what's your fridge preference?

[Bignate603]

I hate side by sides. While I know they have the same amount of room I've never seen one with a setup that was as useful as a normal top freezer. The narrow compartments aren't as easy to fit stuff in as a wide space.

 

[Genx87]

why'd you chose the french door over just a run of the mill bottom-freezer?

I liked the look and try to find a bottom freezer with a single door at 25 cu feet is nearly impossible. At least on the showroom floor. I like to see what I am buying first. I did find one in a 19 cu foot unit. Way too small. I could do either though, I really like the bottom freezer more than anything. But the French door look is in.

This is what I bought in April in stainless.

http://www.maytag.com/catalog/product.jsp?src=Refrigerators&cat=14&prod=1701

 

[moshquerade]

Side by side sucks. Can't fit large items in the freezer or fridge. I prefer top or bottom freezer.

what are you trying to put in there? A side of beef?

 

[vi edit]

what are you trying to put in there? A side of beef?

Like I said earlier, stuff like sheet cakes or appetizer trays are hard, if not impossible to get in there. The 24 pack "beverage bricks" will eat up an entire shelf. A crock pot will take up a whole shelf. You just don't have the placement flexability of the full width fridges.

 

[Anubis]

what are you trying to put in there? A side of beef?

leftovers, large bowls/trays, larger items like 3 liter bottles and such. none of those really fit well in a side by side, the freezer is also annoying for larger frozen items, we had one for years and always hated it (came with house) we now have a bottom freezer + french door fridg unit much like that maytag Genx87 posted much more efficient use of space inside the fridge adn you can fit larger items when/if needed

 

[skyking]

french doors and bottom freezer, pull out drawer.

 

[moshquerade]

leftovers, large bowls/trays, larger items like 3 liter bottles and such. none of those really fit well in a side by side, the freezer is also annoying for larger frozen items, we had one for years and always hated it (came with house) we now have a bottom freezer + french door fridg unit much like that maytag Genx87 posted much more efficient use of space inside the fridge adn you can fit larger items when/if needed

Hmmm... I have no issues like that with mine. You can adjust the shelving height.

I can easily fit a whole turkey in the freezer. Nothing larger than that do I have the need to put in there.

Maybe I have a larger depth than your fridge did.

 

[Anubis]

Hmmm... I have no issues like that with mine. You can adjust the shelving height.

I can easily fit a whole turkey in the freezer. Nothing larger than that do I have the need to put in there.

Maybe I have a larger depth than your fridge did.

if you had a "normal" fridge yes you did because ours was a counter depth unit which is not as deep, and had the compressor and shit on top

 

[moshquerade]

if you had a "normal" fridge yes you did because ours was a counter depth unit which is not as deep, and had the compressor and shit on top

Yes then, mine is normal. Compressor in back.

 

[Genx87]

I think a side by side would have to be pretty big to get larger items in the freezer. The one at my parents is pretty decent sized and it still suffers from the width problem when it comes to putting larger items in it. My old side by side was a smaller unit, maybe 19 cu feet? The freezer was basically useless on it. Couldnt fit anything worthwhile in it. I bought an actual 25 cu foot freezer for the garage to store food. Which ironically now that I own my maytag has lost a lot of its value due to having a freezer that is actually quite useful in the fridge. I believe this maytag I own has two compressors. One for the freezer, the other for the fridge. Going to get that extended warranty from Home Depot. That cant be cheap to fix

 

[dullard]

Going to get that extended warranty from Home Depot. That cant be cheap to fix

How did you buy the unit? With a credit card? Mastercard doubles the warranty for free. Many Visa credit cards do so: Visa Signature/business cards do it. Also American Express has double length warranties.

Basically, you might already have an extended warranty so buying it again is useless.

 

[bignateyk]

We have a top freezer right now. My parents have a side by side and I don't like it.

My preference would be one of the ones with the freezer drawer on the bottom and the fridge on the top. We don't use our freezer for much of anything. Almost everything we buy is fresh every week.

 

[Vette73]

Yea side by side sucks for wide items.

I have 2 fridges and both are bottom freezer. One is reg. door the other is french door.

 

[Sea Moose]

old fridges are better than the newer ones.
They ran on R12 refrigerant and the motors were made to last 30years plus.

