Oh yea, I do not want ice in the door. :)

I assume you don't want a $7000 Sub-Zero. When we shopped, we went to an appliance super-store and compared them side by side. In our opinion every part of the Electrolux seemed to be of better quality than the others. I was impressed with their smooth drawer glides and lighting too. You'll read complaints about their old problematic ice maker but disregard since it's been redesigned. We haven't had any problems in 2+ years with our fridge.

Our elux is 4 years old
I bought it before reno and re-used it in the new kitchen
I hated my side by side fridge.
I had limited space, height and width and needed it to hold party trays. I tested each in the showroom and the elux met all criteria.
Love the glides, led lights, perfect temp drawer and how long food keeps in the fridge and freezer.
I wanted a "flapper" close vs 2 gaskets as I read the gasket close system tends to leak air in time.
The flapper works fine as long as I open the door assertively, it is in the correct position.
If I open the door too gingerly, sometimes(1/20+times), the flapper doesn't reset but easy to fix if it doesn't. A quick flip to the flapper and all set.
When DD passed away 3 years ago, I left in a hurry and forgot to empty the fridge. I returned 2 weeks later, dreading the worst. To my surprise, the open milk was fine and the greens were OK as well.

Not GE. The plastic bins crack and the rails break off.

We had a Samsung which we thought worked perfectly and it was very sturdy but it was noisy to the point where we could hear it all over the house. On our repair guys recommendation (he is a friend,) we just replaced it with an Electrolux which is much, much quieter and it seems to work well however we find the shelves flimsy by comparison with the Samsung. Especially the basket in the freezer compartment, it has a plastic "frame" that the wire basket sits in and the basket is forever coming out of the frame and it looks to me like that plastic won't hold up. We are only two seniors here at the house, if there were teenagers in and out all day it would never last. Also the E-lux has these tiny tilt out shelves in the bottom of the doors that are virtually useless as is a tiny shelf at the top of the right door, it is such a little space I can only fit the smallest of jars of things like mustard. This is a counter depth fridge which may explain some of the issues like the door shelves. One more negative :-(, my husband is disabled and has difficulty bending over. He had no trouble opening the freezer drawer to the Samsung, it opened easily and smoothly, you could open it with one finger. The freezer drawer on the E-lux does not ride so smooth, you sort of have to jerk it a bit (by comparison) to open it and he finds that difficult.

I'll echo praise for the Kenmore French door (no water or ice in the door). Well laid out, easy to clean and holds temperature very well. Though our other appliances in the house we're building will be Bosch and Miele, we're going with this reasonably priced, works-great Kenmore for the fridge. Our only complaint is that the top pieces of ice sometimes get knocked out of the bin when we open the bottom freezer drawer.

SCpalmetto, my Electrolux freezer has vinyl coated metal baskets on metal drawer glides, The front panel is plastic, but that's only 2" high. It's where the magnet is to pull the top basket out with the drawer. We don't have any plastic baskets that come out except for the ice bin, and that is sturdy. Our freezer door sometimes needs a good tug--it seems to have really good suction, but it's not because the freezer is too heavy or the glides are poor. You do need to use two hands. I guess that keeps kids from pulling it open constantly.

I don't use the tilt-out bins either. I think they are for soda, which we don't drink. I have used them for yogurt. I should find a use for them!

Love my kenmore elite FD. I would definately buy another.

I posted about the ice maker line leaking once but that turned out to not be the case. (the water was coming from another source)

edited to add: no ice in the door (in the freezer). 6 to 8 years old.

This post was edited by debrak2008 on Tue, Apr 29, 14 at 7:44

Really like my Sub-Zero, if that is in your budget, I would highly recommend checking it out.

My friend has a new Kenmore one, he seems to like it alright. It also has water on the inside of the fridge which is kind of neat, doesn't throw off the seamless lines.

I love my Kitchenaid, which I've had for over 2 years now. No problems with temperature, the bins are sturdy, the LED lighting provides good illumination of the interior space, the split shelves are adjustable. The space is fairly well thought out. I bought the model where the freezer has two pullout drawers above the baskets, which helps to organize things better.

maryl1, what model Kitchenaid do you have? Does anyone else have an opinion on Kitchenaid French door refrigerators?

Just popping in to say that Sub-Zero is introducing a 42" version of their French Door refrigerator.

My kitchen work area has limited space, so I'm opting for a SZ 36" all refrigerator. If I had the extra inches available, the SZ 42" FD would have been my choice.

SZ is way out of my budget unfortunately. :(

I have a new KitchenAid French Door refrigerator with the separate produce/deli drawer and I love it! It is spacious and well designed, the separate produce drawer is a great feature. The only complaint I have is that the ice maker doesn't produce a whole lot of ice. It is enough for my family of 4, but might not work for a larger family that uses a lot of ice.

