Earthquake safety would be something you'd have to look into. A built-in probably helps there too because they are bolted in and I can't think of how you would bolt a fridge to a platform. Maybe there is a way to strap it or brace it, and the platform itself could probably be bolted into the ground. If you do look into the built-ins, Thermador has a 36" French door that was the first one of the Freedom series to show up here. I think it has the same advantages. I have some back issues too. Mine are more in the neck and upper back, but I pulled something recently and don't find the LG freezer portion a problem to open -- and with 2 teen boys we keep it pretty full. It would be a good idea to try whatever you are looking at with a load in them if you can. A store should be able to put some water bottles or something in them so you can get an idea of the pull factor needed in actual use. I'm not familiar with the LG with auto-opening drawers, but that sounds like something to look into also. That does give me some pause though and I would want to know how you can make sure they stay closed or be opened if that feature fails.

While there is an active, "general-purpose" kitchen refrigeration thread up... I noticed my 11 yr. old Frigidaire (I bought the house 3 years ago) is running all the time, even though I vacuum the coils and fan every year or so. No problem with the gaskets either. I've never given any thought to replacing the fridge so I've never shopped for them. I want to move from the side-by-side 36" config. I have now to a bottom freezer. I grew up with a mid 80s subzero in my parent's house. I would also like it to be either built in, or a color other than white, black or stainless, none of which I think will look good in my kitchen. (The unit is at the end of a counter, so the side must be visible unless I build the wall I would for a built-in) Well my verdict is that it is as bad as shopping for mattresses! You have to give credit to the manufacturers, they've somehow managed to keep "built-ins" prestigious for all these years simply by price points. It's like they have an unwritten agreement to bomb each other's headquarters if someone dare release a built-in for less than 5500 clams. That's the cheapest I can find...the Kenmore pro built in version, and the KA cheapest built-in. I can't find any other brand with a cheaper one. A very similar looking Kenmore pro, non built-in, with a little less space and perhaps only a single compressor, is some how magically less than half the price at only $2500! It is still stainless steel, it still has the grill on top which I think is the most sensible arrangement for allowing the heat the coils generate to exit and be accessible for cleaning. Compared to standalone, the built in doesn't have to have its sides with a nice brushed stainless steel finish, just its front, because they won't be visible. Certainly that should SAVE some money??? So for a slightly different shape, and sides that are not finished, you pay twice as much? WTF? It's arguably even worse with the KA units, because they don't talk about the cheaper built-ins having a superior arrangement of a compressor. I spend a lot of time in my kitchen, I have a steady job and make good money, and have a lot of savings, but, I'm sorry I think that $5500 is highway robbery for this "convenience" of being able to build the fridge into cabinetry. (which I was going to do myself, because my kitchen cabinets are over 50 years old and of totally custom construction with an unusual tongue-in-groove design...nobody is going to have something that matches). So for now I might go with the Jenn-Air bronzed finish: http://www.jennair.com/catalog/category.jsp?cat=70&N=55 Even though it will still stick out from the 24" counter and not be the form factor I want, at least it won't stick out in color as either a white, black, or stainless steel unit would.

