Need Help Choosing Style for New Refrigerator

I have had mine for many yrs now. When i frist seen the freezer on the bottom i was like I have to have that. and I have loved mine ever since! You have just as much room as the side by sides. If i was shopping for a new one I would go with the same style I have now. =)

We bought a Samsung french door 6 months ago it is great love the water inside and the ice bin in the freezer-history MIL had a freezer on the bottom bought in 1960 she was a small woman and an Italian cook, the freezer was always full but not in the way-whole pan of lasanga fit-15 yrs ago bought a whirlpool with freezer on the bottom loved it-people who bought my house insisted on keeping it-not one of my sisters or friends that have side by side have anything good to say about thier refrigerators. 3yr and 6 yr grandsons have no problem getting snacks or water from frig.

My husband and I just bought a new fridge with the pull out freezer on the bottom. I was not able to get the french door style (wanted it) but the space for the fridge was to small. But anyways I LOVE IT!!!!!!! The freezer is kinda small but I also have a box freezer in my laundry room so that makes up for the lost space. I highly recomend it, I looked at the side by sides and decided against it since it has such little room on either side, especially the fridge side. Happy Hunting!!

I love my french door, bottom freezer from Maytag. I have ice and water on the door which is great in Texas! The only thing I don't like is small bins on the door. But I really have adjusted well to smaller bottles on one particular section below the ice maker.

I have stainless and recommend Sidol cleaner - works like car wax, but is much better than the spray on Stainless cleaners that leave a greasey feel to the doors.

Check out Oliver Dyers for "scratch and dent" deals - we have a scratch on the hidden side and saved about $800+!

Good luck,
M.
Southern Living at HOME consultant
Big Clearance sale in July!
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We just bought a new side by side Kitchen Aid from Best Buy. We originally chose the side by side with bottom drawer but we chose to go with ours (which we LOVE) because we like the choices from ice/water on the door (crushed vs cubed and a separate water dispenser). We were not looking for a lot of sizzle on this fridge because we bought a TOP of the line Maytag in 2000 that this new Kitchen Aid is replacing. We like a lot of "Steak" vs the "sizzle".

8 Yrs ago we paid more for lots of "sizzle from Maytag" but there was no "steak". I prefer a good appliance over one with all kinds of sizzle any day. I learned the hard way.

I love my new KitchenAid.

We purchased a Maytag Ice2O(counter depth)about a year ago. We got black, because Stainless is a pain to keep clean. We love it. I had a side by side before and hated it. So we moved it to the garage and use it for drinks and other stuff. I love the French doors. You open them up and you can see everything and you don't have to bend over and it is wide enough for large platters if you have parties. I would suggest going to the Sears outlet at Grapevine Mills, we saved 1000.00. Good Luck!!

We just bought a french door two months ago. We have an Amana with water and ice on the outside door (major requirement after our side by side. I love most features but will say that take out containers are an issue--I am a piler of styrofoam boxes and that doesn't work well. Stacking is an issue but if you arrange the shelves well most things will have to be single stacked on short shelves. I love the ease of casserole pans and pizza boxes. Also the storage for milk.

LOve, love, love mine! We bought an LG-- not sure of the model #, but we got it at ??? That HUGE store in Plano near 75 & Plano Parkway that has all of the appliances, technology stuff, a little cafe inside? Sorry I am blanking on the name of the store. We had an emergency, must go buy a fridge because ours died, but we are very happy with it! Ours does have water in the door but no ice and I actually prefer that-- I have more fridge storage and the water comes out cold. THere is an ice maker in the freezer portion.
Good luck!
A.

We have a newer LG so no repair issues. It's ok but i wouldn't recommend it over another style. i don't like bending down to get to the icemaker. now my four year old can't reach anything in the fridge because of the design. it's different but i think i prefer the side by side. Also, sometimes you have to open both french doors to access the pull out drawer at the bottom of the fridge. Also, agree that when the icemaker gets full the ice falls to the back of the fridge which is all but impossible to get to. I also had a spill on the pull out shelves in which i needed to clean under the glass. my husband ended up taking both pull out drawers out to figure out how to take the glass off (you know they don't care to read the manual). anyway, it was a pain with that annoying buzzer going off reminding me that the door was open every minute or so.

