Interesting because I can't stand my s x s up in NY. Same size as my FD in FL. Plus I have two doors to put all my condiments in as opposed to the one door on my s x s. Different strokes as they say. :)

I loved my FD so very much!! Funny what works for one... Are you tall? My husband is. He doesn't like the FD

No love for the French door here either. It has water inside and ice below. It's just wonky. I hate having both doors open to get in the deli drawer. I did rearrange it and it's a little better but we just can't get used to it. I didn't like the s x s either.

What I'd want that doesn't seem to exist - freezer on the bottom, one door on top. Water only in the door - ice maker in the freezer. Seems simple enough but not to be found.

We love our s x s with ice and water through the freezer door. I know a lot of people don't like a s x s because of the really small width of the freezer but it works for us as we don't freeze a lot of food.

I am probably one of the only people I know that would put their 36" French Door fridge in the basement, and put their 33" single door, bottom drawer freezer in the kitchen. I'm with you diymom, I do not like the FD. I have to open both doors in order to access the produce and deli drawers and the door storage is not nearly as good. I won't ever buy another FD fridge.

Hated my SxS and glad it's now the garage fridge. But that's why they make so many kinds of fridges, different strokes for different folks, right? I don't understand the appeal of the FD fridges either though. I prefer just one door to open.

I want a 36" wide single door, standard depth. Can't find one. I don't care where the freezer is!

Got a sxs, standard depth without water on the door. I love it and have tons of condiment space. Virtually everything lives on the door. I don't do pizza boxes and haven't yet found anything that won't fit. I do think FDs are better looking.

autumn.4, that's what I wanted 2 years ago when we remodeled our kitchen, but there was none to be found (at least where I live). It would be much more convenient for me to not have to reach around the door to get to the landing space next to the fridge.

That said, I LOVE the FD, compared to the top freezer we had for 25 years. No water dispenser, and we have no plans to hook up the ice maker. DH uses the deli drawer more than I do, and he hasn't complained about it. He's 6'4", and is just tickled that he doesn't have to stand on his hand to find things in the fridge. We used to lose stuff in the back all the time - no more.

Used to have bottom freezer fridge (in garage now) which I liked, but was going on 17 years old, so replaced with a cd FD. It's fine, but it's easy to leave the left door ajar if you don't shut the left door first. Like today, it went from 38 temp. to 60 very quickly. Good thing I noticed it before leaving for work. It's supposed to have an alarm, I think, but if it does I don't hear it.

Went from a SxS with water and ice in the door to a FD with the same. Hate the FD for the reasons others have stated. I want my SxS back but I don't think the people we sold our house to would give it up.

I grew up with exactly what autumn described, minus the water in the door. The 70s are calling!

Love my single door bottom freezer fridge, whirlpool gold. It's 2nd hand and a bit too small but definitely lovely to open one door and see the whole scape. Freezer took some organizing but once I stood things on their ends it got much easier to find things, and reach them when needed. Hated the FD and the SxS fridges I've had in the past for many of the reasons posted here.

I really like my FD....I am the only one who puts anything in it, so I generally know which door to open. Love the drawer freezer, and no water in the door.

Does the fridge seem smaller or is it actually smaller? You may just need to come up with a new layout for the fridge. Does your freezer have two drawers? I put the smaller items in the top basket drawer and the bigger/meat items in the bottom. Also have a divider in the bottom drawer that helps keep things organized.

After having a French door fridge in my last apartment, I got an lowbrow top-mount for my new one, and couldn't be happier. No ice maker or through-the-door anything to suck up storage space. I'm in the freezer as often as I'm in the fridge and love having it at eye level. The freezer drawer on the other was inconvenient and an organizational challenge. And held far less that its cubic-footage would suggest. AND top-mounts are remarkably cheap compared to the rest of the marked. The downside is that that they don't do upscale top-mounts. They assume if you want upscale features, you must also want one of the other configurations.

