I can only tell you what went into our decision to purchase a French doore version... I assume we are typical in the fact that we get into the refrigerator section of our unit much more than the freezer section. A french-door, bottom freezer model brings the refrigerator section up from the floor and makes it more accessible. Yes, the freezer section is down low, but you access it much less. One other advantage in my opinion is that you have two narrower doors to open rather than one large one. Theoretically, you could open up only one door to access that side of the refrigerator and open up less of the cooled space to the warmer room... However, I think, in practice, most people end up opening both - except maybe those that know exactly where everything is in their fridge (i.e. behind which door).

Dean

I end up having to open both doors on our French door fridge. It really bugs me. I really wanted one until I started using the one here at our temporary house where we're staying during our whole house remodel. I don't really understand the appeal of them other than they are something new in the boring world of fridges.

I have never had a SxS, but many of my relatives do. I don't like how narrow each side is. I think that would be more bothersome than a French door to me.

There is a third option. You can get a bottom freezer unit with a single-door fridge on top. Most appliance and big box stores I've seen don't have many of these on display, but they are certainly made and sold. I'm planning one like this for my new kitchen. It works better in my space anyway.

I agree, you may want to look into a single door but bottom freezer. They are usually less expensive than the french door models. My friend has one in black, but they come in stainless models, too. Whirlpool makes several models. I really like the look of these.

However, if you have a tight space, opening both doors on the french doors or a SxS may be easier than a single door. This is the case with my sister's very small kitchen. The narrow doors on the SxS work better for them.

We considered side by side but were concerned about the width of each side. We wound up with the traditional top freezer.

Thanks for your opinions.

I'm really struggling with the notion of the one big bottom drawer. The side-by-side's freezer seems nicely compartmentalized. When I go to the stores now they are showing mostly french door models with bottom drawers. Don't things just pile up in the one big bottom drawer? Is it easy to sort things out?

The disadvantage of the SxS is the narrow shelves. It becomes more of a hassle to put in large trays of anything.

The disadvantage of the FD is the freezer drawer. Things get stacked up. And due to Murphy's Law, the item you are looking for will always be on the bottom.

I had a bottom freezer for years -- I liked it. But the freezer was a giant mosh pit disaster. I would consider another fridge with a bottom freezer, but I'd want to make sure that it was laid out with at least one internal drawer/basket to help organize. And, I'd probably want to have a secondary freezer in the basement to help keep everything tidy. I do appreciate that bottom freezers are a bit more energy efficient than sxs fridges and have more refrigerator storage in many cases than sxs fridges. S

I rejected the idea of a french door. I don't like opening two doors and opening one against the counter I'm working near. I now have a sxs and the freezer has a lot more square footage than my bottom freezer had and keeps everything tidy. I also like the way the fridge is laid out. But we aren't a family with the big party platter storage needs that those who like French Door fridges often cite as a reason for liking the French Door. So it all depends on your particular needs.

I guess I'll represent the opposite view - we had a side by side for years and recently replaced it with a FD model and are very happy with it.

The freezer has a tray on top where we put the items we need to access frequently. Other items are stacked neatly in the large compartment below.

The right side door opens first due to the design, and we keep frequently accessed items (milk in the door, soda cans, bread, fruit in the right side drawer, etc.) on the right side. While we do find we need to open both doors, it's not something we must do all the time.

The ability to have the refrigerated items at a higher level and a wider large drawer in the fridge section make it a very good choice for us.

Bruce

I'd like to second what Bruce just said. We use our FD refrig just as he described -- with the more frequently used items on the right. Not by design; it's just worked out that way. Having the veggie drawers at mid-level rather than floor level has been a real benefit.

Plus for us, space was a consideration. As an earlier poster said, those two French doors takes up much less space than opening one large door.