My only suggestions to you when you are looking at the fridges with the french doors are to get one with two freezer drawers (you will end up spending hours digging through one big drawer!) and get one with the ice maker/water dispenser on the door. It is a huge hassle if you are bending down every time to get ice. Good luck and have fun!

After years of having side by sides, I chose a French Door with bottom freezer for our new home. The freezer drawer is not as convenient as the side by side freezer, but having the refrigerator space all on top far outweighs that. I also really like the ability to store larger items in both refrigerator and freezer. That sometimes could be a challenge in even the large side by side. Mine is the Whirlpool Gold. There is nothing I do not like about it.

We have the Kenmore Elite MOD #596.76522500. We purchased it from Sears about 2 years ago and we LOVE it! I did not want a fridge like this, but my husband did... so we got it. But now I love it so much. Good luck!

I've got the Maytag H20 and absolutely love it! I love having the freezer on the bottom. You just don't go in there as much as the fridge, so it's great having the fridge at eye-level. It is also so much easier to find room for things because it is so wide and has a big wide storage drawer. I also love the milk compartment -- we have the coldest milk in Texas!

We did have to have the ice maker repaired once, but it was under warranty and we haven't had any more problems.

I love my french door style. I can't remember if it is ge or whirlpool (im at work). I love that i can open the top 2 doors and actually slide in a full size crock, turkey pan, cookie sheet, platter whatever. It is great. I do wish i would have gotten the one with the water dispenser on the inside. It is filtered and also filters the ice. I didn't get it at the time b/c i have the water cooler thing as well. I wasn't sure if i was going to like teh freezer. It looked so small but like you i had teh good ol' side by side. I always hated trying to get a pizza in that thing. The bottom drawer is really nice and easy to dig in. Your kids are older so you probablywon't have teh problem but on occasion my girls have not shut the bottom drawer all the way and we have ruined a freezer full. They know now and usually shut it over and over. Good luck! Oh ps.... Mine is black and my mom got the chrome after loving mine but the front is not magnetic so it does stay uncluttered but she did have to rearrange b/c she always kept her calendar on the front. Her fridge is closed in on the sides like a cabinet.

We bought an LG French Door about 3 years ago from Best Buy and I love it!. I decided against the kind with the outside water/ice dispenser, because they all require a $35+ filter to be replaced every 6 months. Plus it takes away from space in the fridge. My only two complaints are 1)when the ice basket is full, the ice will slip out the back and 2)sometimes the doors don't shut all the way (there is an alarm that chimes if this happens). My understanding is that these flaws have been fixed on this model, but you may want to look into that because it could be an issue with other brands as well.

We have a Kennmore with the French doors and bottom freezer. We really like it. The only thing you need to keep in mind is where your fridge is located in the kitchen, so the doors will open all the way on both sides. Ours is at the end of the counter next to the wall of the pantry, and that door opens enough to get things in and out, but does not open 100% of the way because of the wall.

I have the LG french door and LOVE it. Really, I've been dreaming about it for years and every time I open it, it makes me happy. I know that's sad, but really, I love it.
I chose the kind with no water or ice on the door because those features always seem to break. So my ice maker is in the freezer. If it would bother you to bend down to get your ice, then it's not for you.
I like the layout of the freezer also, because it has a slide out drawer up top that I keep things in that I use a lot, like frozen corn dogs for the kids. It also has a shelf on the door that I keep their icee pops in and stuff like that. It's easy to get to. I just use the big drawers for the big stuff. One drawback is that you can't load it TOO heavy, or the door won't slide in easily.
I got mine from Conns and the delivery was amazing. They were so kind and cleaned up after themselves. It was great. And I've had Conns come out to warranty my washer before and it was easy as pie. They're good to work with.
Consumer Reports was all about kitchens in Nov/Dec 2007. They reviewed refridgerators and talked specifically about bottom mount freezers. You should check that out.

