If French door models are problem-prone, would single door bottom freezer models be any better?
ConsumerReports online costs $39/year (possibly worthwhile for folks shopping for multiple appliances).
Here’s a GH review for fridges
The recommended French Door is $3k … and has a built in Kuerig - I’ve not heard of that combo (and not sure I’d want it).
I used to joke i was a Whirlpool gal. And I’d had a good track record with various appliances.
Had a side by side that just got too old, not cold enough, replaced it with a Whirlpool French door, great deal from Lowes. Liked it, but but by year 3 or so, it srarted having compressor and fan issues. The 3rd time, the service guy gave up.
We now have a bottom freezer/one door top. So far, so good. I’m not crazy about the freezer- you’re basically dumping foods into the bins (it’s shelves, with an SxS.) But it’s handsome enough.
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If you are simply playing the reliability percentages, side by side seems to be a better risk. But of course features and usability are important. It’s just frustrating that as most other items improve and work better as technology advances, appliances seems to have more problems. Almost as though they are afraid building something that is reliable and lasts will put them out of business. 
Planned obsolescence is evil.
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We had a four door flex Samsung. It was a piece of poo! Shelves cracked and parts falling off in the first year. Bins cracking. At 3.5 years the compressor failed. That’s when I entered one of Dante’s unknown circles of hell - Samsung customer service. I’ll keep it short…look up ‘Samsung ice maker problems’. There is a 40K strong FB group detailing the mess that is this company and its customer ‘service’. The Big Box Store replaced the Samsung with a GE profile - French door with deli drawer model. Samsung was unable to provide service in my area!!
True, nothing is made to last - like our 22 year old Kitchen Aide side by side - now living in the mountain cabin. Nor is anything likely to make it to the 29 year old mark like the Amana still humming away in my parents’ house.
But…what I learned in this process is to be sure to check what service network is available in your area. Independents will service a GE or a Whirlpool. They will NOT service LG’s or Samsungs.
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Are these old-style top-freezer models?
Just read a Consumer Reports page on refrigerator reliability, based on their surveys. Basically, in terms of reliability, top-freezer > bottom-freezer > French-door or side-by-side.
It could be that worse reliability in refrigerators has a lot to do with shifting preferences toward French-door and side-by-side models.
@dietz199 I hope you don’t mind be laughing at your post. I experience the same hell, but with Whirlpool. I don’t have luck with Whirlpool. We had an oven/stove where the heating element exploded/caught fire TWICE and 2 burners stopped working < 10 years. But for some reason I thought buying a Whirlpool refrig would be better. We got a side by side - I prefer those. I hate to stoop to do anything, so I think I’d hate the french door style, and we have a stand up freezer in the pantry.
Within a few months, the Whirlpool’s freezer would randomly from drop 0* to -14* and back again. Went through customer service hell to be told various things. Finally, they sent someone to replace a circuit board. No luck. It kept doing the same thing. More calls and they never responded or would fix it. So, we just live with it. If the digital temp wasn’t there, we would have no idea it was happening. Most of the lights don’t work anymore, so it looks like it’s 7*/77* degrees. I could probably fix that, but why bother. And theoretically the refrig is a lot bigger than my old Kenmore, but I swear I could fit stuff better in the Kenmore. And the water/ice maker started to leak a bit in the last month too. I probably should fix that at some point. But I had ZERO problems with the Kenmore and that sucker lasted 20 years. We’ve had this for maybe 5.
In many cases, it’s how much more plastic is used than before. This comes up with washing machine repair folks.
Personally, can’t stand top freezers. I use the regular section more than the freezer and hate how low you have to bend to access that.
With the old SxS, true, a large pizza box didn’t fit. But I would just repack the pizza into a smaller container.
Also, my latest is an Amana. I got it at a mom and pop place that picks up discontinued items or whatever. Dirt cheap. Crazy cheap. I was in a crunch and figured this would hold us until we decided on a fancier unit. But it’s working well, is handsome enough, and functions to our needs. I especially like the veg bins- two, with separate mosisture control settings. Plus a small deli bin.
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I also couldn’t wait for my old side by side to die. It never did (a Kitchenaid) but we moved ; )
I have a Bosch french door now and love it. We inherited an old Maytag fridge that we use in the basement for overflow.
