You'll find more info in the Appliances forum on refrigerators in general.

I'm with you in hating gallon door storage, though it's not as bad in a full depth fridge as in a counter depth or built-in. That was one of the things I did look at when I was shopping, but I was only looking at built-in/integrated.

If the door trays are removable, you should be able to buy a replacement shelf, but it's probably very expensive. Re the wasted space, you can put things two deep in that space, or use it for containers of leftovers or something. It doesn't have to be jugs.

There's no reason the door shelves should be that much warmer than the interior, unless the door stands open an awful lot. A little warmer, maybe, but six degrees is a lot! The icemaker is the most delicate part of any refrigerator and the most likely to have a problem. It's a pretty complex device and deals with running water. Liebherr seem to be pretty responsive in general, so I think one of the problems is that the owners aren't there to get it taken care of. I'm wondering if the leak and the uneven temperatures are related...

A lot of people nowadays seem to want more freezer space in a kitchen fridge than having a supplementary freezer in the garage or something. One reason is that there are a lot of apartment/condo dwellers who don't have private garages, pantries or laundry rooms for the freezer. Rather than buying/hunting meat by the side and using a deep freeze for storage, making stock and red sauce by the kettle, and freezing prepared meals, these modern folks are buying Stouffers and pizzas from the freezer section and need a lot of freezer space for packaging, but not a whole freezer's worth.

Most people like a bottom freezer because they don't like bending for the fresh food, which they need to access more of and more often, and they prefer a wide box to a side by side because it holds more for the given space and holds larger things. The advantage of a French door is that it has the small doors of a side by side so doesn't require a lot of swing space, but has the wide box of a regular fridge. Still, different makers put a different proportion of the unit in the freezer section. Some do only 25%, while some are as much as 35-40%.

Best wishes for coping with the rental fridge. If you get tired of buffing it, don't want to see smears, but don't care so much about looks, you can put a big magnet cloth on it and draw a picture, or put on vinyl wall decals (they just stay, no glue involved).

LOL! Finding a 'fridge took us forever. We had a couple of built-in restrictions, like there were 33" to work with and no more, we weren't going to spend several thousand on a 'fridge period, and we didn't want ice in the door-not interested in the repair issues. After that we were pretty much open. What we were replacing was an old top freezer model that was a hand-me-down at least 15 years ago. It worked fine, but still it needed to be replaced. We read all the reviews and cruised all the likely places. By the end we were carrying around a tape measure, a Costco pizza box, and an empty gallon jug of water, which looked pretty odd passing through the computer section of Frye's. (We ended up buying at Sears on sale for around $1100.) We were really looking for a French door model, but the interior configuration on those in 33" just wasn't optimal. We ended up with a Whirlpool Gold bottom freezer model. Yes, there is a gallon bin on the door where we put a gallon of water and a large bottle of cranberry juice. Milk goes on the shelf inside the 'fridge and the there is lots of usable room for all the stuff that goes in a 'fridge.

Here is a photo I took the day before Thanksgiving. The milk is on the door here because its usual spot is taken up by a 24 pound turkey (in the brown paper bag). Notice the huge Tupperware bowl on the shelf below the turkey and the Julian Apple Pie. All fit, no problem. We don't have the cool French doors, but we do have an interior configuration that fits everything when we need max storage. We like the freezer portion too, again good on the storage, but I'm glad we also have a chest freezer in the garage.

Another unexpected issue in the 'fridge search was crisper and meat drawers. Some models didn't have a meat drawer and most models had veggie drawers that were inadequate at best. They were often very shallow from back to front and just wouldn't hold the quantity and size of veggies we commonly keep in there. All in all, we're quite happy with this 'fridge, the space is more than adequate and the configuration means we don't have issues with storage. I would have liked being the cool kids with nifty French doors, but I like the functionality of this model better than being cool.

I just bought one that doesn't have any storage in the door. The shelves are deeper then. But not too deep so that I can't find stuff in there.

It's a glass front sub-zero, all refrigerator. We did freezer drawers under the counter.

Just because it can hold gallons in the door doesn't mean they have to go there. I bought an extra door bin because that's where all of my condiments go. I have a lot of condiments. Lebanese fig jam, Phillipine banana ketchup, 3 kinds of Vietnamese fish sauce, etc. Most are not as tall as a gallon of milk, but some are. I used the extra bin to create shorter distances between them for all of the shorter stuff, and only use the top bin as "full height" storage. It works out well, and there is only the occasional overflow of juice jug or almond milk into the door bin.

My refrig doesn't have door storage either. It's a glass front Frigidaire commercial, all refrigerator. We've had it at least a couple of years and have had no problems with it.

{{!gwi}}

We have an old Whirlpool refrig w/ icemaker & a chest freezer in the basement. Which is a pain. I'm planning for an undercounter freezer to remedy that situation.

hollysprings, I love door storage. I don't buy anything in a gallon size, but I can stack stock or soy milk two deep. I have a ton of condiments that live on my door, the most visited place in my fridge.