Haha. I love all your comments. It's nice to know I'm not alone in the fridge debate. Debrak_2008 I really believe it's it smaller due to the design. It has the large slide out crisper drawer and two smaller drawers which take up half the actual height in the fridge. That was my initial pet peeve since we store a lot of tall drink items and you cannot place any of them on the door. When I switched it over all my items would not fit. I still have overflowing condiments I like to have options when I'm cooking...lol. The freezer does have a top sliding drawer however the ice maker takes up half of it. I'm sure if I took the time to organize it better I would feel better about it, organizing is not my forte.

I hear ya on the condiments. I think we could fill a condiment fridge. I can organize all I want but the peeps have to actually put stuff back where they got it. Since I have rearranged our condiment storage it is a lot better. Still not sure there is anything else that exists that would be better.

I thought I wanted a FD also. Got one, flooded the kitchen due to water hookup. Had to redo kitchen but store let me use the FD until kitchen was remodeled. I was so glad I got to use it for months because it made me realize how much I missed a single door. I do think they are pretty to look at but I disliked it also. I couldn't stand trying to organize it and using both doors. My new fridge is a cd fisher paykel, single door bottom freezer with water only on the door. I love it. It is so much more convenient to take things in and out with one door and using the counter next to fridge.

I have a counter depth sxs with water on outside which is ok. Not a lot of room in frig or freezer, but I can stand a pizza box vertically with no problem. No room for a turkey.

We have a standard depth, white single door, bottom freezer drawer frig that has wire on bottom of the drawer....kinda like closet wire shelving! It's in the basement. I used to have it in our kitchen at our previous house and I hated digging through the freezer drawer to find something. Plus some things would fall through the wire, and it was hard to clean underneath it.

I've never had a French door. I like the looks of it, but it does have the freezer drawer which I hate.

Can anyone tell me what they like about the French door and is the freezer drawer any different?

A single door has a freezer drawer as well. Any difference in those?

Mine is the SD bottom freezer. The 2 freezer drawers are the same as my old FD. I use containers and stand things up on their edges to stop things from sliding through the wire bottoms. I take the bottom right out every so often to clean under it.

The French door type is good if your landing spot is across from the fridge rather than next to it. I love mine. I have a GE without the deli drawer and I don't have to open both doors.

Autumn, I had to resort to getting my label maker out and labeling where I want things to go. Condiments here, small leftover containers here, dairy here, yada yada. Silly but it's helping.

I have a single door. I really like it. I think that the French door is perfect where you have less space to stand back and open a large single door.

Thanks, all great info.

Frig is on other side of island with only 40" from frig to counter edge. Perhaps French door would be a good option with limited space and I can perhaps put something rigid in the bottom on the wire.

Any suggestions on counter depth make and model stainless steel?

Do they come with water/ice in door?

I don't have ice and water in the door partly because it took up so much interior space (remember all that condiment talk) and partly because I had read that ice in the door can be problematic in a FD. Reasoning for that is the ice maker is actually in the fridge and not in the freezer. That made sense to me so I avoided it. They make plenty of them though so maybe it's not really that big of a deal.

A good site to peruse is AJ Madison. They have a lot of the details easily listed so you can see all of the pertinent dimensions and things and their search query is good (depth, height, ice maker, etc etc).

designsaavy, There are many threads here on the pros and cons of FDs.

I love mine and would not have any other type. I like having the smaller, lighter doors to open that does not intrude on walking space. I like that you only have to open one side to get most things. Yes, most of the time people open both doors. I like how you can put in a large pizza box or a veggie tray.

The freezer space is so much more organized than a regular freezer on top design or freezer with a door. I can look down and see everything laid out. Don't have to move much to get things in and out.

Mine is a 36" Kenmore elite trio with an ice make in the freezer. I'm sure that there are differences between manufacturers and models/sizes.

I remember always having to bend my head down to see in the fridge (I'm only 5'5"). Now I never have to do that. I do have to look down and bend slightly to reach in the freezer. I used to lose things in the top mount freezer. I remember having to take most things out to find things. You don't need to put anything on the wire basket. Nothing falls through except an ice cube.

