For someone seeing a Korean kitchen for the first time, one appliance can look a little unusual. There may already be a large refrigerator, yet beside it stands another refrigerator called a kimchi refrigerator. The idea of buying a separate appliance for one type of food can seem excessive if you have never lived with Korean food culture.
But the kimchi refrigerator was not created simply because Koreans eat a lot of kimchi. Its history is closely tied to kimjang, the tradition of making a large amount of kimchi before winter, the old practice of storing kimchi jars underground, and the rapid shift from houses with yards to apartment living.
When I was young, earthenware jars were much more familiar than they are today. As Korean housing changed, the place where kimchi was stored also moved—from underground jars to balconies and ordinary refrigerators, and eventually into an appliance designed specifically to control the fermentation and storage of kimchi.
When Kimchi Was Stored Underground
Traditionally, families prepared large quantities of kimchi before winter. Napa cabbage kimchi was only one part of it. Dongchimi, radish kimchi, and other varieties could also be prepared for the cold months and stored in large earthenware jars.
Kimchi continues to ferment after it is made. If it stays too warm, it ferments quickly and becomes sour sooner; if it is exposed directly to severe winter cold, it can freeze. Burying the jars helped protect them from rapid temperature changes and created a more stable environment for storage.
That old storage system was closely connected with the larger culture of Korean kimjang, which I wrote about separately. Making enough kimchi for winter was only half of the job. Families also needed a way to keep it edible for months.
I experienced this underground storage method myself while serving in the military. My first time actually participating in kimjang was there, and I already understood why winter kimchi had traditionally been stored underground.
After we made the kimchi, large containers were buried in the ground. In the middle of winter, we sometimes had to take a pickaxe to the frozen earth, uncover the container, remove enough kimchi to use for a while, and move that portion to a refrigerator. The rest went back underground until we needed more.
It was labor-intensive, but the principle was simple. Before an appliance could maintain a carefully controlled low temperature, the winter ground did much of that work.
Apartment Living Changed Where Kimchi Could Go
As apartments became the dominant form of urban housing in Korea, the old method became increasingly difficult. An apartment resident could not simply dig a hole outside and bury a kimchi jar every winter.
Earthenware jars did not disappear immediately. I remember seeing onggi jars on apartment balconies and in the utility spaces beside kitchens. Families sometimes kept kimchi there, while jars of doenjang, gochujang, or soy sauce were also common.
Balconies, however, could not reproduce the stable conditions of an underground kimchi jar. Many Korean apartments were designed with the living room and main balcony facing south, so direct winter sunlight could raise the daytime temperature even when it was cold outside.
A utility room beside the kitchen sometimes provided another place for jars, often alongside a washing machine. But as urban lifestyles changed, fewer households made their own fermented sauces, and kimchi increasingly moved into the ordinary refrigerator.
That solved one problem while creating others. An ordinary refrigerator was shared with milk, vegetables, meat, fruit, and everything else the household ate. Kimchi also continued to ferment, while its strong smell could spread through the refrigerator.
This changing housing environment was central to the development of a uniquely Korean refrigerator market. Research on the development of Korean-style refrigerators from 1984 to 1995 specifically links early kimchi refrigerators with the difficulty of storing large amounts of kimchi in apartments and other urban homes.
Turning the Underground Kimchi Jar Into an Appliance
The first attempts at dedicated kimchi refrigeration came earlier than many people realize. In 1984, GoldStar, the predecessor of LG Electronics, and Daewoo Electronics introduced early appliances specifically intended for kimchi storage. They addressed problems such as kimchi odor and storage temperature, but the idea of buying a completely separate refrigerator was still expensive and inconvenient for many households at the time.
The product that turned the kimchi refrigerator into a major appliance category came later. In 1995, Mando Winia introduced Dimchae, which focused not only on keeping kimchi cold but also on controlling its fermentation and maintaining the desired condition for longer.
That distinction mattered. A kimchi refrigerator was no longer simply a cold box where kimchi happened to be stored. It was designed around the way kimchi changes over time.
Dimchae also arrived at the right moment. By the mid-1990s, apartment living had become established for a large share of Korean urban households, while kimjang was still a strong part of family food culture. The old underground jar had disappeared from many homes, but the need it had served had not.
The kimchi refrigerator effectively brought that storage function indoors. In that sense, the appliance was less a strange second refrigerator than an electric replacement for a disappearing part of the Korean home.
Early Kimchi Refrigerators Opened From the Top
The first widely familiar kimchi refrigerators did not look much like the tall appliances seen in Korean kitchens today. They were low, box-shaped units with lids on top, somewhat like the top-loading washing machines common at the time.