I have a Kitchen Aid french door fridge with bottom freezer (KFCS22EVWH). I've only had it for 5 months so I cannot speak to its durability, but husband and I really like it so far, ergonomics and function wise.

The cold filtered water is inside the fridge (not in the door). The ice bin is separate in the freezer. There's way more ice than the two of us need. The wide deli drawer at the bottom of the fridge is great for storing large items like a pizza box and large platters. All the bins are sturdy and slide smoothly.

The only thing that's a little annoying is, I have to push the left fridge door for the "flap" door thingy to go flat and close. Otherwise the left door will stay slightly open. But the fridge has a beeping mechanism, which reminds me that the fridge is not fully closed. The longer I leave it unclosed, the louder it beeps.

There is a Jenn-Air model that is exactly the same as the Kitchen Aid fridge I got, except the appearance is different. The major difference is in the door handles. The aesthetic upgrade (from KA to JA) costs like $1k-$2k. Sorry I cannot remember the exact amount but it's somewhere in that range.

This post was edited by ILoveCookie on Mon, Apr 28, 14 at 16:19

We have the same fridge as fishymom and really like it, we've only had it a couple of days though. We have had other Kitchenaid french door fridges and they all worked great.

i have an lg. it is a 30.5 cubic foot 3 door version. so far so good but i have ice/water in the door. btw we looked at kenmore and realized that least the larger cu ft ones are made by lg. lg has a door in door design that kenmore also sells so it was obvious that it was an lg frig.

Anyone have one with no ice in door for at least a year or two with no problems, durable shelves/bins, keeps a consistently good temp everywhere including the door for milk and is quiet?

This post was edited by Kathy642 on Mon, Apr 28, 14 at 18:41

I've had a KA French Door for at least 2 years, more like three. I haven't had any problems with it so far. It keeps a consistent temp and it is quiet which was HUGE for me because our house is like a barn it is so open. I am not aware that it is coming on and shutting off. It doesn't make noise that you would notice. Just FYI, when it is first installed it will make funny noises sort of like crackling because the water is filling the ice maker and from it not being cold and being chilled down it is just adjusting to the diff in temperature. I was freaking out until it simply went away in a short time. The instructions actually do mention this but as you know sometimes we don't always see every little thing in print.

I find the freezer to need a good yank when opening. I know I overstuff it and have to also give it a good push to get it closed sometimes. If you don't need a huge freezer space this is the style for you. I love the big party tray drawer and use it all the time for all sorts of things like those big plastic containers that apples are sold in at Costco. You can just put it in there without taking the apples out.

Here is the model #KFCS22EVMS2 22 cubic feet storage in this counter depth model.

The side bins are huge on the door. The top one is for butter and cheese at least that is what I use it for as it has a plastic cover. It has a water filter that you need to change every three - 6 months. The water is on the inside. I have automatic ship on filters from Amazon. I've had zero issues with cracking plastic or anything falling apart. The ice drawer has on occasion had it's arm flipped up and that tells it not to make any more ice so we are careful about that now. No jamming of stuff in there or it might flip up the little arm on the ice maker. It does not make tons of ice. I like the scoop that comes with it.

I know I sound like a broken record but I have the stainless steel and was pretty frustrated with the upkeep until I found out about Sheila Shine from a fellow GW'er and now it is a non-issue.

This post was edited by gr8day on Mon, Apr 28, 14 at 19:23

my Maytag is 8 yrs old and no problems.

gr8day, do you find that there is enough space in the fridge? Also, is there plenty of height between the shelves? I know the GE 22 cu ft lacks big time in height between the shelves, so I'm wondering if all 22 cu ft are the same or if each brand is different.

Our Kenmore Elite counter-depth french door fridge is going on 5 years old and is wonderfully quiet. We've had no problems with it (hope I am not jinxing it by writing this), and we feel really lucky about the purchase since we just bought it off the floor in June 09 (no real research or anything) when our Whirlpool SXS died after 8 years of service. It seems to keep most things fresh for what seems like a reasonable length of time to me. We don't keep milk in the door. We don't have the ice or water hooked up so I have no info about how those work. The only thing that might bother some people is that the meat drawer tends to freeze items in the back of the drawer. I usually thaw things elsewhere in the refrigerator. The link below indicates that LG made our refrigerator.

FWIW my sister-in-law has a Maytag French door, which I think is about 11 years old. No problems that I'm aware of, and they have the icemaker hooked up.

