<p>There was a skinny old SubZero side by side here when we moved in. Hated it. Only good for people who bought most of their food in small, square freezer boxes and never cooked anything large. Replaced it with a bottom freezer, which was great, although smaller than I would have liked due to the configuration of our kitchen. When I get a new fridge–and, I hope, remodel the kitchen–it will definitely be a french door bottom freezer with the pull out drawer. My mother and sister have them, and they are the best. No issues for either of them. I also have a separate freezer in the basement, but I would need that no matter what, because I like to make stocks in quantity, and so forth.</p>
<p>Our bottom freezer has the ice maker in the freezer, which is what I prefer. I have looked at french door models with ice and water through the door–not a feature that I have ever wanted or would buy in any fridge–and noted that the freezing mechanism takes up a lot of room on the left side of the fridge compartment.</p>
<p>When I’ve spent weeks with M and S, have never noticed their french door fridges making any noise at all.</p>
<p>My two year old French door is WAYYYYYYYY quieter than my 19 year old GE Profile. And just with the new fridge, our electric bill dropped at least $10 a month.</p>
<p>I have that ice maker in the fridge door thing. We use a TON of ice in this house, and water…so it’s nice to have that feature on the door rather than opening the freezer to get ice all the time. </p>
<p>Like anything else, I’ve gotten used to the configuration of the FD fridge. </p>
<p>I was worried I would always be opening the wrong side of the fridge…but that has NOT happened!</p>
<p>My ice and water in the door has been unusable for about 8 years now. Some rotten nasty food got stuck by the water reservoir and, although the fridge doesn’t smell, the water and ice that come from it taste nasty now. Since that time, I hardly ever drink water. Having the crushed ice and water in the door made it worth it to drink water. I miss crushed ice and will absolutely go back to having water/ice in the door when the current fridge goes. The current fridge is a kitchen aid and it is 22 years old. I have been researching so I’m not in a panic when it is time to make the change!</p>
<p>I chose not to have water/ice in door because I like the clean line it has without it. </p>
<p>I don’t understand the noisy comment. My kitchen opens into my family room and I never hear it running. The only noise is when it’s making ice. </p>
<p>I have a side by side. Next fridge will have freezer drawer in the bottom. I like the French door, but not sure I want to pay the premium for them.</p>
<p>“We have shelves in both doors of our French door fridge. The door shelves on one side can hold gallon containers.”</p>
<p>I hope you do not store gallon containers of milk or fresh juice in there! Fridge door shelves are the worst place to store perishables - known to everyone but the fridge makers who still configure their products in this way! Ketchup, pickles, and other less perishable things can be safely stored on the door shelves. </p>
<p>My house does everything that list says not to do with milk and we’re still alive. Rarely spoiled milk. Zero stomach bugs. Alive and kicking. ; </p>
<p>I was house hunting recently and all the new or newly renovated houses had the French door/ bottom freezer models. I don’t like them, and don’t want to be bending or squatting down every time I need something in the freezer. Also, none of them had water/ice dispensers, and the builders had put in a whole separate appliance for that, sacrificing a good 15" to 18" of base cabinet to do so! Wine refrigerators were also common.</p>
<p>It made me feel old and cranky. I like my side-by-side, and we even have an old freezer-on-top model in the basement. It’s convenient to have both and the older ones are just so much sturdier in general. Planned obsolescense… sigh… A friend has a relatively new fridge and I was helping her clean it out. Every single shelf had at least a micro crack on the (plastic) edge, some had longer cracks. I told her she should order extra shelves now before they are discontinued. When looking for a new one, I’m going to look for as much metal and as little plastic inside as I can find. </p>
<p>I’m going to look for shelves that go all the way to the walls. Ours have “no spill” edges that stop a good 1" short. the result is everything tips over or fall in the cracks. I can’t tell you how much I loathe this fridge. Unfortunately I’m too cheap to replace it until it dies.</p>
<p>For those that purchase FD models, please post updates down the road. We are likely to do fridge replacement someday, when and if we take the plunge for kitchen remodel. </p>
<p>I’ve had my French door fridge w bottom freezer for 9 years now and still love it! Changed from a side by side that was always cramped. The shelves are all moveable and I’ve reconfigured the fridge space every few years to match what I’m buying/what the family is eating (more or less room for big drink jugs, more or less room for plastic boxes of Fruit or salad). Below in the freezer, I have the pull out drawer with dividers, and a smaller drawer above. I find it very easy to stay organized, with the day to day stuff, but keep my large storage in a small cube freezer in the basement. Cold water line in the door, ice maker down in freezer. The only noise it’s ever made is when the ice dumps out and water refills. </p>
<p>My experience is similar to VSGPeanut’s. We replaced a side-by-side model with a French door, freezer on the bottom, model a number of years ago. We had no choice about the French doors. The space is too tight for a single door to open. And our model is counter-depth, and not very wide - 36", I believe. So the refrigerator is too small for the number of people in the house. The freezer is fine, we have the same pull-out drawer with dividers and smaller wire drawer above as VSGPeanut. But we also have a small standing freezer in the basement, where I keep food cooked in bulk, extra frozen fruit/vegetables/pizzas/burritos, and bulk spices and other things. </p>
<p>I would never go back to a side-by-side. The space was so broken up and inflexible. </p>
<p>We have had our french door/freezer bottom for about 3 or 4 months now and love it. Ours is smaller, not a big footprint, but fine for our family. We saw the icemakers were the most prone to being fixed and chose not to get one. I had to get used to the different shelves in the freezer, sometimes I think the kids forget there is a bottom, just looking at the top shelf.
One daughter, when putting a pizza box in the fridge with ease one day, said, “I never understood the lure of the side by side, seemes like more room, but nothing fits” I feel that is true . I would never go back.</p>
<p>We have had two side-by-side, larger models with roomy freezers. Both have allowed frozen pizza, but the new on is nicer with a slot to the right of the ice maker. </p>
<p>The fridge door holds a gallon jug, but I don’t store milk there. Thanks to this thread, I realized I could use it for a weekend picnic for my jumbo jug of lemonade. Phew… it was pretty full with the watermelon and the beer. </p>
<p>FD, bottom freezer with two separate sections and small slide drawers on top of the sections. So I feel like there are really 4 sections. Very happy with layout. Quiet other than when ice dispensing, water filling.
Also have the water, ice dispenser on front…was a must have for DH. I liked the cleaner lines without it.<br>
DO NOT like this feature.
The ice drop down door sometimes gets stuck in open position (naturally, when we’ve left the house or gone to bed)…and ice has melted and dripped down to my hardwood floor and it is slightly warped. Argh…</p>
<p>Ours also has the water filter that needs to be changed every six months. ($35 each). But it does make a difference in the taste of the water!</p>
<p>We bought new appliances last summer and went with a side-by-side because there was more cubic footage in the freezer section than there was in the one with the slide out bottom. Went with a Samsung and love it!</p>
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