Finally, I, too, was worried about the mosh-pit syndrome (we moved from a SxS to the FD). Truth be told, it does get that way some times. BUT, the top freezer tray helps. Also, I've come to keep like items in those giant zipper bags. So, for example, when it's time to bake bread, I can pull out one big bag that has in it a bag of whole wheat flour, a bag of sunflower seeds, a bag of rye flour, yada, yada, yada. That approach helps. And since I reuse them over and over I can rationalize all that plastic!

Still it can be easy to lose something in the big space. With the SxS, though, we'd also lose stuff at the back of the lowest shelves. So, in the end, I think the freezer arrangement is a toss up. Having the refrigeration on top with two doors, though, is a clear winner for us.

I guess I never considered the "things getting lost in the freezer drawer" issue. The FD fridge we're using now has two slide out shelves on top of the bigger bottom basket. I never lose anything in there. That's a good thing to consider when choosing a freezer-bottom drawer.

I'm a SXS fan. I grew up with it and the fridge was much more organized.

We switched from a SxS to a French door bottom freezer a couple of months ago. Vast improvement. Ours is an Electrolux with a good basket system in the freezer, so no "mosh pit" issues. With the SxS I often found myself having to rearrange things pretty substantially when I needed to fit a larger item in the fridge, and of course there are some things that just will not fit at all (pizza boxes, large roast turkeys...). I hardly ever need to rearrange things to fit new things with the French door. Wider shelves just make it easier to fit stuff. And I far prefer having everything, both in the fridge and on the doors, high up where I can easily see and reach it.

>> There is a third option. You can get a bottom freezer unit with a single-door fridge on top.

You can't find a large full depth one with a single upper door.

Problem with FD is that you often have to open both doors, which means you are moving around an open door to put food on an adjacent counter top, either side.

I have an LG counter depth french door that had been redesigned so that either door can open independent of the other. I didn't realize that it didn't have that flap until we had it at home. The only time I have to open both doors is to get to the meat/cold cut pullout or the small center fruit pullout. Usually only one door needs to be open to get what I want.

I'm not a huge fan of the freezer drawer. I would prefer better organization in the freezer and am slowly learning what best fits where.

There are trade-offs for both types of refrigerators.

They all have pros and cons.
Each has to decide what works best his/her family.
FD: I would HAVE to open both doors because I don't know which door i need to open. I prefer to open the door so that counter top is quickly available to me. With FD, at least one side is a block to the counter top, unless you design the landing area well.
SxS: too much stooping for the vegies. Not wide enough.
Single frig Door, bottom frig: huge door that can look overwhelming. I don't keep much in the freezer, so oaky with me. I prefer this best. This is what I have.

Attofarad--What do you consider a large capacity?

Thank you all for the great discussion.

I think a single door moedel is out for me - it will not fit in the space I have and reminds me too much of the 1960s. :-(

I am seriously thinking about that bottom freezer drawer again. I have HS aged kids still and we use the freezer a lot for kid 'fast food' items like chicken wings and bagel bites, along with lots of frozen meats. I need to really think through how the bottom might work.

I do store things knowlingly in the "back recesses" of deep shelves and I am not interested in a counter depth model - the space was designed for a relatively deep fridge. I wouldn't want to have to always open both doors on top - but I'm not sure how to avoid doing that.

To me, bottom freezer is way preferable to top freezer because stuff does not fall out. You can search through everything without making anything destabilize and fall out. And it's preferable to side-by-side because generally you get more fridge space (and correspondingly less freezer space) in a bottom freezer--to me that's better because you can always grab a spare freezer for $300 and put it in the basement if you have a lot of frozen stuff; that's way cheaper than buying a spare fridge.

You don't always have to open both doors, by the way. Keep your fridge semi-organized and you'll just open the door that's on the side you need to access. It's only when you're taking out or putting in something huge, or when you can't find something, that you have to open both doors. (Well, that's not 100% true--depending on the design you may not be able to open all of the produce drawers with one door open; the drawer on one side, and of course the full-width drawer at the bottom if you have one, require both doors to be open. But that's just the drawers, not the shelves and door storage.)

