We have ordered this model of KA fridge and also were looking at the Samsung. Reading reviews on Samsung products kind of scared me away and also the fact I wanted the same brand for all my appliances and had picked KA for the rest.

The only thing that I am second guessing is how big the fridge is and might cancel our order and get the KA counter depth model instead as the KFIS27CXMS will stick out a foot more than our counters. I hope someone here has some info on this model for you as I am interested too on the reviews.

I have Samsung's French door counter depth model, with two ice makers.

Water from the door dispenser in my model (#238) comes out at 44 degrees -- you can easily add ice if you want it colder than that. The ice/water dispenser in the door works fine, near as I can tell. Mine does not drip; I believe the dripping issue suggests air in the line, possibly a problem with how the filter was put in -- this is discussed in the manual, but I forget the details.

Although I liked Samsung's "twin cooling" feature, I really don't know how much this is marketing hype or how much its truly a useful innovation. As I understand it, the humidity of fridge and freezer air should be different; the twin cooling thing somehow facilitates that, thus keeping food in both compartments fresher longer. I haven't seen an impartial or independent evaluation of this feature.

I did look at some Kitchen Aid models (forget which ones, but they were all CD FD); didn't like them as much. Overall, I'm pleased with my Samsung (after about 6 weeks' use).

BTW, the blue lights on my fridge match perfectly with blue lights on the KitchenAid dishwasher and the blue clock on the Electrolux induction range. Hadn't even considered this before seeing them in my kitchen at night; I guess its nice, though.

Thanks for the responses so far. Our local Lowes had the Kitchenaid KFIS27CXMS right next to the Samsung 298 model (w/2 icemakers) so my wife and I were able to compare the layout of both models. The Samsung seemed slightly more refined and elegant in the inside. All else being equal, we’d probably choose the Samsung, but it looks like we’ll be getting the Kitchenaid because the dispenser is more child friendly. We have a 2 year old and another one on the way. Here’s a summary of the physical differences:

The dispenser on the Kitchenaid is about 6 inches higher on the Samsung. See below:

The Kitchenaid has two paddles in the dispenser (one of water and one for ice). You press the glass against one paddle to receive ice, then move the glass to the other dispenser for water. The Samsung has a single paddle. You press a button above the dispenser to change from ice to water. Since the Samsung is already six inches taller, a person needs to be able to reach an additional six inches to press the button. This means that an additional 12 inches is needed to operate the Samsung.

The drawers on the Samsung pull out further than the Kitchenaid for both the freezer and the snack tray. I’d say that the ergonomics on the Samsung are slightly better here. In the two photos below, the Kitchenaid is in the front and left, and the Samsung is in the rear and right. The photos below are a little misleading because the Samsung base is a little further out already.

I thought that the Kitchenaid freezer drawers looked a little more industrial and that the Samsung looked a little more elegant. The Samsung has a single auto pull-out tray with an ice tray, while the Kitchen has two separate trays. The ice scoop in the Samsung is a nice touch, though I have read a complaint that ice sometimes gets raked out of the tray and onto the floor when the drawer is opened.

Ice makers: On both models, the ice maker for the dispenser is on the top left ceiling of the refrigerator. However, the KA stores the ice in a removable container in the door, while the Samsung stores the ice in a removable container as part of the ice maker (top left ceiling of the refrigerator).

The container is significantly easier to access and remove on the Kitchenaid. However, the location of the container on the Kitchenaid means that it uses up most of the shelf space on the left door, though the Samsung’s dispenser still takes up roughly half of the door too. The Samsung uses up a bit more space on the top interior shelf. The size of the container seems (only) slightly larger in the Kitchenaid. I wonder if one produces ice faster than the other. Like I mentioned in my first post, I’ve seen several complaints that the Samsung’s icemaker’s capacity was too low. I wonder whether the complaints were driven by the container being too small, or whether the ice maker produced ice so slowly that it couldn’t keep up with demand regardless of the size of the container. The Kitchenaid’s container doesn’t seem much bigger, but maybe it refills it faster.

Another complaint that I read somewhere about the KA is that the left door doesn’t stay open. I did confirm this, though it seems to be only a minor annoyance.

The Samsung has only three large shelves in the right door, while the KA has four shelves of medium height. I’d prefer to have the fourth shelf of the kitchenaid.

This was a very helpful post, nomoon. Thanks.

Two comments:

The #238 Samsung's ice/water button is 51.5" above the floor. Whether you want younger / shorter children to reach your fridge's ice/water dispenser may depend on your children, or parental trust in their lack of devious inventiveness... :-)

The amount of ice produced by Samsung fridges can vary. The manual addresses how to make sure the ice maker produces the maximum amount, but so far I haven't had to reset the ice makers so I didn't bother to make sense of this. Anyway, some complaints about ice production may reflect this variation. [I don't recall seeing a quantitative measure of ice produced per day or whatever.]

We've had our french door 29 cf samsung for about a year; I love it. No dripping from the ice maker or water dispenser. I only ran out of ice once last summer, and we had several heat waves. I like the design of the freezer and fridge shelves and especially the LED lighting; finally, someone smart enough to put lights in the back of the crisper drawers. I think having the water dispenser a little higher is a good thing but it depends on your kids and how much you want them using it. Good luck with your purchase.

Thanks for the comments, everyone. The Samsung looks like a great model. Our two year old already gets his own water from our bottled water dispenser and I'm sure that he's going to want to use the dispenser on the new refrigerator. I'd love to hear from first hand feedback on the KA.

We were deciding between the two models and went with the Kitchenaid. I did like the interior features of the Samsung a little better but went with the Kitchenaid due to concerns about reliability of the Samsung and wanted to take advantage of a Kitchenaid rebate. We are happy with it so far. Sorry, can't comment on the water/ice because that's not hooked up yet. Plenty of freezer storage. Seems there is not a lot of tall item storage in the fridge but we are getting used to that.

For those who did buy the KA KFIS27CXMS model... after living with the unit what are the thoughts on this fridge... i have been reading ice dispenser issues (over dispenses ice) and issues for closing doors (left does not close properly).

What are the comments of owners here about this model? (KA Model)