Here is a link that might be useful: who makes which Kenmore

Yes, for us there is ample room. The freezer can get a little frustrating with it's limited space. It takes some getting used to but the refrigerator part is great. I haven't ever noticed space between the shelves being a problem. The main reason I went with the KA is I wanted the tallest fridge I could find since I couldn't get a Sub Zero, I wanted to fill out the refrigerator cut out in the kitchen as fully as possible. At the time I got it, it was about an inch and a half taller than the others or maybe it is just the way they measure. I also didn't want those top hinges to show on top. I hate that. Can't believe some of the companies do that. The door hinges on the KA are hidden.

Hinge hidden behind door.
{{!gwi}}

A bit unorthodox but here ya go. Yikes, need to go to the store and also been awhile since I straightened up in there, please don't judge me!! Been out of town so much lately.

Freezer.

{{!gwi}}

My husband's door. I'm not allowed to put anything over there. I don't actually want toâ¦

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Seriously, if I had my choice, I'd love to have one single door on the top instead of the two. But I am pretty happy with this fridge all in all. I hated my side by side with a passion. This is so much better (for me). Good luck!

The inside of the fridge got all steamed up when I had the door open for awhile to take the pictures. The glass is not clouded like it looks in the photos, just steamed up.

gr8day, I wish my fridge(that I have now-small 18 cu ft top freezer) was that neat! It's so jammed full, I have leftover containers sitting on top of bottles in the door, so every time I open the door something always falls out. I can't wait to get a bigger fridge! Is there enough room in one of the door bins for a gallon of milk? :)

Kathy
I do find my elux shelves to be strong and so far durable.
I put a lot of weight on the shelves as I use glass milk bottles. I have put several gallons of cider on the floating shelves.
My milk stays fine on the door.
I haven't tested temps but food does keep. The only issue from temp is if I really overload it from market and no air flow option for circulation, I managed to freeze some lettuce a couple times- but this was lettuce stuffed towards the back of the fridge in an overstuffed mode.
I do use the little tilt out things. They are perfect for Boost and the small UHP milks. I keep a couple chocolate and almond milks there. I use the almond milks to make vitamix almond ice cream.
I don't have plastic bins in the freezer except the ice bin for the ice maker Just the wire shelf and another tilt out which I store blue ice(I think it is designed for pizza)

Kathy, i have the kitchenaid KFIS29PB, a full depth model which has the ice and water in the door, which you didn't want. I was hesitant about it also, but it has worked great so far. Knock on wood. The fridge is quiet. The freezer holds a lot. My previous Kitchenaid had problems with freezing food items if I overstuffed the fridge and blocked the air vents along the sides/back. But no such problem with my current model. I guess they fixed that issue over the years! I must have looked at every fridge that was on the market at the time. A friend has the Kitchenaid Pro Line KFCP22EXMP, which is a counter depth model that is 72 inches tall. No ice or water in the door. She's had her fridge for almost a year now and has had no problems. It has a similar set up in the freezer to mine. The counter depth models might not work for you depending on your needs and how you shop. Hope this helps.

Thanks for all the responses so far. It really helps to find out what fridges you all like...Keep the responses coming! :)

Gr8day, how do you post multiple pictures in one post? I seem only able to post one at a time? Sorry about the diversion.

I find that food does keep longer in my Electrolux. It takes us a week to go through a gallon of milk and it's never soured. One feature I love is the Perfect Temp deli drawer. It has its own thermostat, and I have it set just above freezing. I put four days of meat in it after shopping, so I never really have to freeze and defrost meat. I don't like what freezing does to the quality, especially poultry. So my freezer is pretty empty.

Yes! You can put a gallon container on the door. I didn't have a gallon of milk so I put a gallon container of water there same size to demonstrate. Fits like a champ. : )

This post was edited by gr8day on Tue, Apr 29, 14 at 19:04

RE: Hi Birchpoint, I'll try to help with posting more than one picture in a post. This is how I do it, I have my photos in photobucket, I open a second window to show the pictures in the files and then copy and paste the photo into the message frame on GW using the edit tab in the toolbar. I then click back onto the photobucket window and do the same thing, you have to keep clicking back and forth, copying and pasting. You can enter lines between photos by hitting "enter" a couple of times between all the numbers and letters that appear after you paste the photo link in the GW message frame. Trust me, if I can do it anyone can. I am working on a laptop. You just have to keep two windows open and do exactly what you did with the first one you posted. You can't see them as photos until you "preview message" so you are working a bit in the blind but you get used to it. If you forget to space down a couple of lines between the photo links, they will just be all connected, not a big deal. If I remember I always try to leave a space or two so people won't have to wait forever for them to load and maybe freeze up their computer. It took me awhile to get the hang of it. I was scared to trust it but you can. You might have to practice a few times. I would have all of a reply written and then not do it right and lose it all. Your first few times, don't put your heart and soul into a post until you are sure it is going to work. It's no fun going back to rewrite a whole post, not to mention, most of us don't have time. My photobucket for some reason doesn't even show some of my pictures after I click on the thumbnail to enlarge it, but I click on the copy link anyway and it still pastes it.

