Freezer compartment on refrigerators--top or bottom?

[medstar]

Hey Dopers, I'm looking at replacing my kitchen appliances and I keep seeing refrigerators with the freezer compartment on the bottom. I'm increasingly drawn to this configuration because now the fruit and vegetable drawers will be at eye level and I don't go into the freezer as often as I do right now, where the freezer is on top. For those of you who've lived with the freezer compartment on the bottom, how do you like this? Is it markedly better than the other options? Are there any complaints or suggestions you have? Can I get an automatic ice maker in this configuration? I have a small kitchen so a large side by side refrigerator isn't going to fit. Thanks for your comments.

[Plynck]

I always thought that bottom freezers were strange until I lived in an apartment with one. That was almost thirty years ago, and I have had one ever since then. Your rationale is valid, to my mind; I only go into the freezer every few days, and it makes more sense to me to have the daily items at eye level. I don't know if you can get bottom freezers if you also want an icemaker/water dispenser in the door (never was important to me, so I never looked), but that may affect your decision.

[eveanyn]

Our fridge has the freezer compartment on the bottom and I love it. There is no ice maker and I'm not sure of the efficiency stats of this configuration, but it really suits our needs. Heavy jars or beverage pitchers are at just the right level to be picked up comfortably. The crispers are easy to open and forage through rather than having to stoop over to find the lemons at the bottom of the drawer like I used to.

There is the added benefit of safety. Frozen food has less distance to fall (and gain momentum) on your foot if you overload the freezer.

[Harriet the Spry]

We have a bottom freezer with an icemaker, but the ice is not dispensed from the door, it is in the freezer. That makes it something of a PITA once or twice a day when I have to bend down to fish out ice for drinks. Sometimes things get "lost" in the freezer, but the produce bins are a lot more accessible and less likely to contain science experiments now.

[Scarlett67]

We've had our Amana freezer-on-the-bottom for 13 years and counting and we lovelovelove it. We'll never go back.

[Duckster]

"In the bottom, Bob."

Huh? Whut? Oh. Sorry.

Carry on.

[GusNSpot]

Hate door water and ice...... Waste of space and power.

In the kitchen is a large refrigerator only. Designed to be only a fridge.

In the mud room is a chest freezer.

Will never go back to the all in one units.....

[Rick]

I grew up with a freezer on the bottom. When we got married, we had a freezer on the top. When I moved into my house it was a side by side. About 3 months ago I got this bad boy in black.
I loooooove this fridge. You can have it when you pry it out of my cold dead hands. Since I have a freezer in the garage, I don't keep that much in the bottom of this unit. With the side by side, since it is at eye level the tendency is to stuff it so full you could not get another item in. Now we keep just the stuff we need there.

[Ruby]

Hands down, a bottom freezer is the best.

I grew up with a bottom freezer and when I bought my own fridge for the first time, I thought it would be more sophisticated to have the freezer on the top. (Hey, I was 20 years old)

A few years ago, I bought a new Amana with the freezer on the bottom and remembered exactly why I loved in the first place. I bought this Amana before the 2-door on the top model came out but I still love it. My icemaker is inside the freezer, too, but I don't mind for all the other conveniences already listed above.

[MLS]

I'm obviously in the minority, but I prefer the freezer on top. My current fridge's veg & fruit drawers, on the bottom, are clear, so I can see right away what's in them, and the opening is on the top.

The freezer compartment, I usually have to rummage through to get what I want, and if I had to do that while crouched down near the floor, I don't know if I'd ever be able to get up again. My MIL's fridge has the freezer at the bottom, and on the few occasions I've had to get something out of there I found it to be a real pain.

Just MHO.

[danceswithcats]

Had a fridge with a freezer drawer on the bottom-cat's pants. Compressor died, dammit.

[Caprese]

Originally Posted by Rick

I grew up with a freezer on the bottom. When we got married, we had a freezer on the top. When I moved into my house it was a side by side. About 3 months ago I got this bad boy in black.
I loooooove this fridge. You can have it when you pry it out of my cold dead hands. Since I have a freezer in the garage, I don't keep that much in the bottom of this unit. With the side by side, since it is at eye level the tendency is to stuff it so full you could not get another item in. Now we keep just the stuff we need there.

Until we moved a couple months ago, we had the same 'fridge, in white.
My only complaints were that the metal dented easily (one of our dogs slammed into the lower part of the fridge). Also that awful beep that happens if you have the fridge open for more than a couple minutes.
But yeah, the french door/bottom freezer design was great.

[Paul in Qatar]

Not that it matters to you First-World people, but I saw the neatest Fridge in the store the other day. All it was was three drawers. You could set anyone of them to be the freezer or the Fridge. Cute as a spotted pup with a nice flat top to serve as storage space for the bread maker and so on.

I have never seen anything like it before.

[Caprese]

Originally Posted by Paul in Saudi

Not that it matters to you First-World people, but I saw the neatest Fridge in the store the other day. All it was was three drawers. You could set anyone of them to be the freezer or the Fridge. Cute as a spotted pup with a nice flat top to serve as storage space for the bread maker and so on.

I have never seen anything like it before.

Yeah, we were looking at a house that had a 'fridge but also those drawers.
They have been around for awhile, but this was the first time I'd seen them "up close and personal." I could see how, if you had the room, they could be quite useful.

[medstar]

Wow! Thanks for all your replies. Yes, I'd looked at those french door fridges, but they're mostly too big and too expensive for me. Same thing for those refrigerator drawers. The ones I've seen cost about $2,500.00 for one drawer. Yikes! That's about how much I wanted to spend for all my new appliances.

[Paul in Qatar]

Honestly, the best deal on a fridge is a recycled one from your town. Any decent-sized town has a place that reconditions fridges, washers and dryers. The local place in my hometown is a charity, others are businesses. In any case, they renew the inards, repaint the outside and give a year warrantee.

Well worth considering.

[ZipperJJ]

I grew up with bottom-freezer fridges. I can't see how having the freezer on the top is beneficial at all.


I consider myself to be a well-rounded individual.

[Cheesesteak]

We just got a bottom freezer model, the biggest problem with them, that I noticed, is that they're more expensive than top freezers. About $300 more than a comparable top freezer, though still less than a side by side.

I really like the design, the pull out drawer style freezer is easy to use, and easy to see what's in there. The fridge part is all within easy reach, I wouldn't go back to a top freezer.

[kanicbird]

I had a model which was side by side but with a 'split' 1/2 way down. So the top 1/2 would have a big fridge and a small freezer, then the lower 1/2 would have a small fridge and a big freezer.

The advantage was most of the benifit of the fridge on top but with a through the door icemaker, which actually took up most of the smaller freezer section.

Something like the wide by side here:
http://www.maytag.com/mths/products/...UseBVCookie=No

[Rick]

Originally Posted by Paul in Saudi

Honestly, the best deal on a fridge is a recycled one from your town. Any decent-sized town has a place that reconditions fridges, washers and dryers. The local place in my hometown is a charity, others are businesses. In any case, they renew the inards, repaint the outside and give a year warrantee.

Well worth considering.

I would stay away from this on fridges and freezers. Not because of reliability issues, but rather energy issues. New units are way way more efficient. I replaced my 70's vintage freezer a while back, and the new unit paid for itself in energy savings in about 1 year.