The wire racks allow for good airflow, which is what helps keep your frozen food as frozen as possible. If you really want to defeat that, you can cut some plastic sheets to fit.

Initially I was completely opposed to having the wire baskets as the freezer, but the fridge part was great and is great. Now I wonder why I was so opposed to the wire baskets as the freezer, I prefer them now. I think that I thought it would be easy for something to slip through but in fact nothing has slipped through so far. Also while the fridge has been cleaned out on a regular basis the freezer never seems to develop anything that needs cleaning (yeah!). In my particular model (bottom freezer, single door fridge Whirlpool) the freezer is fine for me. I would stay focused on whether the freezer size will meet your needs rather than on the wire baskets which I now view as an asset. I would also double check to make sure that you will be able to open both of the doors fully in the space that you have available. I do agree with the other writer that the system was set up to make use of those wire baskets and if you defeat the system it is likely to run less efficiently and you're probably never going to be happy with the unit.

Wife's reasoning is that, in case of an emergency, the plastic racks in the freezer will hold on to the liquid build-ups for an extended period of time. In case of a wire rack, any liquid build up will hit the floor of the freezer followed by the hardwood floor.

What liquid build up are you worried about in the freezer? In case of failure that will be the least of your worries. For the majority of the time it will be working properly and the wire will offer better air movement and won't break as easily.

Good luck!

What liquid? Everything in a freezer is in a container and will still sit melted in a container...but this will be a losing battle. Did you see the Fisher and Paykels they were my second choice because I really liked their freezer...

I chose the KitchenAid Architect II. It has solid drawers in the freezer compartment.

My previous refrigerator/freezer had wire shelves in the freezer. Through the years, debris would filter to the very bottom of the freezer. Because the bottom was frozen, the unspecified debris would stick to the bottom.

I couldn't use a wet rag or sponge to clean it, they would freeze to the bottom. I couldn't vacuum it out either. The stuff would just stick. The only way I could clean it was turn off the unit and wait for it to go above freezing.

The cleaning issues I experienced with wire shelves is a good enough reason to avoid them.

Interesting homechef59. I just checked and I still have no debris, my mother always did, and I hated cleaning it up..... it must just depend on how the freezer gets used. But you are right it would be a pain to remove anything from any freezer compartment, much easier to just clean removable shelving/containers.

A cloth dampened with warm (or hot) water (followed by a paper towel if necessary to gather-up the remaining moisture) should get around the wet-cloth-freezing issue. I've never had trouble wiping crumbs out of my freezers to the point that I just flat-out couldn't get it done without a heroic effort or without first shutting the unit off for several hours ... doing that is beyond reason, IMO.