The design had practical advantages. Cold air tends to remain inside more easily when the lid opens upward, helping reduce temperature changes in a storage space that was not meant to be opened constantly.
But there was also an obvious inconvenience. A large plastic container filled with napa cabbage, seasoning, and kimchi liquid is heavy. To reach containers inside a top-opening refrigerator, users had to lift them upward, sometimes removing another container first. That could put considerable strain on the arms and back.
As the market developed, tall stand-type kimchi refrigerators became more common. They looked much more like conventional refrigerators and allowed users to open doors or drawers from the front rather than lifting every container out from above.
The new shape also allowed the appliance to become larger and more flexible. One section could contain kimchi while other compartments were used for vegetables, fruit, meat, rice, or other foods. At that point, the kimchi refrigerator was already beginning to function as a second refrigerator.
Kimchi Refrigerators Also Changed the Idea of Food Storage
One of the more interesting developments was what happened after kimchi refrigerators became more sophisticated.
Kimchi does not always need the same temperature. Freshly made kimchi may need to ferment, while properly ripened kimchi needs to be kept in a condition that slows further fermentation. Different varieties can also benefit from somewhat different storage settings.
As stand-type kimchi refrigerators gained separate compartments, manufacturers began allowing those spaces to operate independently. A compartment that was not being used for kimchi could instead hold vegetables, meat, fish, grains, or other foods at a more suitable temperature.
It would be inaccurate to say that the kimchi refrigerator invented the entire concept of separately controlled refrigerator compartments. Korean appliance manufacturers were already experimenting with convertible and independently cooled spaces in conventional refrigerators.
What the success of kimchi refrigerators did help reinforce, however, was a very familiar idea in the Korean appliance market: different foods do not necessarily belong in exactly the same storage environment.
Eventually the two appliance categories began to move toward each other. Kimchi refrigerators became capable of storing far more than kimchi, while conventional refrigerators began incorporating compartments that could be adjusted for different types of food—including kimchi.
A good example appeared in 2014, when Samsung introduced a conventional refrigerator with a compartment that could be set to around -1°C for kimchi, offered separate fermentation and storage settings, and could be converted back for refrigeration, freezing, or other ingredients when kimchi storage was not needed. Samsung described the feature as a response to customers who wanted kimchi-refrigerator functions without necessarily buying a separate appliance.
So the influence worked in both directions. Kimchi refrigerators gradually became multi-purpose food-storage appliances, while conventional refrigerators adopted some of the flexible temperature-control ideas that Korean consumers had become accustomed to seeing in kimchi storage.
Koreans Make Less Kimjang, but Kimchi Refrigerators Remain
Kimjang itself has changed considerably. Fewer urban households now prepare dozens of cabbages every winter, and buying packaged kimchi or making a smaller quantity has become completely normal.
The same is true of traditional fermented sauces. In the past, it was not unusual to see jars of doenjang, gochujang, and soy sauce even on apartment balconies or in utility rooms. Today, many urban households buy these products rather than making a year’s supply themselves.
Yet the kimchi refrigerator did not disappear when traditional food preparation declined. Packaged kimchi still needs to be stored after it is opened, and households may keep several types of kimchi at different stages of fermentation.
More importantly, the appliance itself changed. A modern kimchi refrigerator can be used for vegetables, fruit, meat, grains, drinks, and other foods, so even a household that makes little or no kimjang may still find the extra controlled storage useful.
The places where I have seen kimchi stored tell much of this story. I remember earthenware jars around Korean homes, and during my military service I even helped retrieve kimchi that had been buried in the frozen winter ground. Later, apartment households moved jars onto balconies and into utility rooms before kimchi increasingly found its way into refrigerators.
That is why I do not see the kimchi refrigerator simply as an unusual appliance for a food Koreans happen to eat often. It is also a product of changing Korean homes. The old storage method disappeared from everyday life, but the need behind it remained, and technology gradually took over the role that the winter ground and earthenware jar once performed.
About the Author 🇰🇷
I live in South Korea and write about the small details of Korean life and culture that I experience and observe firsthand.
English is my second language, so I sometimes use tools such as Gemini and Google Translate to help with translation and editing. The experiences, observations, opinions, and cultural perspectives in my articles are my own, and I personally review and edit every article before publishing it.
My goal with Korea Core Info is simple: to share everyday Korea from a local perspective and help international readers discover things they might not always find in a typical travel guide.
I hope my stories and guides help you understand Korea a little better — not just as a place to visit, but as a place where people live their everyday lives.