I "think" I know what you mean and I agree. Some years back when we were building our house GE made just this but it never went over well I guess. One fridge and One freezer the size of the regular fridge part without bottom freezer and a freezer the same size would be awesome!! Something like the picture, but I would have loved 2 large sliding drawers to match my kitchen cupboards underneath. Great storage space and all under the set instead of overtop where you can't reach them!! the fridge and freezer would be a nice height too....no bending and lots of room :-) This would be THE ULTIMATE

I have an all-fridge alongside a full size upright all-freezer. If you have the space, nothing beats this combination. People are always asking me where I found this combination and what a great idea it is. Also the savings add up when you can stockpile-freeze your favourite items when they are on sale. I think most people can attest...there is no such thing as too much refrigerator/freezer space.

Mikeandsuegannon, what brand? I lust for a glass front, but am not quite there on justifying the price!

We have a fridge with french doors on top, a separate pull-out drawer below the french doors (we use the drawer for cheeses, sandwich meats, butter... things like that which we access alot), and a bottom freezer. The freezer has a pull-out drawer inside it so when I pull out the big drawer, I can either access things on the bottom or pull out the drawer that's inside the freezer. What I love about the freezer part is that with the drawer inside it, nothing is too deep. And the space below the inner freezer drawer is separated into two bins. I love my fridge.

I'd like to see a refrigerator for the garage that has a large freezer and a small refrigerator area. The refrigerator section could be used for storing woodworking glues and special paints, extra batteries and a few beverages. Plus you'd have extra freezer space.

I have a side by side counter depth and am very happy with it. I previously had a bottom freezer that was about 30 years old, (before they were popular).
the freezer didn't have drawers but rather shelves that you put your items on and there were bins on the door. That configuration doesn't exist anymore. I did like it that way.
I didn't want the current french doors as I like to open the door with one hand, take items out with the other and set them down on the counter next to the refrigerator without having to come out around a door in the way. It only made sense to me if you have an island opposite your french doors where you can turn around and place your items, otherwise, I saw this as a huge inconvenience to have that door in the way. Judging by the comments here, I guess very few others see this as a problem! I also did not like the freezer "drawers."

Tee

Get a counter depth look by recessing wall behind fridge if renovating. Counter depth fridges cost more and have less storage - so get a regular fridge instead and achieve same look.

I LOVE my Gaggenau French Door. I mirrored the the front to capture a bit more of our fabulous view. I remember there was a woman who was complaining about not being able to find a black frig.....she could do a black glass front.

@beenegger I like your idea...especially with that view but can't justify keeping it clean with fingerprints etc! How do you manage that?

Believe it or not, it is not as difficult as I thought it would be. Originally my thinking was that windexing was the trade off to have the view mirrored, but if you notice where the handles are to the top part of the fridge, the inside (mirror in between the handles) is really the only part that gets smudged, especially when I am cooking. Also my only child is away at university ;)

If it's easy to wipe, then I would have that, too. I have stainless and it's a pain to keep clean,,,I've tried the oil wiping trick,,,everything,,It might be that the stainless on the Kitchen Aid fridge is not that great, but I am getting tired of it.

printesa, did you ever try a company called Magic? They made a stainless steel cleaner which works well on the stainless parts of my oven. I also tried it with my stainless sink (WHICH I DESPISE!) and it does not work as well.

I haven't tried it. I try to use only clean cleaners..no chemicals. As for the sink, I have the same problem...I scrub the heck out of it and it looks nice for a little while

It looks nice for a little while.........until the water gets turned on ;)))

Drawers!

Drawers would be great as long as they're a proper height so you don't have a lot of bending. I have dishwasher drawers and to use the lower one is kind of a pain.

Here's an oldie!

Currently I have a single door refrigerator with single door freezer above it, and I loathe it. I voted other because I like the french door refrigerators with lower freezer; but I hate the drawer freezers and full width drawers in the refrigerator that requires both doors to be open to gain access to the drawer.

Kitchen Things above had mentioned that there are 4 door refrigerators that exist that have french door refrigerators with french door freezers that are sold in New Zealand; my hang up is whether or not they are available here in the U.S. (I need to do some research); it would be a great solution for me, and probably many others, here in the U.S..

So many cool products exist in other countries yet here in the U.S. we are so backwards, or have such a stigma that these products are somehow bad, and then if they can be gotten here they cost an arm and a leg due to the whole supply and demand theory and cost of importing the products, that it's unique, etc....

I know it's not practical for everyone but my favorite configuration is a separate freezer and fridge side by side. We have done this on multiple kitchen projects and it is oh so nice.

It's practical for everyone but everyone may not have the space....it's the only way to go if have the room :-)

Would love to have a bottom freezer but they are very pricey.

I checked out integral (separate) fridge & freezer. I only had 48"W available. B/c the separate units have greater wall thickness for insulation, their cubic footage of food storage is less than it is for same width side-by-side built-ins. But it didn't matter after I got chance to buy remanufactured Sub-Zero w/ full warranty. Incredible savings eliminated all other considerations.

Wanda Byle....what brand are your freezer and refrigerator? Seems the only units I can find are Sub-zero. Are your's built-in, counter depth or standard depth? Electrolux makes 32" units but the capacity is much less for the space they still take than the Sub-Zero.

