Poll - What style refrigerator do you prefer? (floor, counter, kitchen)

[Pink Jazz]

This is a poll to see what style of refrigerator do you prefer.

I personally like French Door, as it combines the best qualities of both bottom freezer and side-by-side units.

[NJBest]

Are all these slide-in refrigerators? Or does it include standard (built-in) refrigerators? I'm a fan of side-by-side standard (built-in) refrigerators... but HATE side-by-side slide-in refrigerators. Mostly because the width of side-by-side slide-in refrigerators are narrow in width for each side (you can't always fit a pizza box in there).

I guess if I had to choose a slide-in refrigerator, I would go with french door or bottom freezer.

[Cattknap]

I have a large side-by-side (counter-depth) and dislike it very much because of the freezer configurement. I would prefer to have a separate large freezer but don't want to spend the time or money to remodel my kitchen to make that possible. I like the idea of a French door fridge but don't like the idea of opening two large doors whille carrying something I need to stick in the fridge or bending down routing through the freezer - I'm tall have have back problems). (I have friends who have French door fridges and they seem to like them).

[chet everett]

I agree with the above posters -- the width of too many side-by-side units is such that frozen pizza has to be shoved in at some wacky angle if it fits at all.

Further I dislike the tendency of the bottom of side-by-side fridge or even "all fridge" to turn into a place that gets too cold and is too hard to dig stuff out of.

Top freezers have great access to your frozen stuff, but in my life I open the fridge much more often and the top freezer require that awkward bend / squat reach-in / twist. Ugh.

The crazy labryinth that some French door units have for the ice maker scares me -- those things are a repair call away from disaster. I also am sorta amazed how far out into the room some of these behemoths sit / roll out -- if you don't have about two feet in front of the bigger units you won't be comfortable.


Functionaly and aesthetically the fully cased-in fridge that I have with 36" top fridge (single door) , counter depth and two freezer drawers is very nice. I also have an undercounted fridge that is mostly used for "beverages".I thought about the fridge or freezer drawers that are much more expensive though look very functional / nice too.

People's lives and eating habits have changed quite a bit since the days when an " ice box" was invented. It makes a lot of sense to separate the various kinds / uses of refrigeration / freezing storage.

The only downside to the "distributed" system of drawers / undercounter / built-in freezers and refridgerators is cost. One could easily spend twenty grand or more on the fancy stuff...

[golfgal]

I prefer the french door. The bottom freezer in most has usable drawers or slide out shelves that make them pretty functional. We have a large upright freezer so the freezer on our current side by side is a non-issue. In our old house our side by side had a tiny freezer space but a very spacious fridge space and that was nice (in combo with a freestanding freezer). When the kids are out of the house we will do away with the freezer and get a french door fridge/freezer combo.

[nightcrawler]

I am old school, I like a regular freezer on top. I don't like the freezer drawers on the bottom. The side by side, to me never seems enough room. Actually though, I hate the look of a refridgerator, as I think they are they ugliest things to have in the kitchen.

[Cattknap]

I wish I had an old-fashioned back porch or a large laundry room right off the kitchen so that I could have a large standing freezer just steps away from the kitchen - then I would simply buy a stand alone fridge (with no freezer) for the kitchen and have the best of both worlds. We have an extra fridge in the garage (down a flight of stairs) that we use when we have parties but it is a scary thing to be carrying a large heavy vat of chili or spaghetti sauce up and down carpeted stairs.

[Ohiogirl81]

Gimme an old-fashioned top freezer any day. They're the easiest to configure, and the easiest to use. Getting down on my hands and knees to fish something out of the back of a bottom freezer is not my idea of fun.

Oh, you do know you can stack those frozen pizzas on their ends in your side-by-side freezer, don't you?

[chet everett]

You really think that bending down to grab milk or eggs or butter or cheese or beer or lettuce or berries is better than opening a drawer to grab some ice cream?

Once I get my frozen pizza home from the supermarket at least some of the topping have defrosted enough to end up sliding off if I try and store it on edge in the freezer...

Some times old fashioned is fine, other times it makes little sense.

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

Gimme an old-fashioned top freezer any day. They're the easiest to configure, and the easiest to use. Getting down on my hands and knees to fish something out of the back of a bottom freezer is not my idea of fun.

Oh, you do know you can stack those frozen pizzas on their ends in your side-by-side freezer, don't you?

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by chet everett

You really think that bending down to grab milk or eggs or butter or cheese or beer or lettuce or berries is better than opening a drawer to grab some ice cream?

Yes. The freezer door is shorter than the refrigerator door. You have less room to maneuver your head and shoulders while trying to see into and get items out of a bottom freezer than if you're trying to find the eggs and then pull them off the bottom shelf of the refrigerator in a top-freezer model.

Not all bottom freezers have multiple slide-out drawers or baskets, either. The bottom freezer models I could afford had only one. You pretty much had to lie on the floor to get the stuff out of the bottom shelf of the bottom freezer.