I'm getting rid of the french door fridge and replacing with a side by side. I hate the french door style because the freezer ends up being like a chest freezer with things getting buried and lost. I want to get a side by side without the icemaker in the door because we have a commercial icemaker in our garage. I also am not getting water in the frig because our friend's bought a Samsung that had a failure with the water (inside the frig) and it flooded their house, destroying their total remodel. I've since decided that the water out of the tap is cold enough. Now to find the perfect frig...

Can you remove the walls surrounding the frig? That would buy you several more inches in width then maybe you could get a wider "cabinet depth" frig. If you want the frig sides covered, you could add some thin cabinet paneling on either side of the frig and paint / stain to match your cabinets.

Take your measurements to the store and check the requirements. It looks like you should be fine.

We went from a s/s to a french door and I would never go back. Yes, the drawer is like a chest freezer but I find it is actually a lot easier to find things in than in the narrow deep shelves in the s/s, I lost track of a lot food in those shelves. I didn't think I would like bending down for the freezer but I find it is no different then bending down for the veggies like I used to have to do with the s/ s.

Water and ice in the door is a necessity where I live, if you could do without that I would recommend you do so, it does take up a lot of space.

The differences between a french door and a sxs are well documented here in various threads of the last few years. Just google and you will find them. You need to check the measurements and clearance requirements of any refrigerator you are considering.

from an admitted FD lover : )

I've had sxs - didn't like them. The shelves were too narrow to be useful and the ice/water in the freezer door took up too much room. Now we have a FD and I love it. It does help if you can find a freezer compartment that is subdivided - has different compartments. If you find a freezer system that works for you, that will help a lot.

We had a bottom freezer (I think it had a door for the freezer though) for the first 10 years we lived here. I just remember hating it from day 1. It froze the items in the fridge or didn't keep them cold enough. No in between. I honestly don't remember much about it other than how happy I was to see it go.

About 4 years ago, we went with a SxS, probably due to my extreme hatred of the previous unit. My inlaws had a SxS and it always seemed more usable than mine. At that time we considered FD but I think the combination of cost and the similarity to the old one kept me away. That and the fact that the inlaws' seemed nice.

The SxS was okay. Inlaws then got a FD when they updated their kitchen. I then envied the full width shelves. DH hated the gasket thing in the middle...I can't recall if you had to open a certain door first or close a certain door first. In any case, it was too fussy for him.

We're entering a full reno. We thought about keeping the SxS and the DW (newer than the fridge) but we really wanted an integrated fridge. So if we kept the old fridge, it'd be sitting in the taller hole for the fridge we eventually wanted to get and we'd have to decide whether to live with the gap until we got the new one or have something temporary built.

Inlaws had since downsized and were living with the existing freezer on deep, small, loud fridge that came with the place and a DW that didn't work. I talked them into taking ours so we wouldn't feel too guilty for getting new ones. They got moved yesterday and she's tickled.

The funny part is that when we were loading things into the (usually a) beer fridge in the garage (top freezer) I was thinking how much more usable the fridge portion is than the SxS. I think I've found I want the width in the fridge above all else. I found in both the fridge and freezer, things got much more lost in the SxS.

Let me start out by saying that I am no expert, but here is my take on the clearance requirements around refrigerators. When I recently bought a fridge, I purposely cut out the bottom of the upper cabinet to allow my fridge to "breathe". Then, I had a repair man come to the house to fix the center flap on the door of my FD fridge that was not working properly. I told him about my cutting out the floor of the upper cabinet to allow the fridge to breathe. He told me that modern fridges do not need to breathe from the top or the side. Modern fridges are insulated better and are designed to release heat from the bottom vent. Any heat released from the top or sides is minuscule and will not overheat the motor.

Manufacturers usually require a fraction of an inch on the sides of the fridge, so that the fridge can easily slide in place and so that the fridge can be leveled side to side. Top clearance is also for the purposes of leveling (side to side and front to back). The required spacing in the back of the fridge is to allow room for the ice maker hose, the electrical plug and other protrusions. Most manufactures have a spacer bumper in the back to prevent the user from sliding the fridge back too far. Leveling a refrigerator is important to the function of the doors. An unleveled fridge's doors might not close easily and the doors and drawers may look askew. Also, the drawers and doors may not seal properly if they are not level.

Here is a link that might be useful: Refrigerator Measurement Guidelines

One thing to also consider is your front clearance. I notice you have some kind of countertop (island?) in front of your current fridge (hard to tell how direct from angle of picture). The bottom freezer of the French door style will have to be pulled out to access the contents. Between the seals and the contents they are generally pretty heavy, and are best pulled from a direct 90degree angle (ie: standing right in front). Will you have clearance for this?

