Speaking of fridges, love or hate your French door model?

[Malibustyle23]

I may be going to order a new fridge tomorrow. And I am kind of set on a French door model that I found online. It has an ice maker located in the bottom freezer section. I would like the ice and water dispenser in the door but am too cheap to pay the extra $300 for that feature.

I currently and have only had a standard regular "cheap" fridge with the single door fridge on the bottom and a single door freezer on top.

If you have/have had a french door fridge what have you liked or not liked about it? Any reason not to get one or any tips to share about them?

Thanks!

 

[dotfurio]

We had a side by side before and went to french door on top with freezer on bottom with our new one. I love it - I like that I can easily find things. The side by side was too narrow to see in the back of the freezer especially. Our freezer also has an ice maker, and we didn't get the water/ice dispenser on purpose because it was the first thing to break on our old one so I didn't even want to mess with one.

 

[shoney]

I have an LG french door with water/ice in the door. I love it, but since the ice maker must be contained inside the door, it is smaller than a normal ice maker. It makes about 10 tiny cubes at a time and the bin is small. We do run out of ice in the summer!

 

[Tiffylv]

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[tzolkin]

I like mine (got it about 18mos ago when we bought our house-- previous owner took appliances).

It does have the ice/water in the door, but it was less expensive than what I paid for my side-by-side in my previous home. (Can you wait for a good sale? I think mine was $1700) We really only drink water in our house so having it in the door is worth it for me. I would get annoyed with the kids going in and out of the fridge for water and/or ice all the time and having to refill pitchers.

It also has the veggie drawer that opens from the outside (between the fridge doors and the freezer). I really enjoy this feature. I keep fruit, cut vegetables, and other items that I send in my kids' lunches. Makes it easy to have everything organized in one place and they can also go in there to get afternoon snacks without digging through the main fridge. There are dividers within the drawer that can be rearranged or removed if you wanted just one big space.

My freezer stays well organized. It's one door, but there are four separate sections within (two in the door, two in a basket above).

 

[PlutoPony]

Love it. Have one of the first Kitchen Aid counter depth French Door models, 10 years now. Do not have ice/water in the door, it wasn't available yet in counter depth models. Do have ice maker in freezer and it's fine, makes plenty of ice. It's really nice not having a whole big refrigerator door to open if you want to get something out. IMO much easier for storing things like pans, pizza boxes, etc. than a side by side. The one option I would strongly encourage is an alarm that let's you know if the freezer or refrigerator temps are too warm i.e. one of the doors didn't shut completely. That's saved me a couple times when I didn't push the freezer door totally shut or the left side door didn't quite close before the right one.

 

[tvguy]

Grew up with fridges with freezers on the bottom, Always had to sit on the floor to find stuff in the freezer.
DW and I the past 32 years have had side by sides, stuff you use in the fridge or freezer frequently you put towards the top, stuff you need less frequently near the bottom. Rarely have to sit on the floor anymore. So I wouldn't consider a french door fridge for that reason.

 

[eliza61]

I have a samsung french door. Had it for about 5 months now and I like it. lot's of fridge space. we have a small freezer in the basement. It's great for different size items

 

[mnrose]

LOVE it. Would never voluntarily go back to another kind of refrigerator. I especially love the wide shelves...easy to store away nearly anything, of any size.

Mine is a Samsung, about two years old. Icemaker in the bottom freezer. No water in the door (I don't care of that feature myself). Not one second of problems with it. Quiet. Beautiful.

 

[kimmar067]

....we have the Frigidaire Gallery refrigerator and love it...

 

[Wendy31]

We JUST (as in 2 days ago) replaced our side-by-side refrigerator w/ a French door fridge over the freezer model.

We replaced our white appliances w/ stainless steel appliances, &, at first, I was just going to go back w/ a side-by-side fridge (just in a stainless finish). Our kitchen is smaller, & I was afraid the freezer drawer would take up too much floor space when open.

However, the more I thought about it & the more I went back & forth looking at both kinds, the more I started leaning toward the French door models. While I liked the organization of our side-by-side, I was never much of a fan how limited the space was - especially for holidays & parties.

So we ended up w/ a Whirlpool French door over a freezer drawer, &, so far, we really like it! The fridge holds a lot more - even though it's taken me a bit to get things "organized."

I was also a little worried about everything just being dumped in the freezer & having to sit down in the floor & dig through the freezer whenever we wanted something. (Growing up, I remember my grandparents having a refrigerator w/ the freezer compartment on the bottom.) However, I was pleasantly surprised! I feel like our frozen stuff is actually more organized & easier to get to now than it was in our side-by-side model. There are different compartments plus 2 different drawer levels in the freezer.

