I prefer my side-by-side to freezer-on-top, but it’s also just about the widest you can get: nearly 36" wide. I wonder if some of the hated for side-by-sides is for narrower models, say <33".
It presumably has a bit less volume than an equivalent top-bottom model, but I greatly value the extra shelves I get.
I have seen fancy fridges in other people’s houses. I have installed Sub Zero units into other people’s houses. I guess they’re nice and all, what with their water and ice dispensers - and that one with the remote compressor in the basement so it couldn’t be heard in the kitchen.
However, I have a 16+ year-old Whirlpool with the freezer on top. It has an ice maker. It still works the same as it did when I bought it used back in '04. I won’t replace it until it quits on me.
I will not be buying anything fancier if and when it quits. All the fancier ones look like they’d be really hard to clean inside compared to mine.
I’ve always had a freezer on the top but I wanted ice and water, without the side-by-side because some of my dishes need a wider space. I fell in love with my aunt’s old commercial, french-door fridge and went looking. Lo and behold, I found a floor model with everything I wanted. I love everything about it except for that it has that expensive GE water filter setup. Yes, it can be hacked, but not easily. Still, the water I get is colder than tap and I rarely run out of ice.
We have a side-by-side and picked it as the model we liked best. Never had any problem with room although I get the feeling some people might use their freezers more enthusiastically than we do. Pizza boxes fit fine; probably not a side of beef, though.
No ice maker or water dispenser. Waste of space inside the freezer and I’ve known too many people who had kitchen floors ruined by malfunctioning units.
Ooh I LOVE my fridge - it’s a freezer on the bottom-kind.
When we moved it, I initially wanted a side-by-side because I’d never had one (we call them ‘American fridges’ as it goes…). The space where the fridge was to go was ‘just’ too narrow, so I bought the biggest ‘fridge top/freezer bottom’ fridge I could find and I’m really glad I did. It’s super wide so seems to store much more than a side-by-side.
It’s a Fisher and Paykel, and it’s a thing of wonder.
Freezer on the bottom, although I’ve never owned one. There’s one at work and I really like it.
We have an older, huge side by side in the basement and a new freezer on top in the kitchen. I love them equally.
Freezer on bottom!
I am pleasantly surprised there are so many that have that preference also. I’ve never had a side by side but when looking at them, unless you have a giant model, it seems like the space is too narrow to fit items in easily. I grew up in a house with a bottom freezer and when I got married and we bought a house the freezer on the top was all the rage so that’s what we had for many years. I’m looking in the fridge far more than the freezer and it always seemed like I was contorting my back and neck to find something. Many times I could be heard saying - next fridge is going to have the freezer on the bottom. That’s what we have now and I don’t plan on changing.
Why freezer-on-top? Buck tradition, go with convenience.
When The Son and The Daughter-in-law bought the house where they currently reside, they needed a new fridge. I said I would buy one for them.
They requested freezer on bottom, french doors on top. Then the ice situation was discussed. They liked the convenience of ice and water through the door, but it never produced enough ice if they needed ice for another purpose. I told them manufacturers now make refrigerators with DUAL ice makers. One for the door dispenser, one to reside in the freezer for extra ice!
They never heard of such an animal!
Thus began the refrigerator search. It took a lot of effort, and they found one that has the freezer on the bottom, french doors on top, ice and water through the door, icemaker in bottom freezer, AND the whole honkin’ thing fit in the refrigerator space in the kitchen.
It does stick out too much, but hey, you can’t have everything!
They sacrificed some freezer space for the icemaker on the bottom, but they have a chest freezer in the garage.
~VOW
I looked at one of those bottom-drawer-freezer units: pulled the drawer open and all the cold air poured out over the floor. What the fuck. I mean, I can understand, somewhat, the limitations imposed by engineers and accountants, but a drawer ought to have enclosed sides so that you are not wasting energy every time you open the freezer.
I love side by sides but unless you go with the largest models they aren’t very useful. The next one I purchase will be a standalone refrigerator with no freezer and then an upright deep freeze in another room. Finding a stand alone refrigerator is crazy hard but it makes the mechanical systems work much better. We’re going to end up dropping the big bucks for a Sub-zero to make it work but we’ll have 21.4 cuft of refrigerator capacity even at counter depth.
I love upright freezers since they are much easier to use then chest freezers. We would have prefered to have it next to the refrigerator but we just didn’t have 6’ of wall in the kitchen so we’re going to replace our chest freezer in the mud room that is 10’ away with the freezer. I’m also stoked for 20 cuft of freezer capacity. Even a full cow won’t fill up the freezer!
I like the idea of side-by-side, but not the execution. It’s been about 20 years since I’ve had one, and that was before I cooked, so maybe the problem was that I had to fit frozen pizza boxes into it, which is not something that I currently need to do.
I love my freezer-on-the-bottom because it forces the crisper to the middle, and that’s the part that I have most need to access.
My model also has this cool mini-door to access one of the doors from the outside without opening the big door. Hard to explain, but something kind of like this (but holy fuck I didn’t pay more than a Yugo for mine).