None of the french door refrigerators with icemakers are very reliable. Consumer Reports has the most reliable brand with over a 30% failure rate within the first five years. Some others have repair rates in the high 40s. The ones with ice through the door are even worse. By contrast, for basic top-mount fridges all brands are 15% or less.

Buy one that has a good warranty. You might check Costco to see if they have one you might like, as Costco will just take it back (two years, I think?) if it gives you trouble. I agree about what the previous poster said about having ice in the refrigerator door. We had a French door refrigerator with ice in the door and it was nothing but trouble with the ice maker. We had to call the repair guy, repeatedly. Repeatedly. He finally told us that, in his opinion, ice makers belong in the freezer. We got rid of that refrigerator and got a French door with the ice in the freezer (lower drawer freezer). We really like having the ice in the freezer. Yes, you have to open the drawer to get ice out, but, there's no ice maker to drop a little water here and there, spit ice pieces on the floor, etc. It's also a cleaner look to not have an ice maker in the door, imo. The other thing that we didn't like about our previous refrigerator was that it was loud. It would bother us while we were in the adjoining family room and we could even hear it, at night, when we went upstairs to bed. We had read the reviews where people said it was noisy, but we didn't really believe that a refrigerator could be so noisy it would bother us. We were very wrong! To make it worse, the refrigerator made noise most of the time, not just sometimes. The energy star refrigerators can be pretty noisy because they have smaller compressors and those run and run and then run some more. Our current refrigerator isn't energy star and it's very quiet. So, I recommend that you pay attention right reviews about refrigerators being noisy. The noise is normal, and not anything that can or will be repaired.

Stan Z, I think I have decided it is either a FD without dispenser or a side by side. Problem is, I'd like to have at least 28 cu ft is space, and the only side by side's with that and Energy Star are GE and Samsung. I've given up on reviews.

hvtech42, I wish the standard top mounts were big enough for me.

veggiegardnr, I don't mind opening the door for ice - ice makers to me are too slow anyway. What brand do you have? Thanks for the info on the Energy Star, I had no idea they were louder.

We have a counter depth KitchenAid. It's taller than a normal refrigerator, but it still doesn't have anywhere near the 28 cu ft you're looking for.

I don't know if all energy star refrigerators are loud, or if it's just some brands. The one that we had that was loud (and had all the ice maker issues) was a Whirlpool. Yeah, the ice maker was slow, you're right. The other issue was that it didn't make/hold very much ice, so we were always running out. Fortunately, we'd bought it from Costco and we were able to return it right before the two year mark. I forget how many times we had the repair guy out to fix problems related to the ice maker... The final straw (that led to its return) was when the ice maker developed a leak and it damaged our new floor. At that point, we called Costco to see if we could return the refrigerator. We told them what had been going on and they gladly took it back, with no problems. I would have bought our replacement refrigerator from Costco too, because of their good customer service and return policy, but they didn't have another refrigerator that we wanted.

I was at Costco yesterday and noticed that they now double warranties on certain items (from two to four years) if you purchase them with their new Costco credit card.

The KitchenAid has not caused us any trouble, so far, and we really like the refrigerator. It has a clean look, that we really like, and it works well and is quiet. Our last refrigerator was pretty large (maybe even 28 cu ft), but, while shopping for a new refrigerator, I realized that I didn't actually need all that room. Then, I got to thinking that a counter depth refrigerator might actually look better in our kitchen. I took my largest bowl and a gallon of milk into the store, to see how these things would fit into a smaller refrigerator. To my surprise, they fit well. So, we went with the counter depth. I really like how it doesn't protrude out from the counter. The whole kitchen just looks better. But, counter depth isn't for everyone. Some people find that they like a second refrigerator (garage) when they have a counter depth, but we haven't needed that (even for the holidays), at least not yet. It makes plenty of ice, and stores it in the freezer. I don't miss having ice in the door at all. Actually, it's a relief to not have to clean up little water spots in and around an in-door ice maker and pick up little pieces of ice that get spit onto the floor. Anyway, we really like ours, but, others have had problems with the brand. So...I think a good warranty with any refrigerator is probably a good idea.

Edited for typos and to add: The strange thing is that our current refrigerator, that we really like, is the exact opposite of what we originally thought we needed and wanted.

I bought a french door LG without dispenser in the door last year. Aside from problems caused by the service people who installed it, I really like it. I think it's about 25 cf. I've had door dispensers and will never have one again. I'm not particularly fond of the freezer drawer but the refrigerator storage flexibility is so much better than the SxS's that I had for many years.

EnergyStar doesn't necessarily mean louder. Depends entirely on the design of the unit. My GE with variable speed compressor is very quiet but it's a 2004 model which may not reflect on today.

VeggieGardnr, you do realize that your KA is a Whirlpool ... ?