Fridge questions - French door vs side by side

[sandandsea]

We’ve decided to replace our current kitchenAid French door fridge because it’s dying a slow and painful death.

Are there any huge advantages or disadvantages to a French door vs side by side? I know French door are the current trend but is there a good reason why? We have space for either and the freezer drawer is somewhat annoying to me since you can’t see what’s in there.

Is it purely preference or am I missing something?

[macmars45]

I hated side by side and love french doors with freezer on bottom. I had side by side for 4ish years and found neither sides to be wide enough so had to shove/squash things in. Especially in the freezer.

[cosmowife]

I hate my French door freezer. Hate hate hate hate hate. It is a bottomless pit and I can never see what I actually have. I really want to go back to a side by side if I can find one that is big enough. The refrigerator portion is fine and doesn’t really bother me. It’s just the freezer that is awful.

[penguingrrl]

I’ve lived in a lot of rentals with a lot of different fridges.

I hate side by side with the fire of a thousand suns. I currently have one (came with our house when we bought) and the space is inefficient for us and I’m finding stuff disappears to the back and gets lost and ends up going bad far more than I’ve ever had. It’s so narrow that getting to the back is hard to do. And I can’t fit a standard sized ice cream cake in the stupidly narrow freezer. Until moving in here I had no idea that someone could have awful taste in appliances, but was proven wrong. I do a little dance each time an appliance breaks and I can replace it.

My last house had French door and that was my favorite that I’ve ever had. The space just felt efficient and we had no issues with losing stuff deep into the freezer. That was a much smaller fridge than we have now, but served us far far better.

I don’t mind the freezer on top traditional style either. They’re perfectly fine and functional, though not my favorite.

[dr.girlfriend]

I have heard many people rant about hating side-by-sides. I have French door with bottom freezer and like it a lot. It's counter-depth, so I don't have any concerns about losing anything. The only thing I would change is that you have to open both doors to open the deli drawer...wish that was half-and-half too, but I don't know if that exists!

[freshsqueezed]

Side by side is awful. Too narrow.

[carmenere]

I, too, hate side by side. I end up cramming stuff in because it’s so narrow, and then it’s impossible to find things.

[sandandsea]

We had side by side at our old house and have French door here. I think I liked the side by side better because things get lost in the freezer drawer and I feel like the non-negotiable on door ice maker takes up a huge portion of the fridge vs part of the freezer.

[af1212]

Feb 25, 2021 21:36:32 GMT -5 sandandsea said:

We had side by side at our old house and have French door here. I think I liked the side by side better because things get lost in the freezer drawer and I feel like the non-negotiable on door ice maker takes up a huge portion of the fridge vs part of the freezer.

I have a French door with nothing on the door. Water dispenser inside. Ice in freezer.

[mrspez07]

We inherited a side by side when we bought the house and replaced with French door.
We often ran into storage issues with the side by side, for things on cookie sheets, or bulky items. The French door lets us move things around more. I thought I’d dislike the freezer on the bottom, but it’s not bad.
Check all the dimensions whichever one you go with! French doors seem to be wider (at least compared to our older side by side). Check the body height as well as the hinge height, and make sure doors can open out to the side as needed. I didn’t pay enough attention to the hinge height and depth and ours sticks out further than the old one did.

[sandandsea]

Feb 25, 2021 23:08:52 GMT -5 mrspez07 said:

We inherited a side by side when we bought the house and replaced with French door.
We often ran into storage issues with the side by side, for things on cookie sheets, or bulky items. The French door lets us move things around more. I thought I’d dislike the freezer on the bottom, but it’s not bad.
Check all the dimensions whichever one you go with! French doors seem to be wider (at least compared to our older side by side). Check the body height as well as the hinge height, and make sure doors can open out to the side as needed. I didn’t pay enough attention to the hinge height and depth and ours sticks out further than the old one did.

Yes this happened on our old house and we had to change our order! Thankfully this house has lots of space.

[lilac05]

I hated our side-by-side because nothing fit well in the freezer. There was only one way to put pizzas in there, and then nothing else seemed to fit.

We have a French door now, and I like it a lot. I was really picky about the freezer part, though. I wanted at least 2 drawers with dividers in them. I have it organized now based on what we have in there, so things don’t get lost.

[macmars45]

Feb 25, 2021 21:43:46 GMT -5 af1212 said:

Feb 25, 2021 21:36:32 GMT -5 sandandsea said:

We had side by side at our old house and have French door here. I think I liked the side by side better because things get lost in the freezer drawer and I feel like the non-negotiable on door ice maker takes up a huge portion of the fridge vs part of the freezer.

I have a French door with nothing on the door. Water dispenser inside. Ice in freezer.

The first french door fridge I had the ice was in one side of the door but took up hardly any room at all. My current french door fridge has it like af1212. So they come both ways.

[Susie]

I strongly prefer my french door fridge over my dad's side by side.  But:

1) mine is counter depth, so everything is shallower and less of a black hole, and 
2) I don't use the freezer heavily; we have a chest freezer and a spare fridge (standard top freezer) in the basement.

So I guess those might be modifiers to my experience.  I very much prefer the flexibility of full width though.

[RockNVoll]

I think it's clear from the responses here that it's really personal preference I hate French door fridges, particularly the freezer on the bottom. Maybe it's because I'm short, but I find it really hard to dig through to find stuff, especially if it's in the back. I guess I prefer the shelves in a side-by-side.

[k3am]

I still shop for things with my mom's cake decorator mindset.. could you fit an unassembled wedding cake in it? You can not fit a wedding cake in a side by side. I will never, ever, ever, need to put a wedding cake in my fridge, but it will forever be my metric. Also turkeys take up a lot of room.

We've long since sold it, but I still hate the fact that I bought a car I couldn't fit a wedding cake in, because DH said it was a stupid metric. EVERY SINGLE TIME we tried to pack that car I was bitching about not being able to fit a wedding cake.

[hbomdiggity]

I hated the side by side as nothing fit in either side, but especially the freezer.

That said, I lasted maybe 6months with the bottom freezer before getting a separate freezer for garage. I still much prefer the fridge part of the French door though.