I would like to get a 1950s fridge as a restoration project.

 

[Platypus]

top freezer for me

 

[dullard]

old fridges are better than the newer ones.
They ran on R12 refrigerant and the motors were made to last 30years plus.

I would like to get a 1950s fridge as a restoration project.

The extra electricity ($100+ each year) you pay on an old fridge would cost far more than just buying a brand new (but cheap) fridge every few years.

 

[Sea Moose]

The extra electricity ($100+ each year) you pay on an old fridge would cost far more than just buying a brand new (but cheap) fridge every few years.

if i restored one, i would use modern refrigeration gear, not too many 1950s replacement compressors about these days......

 

[ElFenix]

leftovers, large bowls/trays, larger items like 3 liter bottles and such. none of those really fit well in a side by side, the freezer is also annoying for larger frozen items, we had one for years and always hated it (came with house) we now have a bottom freezer + french door fridg unit much like that maytag Genx87 posted much more efficient use of space inside the fridge adn you can fit larger items when/if needed

is everyone incompetent at wrapping up their leftovers?

3 liters don't fit in french door models either. :hmm:

if you had a "normal" fridge yes you did because ours was a counter depth unit which is not as deep, and had the compressor and shit on top

oh, so now we find out it had nothing to do with the doors and where the fridge/freezer relative to each other.

 

[Genx87]

How did you buy the unit? With a credit card? Mastercard doubles the warranty for free. Many Visa credit cards do so: Visa Signature/business cards do it. Also American Express has double length warranties.

Basically, you might already have an extended warranty so buying it again is useless.

Thanks for the info. I bought it with a combination of discover and a cabelas visa card. I bought a stainless gas range with it and couldnt get it all on the Visa. Ill look into this.

 

[Anubis]

is everyone incompetent at wrapping up their leftovers?

3 liters don't fit in french door models either. :hmm:




oh, so now we find out it had nothing to do with the doors and where the fridge/freezer relative to each other.

sorry but no. 3 liters fit fine in our current french door fridge, which has less overall storage area then the other one but what seems like 10x the usable space inside. my sister has a normal sized side by side and it has the same issues we had with ours with large items & use of space

 

[Jzero]

I have a bottom-freezer that I much prefer to my old top-freezer (which is now the beer fridge in the basement). It is true what people say that it can be a pain to root through it to find stuff...things get buried, sometimes items fall out the back and then I have to crawl on the floor to reach behind the drawer to get them. But this is easily made up for in the fact that I definitely use the fridge part more and I use a lot of fruit/veggies so I much prefer having the crisper drawers at waist-level instead of floor level.

The french-door bottom-freezer layout seems to be a decent compromise, but at the time they were a lot more expensive than their single-door counterparts and it still seems like they offer less space per CF yet at a higher cost. I don't really get the appeal of water/ice thru-the-door (except for maybe the option to have crushed ice). I put ice in everything, but it's just not that much of a hassle to make ice. I really only miss the auto icemaker when I'm throwing a party. It also seems like those thru-the-door dispensers are often the weak link in terms of reliability. It seems like everyone I know that has one is always having problems with the dispenser.

Unless you have a galley kitchen that is too narrow to swing a full-width door I cannot imagine the appeal of side-by-side at all.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I have a side-by-side, but will probably get a bottom freezer design next time. In addition to not having the ice/water maker, and thus having more space...the tub arrangement of the bottom freezer will allow me to not have to worry about shit being stacked carefully or falling out when I open the door.

 

[DrPizza]

Weird, Mosh and I must own the magic side by side models. I can put 3 or 4 cases of soda/beer on one shelf of the fridge - don't know why someone's having trouble with only 1 case. Maybe I should take a picture of the inside of my fridge and freezer?

 

[eplebnista]

Top freezer.

 

[kalrith]

French doors with bottom pull-out freezer. As already mentioned, the French doors allow you to put a pizza box or other large items that won't fit in a side-by-side.

I'll add a plus about the freezer. Since heat rises, and the bottom freezer has an opening on the top, then I would think that the food would not change much in temperature when the freezer is open. I know that's how top-door deep freezers work, but I'm not sure about the bottom freezers with French doors.