Can't help with the fan shroud issue beyond suggesting that, if you have not already done so, maybe you try a complete manual defrost. Might have some hidden ice build up back by the fan that increases a bit, causes the noise, and chips away "just enough" when you bang the shroud. Taking everything out of fridge and freezer and shutting down for day might be needed to get rid of all of it. Going back a couple of posts, if you see the word "digital" anywhere in the specs or list of features for the fridge, it is a good bet that it has electronic controls. What we're talking about is touchpads (up and down arrows next to internal LED displays) for selecting either an arbitrary chill setting or, in the fancier models, directly setting the temperature. A mechanical control will be either a rotary knob or a mechanical slider lever. That said, a mechanical control is probably linked to some simple digital electronics that run the compressor and automatically operate the "frost-free" functions on every refrigerator you can buy these days. The only exception I can recall would be the fridges made by Sunfrost which I stumbled across when I was fridge shopping. (You can check out www.sunfrost.com for some interesting reading -- but 'twill be merely entertaining for you since, IIRC, Sunfrosts have 35-inch wide cabinets and need an addtional 3 or 4 inches to the side for door swing clearance, so completely out of consideration for your kitchen even if they weren't $3k to $4k in price.) Personally, I'm okay with the simple digital fridge controls. I've found them to be reasonably durable, easier to clean, and no more likely to fail than the mechanical ones. Also, even the simple ones have little dinging-bell alarms for fridge doors not fully closed (very handy if you have teenagers and/or lots of guests.) The digital stuff that gives me concern is unlikely to be found on top freezer fridges --- they're too "downmarket" for "smart" electronics with wireless internet connections that you can "manage" via a smart phone or computer, or that have electronically controlled and metered through-the door ice and water dispensers, etc. You've probably already figured this out, but for those who do not know, there is a website called appliance411.com that has a page explaining how to use the 3-digit presfix to Kenmore model numbers to identify the contractor who made the appliance. Unfortunately, last time I looked, Sears "sales" web site listed model numbers without the three-digit prefix that is the manufacturer code. You pretty much need to see the plate on the actual appliance in order to get the full product number. Maybe it is different now? I think the current Kenmore top-freezers are made by LG which, if correct, means the larger capacity ones will be 32.75" wide. Other non-digital features to consider for a new fridge are humidty controls for the crisper drawers and a vent/temp control for the deli-meat-cheese drawer. These are simple mechanical sliders. Had them on my previous fridge, a vintage 1998 Maytag top freezer. I found that they worked well for things like prolonging the shelf-life of greens and such. The folks who received that fridge from me likewise find them useful. I agree with what Hvtech said about CR's appliance ratings being much less helpful than they used to be. I've posted several lengthy rants about how uniformative the graphic "button" charts are. Suffice it to say that I've also noted that CR sometimes buries nuggets of useful information in the pages for individual models. "Useful information" meaning things like statements about their tests of crisper performance. When you delve into the page for a model you may see statements like "very good crisper performance" for a fridge to which CR otherwise gave middling ("good") ratings while some of their higher rated models reportedly have "poor crisper performance." Plus, there is no way to know how significant or insignificant the differences are between the performances that they give a button designating "excellent," "very good," "good," "below average" and "poor." About the only other clearly helpful set of details that CR regularly puts in its testing reports are the measurements of actual usable interior capacity of specific models. I find the membership surveys somewhat helpful in finding things to avoid -- for instance, you want to avoid GE and LG top-freezer fridges with ice-makers. One in five will have a major failure during the first five years of ownership. That's almost double the defect rate for non-icemaker models. No use for that advice here since mabookreader has already decided to avoid icemakers. Also, CR's surveys can be helpful to let you know -- as in this instance -- there is not much difference between the repair rates for the various brands. That's helpful because it tells you that reliability does not seem to be a big factor in choosing a top-freezer model. When I was fridge shopping three years ago, I did find one site which used tests similar to CR's for evaluating fridges AND which published the test data in the report. (No reducing everything to four or five dumb graphic buttons.) The site is www.refrigeratorinfo.com. Unlike its sibling reviewed.com sites, which frequently seem to be little more than inflight-magazine gush, there is actual performance testing with reported details. Want to know how much temperature variance there is between top and bottom shelves? Refrigerator.info actually tells you what temps were measured and where so you can see if the variances are significant or unimportant. Be warned, though: the number of tested models is very limited (you find lots of models listed but for most of them, they only give specs and advertising without any testing). There is constant, intrusive pop-up advertising. If memory serves, their favorite tested top-freezer was a 20.5 cut. ft. Frigidaire with an internal icemaker. An additional thought on icemakers: if you choose a fridge that comes with an icemaker, they (usually) can be removed easily. Note the qualification for "usually." Good idea to download a pdf of the owner's manual and check that out before buying one. Taking them out can free up as much as a cubic foot of space in the freezer and substantially diminshes reliability worries. One final thought: when you've narrowed your choices, there is real benefit to going to a few stores with floor models to check out. See what you think of the door bins. How sturdy or flimsy are the crisper drawers and how well do they slide (or roll) in and out. Have look at how large or small they are. I say this because, three years ago, I saw more than one fridge that sounded good on paper but, in person, turned out to have flimsy components with inconvenient bins and shelves.

I've found "loud" is in the ears of the beholder. We just bought a Whirlpool fridge that several reviewers racked for being "unbearably loud". The pitch emitted by the compressor and fans certainly is higher than our old (Whirlpool/KitchenAid) refrigerator, but I don't find it at all objectionable; just different. I'm just saying the type of noise probably plays into the perception as much as the volume does. And that everyone is different. We have what is essentially an open-floorplan house and the added noise in the new fridge is rarely noticeable.