Thanks, Gr8day!

I did a LOT of research before buying our fridge 4 years ago. I'm a little obsessed with value-for-the-money and nearly drove my husband insane with my spreadsheets and analysis, starting with comparing brands (Samsung had the best user ratings/reviews overall) and then narrowing down the models based on my must-have features, and then finally comparing prices from different stores.

We ended up with a Samsung RF263AE, which is 25.9 cubic feet. We have been very happy with it. It was about $1300, which was about $1k cheaper than the equivalent LG model. Two gallons of milk fit side-by-side in the door, or three half-gallons. It's very energy-efficient and spacious. The freezer and fridge compartments are on separate compressors, so you don't get the problem of stuff in the back of the fridge getting frozen accidentally. You can adjust the humidity in the drawers to suit whatever you're storing there, which keeps stuff fresher for longer. Produce keeps for about 2 weeks longer than it did in my old fridge.

My only complaint is that things can get a little lost in the deep freezer bin. They have a model now that has 2 shallower freezer drawers, and I probably would go for that one whenever I have to replace our current one.

Got an LG. 25 c.ft.Water but no ice in door.Can't fit a tall travel cup in there. Bought it used and have had it for approx. 4yrs. Nice size for family of 3. But ,during a brief trip to Lowes, started to look at the new fridges. Now DH is convinced that the Samsung 30 c.ft. is the right one for us. Water and ice in door, large space for lg cups , fits the bill.Sales guy said the best time to buy is Thanksgiving and 4th of July.Said the one we were looking at goes on sale as much as 50% off. If that is true, ding ding, we have a winner!
Looked at the extra drawer models but you lose freezer space. The bins are much smaller.Can't recall the make but there is one that does not have that annoying little shelf just inside the freezer door. It fits frozen pizza boxes. And other things that are bigger than 3x3.

Got an LG. 25 c.ft.Water but no ice in door.Can't fit a tall travel cup in there. Bought it used and have had it for approx. 4yrs. Nice size for family of 3. But ,during a brief trip to Lowes, started to look at the new fridges. Now DH is convinced that the Samsung 30 c.ft. is the right one for us. Water and ice in door, large space for lg cups , fits the bill.Sales guy said the best time to buy is Thanksgiving and 4th of July.Said the one we were looking at goes on sale as much as 50% off. If that is true, ding ding, we have a winner!
Looked at the extra drawer models but you lose freezer space. The bins are much smaller.Can't recall the make but there is one that does not have that annoying little shelf just inside the freezer door. It fits frozen pizza boxes. And other things that are bigger than 3x3.

DCS!!! By Fisher Paykel. Had it one year-solid build through and through. Works so well. One of my most favorite buys ever.

I too have the counter-depth 72" Kitchenaid. I love it! Mostly I love it because it is roomy for a counter-depth and keeps food, in both the freezer and the refrigerator, well organized. It does take some time to figure out how to arrange the shelving. I moved shelves around several times in the first few months.

I love the looks of this fridge, not a lot of plastic parts on the face of the fridge. I have a white fridge and was worried that plastic parts would yellow over time. The only plastic part that I need to worry about would be the grill under the freezer near the floor. I could easily paint or replace that part if needed.

Even though the deli drawer is hard to access, the usefulness of that drawer is amazing! I no longer think this is the biggest downfall of this fridge.

Holding the door open for extended periods of time to fill a glass of water goes against my trying to be frugal with energy.

Not a ton of ice is available, but I have yet to run out of ice for family and friends. It's hard to explain, but the ice is easy and fun to scoop with the provided ice scoop. Much nicer and neater than an in-the-door and more ergonomically efficient than a top freezer ice maker. The ice never freezes together and I've never had trouble with the ice maker being switched off inadvertently

You'll have to get use to pushing the doors closed rather than letting gravity close the door. It becomes automatic after a few door bell chime reminders.

I needed a counter-depth, 36", white, FD, of which there were so few to choose from. Compared this fridge to GE and Kenmore.

I would purchase this model refrigerator again in a heart-beat!

I just ordered the Kitchenaid 72" counter depth french door refrigerator. It's good to hear people seem to be happy with it!

Anyone happen to know the difference between the Kitchenaid 24.8 cu ft model# KBFS25EW and the Kitchenaid 25 cu ft model# KBFS25EC? The difference is not the color. I've looked at what it says about the features and specs, but can't figure it out. Anyone know the difference?