recommendation on refrigerator

[Ombligo]

We have French door freezer on the bottom, Samsung. Things do tend to get buried in the bottom of the freezer, but then those same things got buried at the back of the top freezer. We really like the French door configuration better than single door (we never liked side x side). There really seems to be more room.

Biggest complaint about the Samsung - the ice maker is slow.

[iaJim]

We just got a Kitchenaid counter depth french door bottom freezer fridge. So far we really like it. We had a side by side which we hated. I loved the ice and water in the door, but the water inside the door isn't bad either. I'm not sure we needed the french door rather than a single door, but my wife likes it. We had a bottom freezer before and loved it. As a matter of fact, that's our garage, beer fridge, and we still love it.

We chose Kitchenaid because we already had other Kitchenaid appliances and the handles matched. If you're buying a french door refrigerator, it's likely it's built in Amana, IA if it's a Whirlpool, Kitchenaid, Amana and probably a couple of other brands. Lots of the others are now built in Mexico.

[fmgtech]

I have a Whirlpool Gold top freezer and it is excellent. When shopping my experience was the bottom freezer units were more expensive. I would avoid Frigidaire.

[Robert M]

Lazy,

Nearly forgot... Definitely consider _only_ models that meet Energy Star and also see if your local utility offers a rebate in exchange for your old fridge. If you find a suitable fridge that's on sale and you turn in your old fridge, you can literally save hundreds of dollars.

Robert

[OWC Jamie]

Jimmypoo wrote:
I would recommend visiting someone with a bottom freezer, and retrieving an item buried on the bottom of the basket, AND THEN DECIDE if you still like that config.

If you're undecided, add 1 bag of ice, and repeat the exercise 10 times.

Just for grins and giggles throw a bag of ice behind the bottom pull out basket/drawer and try to retrieve it so you can close the door . Get used to stuff falling back there if you fill the drawer(s). Learn to ignore loose ice cubes under that bottom basket.



I kinda like the auto ice maker.

Cold water dispenser inside the door makes absolutely no sense to me. Yes, you never have a messy dispenser on the outside. I'd rather have none.


Even though a pizza box and a whole watermelon wouldn't fit in it, I miss my old side-by-side. I could always find stuff and stuff didn't disappear in the back to slowly become unrecognizable.


GE Profile French door bottom freezer (25 or 28 cu ft I'm not sure which)
Stainless steel isn't that bad to keep clean.

I'll never ever do textured white again !!!!!

[bruceko]

We love our Samsung french door.
thought the freezer would be hard to find stuff but it is pretty ez.
I hated the freezer on the side by side we had before.
It was so narrow it was very hard to get to stuff in the back

[lazydays]

All of our other appliances are bisque (sp?) so I would want to stick with that. I know stainless is popular but I prefer the bisque. I would not need the water maker/filter option as I have that built into my countertop. I don't use ice that much so an ice tray is fine with me.

When I cook I tend to pull many items, such as vegetables and condiments out of the fridge but only one item from the freezer (meat) so I think the bottom drawer would work fine for me although I like roberts advice to try a few out to see which work the best.

Lots of people seem to like the french doors. What is the advantage?

My current fridge is a Kenmore and has been fine but I appreciate all the reviews and advice on other brands. That is important to know! Mine is 30" wide, 28" deep, and 65" tall. I could go another 8" in width and another 3" in height without modifying the cabinetry. Can't go any deeper though.

I'll have to start working through those model numbers for size information. Thank you all!

[tenders]

Robert M wrote:
One other suggestion is to not waste your money on a built-in water supply. I wanted it because I thought my wife and I would use the feature regularly. So, out fridge has a water and ice maker. It even has a filter. We rarely use it - just to fill a water bottle to make Crystal Light lemonade on an as necessary basis. In three years, I've never once used ice cubes be it from the ice dispenser or from plain ol' ice cube trays. The other concern with water/ice makers is the possibility of flooding in the event the water line breaks. Nearly everyone I know who has a fridge with a water line has had problems with it at some point in time. So far, our fridge and my mom's fridge are the sole exceptions.
Robert

Friend of mine has a saying about this: "water on the door, water on the floor."

There's a lot of truth to that. However, I do like the handiness of a cold water dispenser. I could do without the ice dispenser, it's a source of a lot of heat leakage and it always sounds to me as though its on the verge of breaking as it's chipping the cubes on their way out.

We're into our second year on a Kenmore from the low end of the high end of their lineup. I think it was made by LG. No complaints, and it is a LOT more efficient that the old one, as measured rigorously by my Kill-A-Watt before and after installation.

[pqrst]

A friend just replaced his top freezer refrigerator with a bottom drawer model with through the door ice maker. Overall he likes it but has a couple of observations ........ the new icemaker has a steady stream of pre-teens (his daughter and her friends) getting ice. The noise is driving him crazy when he watches tv (no door between living room and kitchen). He thought that the kids would get tired of it, but that was two weeks ago. And second, he opins that there is less space in the drawer unit because there a number of small baskets and holders in it that reduce the amount of usable space (compared to the top freezer).

[Grateful11]

Here's what we ended up with and "knock on wood" it hasn't missed a beat, even with about 30
people here on Sat. after Thanksgiving for lunch we never ran out of ice. One thing we like about
the Frigidaire is the stainless somehow does not show fingerprints. I think we paid like $1600 for it.

http://www.frigidaire.com/products/kitch...fpus2686lf

"Nearly" everyone we know that's bought French door bottom freezer units don't like them, too much
stooping over and rummaging through to find something.

We've never owned a Fridgedaire anything so time will tell, it's made in Mexico along with most other
fridges, right along side $3500 Kitchenaids.