36" or 42" Refrigerator? Need help and gentle guidance.

10 years ago

My wife and I are in the design stage of our kitchen renovation and I have been obsessing over refrigerator capacity. As wekick so astutely stated in response to a question I asked in the Bluestar refrigerator thread "Capacity is best judged on usable space. One of the things I looked at was if I could fit a 9x13 pan in front to back but also how the shelves/door compartments are sized and how they can be placed. Cubic feet can be misleading."

We are coming from a 16 year old, 36", 25 cubic ft, KA side by side counter depth unit that I always hated. Bottom mount freezer units and French Door units just seem so much more efficient (I don't care too much about the freezer, we have a small chest freezer in the basement). Then I saw the dreaded cubic foot numbers and started to panic. the Miele we were set on only has 13.51 cuft vs our current, always packed because of family of 5, 15.9 cuft! Now I'm on to the 42" French Door SubZero that's $17,599 CAD (but a glorious 18.3 cuft).

Do we really need a 42"? Will a 36" FD, even though its "smaller" be more efficient and easier to use? We prefer the idea of a 36" and we don't love the SZ; at $17K we should love it.

Looking at:

Miele 36" - 13.51 cuft
SubZero 42" FD - 18.3 cuft
Jenn-Air 42" FD - 17.75 cuft
Fhiaba 36" - 14.5 cuft
Thermador 36" FD - 14 cuft

Thanks

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Comments (4)

dbabrams
10 years ago
We installed the 36" Miele a few months ago. It's fairly shallow, which makes it easy to find things, but it doesn't hold a huge amount. It's just the two of us most of the time, so it's fine. The same size SZ has a little bigger capacity since the freezer is smaller.
Fori
10 years ago
We drew out our plans with a 48" SZ, trying to get a little more space than our slightly undersized 32" side-by-side traditional depth old KA. Then we discovered the glorious capacity of the new standard (not counter!) depth 36" fridges.

So yeah, I guess we're not premium appliance people after all. I also got 12" of extra pantry space out of "downgrading". (Minor cabinet surgery could get that fat eyesore of a SZ in there though.)

My fridge is in an extra deep counter run so the fridge isn't sticking out. Unfortunately, it's still the slightly undersized 32" side-by-side traditional depth old KA. Can't get rid of it...I just cleaned it!
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lharpie
10 years ago
Those prices are insane. I'd try to figure out how to fit in a 36" standard depth into the design with cabs around it or recessing it or something.
59 Dodge
10 years ago
Back in 2006, we were in the "same boat" that you are in. Our kitchen had a full depth, fairly large GE SxS fridge, yet the thing was always crammed full, both the fridge and the freezer sides.

We wanted a built in, which of course is shallower and hence less capacity versus the same external width,

So I decided to go with a 42". Back in 2006, 42" SxS built ins were pretty rare, so I thought , If I can find room for a 42", then certainly I can find 6 more inches for a 48" and it's the best thing we ever did, except for maybe the Induction.

I literally designed the kitchen around the fridge, (I was the KD). We also wanted the fridge paneled, and at that time (2006), we only had 3 choices. GE , SZ or Jenn-air. We went with the Jenn-air due to it's more modern design and a much better price, about $6600 list , but it was not "price fixed" as was the SZ ($7000), so we got it for $4588.

We are as happy today with that fridge as we were back in 2006, it has been very reliable, and when parts were needed, (a new icemaker) after about 5 years, it was easy to get from many parts stores on the net and cost about $135 and was easily replaced by Me!

As we are just as apt to use the freezer as the fridge, we really appreciate the capacity of both the fridge and the freezer, and the SxS design allows us to put the items that we are most likely to use the most, at the most convenient heights "to us" in both the fridge and the freezer sections, (example), ice right in the middle of the freezer.

You can save some money by looking for "cabinet depth" or "built in Sizes" as if you use the word "fully Integrated" be prepared to take out a 3rd mortage on your house with about a 100 year term!!!!! (A La SZ) for example.

Anyway, msg here, I am trying to convey, is build in as large a fridge as you can, even though there are only 2 of us here, and always has been, We are sooo glad we found that extra 6 inches (48 vs 42)!!!!!

Gary