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Side by side vs french door fridge?

I figured Id post here since if you ladies are like me my fridge/freezer is always stocked.  That being said we currently have a side by side and we HATE it, though it is only 5 years old.  The fridge just does not seem to have any room, if Im holding a party trying to any kind of platter in there is a juggling act. The freezer part I don't love but I wouldn't say I hate it.  I do get frustrated that we can only fit 1 frozen pizza standing up in there at a time but overall the freezer meets our needs.

My husband wants to try to sell our side by side and buy a new french door.  Which I think we would love the fridge aspect.  Though Im wondering if I would really hate the freezer part then with everything stacked onto of each other and feeling like Im constantly digging to get anything out.

So for those of you that have a french door, what are your pros and cons and if you've also owned a side by side which setup do you prefer? 

Re: Side by side vs french door fridge?

  • We love our French door! However, I never owned a side by side, so I can't compare the two. It feels very spacious and I like the room for large trays (I can fit several cookie sheets inside). We don't have tons in our freezer, so I never feel that I have to dig for anything. But, our freezer has two large compartments and then an interior shelf, so that helps keep things organized. Hope this helps!
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  • Personally, I hate my mom's french door fridge, but it's because you have to open both doors to get to the deli drawer, which I use very frequently.  It's also because with small kids around the freezer drawer handle is naturally at the perfect height to climb, pull and hang on.  I'm always afraid they're going to break the darn thing.  We have a Kitchen Aid side-by-side, and I really like it.
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  • We just switched out the side-by-side that came with the house we bought last spring for a french door.

    I hated the side-by-side. HATED. Pretty much for all the reasons you mentioned. They are just too small. Plus the ice maker (which didn't work) took up like half the freezer space. Ugh.

    I am in love with our french door! So spacious. I happen to really like the freezer on the bottom but that's what I'm used to. We had a regular fridge with a freezer on the bottom at our old house and I think it's easier to keep things organized on the bottom with the little shelves/compartments that are in there as opposed to stacking and shoving everything into a regular freezer.

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  • I love my French door fridge!  I refuse to have a chest freezer because of all that digging, but I have no complaints about my fridge freezer.  It has a rack that slides in and out that holds the ice and quite a bit of other items (it has dual icemaker) and the area in the very bottom of the fridge is split into 2 sections and it is quite easy to find what I need.
  • The freezer part is the worst part of a french door fridge.  I had one when I lived in DC and it was awful!  You have to carefully arrange everything to get the drawer to close; then, you have to dig to find anything.  However, my MIL has one and I like their fridge because they have a separate stand alone freezer that will hold most freezer things (it's packed with veggies from her garden).  So, long story short...if you have a separate freezer, go for it; if you don't and actually use your freezer, go side by side.
  • These responses are interesting. I grew up w/ a top & bottom, lived in a house recently that was side by side & when it died, got a french door. By far like the french door the best. i hated the side by side- so inefficient in terms of space and the freezer part drove me crazy. 

    Yes, the french door freezer is annoying w/ the stacking but you can use organizational items if you choose (find bins to help, etc). Our samsung has a bottom part that has a divider so you can have 2 sections, and then a top drawer thing that pulls out as well that has the ice maker and another freezer section. The thing that annoys me the most about mine is that hte ice thing fills up too much so when I pull it open, pieces of ice end up falling out & on the floor or behind the drawer but that is the brand I'm sure. We also have to open both doors to get to the deli tray but other than a top bottom fridge, you're not going to have a big deli tray like that in any other fridge anyway?

    My kids are 2 1/2 and have never hung onto the freezer handle. They are just now able to somewhat figure out how to even open it, and they can open the doors on the other non french door fridges much easier, which I find extremely annoying.

    So I think it is a personal preference thing judging by all the mixed reviews! I will say I miss our chest freezer from our old house but that thing required a bunch of bins to organize too- I just buy a lot of frozen stuff & freeze a lot of meals for my kids so I miss the space, which would be the case w/ any refrigerator.  

  • I love our french door fridge, the only downside is there is really only one place you can put beers so they fit upright, the rest of the shelves are too short.  The pull out freezer does get crowded, and I do end up digging despite having a divider and a upper drawer in it.  The good think is it fits a ton of frozen food, so maybe that is our problem.  
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  • We recently bought a large one-door fridge with two freezer drawers on the bottom.  I hemmed and hawed for months over the type of fridge I wanted and decided that the side-by-side freezer was definitely too narrow for my needs.  I freeze a lot of food on baking sheets that wouldn't fit in the freezer.  I didn't like the idea of having one big freezer drawer on the bottom because of organizational issues, as others have said. And I didn't want to have to open two doors to have full access to the fridge. 

    Granted, the fridge isn't installed yet as we haven't moved into the house yet but I'm really happy with my decision and I haven't had any "buyer's remorse" since we purchased it.

  • I have a combination side by side/french door.  Fridge and freezer are side by side, with 2 drawers below that be adjusted to be fridge or freezer depending on need. Overall I like this style because I have flexibility in choose fridge or freezer on the bottom.  However, the freezer side is a little too narrow and when I use a drawer for a freezer it's kind of annoying when I have to dig through it.

    I have a regular fridge in the basement with freezer on top, and I have to say that I think I like this style the best.

  • I LOVE my french door fridge.  LOVE it.  I never realized how rarely you really use the freezer.  I felt like I used mine a lot, but in comparison to how often you use the fridge, it really makes so much sense to have the freezer be down low.

    My only complaint about the french door fridge (we have a GE Profile) is that you can't easily fit frozen pizzas in there.  It's not a problem for me because we have a regular (old fashioned, freezer on top) fridge in our garage, but it is a downside.  Some freezers are arranged differently, though.

    I'd really recommend not getting the one with an ice dispenser in the door.  They just take up too much of the fridge room.  I don't find it that annoying to open the freezer for ice -- and ours does have filtered water in the door.

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  • We have a french door and we LOVE IT. I had to grow up with a side-by-side (as well as a freezer-on-the-top) and I really don't know why they ever invented them! You can't fit anything in there! 

    If you're worried about having to dig for food---we've never had that much of a problem. I think you'd have to do just as much digging to get to the back of the side-by-side than the freezer on the bottom of the french door fridge. I'm never going back to anything else! 

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  • I recently bought a french door and I love it!  My parents have a side by side and I hate it.  I would much rather dig through stuff (which really is not as much of a pain as you are thinking) that trying to squeeze into that teeny little side by side freezer.  But then again I have a stand alone freezer in the basement that I store all of my meat in.  The main freezer is basically used for frozen veggies and ice cream. 

    If you ever put trays of stuff into the freezer, that is pretty much impossible in a side by side but totally possible in a french door.

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