I have a single door, fridge on top, I really like it because everything is easy to see at convenient eye level. I wanted big crispers at a convenient height as I love vege's, and I wanted gallon size space in the door with clear plastic sleving so that I could see the smaller jars and so that all of the condiments had their own convenient easy to find home, not lost somewhere in back of the fridge. BUT, I live in the city with three grocery stores within (long) walking distance and don't need a big freezer for storage. I use the freezer once a day, maybe. If I lived in a more remote location I would have to have a separate freezer as the freezer on this model is fine for my purposes but would not work if I really needed to store a significant amount of frozen goods. The freezer on top configuration holds a lot but I really resented that everything at eye level was in the freezer and therefore something that I seldom needed to see. I had to lean down and kind of under to see the shelves in the refrigerator. For a while I had a SxS and I found that I didn't use enough of the interior space so I ended up storing enormous amounts of ice in the freezer and water in the refrigerator because otherwise every time I opened the door the refrigerator kicked on for hours. In the SxS configuration, I did not like that the crispers were at and below knee level. So I had to buy large Tupperware type containers to keep on the higher more convenient shelves. At that time all such containers were opaque so you had to pull them out and open everything or remember where I had put everything. If the manufacturers made it possible for you to have half of the SXS's refrigerator side be nothing but convenient crispers they would sell a ton more of them (so long as they did not sacrifice door space for the condiments to make that happen).

What you are describing sounds like normal operation. That is why people avoid them and buy auto defrost. The "red tubular" may just be a thermostat. If your fridge is really old it might be a manual defrost switch but I doubt it. After you have defrosted using the link instructions, dry the area around the red tubular thing and look at it carefully for the words "cold" and "defrost" stamped on the metal with the short end of the tubular "L" pointing at "cold". Here is a link that might be useful: Defrosting

beagle - you'd better get with your cabinet supplier and designer - They are the ones who really control how integrated (flush) your appliances will be. The appliance seller can advise you but they no control over how the manufacturers make the units or how those units are implemented in the field. The easiest to integrate appliance can be sunk before leaving the dock if a rookie or idiot cabinet designer only leaves 24" of depth for an appliance that requires 24 1/8" or 25" or they don't see to it that electrical line is in the right place.

Hi L G, We ended up with all True for the bar appliances. In the living room bar, we ended up doing the True ice Maker and a True beverage center. We opted to put the ice maker here, as opposed to basement bar, since we figured we would use it much more often in the main living area as opposed to basement which is more used for movie watching and parties. So far that has turned out to be a good choice, since with two small children, we aren't hosting as many parties (yet). For the basement bar, we went with a True refrigerator, a True dual zone wine refrigerator, a True freezer, and a Miele dishwasher (Lumen, I think - I can get the exact model if you want). To be honest, so far this bar hasn't gotten a lot of use but we are still settling into the house, and I think it will be great once we are a little bit more up and running. It's been nice having the extra fridges for the beverage and wine storage. Overall we are happy with the selections. The quality and aesthetics are great. As someone recently posted on one of the threads, the True ice maker isn't "whisper quiet". You can hear it filling up water, clearing out drain, and dumping ice into the chamber periodically throughout the day. I honestly don't really notice it, and without basis of comparison, I imagine it's similar if not better than other ice makers due to the nature of the operation, but if appliance noise is a concern, I would definitely try to check out one and see if you are comfortable with the noise level before committing to one. But we've been very happy having it, and having it near the living space means it gets used a lot, and it's super nice making a cocktail and having a fresh supply of clear ice right by everything. Hope that helps, if there's more information that would be useful please let me know. -joe