My wife and I are moving into our first home in about a month and will need to buy a refrigerator. We've been looking online and have found a few we like, but the reviews tend to be off the wall. On one site, we found the white version and it had positive reviews. The same model but stainless were mostly negative.

We intend to get a one month Consumer Reports as some here have mentioned before, but wanted to get your opinions. We're debating between a side by side and a bottom freezer (either french door or single door).

Thanks in advance!

Just bought a french-door, bottom freezer Kenmore (counter-top depth).

It replaced our 28 yr old Kenmore which is why we bought Kenmore again. Hope this generation lasts as long as the previous.

Make sure you measure where the frig will go before you buy. Some of the larger ones will not fit in the frig spaces in homes older than 20.

We have a french door upper freezer bottom, and we really like it. I think ours is Whirlpool, but the only reason we got that brand was because a relative was able to get us a big discount.

I agree on making sure it fits. Our home is newer (3 years) and our fridge is MASSIVE. When he wheeled it in the door I thought there was no way it was going to fit, but it did just barely.

Our previous fridge was a side-by-side and we hated it. Every time the door on the refrigerator side closed, the freezer side door would open. With 4 kids constantly scavenging for food, that led to a frequently defrosted freezer. Replacing the gaskets did not help. The repair guy finally gave up trying and didn't charge us for working on it. Luckily, when we sold our house, the buyers insisted that the fridge convey. I was happy to let them have it.

Now we have a whirlpool gold bottom mount (2 yrs) and have been very pleased with it.

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Make sure you measure where the frig will go before you buy.

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THIS ! and when measuring the height of the new fridge (before you buy), include any hinges that may be on top of the doors. I only measured from floor to top of the box because I didn't see the hinges on top that added 1.5 inches to the height (had to rebuild the cabinet)
I have French doors with bottom freezer (single drawer) stainless. I like it, but if I was buying now I might consider the two drawer version instead.
The best cleaner I have found (at least for me) is NAPA brand glass cleaner. It works better for me than the stainless steel cleaners.

Thanks for everyone's input.

We've measured the space and it's pretty big (it's a new build, so I think they account for larger fridge sizes). I'll have to check for hinges and small things when we measure the fridges themselves.

So far sounds like most of you like your French door, freezer bottoms. Whirlpool and Kenmore are the two brands we've liked so far, although as far as I know Kenmore is made with Whirlpool parts.

Have any of you had issues with the water/ice maker in the door? Some reviews I read mentioned that the water line would actually freeze because it goes through the freezer space. Surely the manufacturers aren't THAT stupid, are they?

blumby, I had a GE Profile fridge with water line in freezer door, and it would freeze, so yes, some do that. I hated that fridge, i'd have to sit with a hair dryer on the water line a few times a year, very annoying.

Currently have a samsung french door bottom freezer, it's awesome, no complaints.

One thing to note that I did not realize when buying, is the difference between cabinet depth fridges and regular standing fridges. If you have a new home, and have a cabinet space for your fridge, you may want to get a cabinet fit, these look nicer, but are also more expensive. free standing fridges are bigger, a lil cheaper but may not look good if you are fitting it into a cabinet.

we bought a plain jane, harvest gold Kenmore in 1978...it didn't die until 2005 and leaked out the freon!

We had to buy a fridge RIGHT THEN but did have the presence of mind to measure the space W/H before we left here. Sears had nothing in stock that would work so we headed to Best Buy and ended up with a Samsung bottom freezer. It is fabulous and so easy to clean! The freezer baskets pull out, the shelves can be removed...just a great deal. Ice maker is great as well.

We opted for Platinum/Black...the sides and top are black textured and the doors are platinum or silver gray painted. I doesn't show spots and finger prints like our SS dishwasher does and I am glad about that!

Have a GE side by side - DEFINITELY DO NOT recommend it.

Oh, we did not get the water/ice in the door because in doing our online research we saw many people complain it took up way too much space. We have an RO tap on our sink, so it does not bother us to not have the ice/water on the door. On our fridge there is a cold water thing on the inside just next to the door hinge, and we never even use it.

i have the Whirlpool Gold - GI5SVAXVL01 from Lowes and I don't recommend it. it's loud but i knew that when i bought bc i read it on Consumer Reports but it still got a high rating. whats worse is the crazy water and ice dispenser, if you are not careful ice will land all over the floor.

