My wife and I are getting ready to move and the people that bought our house wanted our refrigerator. So, now we have to buy a new one for the new house. We are leaning towards one of the French door style refrigerators. I know that we have a lot of "experts" here on this forum, so I thought I would ask two questions.

1. What do you think about french-door refrigerators in general vs. traditional side-by-side refrigerators. 2. What brands should we be looking at?

So far out of the brands we have seen, we like the Samsung and Electrolux the best. This is a pretty big purchase and I don't want to make a mistake and get the wrong one.

 

So far I have not heard anything good about Samsung or LG products.
Not sure about Electrolux. I currently have a Frigidaire, and have no complaints except for the fact that the first one I received was damaged. That was Sears fault. Ended up getting a larger refrigerator for less money due to that, so it worked out well.
I personally will but Frigidaire or Whirlpool with a preference toward Whirlpool if I can get exactly what I want in either model.

 

Don't know much, so can't help with your questions, but can't help but adding our experience. We bought two refrigerators when we moved into our house 8 years ago. A large side by side (26.5 cu ft) and a smaller (16 cu ft) traditional with freezer on top for the laundry room/garage entrance area. The side by side is useless for big items and the traditional is too small once all my beer is in it. I would buy an over and under with the freezer on the bottom if I was doing it again and a slighty larger garage or laundry room frig.
Just our experience FWIW.

edit: Both are Sears models, side by side is a Kenmore Elite. Check the cost of replacement water filters that are build into some of them. Ours needs replacing about three times per year at 35 bucks apiece. (I found them online by the dozen for 10 or 15 apiece) The Elite has been a great machine, no service calls yet in 8 years. The smaller traditional frig has always had a drainage problem from the top freezer into the lower frig section. Water collects on the top glass shelf and we are constantly wiping it up. I have taken to leaving some folded up paper towels on the shelf.

 

we just bought an LG french door with the 2 drawers and ice/water dispenser. wife loves it. thats all that really matters. from what i have heard and read LG makes a pretty good product. our last was an amana. piece of junk.

do your cost comparison shopping. around here the price varied by 800 bucks.

 

Frigidaire is Electrolux. I am looking for a new one as well. Ours is 15 years old and I am sure I can save some electricity with a new one. Not to mention I am sure it will be quieter as well.

 

Side by side are too small, especially the freezer. You will go shopping get 3 or 4 hundred worth of food and have no where to put it. It's happened so many time to us with meats and such.

As said, get over-under -- freezer on bottom fridge on top.

What brand? Samsung and LG as you said. LG has some cool models with touch screens that act as radios, t.v., info center, temps, etc. Wicked neat.

 

we have a kenmore freezer on bottom fridge on top with the french doors on top.... I love it, Its huge.

The only problem i have is that you have to open the freezer to get ice out.

 

Fwiw, I have a cousin that works for Whirlpool, and Kenmore, Frigidaire, Electrolux and GE are all made by Whirlpool with Whirlpool internals.

 

www.subzero.com

 

And which one do you recommend?

 

I have a GE/whirlpool in my kitchen. Its got the french doors and Stainless Steel.

 

Which one do you have?

I am not looking for something built in. A freestanding refrigerator will work just fine for our needs. We currently have a Kitchen-Aid fridge and like it, but will probably end up with the Electrolux, as I seem to like it the best.

I knew that most of the refrigerators shared a lot of parts. Pretty easy to see at Sears that some of the Kenmores are made with the LG's, that are probably made by one of the bigger companies as well.

 

I agree with the previous statements about side-by-sides. Just too small to get a full load of shopping put away and organized.

A Whirlpool french door with an ice maker / water dispenser in the door is sitting in my kitchen. Tons of room. Very easy to find everything. Very energy efficient.

 

I' not sure which one, the house I live in had a custom one already in it. (actually 2 separate ones) They have been perfect, I know they are expensive but they are pretty much the Mercedes of refrigerators...

 

I recently bought a Samsung french door, counter depth fridge in black (RFG237). I love it. I did tons of research, and Samsung seemed to be the way to go in the mid-level fridges ($1200 to 2800).

The one neat feature that really sold me is that they are one of the few that use 2 separate compressors for cooling. So the fridge is cooled with its own 38* air instead of what most do and use -2* air from the freezer to cool the fridge portion. No cross 'contamination' and you're not going to freeze things in the back of the fridge. It's got the LEDs, and all the energy star stuff, etc...

http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/a...?pagetype=type