1. J K, look for integral units. Miele & Thermador make them, probably Liebbher, Viking & others, too.

We have 2 full size next to each other

When double door were all the rage I went for a large top freezer. I saw too many people who supposedly had quite a bit of cubic feet of freezer space struggle to get anything large or awkward in. Now I have a French door with one of the largest capacities in a 36" refrigerator. I rented a refrigerator after my old one died after more than 20 years. The difference between the storage capacity of French door refrigerators and their footprint is tremendous. Many ice and water in the door systems occupy more than twice the space mine does. The outside including the door is 33 inches deep and 67 inches high which is how tall I am. Many people might not like a refrigerator that stuck out that far. However, when shopping I saw a lot of salespeople touting that this model had a special tilt shelf so that a couple of frozen pizza could fit in. Mine will hold a frozen pizzas and still have 5" of depth to store something else in front or behind. A well designed freezer section on a French door refrigerator is nothing at all like a chest freezer. Instead of baskets that cannot be wider than half the inside width of a freezer your freezer opens with a full width drawer that glides easily. My top drawer is 6" deep. The bottom drawer is big enough that they urge you to use a movable divider because otherwise if you have very little stored there a young child can fit completely in. I use a basket to further divide the space.

I have a Subzero refrigerator only. It works well for us. There isn't any water in the door which is fine with me because I keep a pitcher of filtered water in the fridge. for a freezer we have 2 freezer drawers under the counter which I just love one is all freezer and one is half ice and half freezer. We are building a new home and I plan to buy all the same products.

We have refrigerator only and freezer only to separate units. Icemaker is in freezer, no water in door, Works ok for us, ice tap water or other drinks.

My side by side just died after 14 years and we just bought French door fridge with bottom freezer. It does have water and ice dispenser on the left French door. I had with the side by side and wouldn't want to be without it. I lose lots of stuff in me dedicated freezer, I lost awareness of stuff in the side by side, and I expect I will lose stuff in the new one! ILol! Btw, Consumer Reports found all the brands they looked at to be equally good on the French door/bottom freezer units.

When one has a chance to score a really good deal, one doesn't have lots of options. My good deal remanufactured S-Z 48" has ice maker, but that's fine. The Whirpool free-standing, which is now in our garage, had ice &/or wtr dispenser in freezer door, but were problemmatic. W/ $ I saved on good deal, I put EverPure chiller under sink & reused Kohler filtration system. I have filtered chilled wtr at sink & ice in fridge, which has its own filtration system, & I still kept $ in my wallet.

My fridge has no freezer - I love it! Room for all the veggies and drinks. I have a chest freezer in the basement.

I've had top freezer, side by side, and French door. French door is by far my favorite so far. Would love to have room for full size stand alone freezer and fridge, but French works fine for now.

meggielh, the stand alone freezer & fridge combination appealed to us, too, but when I checked them out we went w/ a built-in that contained both. What we found was for the same width of wall space one actually got fewer cubic feet of space inside due to the thickness of the walls and their insulation w/ the separate units. And, according to our codes here, you'd also need two dedicated electrical circuits vs. one. Easy to do on a new build or gut job, but not as easy when not doing structural changes.

I prefer the french doors as long as you don't have to open both doors to pull out any one drawer. The freezer on the bottom is my preference.

French doors! I love being able to see and reach everything without having to shift and dig. But two things . . . remember not to lean on bottom drawer when using it. And be sure while designing your layout to allow for BOTH doors to open fully. Ours is in a corner and left door can only be opened 90 degrees for a wall. Our designer should have caught that. She assured us there would be no problem . . .

I have a 18.2 cubic foot (inside) refrigerator with no freezer as my freezer is in the garage.

I dislike side by sides.

The French doors are sometimes built so you have to open both, don't like that.

And the freezer "down under" makes me make produce groans and grunts to retrieve stuff, veeery bad for my senior self esteem.... hence the side by side choice.

Perfect world, independent fridge and freezer. As that takes up way too much space, I now have a bottom freezer, double door fridge. I had a side by side for years, and like this new one much more. It is easier to find things in this current configuration, and things don't get lost inside (I'm talking about the fridge part.) We don't have a lot of food in the freezer, but I do find it easy to find things ... But I understand why folks feel like things can get lost in a bottom freezer if you have a lot of meat or veggies etc.

I wanted French Door w/o water/ice dispenser on front. KtichenAid was backordered for MONTHS (September to January and every week I was promised it would arrive and it didn't). I finally purchased Viking (which I understand is now manufactured by Electrolux). It was delivered in 2 days. LOVE IT. I've had it for 10 months and it is fantastic. I had to have service because installers were in a hurry, service is EXCELLENT. I had side-by-side ant his French Door WITHOUT ice water dispenser is FANTASTIC. No regrets and KA will never see my $ again. The Viking works perfectly, good size shelves, ice maker is excellent, looks beautiful.....

Helping you select the right refrigerator for your family!

I changed side by side for a french door one...OMG, I love it !!! since I cook fresh food, do not have to bend to get down to the veggies anymore..and because it is wider and less depht, I can see everything in a glance.

The freezer being at the bottom makes the most sense. French doors are always a practical option, and look nice too!

I accidentally voted for bottom freezer but meant french doors. The freezer is on the bottom in that one as well, so a little confusing. I didn't think I would ever like this configuration until I got it and now don't ever want anything else. I've had all of these.

I have the french door style with bottom freezer drawer now and am not a fan of the deep freezer drawer. It's hard to find items and I don't always know what I have in there! Going with a stand alone column freezer when we do kitchen remodel next month

Informative!

We love a side-by-side fridge freezer at LKA. We have reviewed loads of them (in the UK we call them American Fridge Freezers)! So versatile and so stylish!

French doors are a good option when a single door would open blocking a walk-thru or doorway on one side or the other.

@bernegger, How did you mirror your refrigerator? I found a 'frig I'd love but it is stainless and that will not work with my kitchen. Thanks.