Speaking of door storage, if you get a French door bottom freezer that does NOT have ice/water on the outside, then both doors will have plenty of storage and you will just open the one you need for the stuff you're looking for.

We're going for the KA Counter Depth French Door, after years with a side-by-side. (Speaking of things falling out, I've got a bruise on my ankle where a box of frozen food flew out of our sxs and whacked me yesterday. Ouch.)

Of the various counter depth units, the KA seemed best designed, especially the layers of freezer baskets rather than one bottomless pit. Moreover, the in-door ice and water take up precious space in the refrigerated section of the French Door, so we decided to skip that. The KA unit has interior water, and a bottom ice maker.

Here is a link that might be useful: KA French Door

We had a SXS and switched to a FD/bottom freezer drawer. I absolutely like this one more. I like being able to put a big roaster with turkey in the fridge, and large meat/cheese trays at holiday time. I used to have to store those in our garage fridge that is a single door. Even a big 25 cubic foot fridge is too small for SXS - in my opinion.

Downfall of FD - I gave up having ice/water in the door when switching to FD (to have more door storage) and it is a pain to have to bend down and reach back to get ice. DH rarely uses ice, but I use it often. Just walking up to the fridge and sticking your arm out to get ice was nice :)

>Attofarad--What do you consider a large capacity?

Something upwards of 25 cubic feet, with refrigerator space much more important than freezer (I also have a freezer in the garage). At this point, I'm most likely to get the FD from LG or Samsung in the 28-29 cf range. We have the single door Sub Zero counter depth 36" at work, and that is not nearly enough space, or deep enough.

Does anyone notice that the left side of the french door doesn't shut all the time? We've had one for a while but now I have to make sure I get it closed. We are building a vacation home and were planning to do another french door, But I think I might go with a side by side. I'm also wondering about the counter depth?? I want panels so I think that's my only option but I'm worried about losing the space. Any thoughts. There will be another fridge downstairs at a bar.

I love my Kenmore FD. I try to open only one door at a time but we all open both doors and stand there thinking. We did that with our tradtional top freezer too.
I always "lost" things in the top freezer but never in the bottom. With the wire basket design and the light you can see what you have.

SxS are inefficient use of space.

We bought a GE Profile "french" door / bottom freezer about two years ago. Keeps things really cold, but has no way to turn the alarm off -- really dumb! Alarm beeps way too soon after opening the doors, BUT, doesn't beep when the doors are just slightly cracked open -- like when you would really need to know. The French doors and bottom freezer concept is a functional design, all things considered

This posting has been a big help. Does anyone have the FD with the ice/water on the outside and does it work as well as the SXS? I despise my SXS - to narrow to find anything. Kitchen Aid would match our other appliances - pros or cons on their FD? Thanks for your help!

We have a Samsung FD with ice/water on the outside (it's on the left side of ours). I think we have a 26 or 27 cu ft. Yes, we gave up some interior space and some door space, but for us it was worth it. We use the ice dispenser every day; it's very convenient. I wouldn't like to bend down and open the freezer drawer that often.

We do have some door storage on that left side. Actually it's worked pretty well, as a couple of the storage spaces there aren't very wide, so we always know what's there and can just reach in and grab it without thinking.

BTW, we do not HAVE to open both doors. They operate independently.

Oops! Soonermom: I forgot to say that we moved from a KitchenAid SxS (with ice on the door) to this Samsung FD. The ice/water works/worked well in both. I'm with you about SxS being too narrow!

daryl r said: I am seriously thinking about that bottom freezer drawer again. I have HS aged kids still and we use the freezer a lot for kid 'fast food' items like chicken wings and bagel bites, along with lots of frozen meats. I need to really think through how the bottom might work.

We have an Elux CD FD fridge w/icemaker and, like ideagirl, find its sliding basket system to be great at organizing and separating the frozen stuff. Our teens have zero problems with this setup. We also like the FD set-up up top and particularly like that you can open just one side if you know where something is or the whole thing to get the "vista". We wouldn't consider going to a SxS or full door.