I just purchased what was formerly a model home and moved in 3 weeks ago. I had never had the "pleasure" of having a counter depth fridge before. I abhorred it. I was shocked at how tiny it was inside. I thought I was getting a similar fridge to the one I left behind in my old house; a French door bottom freezer. When I moved here, I had to give away literally 1/3 or more of my frozen food and my fridge compartment was cramped. I couldn't put a 12 pack of soda in the fridge except angled or sideways. It was nuts.

I lucked out and got to trade it in on a new Kitchenaid 4 door (French doors, bottom freezer and a middle fridge drawer that is awesome for often used things) and am very happy. I went from 20 cubic feet to 25 and the difference is amazing.

So, I personally can say I will never, ever have another counter depth fridge. I cannot say the additional 3" is even noticeable to me.

A standard depth refrigerator will usually stick out 6" further than a counter depth refrigerator. Even with a counter depth, the doors stick out beyond the counter, which is often necessary for opening the doors. I had a counter depth in a previous house, and it is fine if only a few people live there and you don't entertain much. The fruit and vegetable bins are pretty pathetic. If you have a second refrigerator for overflow you can also get away with it. I recessed my refrigerator 6" so I would get the counter depth look without losing the space.

I'm having the same debate as I hate paying more for less -- but the way our kitchen is laid out, 3" is significant. I have a chest freezer for overflow, so the CD is winning out. Having looked at a bunch, I'm going to the LG French-door CD. Most of the time, there's just the two of us so we should be okay. That said, the thing won't store pizza boxes or big deli trays. But at 24.6 the LG is the largest CD fridge I've found. Maybe that will help you. Here is the link at AJM:

Here is a link that might be useful: LG counter-depth 24.6

How many people in your home?

How often do you entertain?

Do you cook a lot and have leftovers or cook ahead for the week?

How frequently do you food shop?

Do you find that your current fridge is not large enough or too large?

Not only do I have a CD bottom freezer fridge but it is also only 24 inches wide. I love CD in my small kitchen but it fits our lifestyle. We are a 2 person household (not including our pets), entertain infrequently and then only in small groups and have a 4 supermarkets within a 5 minute drive. I typically do not cook ahead but this fridge has great freezer storage. We had a 33x33x33 that was just too large for the room and for us which we moved into the garage but there is nothing in it. Now that the holidays are approaching, that will probably change.

Since we were downsizing on the fridge to accomplish our goal of "everything in the L-shaped layout while adding a DW to the mix", we bought the LG which was one of the cheaper 24 inch models but left room to go taller if we decided the narrow fridge would work for us. If it didn't, we would fill in the area with a 24 inch pantry cab and buy a bigger fridge and move it across to the opposite wall where it was originally at which time I would still buy a CD but probably a 30 inch model although a 36 would fit (but that really is too big for us).

A big plus for CD is I can see right to the back, in the old fridge, stuff always got lost. But again, this is what works for our household.

Good luck to you!

New construction or a remodel ? Do you have any way to recess the fridge ? This thread has some pics of recessed fridges ... Recessing the fridge, how will it look ?
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg091545058824.html

Even if you cannot recess it fully, removing the sheetrock behind it will give you close to an inch. You could also turn the studs sideways within the wall to pick up another 2 inches.

If you have the aisle room and want the look of counter depth but do not have the ability to recess the fridge, you can pull out the base cabinets next to it to be even with the front of the fridge and put an extra deep counter over those base cabinets. Counter would be 30" deep instead of standard 24" deep. This also allows you to easily put extra deep uppers there also. 15" deep uppers are great for storing a lot of things !!

Some who have gone with that option then have a 6" pullout coming out the side/back of the base cabinets, or a door there for vertical cookie sheet, cutting boards type storage.

We got a Fisher Paykel fridge almost two years ago. It is a counter depth fridge. It has more usable room than many standard ones. It also has completely adjustable shelves. It really works for us much better than our old standard fridge. I got it because I liked how it looked and functioned.

Here is an interesting tidbit I learned after I got it. It will likely last much longer than many other kinds because of its compressor. It isn't quite as energy efficient and that is because the more energy efficient makes/models get that energy efficiency by running their compressors in a way that wears them out much faster.