We did get a model w/ the ice & water in the refrigerator door. I could not imagine getting ice out of the freezer drawer every time we wanted ice. Plus, we drink a lot of water. So that is one thing - we're getting less ice than we used to, &, for parties & get-togethers, we'll probably have to get a couple of bags of ice.

Oh, & the freezer drawer, when open, really doesn't take up that much extra space.

So, even though we've only had for it 2 days, we're fans!!

 

[design_mom]

I like mine and would consider another one. Mine is a Kenmore Elite and 13 years old. It was one of the first (maybe the first) french door models that was out. They did not offer ice/water through the door, but we do have a water dispenser inside the fridge and an ice maker in the freezer.

I like the wide shelves and that it's big enough to get a pizza box in. I also like having the refrigerator at the top (since I get into that a lot more often than I get into the freezer). My freezer is a drawer with two baskets inside. I don't mind that either.

We had an ice-maker in the freezer and while it was working it made plenty of ice and I really liked it.

My only complaints were that the ice maker broke several years ago. In addition, the plastic shelves in the doors cracked when it wasn't very old at all. Kenmore called that "normal wear and tear" but in my opinion it was not. We had to pay to replace them and it wasn't cheap. However, we have not had any trouble with the replacement shelves. (The originals lasted less than 3 years, the replacements have been there 10+), but I think both of those problems were with OUR refrigerator, not an issue with french-door models in general. I would definitely consider a french door model again, especially since so many other companies are making them now.

My mother-in-law just got the Samsung that has the french door refrigerator and the two french-door compartments at the bottom. You can use both bottom compartments as freezers or use one as a freezer and the other as an additional refrigerator. Hers has ice/water in the door. She's only had it for a couple of weeks, but so far she loves it. (I'm not sure I would love having a door on the bottom compartments instead of a drawer. At least with the drawer, you can stand and look down into it. I feel like I'd have to sit on the floor to see into my mother-in-law's freezer, but she said it works fine for her.)

 

[CPanther95]

I much prefer side by side for everyday use, but that's primarily only because I have a separate freezerless fridge with full width shelves that lets me store pizza boxes, veggie trays, etc. Also have a separate upright freezer that lets me store the bulk of freezer items there. That lets me keep a lot less in the main freezer section and everything is easily seen and accessed.

If I only had one fridge, I'd probably go with the french door. The full width shelves in the refrigerator would trump the less convenient freezer section.

 

[Squirlz]

French Door is definitely the way to go. Ours has two freezer drawers.

 

[EMom]

Love my Samsung French door. It has a water/ice dispenser in the door AND an extra icemaker in the bottom. Two levels in the bottom freezer.

 

[firecracker725]

I may be going to order a new fridge tomorrow. And I am kind of set on a French door model that I found online. It has an ice maker located in the bottom freezer section. I would like the ice and water dispenser in the door but am too cheap to pay the extra $300 for that feature.

I currently and have only had a standard regular "cheap" fridge with the single door fridge on the bottom and a single door freezer on top.

If you have/have had a french door fridge what have you liked or not liked about it? Any reason not to get one or any tips to share about them?

Thanks!

I loved my French door fridge. It was wide enough to fit big platters and just so easy to organize. The freezer on the bottom could get to be kind of a disaster, but we also have a deep freeze, so I just tried to keep daily items in the fridge/freezer. That worked out pretty well.

 

[fly girl]

LOVE my fridge!!!

 

[MSLRAC]

We just built a house and opted to go with a french door fridge and I love it! Well other than its stainless and shows fingerprints. But we got in the door ice and water for less than $100 more than the model without that. But there is so much room in it and I've not had to sit in the floor to get to anything in the freezer.

 

[cmarsh31]

LOVE my fridge!!!

View attachment 133789 View attachment 133790

I have that one as well, minus the water in the door. Came with our house, but I had bought a very similar one in our old house. 6-ish years old now. Would never, ever go back.

 

[Missy1961]

I am in the minority - I hate it. I loved our side by side - I could get a ton of stuff in the freezer. Now no matter what I do, the stuff in the freezer ends up all jumbled together and I have to take stuff out to find things. In the side by side, I had certain things on certain shelves - so I could just reach in and find what I needed. and we have never had a water/ice maker so I used to have trays of ice - now I can't do that easily.