I have a french door with bottom freezer. I have no problem pulling the freezer open while I stand to the side. I can stand in the front too, but just letting you know that it can be opened without being directly in front of the drawer.

I went to Pacific Sales, the local appliance specialist store in my area, with my measurements this weekend and it was kind of a mess.

They had all these fridges but with no measurements about their dimensions. So, I approached one of their sales staff with my measurements for help, hoping they could narrow down my search to the fridges that would fit.

Instead, the salesman said I should look around at all the fridges, find one that I liked, and then they'd tell me if it fit or not.

Instead of looking at all the fridges, shouldn't I just look at the ones that fit?

Anyways, I'd find one that I'd like and then have to ask that salesman to measure it because I didn't bring along a tape measure. Finally, I found one that he said would fit.

Only, I later learned it didn't fit because it was too tall since he didn't measure the fridge hinges on top.

I know I'm probably making this harder than it needs to be, but I'm just worried about buying a fridge that will turn out not to fit or something.

I have to buy a fridge in the next couple of days, and I'm afraid I'm rushing into buying one and making a stupid mistake with the dimensions or something silly like that.

This post was edited by marvelousmarvin on Thu, Jul 17, 14 at 1:14

The online appliance vendor AJ Madison is a wonderful resource. You can shop by size. Note the product # and go from there.

Wow, that does not sound like a store I would like to shop in. How inconsiderate of the salespeople. This is probably one time when you would get better advice from HD or Lowe's. Don't forget to carry your own tape measure, :-). I know Lowe's lists the dimensions on their labels and if you have a smart phone or iPad you can always check the manufacturer's website for the specific info while you are in the store.

I second onedogedie. Just use the drill down search feature at AJM. Or Sears, if you want to see Kenmore products. Your space looks pretty standard to me. I have an FD in a similar setting, but my doors look about 1" thicker than yours so take account of that. The doors on most of these must protrude to the hinge to open.

Also at AJM you will be able to download the owners manual and specs for the fridge you choose. That will show the clearance required for the door swing, and it will tell you if any clearance is required at the top. My Electrolux required 1", IIRC, and I made sure to have it mostly to maintain the warranty. I actually have 2" up there and it looks fine. But I question if any space is needed other than for leveling the unit, as someone already pointed out.

How deep is that top cabinet? If the fridge you were measuring is like the Samsung sxs that just moved from here to my inlaws, the hinges are in front of where it would sit. The question then becomes if the doors of the cab can swing open with the hinges there. If you liked that one and have the model number, I'd do some more research. Pac sales won't be open today, but if you wanted to see it again, maybe you've got one of the best buys with pac sales in it. Also, I'm in between two pac sales and have found very helpful, knowledgable people at the one that's more convenient to home, and not so much at the one that's convenient to work.

Hated my sxs fridge
I bought mine prior to reno and love the fd.
It even keeps ice cream rock solid and I can defrost the IC in the perfect temp drawer.
Mine is an elux and fit into your dimensions (I think)
The new doors are deeper, so need to determine if it will work with your walkway.
It keeps food so much fresher so less waste
I would avoid models with gasket to gasket closure. (LG used this in the past and might still use it)
Post reno- I have a bit of wiggle room for other models.

Looks like you have the perfect set up for a French Door, counter depth fridge. My kitchen layout is much more tricky than yours and I have had no problems at all. I can't open the right door on my FD CD fully laid back but the left side does open completely back. If it needed to be worked on they can just pull it out a little and it would be fine. the reason mine won't on the right side is because on the right it dead ends into an angled wall with pantry.

Just note the make and model of the ones you are interested in and then Google them. All the specs should be available including dimensions with doors on and off etc.

I think you'll be fine opening the fridge part of a french door since the doors will open similar to a side by side. However, I'd be mostly worried about the pull our freezer drawer and whether you can fully access it with the peninsula there. I have a peninsula in a similar location and opted for side by side, but my aisle is so ridiculously small that you might be in a different situation.

Perhaps, I was too unfairly harsh about Pacific Sales as they might have had legitimate reasons for how they showed their fridges.

It turns out that you really can't trust the manufacturer's specs and measurements, and that you have to bring your own measuring tape to measure the fridges yourself.

I had the specs from the manufacturer, and my measurements were different.

The width was slightly off, about 1/8 to a quarter of an inch bigger than the manufacturer specs.

But, the depth I measured was off by a lot- almost around 2 inches less than the manufacturer specs. The difference was so large that I thought I must be doing it wrong so I asked one of the salesman to measure it and he got the same depth I did.

So, I guess the moral of the story is not to buy anything online if you can't find a model in a store and measure it yourself first.