I have had a french door Amana for about 7 years. The first year it had a problem with the compressor which was replaced at no charge. Since then it has worked well and had no issues. Since there is no perfectly rated appliance
out there - all have issues, I would look at overall brand reliability and customer service. Consumer reports rated kenmore, whirlpool gold, and samsung as the best models.

We have a Kenmore for 2 1/2 yrs minus the water dispencer and have had no problems. When you decided and if it is a bottom freezer make sure the freezer bins have a solid bottom and not a wire basket. Ice cubes will fall in the bins and evaporate, if it is a wire basket they will fall thru and on to your floor. If you do not realize it the ice will melt on the floor. My husband pointed that out when we were looking and the sales person never realized that and thought it was a good point.

I'm not an expert, nor do I play one on TV, but we have had a Samsung French Door refrig with water and ice in the door since Nov or Dec 2009. We have had no problems.

We picked black, 26 cubic feet (RF26XAEBP) but the same model is available in stainless. Before, we had a KA side-by-side, which we moved to the garage to use as a back-up fridge. We like the French Door design much better than the s-by-s.

As AvidChef says, every brand is going to have both good and bad reviews. But we've been very happy with our choice.

Thanks for all your replies. I went out last night looking again and have it narrowed down to the Samsung RF266AEPN and the Whirlpool Gold GX5FHTXV. The Whirlpool looks cheaper to me, but if it costs a lot less I may get over that. Both my brothers have the Samsung and are happy with it. I don't know which will match my GE Cafe range better and I haven't been able to see them side by side. The Samsung SS looks too shiny, the Samsung platinum looks too brown, and the Whirlpool SS doesn't look quite right either. Ughh.

Any thoughts on lg refrigerators or the kenmore cafe

Sub zero french door with bottom freezer
Liebherr french door with bottom freezer

We have a FD LG (5 to 7 years old) and wouldn't buy another one. We selected it because the interior configuration was the nicest we could find at the time. Construction is quite shoddy, and, while we haven't had any mechanical problems with it, the interior plastic parts break easily. The piece of plastic that holds one of the doors shut broke off about 6 months ago, can't be replaced, and now we need to make a really conscious effort to remember to push the door really tight and make sure it is closed. LG won't be on our shopping list when this needs to be replaced.

Homeimprovementmom, I wish I had the budget for a Subzero or Liebherr! They look so nice.

Needinfo1, I agree completely about LG. I bought one 7 or 8 years ago and the plastic parts to the crispers started breaking pretty quickly. I was able to get replacement parts and fix it myself, and it was fine for a few years. Then the lightbulbs stopped turning off when I shut the door, which I realized when I smelled plastic burning. I was so glad I noticed it before it caught fire. We took out the bulbs and lived with a dark refrigerator until LG was threatened with a class action suit and started fixing the problem for free.

To update this, I ended up with the Samsung, and it has not been the most reliable. After about 6 months (and unfortunately over Thanksgiving weekend) the refrigerator evaporator fan stopped working because of a buildup of ice. It was repaired under warranty and has been fine since. Just outside of warranty it stopped making ice, but I haven't fixed it yet. The refrigerator in the basement makes ice and I bring it up once a week or so.

We bought an LG french door about 3 yrs ago from Home Depot. We have loved it, but a couple of small complaints. Quickly developed some cracks in the plastic holding the drawers and is real easy to not get the doors completely closed. It's the only french door we've ever owned. Funny how experiences with appliances are. It's not like repeatedly buying a brand of shoes because they fit well. Not sure how much we love the LG - or the french door concept.

If you like your wood floors, don't buy a KitchenAid. Pretty much every night ours releases water from the floor of the freezer onto our kitchen floor. Fortunately we have vinyl floors, but it is a slip hazard and I hate leaving an unsightly towel on the floor.

We have shallow depth model obfuscation s20evbl3 in black that cost $1900. The going price of a shallow stainless model was $2500 -$2700 at the time. It was the only thing we could install because the fridge is on the main isle way.