We had a sxs and now have a fd, I carefully checked the fridge cu. ft so we could gain about 4 cu. ft., couldn't do single door because the island corner is in the way. The only thing that anyone so far has had a problem with is the condiment storage, due to the one door having nice deep shelves we keep the milk, juice and creamer selection in those, the other door has tobasco sized shelves, everything else now takes up 2 shelves, but I can fit a turkey and pizza in there which I couldn't with the sxs.

Are any of yours counter depth?

The absolute worst place to store milk for freshness reasons is in the door, so we don't. Milk goes on a shelf.

I put the left top shelf up really high, maybe 6" down. This is where I keep leftovers and the salad spinner. Salsa. etc.

The top shelf on the right side is down far enough to put the milk jug there. Oh, and my box wine goes here. We use a pullout clear plastic bin for extra condiments and things like kimchee and pickles on this shelf too. Imagine this with soy sauce, teriyaki, pickles, etc. The larger "condiments". I like that if the bottles drip I can easily run it through the dishwasher.

Under the top left shelf is the deli-drawer, which leaves a 2" gap above the produce bin which seems like it would be useless but it is the perfect spot to store tortillas and misc. wraps.

The middle shelf on the right is for dairy. It's set tall-enough to accommodate a large bin of yogurt or stacked egg cartons.

Under that, on top of the right side produce bins is where I keep berries and prepped food.

We don't use a ton of meat so I put a shallow tuperware in that drawer for meat and use the other 1/2 for onions and un-opened packages of cheese. I can also lay a bottle of wine in there to chill.

I really adore my FD fridge. Adore it. The ice / water in the door does use some room, more if it's an older model.

Mama Rachel - what brand/model FD do you have?

Since I had to visit the appliance store for work today, I spent some time checking out the options after reading this.

A question for those with the bottom freezer drawers. Do any of you have elderly relatives who have trouble opening them? My mom is an active 91 year old but not sure she could open that bottom drawer. They take quite a tug when empty are they different when full?

I knew I wanted an FD but think the SxS is the way for me to go

Have used side by side, top freezer, bottom freezer, but not a french door. Our last two refrigerators have been bottom freezer. LOVE it. I wouldn't go back to anything else if I had a choice at all. It always made the most sense to me, to have the part of the refrigerator that you use the most often at eye level. We also have a standing freezer in the basement, so that helps too. Plenty of room. Nothing about the fridge that I don't like or struggle with. We eat a lot of fresh food and I put a lot in the refrigerator that other people don't. Garden seeds, [g], pastas, flours, rice. Lots of vegetables and fruits. Can't remember even once thinking I wish I had more room. But there are only two of us at home most of the time. I guess we have just found the fridge that is right for us.

Kippy, I find the bottom drawer glides out easily. It might be good exercise for her. You might want to bring her to the showroom and see if she can open it.

Kippy, I would be concerned about someone who has mobility issues having to open a bottom freezer. The bending down, possibly having to back up as the freezer opens, the weight changes needed to pull the freezer open, losing a hand that may be needed to hold onto a walker.. If I were buying a fridge for someone with or with the potential for mobility issues, I would look into a side by side. Both regularly used fridge and freezer food could he stored between waist and eye height, and the individual wouldn't have to move around a full sized door.

My mom is up in age and for her either a top freezer or sxs works best.

Thank you for the help.

We agonized over the fridge decision, and finally bought one about a month ago. In addition to all of the other considerations, money is very tight. We wound up with a Whirlpool single door bottom freezer. I love the fridge; the freezer is just so-so. Maybe I just need to get used to it. We weren't in love with the FD models, as we load from the side, so there always would have been a door in the way. I also found that if you closed one side too fast, on some models, the other door would pop open slightly.

Space is not a problem, as we designed for it. I recessed the wall about 5", and the fridge is as deep as it can go and still open correctly. It only sticks out about 1" past the cabinets. The peninsula is directly across from it, but with the door wide open, there is about 30" clearance; plenty for a normal size person to walk past.

