We’ve had side-by-sides for most of the past 35 years. My wife always wanted a freezer in the bottom, mainly because she’s short. When we bought our house a year ago, the previous owner left a freezer on the bottom style. I must say that I pleasantly surprised at how much I like it. Even though I’m 6 feet tall, I have no issues getting things out of the freezer and it seems to hold more than a freezer on the top. It has an ice maker but I miss the water in the door. They probably make them but I’m not buying a new one just to get that.
We’re just about to buy a replacement fridge, and will be going from a freezer on the top to a freezer on the bottom model.
Our space is a bit too narrow for side by side options (or, French doors for the fridge portion, for that matter), and I’ve always felt that the side by side ones feel cramped.
Thus far I’ve only ever lived with a freezer on the top unit, so I don’t know if I really should vote, but I’m excited for freezer on the bottom. Not having to crouch down every time I want veggies is going to be a huge plus.
I voted freezer on top, because that was the style of fridge I bought when I bought this house 12 years ago. But honestly I picked it was cheaper, not because of any particular preference for that style of fridge (I suppose I could say I prefer it because of the lower price). I haven’t lived with any other kind of fridge, so perhaps I don’t have enough frame of reference to vote in this poll, but I did.
Our house came with a hideous side-by-side from the early 80s that I hated. My parents wanted to give us a gift and asked us what we needed most, and that was the immediate answer. They would have bought us the fanciest fridge we could find, but my only thing was “freezer on the bottom” and that’s what I asked them for. I don’t care about water and ice in the door or any other extra crap that’s just going be something else to break and need to be repaired.
I’ve never used a freezer-on-the-bottom model, so I can’t say whether I prefer them to freezer-on-the-top, but I can say I LOATHE side-by-side. There’s never enough room.
My stoopid, overpriced frenchdoor, freezer on the bottom is slightly better than my former side by side. I do like not having to bend so much.
The problem I have is the middle drawer. Made to keep just drinks in. It rarely closes properly the first time you push it in. That is really just wasted space, at this point.
Grew up with this sort of fridge. Parents continue to have one.
When I bought my house I had side-by-side for a while. It was dumb. I am not used to having to bend over to survey the contents of my fridge. I can barely manage to see the stuff in the back.
Bought myself a freezer on the bottom once the old side by side died. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
I rarely ever open my freezer. I couldn’t imagine having it front and center over my fridge.
The fridge part, which you use far more often, is higher up, so you don’t have to bend over to see what’s what. That’s a huge advantage.
My only problem with the one I bought to replace the fridge that came with my house is that, despite spending good money to buy a brand-name fridge, it started failing within just a few years. The auto defrost failed, and after paying good money to get it fixed, it failed again in less than two years. I did the math and figured out that buying a cheaper, traditional freezer-on-top fridge was more cost effective, even if I had to replace it every two years.
Of course, the cheaper fridge is still going, 6 or 7 years after I bought it. For various and sundry reasons, I ended up actually buying two of these fridges, and they’re both still working. If I could find a bottom freezer fridge that was as good, I’d buy it without hesitation.
If you have any kind of malfunction with a freezer on top kind, it will thaw and rain down goop of whatever you have in the freezer, into the refrigerator part below, ruining everything.
Power loss with the freezer below and you can still eat or salvage most of your refrigerator food, maybe even some of the frozen food, and clean out the mess of the freezer easier because it is all in the drawer below.
What we have now: the opening looks like an upside down T. Freezer is a drawer on the bottom, the bar of the upside down T. Top splits open in the center (but it’s all refrigerator).
I voted “Something Else”, though I guess it’s really a freezer on the bottom version. We have a French door fridge and love it. Our previous fridge was a top mount and I hated it. I get into the fridge far more often than the freezer. I got tired have having to hunch over to look for stuff (I am TERRIBLE at finding stuff, so it takes me a while).
Our fridge has ice and water through the door. The ice maker takes up some volume in the upper left corner of the fridge. It is it’s own thing, not a part of the freezer like in our top-mount. However, I do not recommend the Samsung that we have. It’s ice maker has a known design flaw that is quite annoying. Samsung does not seem eager to fix it. Otherwise, we like the fridge.
I don’t like things stacked one on top of another, in a drawer. I don’t find that convenient at all. In a side by side, I can see everything, because it’s on shelves. Also, I can put things, heavy, light, awkward, where they’re good for me to wrangle out, instead of all a jumble in a drawer.
I’m not getting younger so more bending? For heavy frozen things? Or every time I want ice? Nope.
I love my freezer-on-the-bottom, but my husband hates it, mostly because he likes ice thru the door, and ours doesn’t have that. My mom has a lower freezer/upper ice dispenser, but it wouldn’t fit in our fridge space.
I find the lower freezer has more useful storage space - side-by-side could be a real challenge sometimes. Who knows what we’ll get when this one dies…
I will say that, subjectively, it *felt *like I could fit more into the freezer when it was on top, but I’m sure that’s just an illusion. Certainly it’s just because it’s easier to play “fridge tetris” with freezer stuff when it’s at eye level.
Another dislike of side by side, it seems too hard to fit everything, the space is just not conducive to it.
Freezer on top is a reasonable economical choice which gives a lot of room usually, though the ice maker takes up a good portion on many, but still seems like more room then a side by side. Perhaps a side by side would be OK if one had a fridge that is not ‘full’ often, and one buys smaller stuff to put in it. I find it hard to put a large sized peace of meat or a big bird like a turkey in a side by side.
I haven’t had a bottom freezer but it would seem to perhaps fit more then a top freezer and share some qualities with a chest freezer, making things fit more compact…