It is 3 1/2 years old. Ironically the matching KitchenAid convection range has been outstanding.

Flint--

I too have the LG. I know I love the FD concept, but the brand itself is lacking in construction quality.

Samsung RFG28MESL will be perfectly matching your requirements. In my opinion, it is the best in the market of its class.

Laundryvet,
Had the same problem and it warped the baseboard of my new cabinets. A repairman came out and "notched" the drain to widen it, and it has not happened again. It's as if the drain hose gets clogged and causes ice to form under the freezer drawer. When the defrost goes on the ice melts and runs onto the floor. Hope you can get yours fixed. It's a great refrigerator.

All ice dispensers on French door refrigerators have an inherent issue: the ice maker is in a compartment at 34 degrees. Duh! In a side by side, the ice maker is in the freezer at 0 degrees.

If you are a heavy door opener or tend to open the fridge to stare at stuff you will probably encounter problems, as the ice maker will not be in a 34-36 degree compartment but warmer. This causes the ice to sweat, refreeze, etc. this makes the mechanicals strain to operate. Problems occur.

Lets make this simple: a fridge is really a freezer with a separate chill compartment we call the refrigerator, which really just works by allowing a small amount of 0 degree air to move into the 34 degree section. On cheap models this causes food to freeze near the inlet.

Want French door? Get one without water and ice in the door. Better? Save money and buy a side by side.

Help I am struggling like mpagmom. Wish to get french door refrigerator to replace side by side. LG, Kenmore rated quite high on consumer report for 2018. But when you check out Sears pending bankruptcy and the numerious bad reviews that are online about these companies including Samsung I am stumped. Maytag, and Whirlpool two that were rated well in past years are not even mentioned.Would appreciate any feedback, thanks. October 31, 2018.

If you buy from Costco and use their Visa credit card you'll get 4 years of warranty.

I have purchased three french door refrigerators in over the past 10 years in three different houses. First was an LG. Honestly i can't remember what broke but something broke and so I was reluctant to go back to LG. Round two we got a Samsung and one of the return springs broke on the center seal so the left door had to always be closed before the right door. And if it wasn't closed in the right order the center seal would bang off the outside of the closed door. What a pain. I called about getting a replacement part but it was such a hassle to get any kind of service that I gave up. And so in house three we just purchased a new Kitchenaid. I haven't had it long enough to provide a good review. Nothing has broken in the first few weeks of use. But I can comment that the water dispenser is super loud. You can hear where the water is going through a valve at the door hinge. Petty complaint but it is something I have noticed. I might have to take the hinge cover off and see if the fitting is properly seated.

I'm in the same boat. Looking for a SS FD with water dispenser and ice maker but reviews a making me reconsider. There is a class action lawsuit against samsung for their ice makers deficiencies. Other than the ice maker, reviews are pretty decent.

I just want a reliable, quiet, energy efficient, non-leaking, SS refrigerator with ice maker… + affordable

I have a GE Profile French Door fridge that is 10 years old, paid almost $3k for it. I believe it was actually made by Samsung at the time and rebranded. I discovered this when I started getting water under the deli drawer and when I was looking up how to fix it online, discovered this was actually the same issue the almost identical Samsung was having. After watching some youtube videos, we fixed it ourselves since the tech who came out did a poor job. It has been fairly problem free other than that annoyance which started right after the one year warranty ended.

If I could do it again I'd get a french door fridge with water in the door, but ice make in the freezer (do they even make that?). My daughter is obsessed with ice and so constantly using our ice maker and over the summer it all clumped up and then was dripping on my floor. We didn't have any issues with the ice maker until the 10 year mark so that's a good thing! I now have the ice maker disabled so all is fine and daughter is no longer crunching ice. Overall, the fridge is quiet and I love the interior layout. I just did a kitchen remodel and bought all new appliances, but decided to keep the fridge. I did not feel like getting another fridge with a new set of problems. At least with this one I know its issues.

I haven't looked into ice maker in the freezer and water dispenser in the door. good idea.