footprint of a particular way of eating. The refrigerator is big because the kitchen asks a lot of it — and Korean households, over time, built appliances that could keep up.
FRANVIA explains everyday life in Korea — not as a destination, but as a place people actually live.
- Feb 22, 2026
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