My husband and I purchased the French Style fridge with bottom freezer a year ago and we love it!! We have the silver one which can be a challenge to keep clean with lots of kid finger prints but it's great cause you can move all the shelves around to fit your personal needs (even the ones on the door). The freezer also has a slide piece that moves back and forth and a little ice bucket for your overflow. It also has a tray at the top that pulls out and I fill it with the meats that I plan on using for that week and that keeps me from diggin through the bottom. I know other people don't like the bottom freezer but we have 3 teenagers and buy in bulk and even when it's full, if you pack it organized, it's great to work with. We purchased the LG brand with the ice/water in the door at Conn's. Only draw back is that it has a filter to be replaced every 3 months and they are 50.00 each. We have found that we do not need to replace it that often though and the water and ice are still good. We shopped and shopped and shopped and found that they have the best pricing of anyone around on all their refrigerators, even with the others sale prices. Not sure about that now, but that's what we found this same time last year. Best of luck and you will LOVE IT!

Well my first thought is do not buy form Sears, we did in Jan and have had a terrible experience from the delivery to the repairs, yes repairs. We bought the kenmore french door style and I hate it!!! Every time you slide open the freezer drawer ice falls out the back and you are always digging to find what you need, bent over because it is hard to stack anything in them because of the way it slopes on the inside. I felt like my old side by side held more!
Just my thoughts, happy shopping,
K.

We bought a Whirlpool French Door/Freezer on bottom combo about 6 mo. ago. We absolutely love it. It is so spacious. The only draw back is ours has the ice maker in the freezer and water dispenser inside the actual refridgerator. We don't mind it but my MIL mentioned it was hard on her back to stoop to the freezer to get ice. We are 100% pleased. By the way, we shopped around for a long time and you just can't beat Lowe's prices or selection.

We don't have the French door style, but we do have a bottom drawer freezer, and our particular model is teeny and annoying! It's a basket, so things fall through (or leak through in the case of an extended tree-related power outage!) and there's very little space. Lack of solid shelves also means it's tricky to do things like put in newly-filled ice cube trays without spilling, if I can even make a flat space to place them in the first place. Argh!

Just bought a Maytag french door and bottom freezer, I love it and its like having a new piece of furniture, stainless, but it wasn"t making ice cubes, revolving shelve

I love, love, love my french door refrigerator. There is so much space! The shelves slide out so you can reach things that have gotten pushed to the back. We bought the Kenmore Elite and are very happy with it. My only complaint is that when you pull out the drawer on the bottom some of the ice falls out.
A few months ago Consumer Reports was all about refrigerators. It rated tons of top refrigerators of all styles based on noise, energy efficiency, overall performance, etc . . . and let you know the best buys for the money. You could probably find a copy at your local library. I'm not sure the month but it would have been around April or May.

My parents have the Maytag one and it has been non-stop trouble. They replaced all of their appliances with Maytag and wish they did not.

We have the french door toshiba, got it at Best Buy and LOVE it. The ice maker had a problem - bent teeth - but they came right out and fixed it (I think it was a factory oops). The icemaker and water are in the fridge door section. It has a "door open" alarm, which is great with little kids, and SO much room. You can see everything in the fridge section which is great. Enjoy!

We bought a new fridge two years ago with the freezer on the bottom. Ours isn't french doors on top, but I will warn you that we went with a model with a freezer door with drawers inside. It's so much easier to use than the models where the freezer is just one big drawer. As soon as you add food to the drawer, it's impossible to open because it's weighted down with all that food. I wanted french doors, but at the time, there weren't any models with french-door fridge and door freezer.

My inlaws had the freezer on the bottom and I thought it was neat at first, then found I HATED it. I did not like having to sometimes get down on my knees to look for stuff in the freezer. Just my opinion! My inlaws did trade it in for a new one with freezer on top again. They did not like it either.

The only reason I would not like the bottom freezer is that I have a bad back and bending over to gets things or put things away in a bottom freezer would be a pain for me (literally). I'm also not sure that storage-wise it would be as convenient as a side by side. Good luck!

I would have to agree with the negative reviews. A bottom basket freezer is just not functional-it's a poor use of space. Everything just gets dumped together-you may or may not have any shelves. It's annyoing to dig through to find what you need.