Here are some older threads that discuss FD vs Single Doors:

Thread: Do you love your french door fridge?
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1107491124894.html

Thread: Pros and cons of Single Door vs. French Door Frig?
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg072239107909.html

If you don't need much freezer room, have you thought of an all-fridge rather than a traditional refrigerator? If you need some freezer space then perhaps a freezer drawer would work...this is assuming you're remodeling/building and not just replacing an appliance.

In any bottom freezer refrigerator, regardless of where you locate your ice maker, you'll lose space somewhere. If you have no ice dispenser then the ice maker will be in the freezer and take up freezer space; if you have ice in the door the ice maker will be in & take up space in the refrigerated section. (I don't know if anyone makes an ice- and/or water-in-the-door dispenser for top-freezer refrigerators anymore...we had a top freezer GE Profile ice-in-the-door dispenser in our old kitchen, but we had so many problems w/it that we ended up never using it...it was the only one we could find at the time (1995).)

Water in the door doesn't seem to take up much, if any, space.

I did not want to lose any refrigerated space so we have a water dispenser in the door but not an ice dispenser. With very cold water, we find we use less ice and don't mind opening the freezer to get ice on the few occasions we need it. It's very easy to reach in & take out a few cubes w/o pulling open the ice drawer.

Based on your post, if you can live w/o ice in the door, you'll be better off w/water only in the door.

I like my fridge. I have the KitchenAid, bottom mount, single door. It has a deli drawer across the bottom and two crispers. The bottom shelf on the door can hold gallon sized bottles.

The freezer doesn't hold a lot of food. The compressor is on the bottom, so the lower basket has only about half the depth (front to back) as the upper basket.

FWIW, my fridge has an internal cold water dispenser just inside the door opening. You need to open the door to get to the chilled water. And you have to depress a button above the spout to dispense the water, so it's a two handed operation.

Good luck.

We drink a lot of water and ice but I didn't like any of the ice-in-the-door french doors fridges that I saw. I also worried about the frequent complaints I heard about through the door ice dispensers breaking. I decided to get a Fisher & Paykel CD fridge with the icemaker inside the freezer. It does take up room in the freezer but we have a large chest freezer in the basement for overflow. I worried that scooping the ice out would be inconvenient because we use a lot of ice, but it's turned out to be fine. And the water dispenser doesn't eat up fridge space.

By now I've pretty much memorized what is on which side in the fridge so I don't usually open both doors. The only thing I don't like is that you have to open both doors to access the fruit and veggie bins. For me it's not much of an issue because I keep all the veggies in the fridge drawer in my prep area.

{{gwi:1400638}}

Here's my Refrigerator: GE Profile Counter-Depth 20.9 Cu. Ft. French Door with External Water Dispenser (Model # PFCS1NJWSS)

Inside:

Main Compartment...each drawer veggie/fruit drawer opens w/only one door open, the meat/deli drawer on the bottom is the full-width so you do have to open both doors to access it:

Left Door (we actually store my DH's half-gallon container of "calorie countdown" milk in the same bin as the milk now):

{{!gwi}}

Right door...the one thing I wish were different is that I didn't have that can storage on the bottom, I'd rather have the additional vertical space for the other bins:

Freezer Configuration, all 3 freezer drawers + ice maker:

I have the Jenn Air Eurostyle counter depth french door-- I am pretty sure it also comes with one big fridge door and I'll bet it has the same innards. As posters above mentioned, the freezer is pretty small to make room for the compressor. unlike erika's FP (which I also love but I found a floor model deal on the Jenn Air!) there are two fruit and veg drawers with separate controls, so you can open one when only one door is open. It's the cheese and meats drawer I have to open both doors for!! Argh.
I've actually thought several times about whether a one-door fridge would have been better, but the thing is the wodth. to be CD it has to be at least 36" wide, and that is one WIDE door. So like everything else I guess its a trade-off.
in general, though, I am very happy with my fridge!

Have you considered an all- fridge with maybe a small separate freezer (drawer?) From your post it sounds like maybe that would work for you.

I adore my Liebherr bottom-freezer single-door counterdepth fridge.

circuspeanut... do you have the 30" Liebherr? Does it come in a single door bottom freezer 36"?

I have the 30" Liebherr, which is single-door both top and bottom. It's great and even a little large for us: no kids, 2 cats. Admired immensely by our tall families for the easy access without having to stoop to peer inside.

I think their 36" model is a French door on top, single freezer drawers on bottom. Many folks get two 24" models, though, with single doors top and bottom.

Mine:

I have the same fridge as Buehl except no dispenser on the door. Our water taste bad here and 10 filters wouldn't help it. We drink only bottled water but do use the ice maker.

KitchenAid Architect II has a counterdepth $2600
Electrolux has a new model just out two months ago $3500