I too am looking for either a 42" or 48" french door refer with an in-door dispenser. Making even more difficult, I want panel ready.

Any ideas?

Asovey - since you are doing a large renovation, why don't you instead have a water filter with chiller under the sink that dispenses cold water at the sink? That way, you could find a fridge you like without having the water-in-the-door constraint. And, since the water-in-the-door is the thing most likely to break on a fridge, you'd be avoiding that aggravation as well.

Collinmadden - I do not understand why one would want to panel a fridge that has a water dispenser. If the reason for panelling a fridge is to have it blend with the cabinetry, how is that possible if the fridge has a water dispenser on the door? All it ends up looking like is a fridge with a panel tacked on. A panel that has a rectangle cut out for the water dispenser won't make a fridge look like a seamless part of your cabinetry. If the water in the door is a priority, my advice is to save yourself literally thousands of dollars and buy a fridge that looks like a fridge. If you want the fridge to blend with the cabinetry, buy a panel-ready "integrated" fridge. An integrated fridge will not have water in the door.

Comparison photos (from Beaglesdoitbetter - thank you Beagles)

This post was edited by akchicago on Sun, Apr 7, 13 at 19:26

Fully-integrated:

Not all folks panel a fridge to make it "Disappear", at least we did not.

I've had fridges with painted surfaces, copper, white, black etc.
Our last fridge before the one we have now was Stainless, man what a pita to keep clean, same with the SS DW!

Both our Fridge and dishwasher are paneled and upkeep has never been easier, an occasional swipe, and not all that often on the wooden panels, is all that's required.

One can tell we have a fridge in our kitchen and also a dishwasher as we chose the semi integrated dishwasher which proudly displays the Miele name, the controls and the readout so we know what the thing is up to.

I see a lotta folks on House Hunters and other programs complain when they see a house with either no fridge or no dishwasher, so now we spend a ton of extra money to hide them????? Well why not hide the faucet, the sinks, the lights and PLEASE hide those freakin Islands!!!!

I do agree with the advice to skip thru the door ice and water thou. Had it in the GE before this fridge and it was always broken. I do have an icemaker in the built in JA I have now, in the freezer thou, not thru the door. The icemaker lasted about 5 years and then the heater in the ice maker went out so it would not drop the cubes. New icemaker cost me about $135 (in stock on many internet sites) and took me about 10 minutes to change.

If I wanted cold water or crushed ice , then I would buy a machine especially for that, but we just don't need it.

Gary

This post was edited by dodge59 on Sun, Apr 7, 13 at 22:16