If we froze a lot of stuff, the freezer on the bottom wouldn’t be enough room but we typically don’t keep that much (that said the two freezers have been full through Covid).
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I’d recommend you go to ajmadison.com, where you can search by dimensions, color, features, etc.
Their prices are good too.
Ugh on the french door reviews! We have a side-by-side due to a narrow door-opening space and it is not easy to keep organized. We have a Kenmore with ice and water in the freezer door. We had trouble with the icemake initially, but knock wood things are OK now (some too cold in the back of the fridge issues but minor). I had thought we’d buy a french door next time, but you are all very discouraging on that.
We also have a 30+ yo fridge in our garage from my parents house. It is the old style with the top freezer and is still running. Admittedly, it does not get the constant opening and closing of the kitchen fridge.
Planned obsolescence is very real with appliances.
I just remembered a Kitchenaid story from 30 years ago.
Our first house, new KA side-by-side. The ice cream would always be just on the verge of melting.
Repair guy came. Said the problem was the thermostat and I was keeping the house to cold. I needed to turn up my heater so the fridge would know it is ‘warm’ and thus cycle the freezer.
Um, I was home with an infant! The house was kept at least 65 degrees - and that was during the coldest part of the night. Daytime was around 70.
After a moment of speechlessness I replied with 'hey, sure. No problem. Please give me the account to where I can charge - and be reimbursed for - the additional heating costs since obviously I wanted to keep the fridge happy.
After a bit of hemming and hawing, the tech said - well, we can put a paper towel into this area (a hole between freezer and fridge section) and that should fix the problem. We did, and it was fixed.
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If what Consumer Reports wrote about refrigerator reliability is true, then going from an old top-freezer to a new side-by-side or French-door model with extras like ice and water dispenser may be like (for cars) going from an old basic Toyota to a new heavily-featured Jaguar.
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@thumper1 I think your requirement for a white refridgerator probably limits your choices. We bought a white refridgerator in the vacation place we sold a few years ago (we downsized to a smaller place). It was a Kitchen Aid–no water dispensor or ice machine in the door. It had French doors and a freezer on the bottom. It worked well for us. We were renting our place for a month and the old fridge conked out two weeks before the renters were scheduled to arrive.
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According to repair man the top freezer and bottom fridge is least repair prone. He encouraged me to keep my fridge at the time for as long as possible because new ones don’t last long. The side by sides have more trouble with regulating
temperatures.
My dad (and he should know) said keep your ice cream away from the side walls of the fridge if it keeps feeling soft. The air has to circulate for max cold.
Look at the plastic bins etc when you buy. They keep getting cheaper and cheaper and drawers don’t pull out like they should which is a constant source of aggravation.
I could never arrange anything in our side by side. I don’t like bending over to peer in the fridge every time I want something so got a french door and crossed my fingers that I didn’t get a lemon. I like the configuration the best.
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A fridge gets a lot of use, so when we get our next one I’d be tempted to splurge more to get an ideal model (which may or may not be French Door… we have time to ponder). But it would annoy me to splurge and have repair headaches / expense.
Our fridge is less than 7 years old. It was pricey because it had to be counter depth. We expect to have the replacement be pricey too…but this replacing a major appliance like this every 7 years or so is for the birds.
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That’s why pricey appliances are waste. $4000+ for 7-10 year appliance seems excessive. You’ll probably be happier with the $1500 variety that you can happily toss once a decade.
I have never seen a counter depth fridge for $1500. Or cheaper.
I know my criteria are going to be more costly. Counter depth fridge, white. Either French door or side by side. I think I’m looking at about $2500. I don’t want a built in style, or anything with panels. And I’m not interested in anything like a Subzero.
I think I’ll head over to the appliance store next week…and look in person at the Kitchenaid and Whirlpool. I guess I’ll look at GE again but I seriously doubt I can convince my husband to buy another GE fridge. He really really hates the one we have now.
Just another point of data re: GE. It was purchased by Haier and the reliability for their refrigerators has supposedly increased since that change. We did replace our dead Whirlpool with one, so fingers crossed that is the case. 
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