I've been in the hunt for same though my height is 70" and width is 36". I don't know what brands are good because they all have complaints describing expensive repairs. I looked at AJMadison website to narrow down the choices. I finally decided on an LG french door model. I wanted black which also limited my choices but not wanting a dispenser in the door rules out a lot of fridges. And when you try to go to a showroom and see them, I found they had practically nothing without the dispenser. I can't believe everyone wants that dispenser in the door but the majority must or they wouldn't have so many of them.

I have a kenmore elite trio that I have been happy with for the last 15 years or so. No service ever needed on it, as of yet. No outside dispenser but it does have a filtered water dispenser inside on the side wall. Good luck because now it seems so many have problems with all brands. I guess I have been lucky.

Kathy, Kenmore doesn't make appliances. It's the Sears brand that rebadges other manufacturers' appliances, so your fridge could be anything. If the OP buys at Sears, he should keep that in mind. You make a good point that now it seems all brands have problems.

The reviews for Electolux seem good, but you will find bad reviews for that brand too, just fewer of them.

I advise the OP to go to a store with a large number of fridges on display, and bring with you gallon jugs and containers that you use often. See how they fit in the fridges you are interested in. Check whether the bin arrangement suits you, and how they open and close. Layout should be one of your most important considerations.

I have a 36" Kenmore (KitchenAid) fridge and hate the french doors. I always either open the wrong door, or have to open both in order to get what I want out of the fridge. I'll (never say never, but.....) never have another french door fridge (if I can help it). Mine has the water dispenser inside, and I've not had a problem with it in the 5 or so years that I've had it.

That's why I never wanted a FD - just seemed too weird to have to open two doors and very unlikely DH would ever put things back in a consistent location. And I don't even mind a side by side. But not wanting ice and water in the door and not wanting stainless, I was pretty much forced down this path being that I also didn't want a full size door swinging out into my kitchen. Lots of people seem to like them so hopefully I will too.

I had a french door for about 8 months and hated it myself. I couldn't stand putting stuff in fridge from my counter because I had to work around the fridge door being open to do so, now have a single door bottom freezer CD Fisher Paykel. Small water dispenser on door takes up no room in fridge. Another house we have a Fisher Paykel, no water or ice maker. I love them both. We are not big ice people, I actually turned mine off. They are both so quiet. I wouldn't hesitate to purchase a FP fridge again.

Well I won't have that complaint being a long time side by side owner.

Uuummmm.....about Sears/Kenmore. My appliance repairman told me he only buys Kenmore because while the appliances are manufactured by other companies, they are manufactured for Sears without known issues. He said that most appliance manufacturers just keep making appliances with known defects but Sears demands they redesign before they sell it as Kenmore.

It's like the line of Samsung fridges that don't drain and freeze up starting at around the 1 yr mark- just when the warranties were up; that went on for years and Samsung kept selling them, eventually sending a courtesy repair call only to the most insistent customers. He told me that kind of monkey business is policy for many appliance companies, but not Sears.

I got my LG FD last week - no ice or water in the door. I really like the FD - more than I thought I would. It's a quiet, nice fridge - we'll see how it holds up and what happens if I need a repair. In my research I found there are no "good" brands - all have complaints and some serious. I finally decided I just need to pick one that meets my requirements and hope for the best. SZ stands out to me as probably the highest quality and longest life but no way I'm paying that much for a fridge. It would probably be a wash - I could buy five regular refrigerators for the price of one SZ which might cover about the same lifespan.

"My appliance repairman told me he only buys Kenmore because while the appliances are manufactured by other companies, they are manufactured for Sears without known issues. He said that most appliance manufacturers just keep making appliances with known defects but Sears demands they redesign before they sell it as Kenmore."

I'm sorry, but I have to call nonsense on that. Sears does make changes in specification from the manufacturer-badged version of an appliance. But sometimes it's just features, like glass shelves at a lower price point on a refrigerator, or a slightly higher spin speed on a washing machine.

And sometimes it's mechanical. While it's not completely analogous to kitchen appliances, we bought a Kenmore water softener that was made by Ecowater. It was DOA as of the first regeneration so we had Sears take it back. Because Sears refused to stand behind their warranty, we bought an actual Ecowater to replace it. Turns out the differences between the Kenmore and Ecowater versions were plastic gears (brass on the Ecowater) and thinner cabinet walls on the Kenmore.

Sears these days can barely keep itself in business. If they really could identify which appliance features were going to go bad in the space of a few years, they probably ought to just get out of retail and become QA advisors to Whirlpool, Electrolux, Haier, LG, and Samsung.

Whirlpool makes a side by side without water dispenser; I have one.

Whirlpool, Maytag and KitchenAid all make a 36"W, 70"H, 32"D French Door refrigerator with no in-door ice or water. In fact, they're the same frig with slightly different shelf materials, handles and brand name.

I bought the Whirlpool version (model WRF535SMBM) for $1000 on sale in Februrary. Not installed yet (kitchen being built).

I would have happily spent more for a frig with externally-operable fruit and veg drawers (don't know exactly what this is called - basically you can access the drawers without opening the frig door). But, as far as I could tell, this was only offered together with the dreaded in-door water and ice, which I really don't care for. I also didn't need a counter depth frig, as it will sit in a niche in the wall.

There are LG and Samsung with similar features (but more expensive for unclear benefits). That's about the extent of the market, I believe.

I ended up not getting any of the Whirlpool brands mostly because I needed slightly less than 70" tall and didn't want to have to slice off my cabinet to make it fit. I've had Whirlpool refrigerators for as long as I can remember prior to this and always had good luck. I was seriously considering a Whirlpool black ice SxS with silver handles that would have fit but couldn't see it in person anywhere so had to abandon that idea. I'd read a number of complaints about flimsy shelves and wanted to see for myself which I couldn't do.

My Whirlpool side by side, without the external water/ice dispenser, is 66"