My wife and I went to Lowe's tonight to look again and found floor units that were being sold for about $1200 off. Still would have warranty and free delivery. They are two Samsung French door bottom freezers.

http://www.samsung.com/us/appliances/refrigerators/RF4287HARS/XAA?

http://www.samsung.com/us/appliances/refrigerators/RFG238AARS/XAA?

The 23 cu ft one is $200 cheaper, but 5 cu ft less. Both will fit in our space. We're leaning toward the 28 cu ft one. May bite the bullet on it soon.

Thanks again for everyone's help!

We got this one recently:

http://shopping.yahoo.com/712320923-kitchenaid-architect-series-ii-kbfs20evms-refrigerator/

...at the Sears Outlet (scratch n dent) on Griggs Rd. in Houston for about $600 off list price. The only scratches were non-visible when placed in our cabinet space. Kitchenaid refrigerators are made by Whirlpool. We love it so far. The neat thing about these KitchenAid models is that it has an interior water dispenser, not exterior, so it does not take up a bunch of room in the door of the fridge. Works like a charm and we saved a boatload of money.

Have a 15+ year old french door Amana that works great. Also have a 8+ year old GE in the garage that sux.

So far sounds like we should avoid GE, which isn't making me feel good because our dishwasher, stove and oven are GE (coming with house). I hope they have a better reputation than their fridges.

We're in Spring, so were going to check out the Sears Outlet when we get a chance.

One month in with the 28 that you're looking at the only issue I have is that it's difficult to have many tall things in there. It's super quiet and I really like all the features. Very happy so far.

That's awesome Chopper. Thanks for the heads up. We've made do with regular top freezers in apartments for about a year and a half, so we can live with the tall things issue.

Have you found the extra fridge drawer thing useful?

We have a Kenmore with over 26 cu ft and it rocks! Not fancy at all and was a good deal @ Sears (under $1000 with 12 months no interest).

We have a Samsung here and it's been great.

Let me add this...our Samsung was a floor model at Best Buy and because we needed it right then and we got extra money off it was a fabulous plus that the freezer was already cold!!!

The thing was exactly one month old and made some gosh awful noise one night(our son was home and heard it)and the next morning the ice maker wouldn't work! We looked online and found a local repair place and the next day(Monday)reported in. He came out that day and said the fan on the ice maker was out...it is common on floor models OF ALL BRANDS OF FRIDGES to have this happen. In the stores the ice makers are turned off because none are connected to water. However, with people and children messing with them occasionally they are turned on which is not good. He said all warranties cover that and it wasn't a big deal, just takes time to get the part in and come replace it. Took about a week, maybe 10 days...that was in 2005 and no complaints at all since then.

We have a Samsung French Door, bottom freezer, w/the center pullout out refrigerator drawer.

We love it. Only had about 3.5 months, but so far so good.

The only thing we've seen people complain about is the noise the ice maker makes when it drops a tray of ice in the machine. It's pretty loud, but doesn't bother us.

Have a Samsung SxS that is 7 years old... running strong, never an issue.

Samsung french door bottom freezer as well. love it, would definitely buy another. we got it in white, but I wish we'd gone ss.

Well, we made a purchase today. We went back to Lowe's with the intention of getting the 28 cu ft floor unit with the extra fridge drawer, but in the span of about 60 hours both Samsung floor models had sold. The guy we spoke with said on Friday they had been there for over two weeks.

So we thought we were back to square one. We knew we liked Samsung but didn't think we could get a new unit in our price range. Luckily in walking around and checking out the new units, we found a 25.5 cu ft model whose price was recently reduced. That plus 15% off for being Energy Star rated (President's Day sale I believe) plus used the Lowe's Tax Refund Gift card (see here) and managed to get the price into our range!

Here's the model: [URL]http://www.samsung.com/us/appliances/refrigerators/RF268ABRS/XAA?[/URL]

And some pics my wife took (for those curious about Samsung fridges):




Thanks again to everyone who responded! We really took it into consideration!

[This message has been edited by blumby (edited 2/20/2011 7:52p).]

Little late to the discussion, but a point for future reference is that if you have small kids, or plan on having small kids, make sure that the water/ice dispenser can be locked or you will have a consistently wet floor as they decide they are able to get drinks for themselves....