Slightly OT: My 13-year old fridge is plumbed and makes ice, accessible not from a dispenser, but from a bin in the freezer, where, in my opinion, it belongs. Are there non-dispensing fridges that still make ice?

hi there,

I have a Liebherr, although a different model, and can help with the one issue: the water collecting along the back bottom inside of the fridge. It shouldn't be doing this, and it means that the little vent hole is plugged up for some reason. Liebherrs are German and have the European system of collecting the condensation on the inside of the fridge rather than behind the back panel -- it feels strange and even 'broken' for Americans, but it does help keep produce and vegetables fresh for much longer than the US fridges.

The hole should be somewhere in the left bottom inside of the fridge, right above the little molded 'shelf'. It will probably have black gunk or ice clogging it. Take a q-tip and gently clean it out, just like a baby's ear. (Except unlike a baby, you can stick the q-tip in as far as it will go and swirl it around.) You'll see the water drain almost immediately.

Freezer: the drawers in my Liebherr freezer pull all the way out so you can store them elsewhere and just use the shelves. If they drive you crazy, try removing them altogether and storing them?

I don't have the icemaker and I hear it's the one part of a Liebherr that's most likely to break, since it was put in only for their American market and the Germans don't have the hang of the design yet. ;-)

As far as the temperature goes, mine doesn't have the gallon door shelf, so can't help you there, but it sounds like the temperature isn't regulated correctly. Try setting the temperature slightly lower - you just click on the arrow buttons on the digital display above the doors.

Good luck! You can always download the manual for your model online for more help. You can't break the thing by just adjusting the temperatures, so don't be shy!

PS: drbeanie, I totally hear you on the gawdawful-to-clean finish. I'm impressed that you buff yours.

I adore my Liebherr in all ways except for this one. It is literally impossible to keep clean -- I'd take ANY other finish at all if they came in anything other than stainless.

I have never stored milk, OJ, etc on the door bins....door bins contain ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, etc...With my new French door, I did have to take out one of the shelves in the main area to accommodate taller bottles. It's only been installed a few days and I just switched all the food over from the old fridge...so will probably make adjustments. So far I like it....I grew up with a freezer on bottom fridge....hated the sidexside I just put in the garage..especially the freezer part--always trying to cram things into those tiny shelves.

When we started looking at French door models...I immediately ruled out the ones with fixed bins/dividers in the freezer that could not be moved. I wanted more flexibility. This immediately wiped out many brands. We ended up getting a Kenmore Elite--really an LG. Top tray is open, bottom has a divider but can be removed or slid across entire width of bin to make 2 bins of equal or different sizes.

When replacing our fridge, I initially wanted to get a top freezer again - partly because I'm short and felt it would be hard to have the top fridge shelves so high. But there was so little choice in those and nothing as large as we wanted.

We decided to get a French door Samsung. We don't buy gallon jugs, but find that half gallons fit in the door - not quite as optimally. but it holds enough. The milk stays cold there.

The bottom freezer drawers hold a lot and it is very accessible. Having lived with it a couple of years, it is much better than the old top freezer and holds more.

Linelle, our French door Samsung has the option of ice maker in the freezer or door dispensing or both. We were going to get just the freezer one, but found a deal on one with both cheaper. It turns out that I like having both - the freezer one is nice when scooping out a lot of ice to put in an ice chest. Our kids bought the one with just the freezer ice maker.

Suzannes, Samsung has a third drawer across the bottom of the fridge compartment under the fruit and veg drawers that can be set to one of three temp settings so it can be used as a meat drawer. It didn't look very big but it turns out that it holds more than I thought it would - not a turkey or big chicken but just about any kind of flatter meat.

cloud swift - we looked a lot at the Samsungs. That's the one we really wanted. One big drawback was the size of the veggie drawers as I recall. Also, the 36" models have several things that the 33's don't. Those 3 inches make a big difference in interior design. If we'd gone for the 36" as I'd hoped we could, we would have lost the utility closet (I was so tired of looking at the broom hanging around!!) and the two drawers below it where we stuffed all the loose Tupperware, etc. Clearly we couldn't lose 3 more inches to the right! The only part of the kitchen you can't see in this photo is a 27" pantry which is to the right closest to the viewer-you can see the edge there by the DW. The pantry ends at the sliding glass patio door. When all was said and done, the Whirlpool gave us more usable space in 33", but the Samsung won the good-looks competition. We opted for usable space. [Honest, that wall in the background is not green, it's a light gray with blue undertones.]

I absolutely agree with you on the lack of serious choices of top freezer models. They're clearly making them for low-end rentals and students. We could have been interested in another top freezer model if there had been a serious contender. I do like the bottom freezer though.

I bought an extra door bin because it increased our storage a lot. Door bins are handy for small jars.

Other than that, are there any fridges with a swap-out option that lets you have different size storage trays and bins? I haven't heard of any.