What I don't love about the bottom freezer is the ice maker location. Being in the back of the freezer, you have to pull out the top basket to access the ice, and if you happen to do this when it dumps a batch of cubes, guess where they go? Having lived without an ice maker for 3 years, I've gotten out of the habit of using ice entirely, and the inconvenience of this set-up will probably keep me from using ice unless I really need it.

I couldn't care less about water in the door. I keep bottled water in the fridge, and refill the bottles for about a week before I recycle them. I carry the water around with me while working, so a glass wouldn't be practical. Different strokes for different folks; I guess that's why they make so many different models!

Mushcreek you can always turn the icemaker off...

I feel all your frustrations in finding the perfect fridge. I replaced mine last month, not planned, my 25 cu ft Amana SD, bottom mount freezer lost its compressor. For the second time. The compressor had failed in the refrigerator the day before we closed on this house 3 years ago, and the seller had the compressor replaced - offering us either the repair or a credit. I chose repair as the refer was just 6-7 yrs old, and after all, Amana was once the gold standard....maybe not now ;)

The choices, while food was being held in the garage in a spare a divorcing friend is storing here (I've stopped complaining about the space his things are taking), weren't great. A small coastal community and my choices had dwindled to Sears, Home Depot. Learned there is no local service for LG, Samsung. An hour away, I found a 25 cu ft Kitchen Aid FD, bottom mount, water and ice inside with a warranty that beat all the others.

In the uncrating and installation, I saw the wine rack was packaged as Amana, some of the door shelves packaged as Whirlpool. It's fine. It doesn't give me a thrill as I walk into my kitchen but the storage seems to be working out and while I load from the left, I'm not automatically reaching out and not finding a door handle as the first few days ;) I discovered when initially transferring my food, there is an alarm for an open door....

I have wanted a FD for a while and not a SbS, but that freezer really is the issue. I can't see Mom using it and that would mean every time she wanted something I have to come and get in to it for her. I don't have water on that side of the kitchen right now so the water and ice in the door is not a selling point, I think I would rather have the space. I am sure I can have it added and will probably do that at some point. We have very hard water so that will be a problem for the water/ice feature.

I guess next step is to find out what the brands that make SbS also skip those extras

Who thought there'd be so much to say about fridges?

I am of the few who like my antique, 12 year old, energy Inefficient fridge on the bottom, single door, freezer on the top.

I'd like an ice maker, but that's when I'm able to live larger.

Our first house didn't have a frost-free Freezer. It was so old and inefficient and froze up all the time. My husband got so tired of it that he started using his blow torch to defrost it. :)

practigal- If it were up to me, I wouldn't have even connected the ice maker, but there are two people in this house, and one of them considers an ice maker to be nearly as important as oxygen....

We too have an old top freezer (came w the house and oddly is made out of wipe board for the purposes of writing on it) and I would like to buy the same once this one peters out. The people who seem most satisfied w their bottom drawer freezers have many sliding compartments.

Going back to the sentiment of the title of the post, one thing a colleague recently said to me is "the grass is brown everywhere". I guess it not only applies to work, but home!

A dear friend of mine, who grew up on a farm, believes that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence because there's more manure over there.

We're 45 minutes from a rain forest and we're in a drought. Go figure. Brown, brown and more brown.

Back on topic - we went from a side-by-side to a top freezer/bottom fridge. Due to the narrow niche we were moving the fridge to, we could only go with a max of 29" wide. I drooled over the narrow, tall Liebherr's and Bosch's with bottom freezers but, cheapie me, decided to go with a top freezer Summit with it's cute retroesque shape. Not fully retro like a Smeg or Big Chill but not boxy like the normal top freezers. At less than 1/3 the cost of the cheapest Liebherr, I'm actually pretty happy with it. I like the shelves wider than my old 33" SxS and I look at going low as a good excuse to do a squat or two. Good exercise and better on the back than stooping. I'll never have a SxS again.