4-door fridges / less clearance required

It occurs to me that people sometimes like side by side refrigerators because the doors jut out less in cramped areas. But side-by-side’s are still the least energy efficient. So it got me thinking.

Why don’t they make 4-door refrigerators (like a side-by-side except the freezer is on top & the fridge on bottom, with 2 doors opening for the fridge & 2 doors opening on top for the freezer. Then, in a cramped kitchen the doors would jut out less. There could be flaps down the center slits for insulation, in case that’s a concern.

No no no no no not Four, Two!! Two’s the magic number. Two wheels on a bike, two eyeballs, two ears, two arms, two legs. Who ever heard of four doors on a fridge? Why, you’d never have enough room. It’s gotta be Two

Think about it, you’re standing there at the fridge store. You see a fridge with four doors… .then you see one with two doors, which one you gonna buy? Yep, two doors… then if you dont like it, they’ll send you the other two doors for free!!

We used to have a 3 door refrigerator. It was a side-by-side, but the freezer half had a top and bottom door. The theory was that you’d put the stuff you always use in the top half of the freezer, so the colder air would stay at the bottom, keeping the stuff that needed to stay cold cold. All it did was make 3 doors for me to open while scavenging for food. That fridge was replaced with a normal 2-door side-by-side a number of years ago. I haven’t noticed any difference between the foods.

Well, they’d probably be more expensive than 2-door refrigerators the same size (more material used), and have less usable space inside (due to the space taken up by flaps or walls down the center), and so few people would want to purchase them.

Ovens? Fridges? What on earth are you trying to do, jally? Sounds to me like you want to put 5lbs of poop in a 3lb bag. :slight_smile:
The idea is to buy stuff that fits into your humble abode.
Or, move into a bigger place.
Actually, there are newer appliances that fit your needs perfectly. They have rollaway doors. Kinda like on a rolltop desk. Problem is, they’re expensive.
Peace,
mangeorge

Bye the way, welcome to the SDMB. You even got the right forum. Not bad for a newbie. :smiley:
Peace,
mangeorge

Not sure you realized what I meant. For example, there are clothes closets that open via two half-doors. If you open ONLY ONE OF THOSE DOORS, you still get to put things back [take stuff out] of that side of the closet, & if you open both doors, you see the full view, not necessarily separated by a wall.

Likewise, if you open both frig doors, you get to see the full view NOT separated by a wall. (or by separate compartments like some of you might think I meant.)

Bear, ah… doesn’t “practical me” realize that? It’s the reason why I always opted for handbags with only one compartment inside plus an inside & ouside zipper. True, about the inconvenience of double-doors but it’s a tradeoff. Either you get the clearance space, without the convenience of opening one door only [sigh… what exertion!] or else you opt for the convenience of one door only, but have people yelling EXCUSE ME! CAN YOU LET ME THRU!

There’s also something else, which I haven’t yet mentioned:

For example, say that 50% of the time, you need to open only the right-hand frig door to take out the Pepsi from the right hand-door only, that might be more energy-efficient, because you’ll expose that much less refrigerator space to warm air.

Mangeorge, I’m actually not such a newb on StraightDope, just been occupied w/other stuff, & besides I’m not the most prolific poster on here. I tend more toward spurts. Re: the rolltop option? Interesting, & thanks! but…, doesn’t sound like something I’d go for. Is there a website depicting it somewhere?

Jally…

I know what you were talking about. I was just playing. Have you ever seen There’s Something About Mary? Remember the scene where the hitch-hiker was talking about 7 minute abs? Then the other guy says, “Yeah until someone comes out with 6 minute abs.” Then the hitch-hiker says “No no no no, Not SIX, SEVEN. Seven’s the magic number!! Seven dwarfs, seven-elevens…” LOL and he goes on like that.
Sorry, I guess it wasn’t as funny as I thought it was while I was posting.

Bear, 2, 3, 4, … I’d be in 7th heaven if some guy that’s wise (NOT a wiseguy ;)) - rather, wise to the world of frig engineering, could tie up this thread, with a BOTTOM LINE.