You don't use "cabinets" to surround them. You use end panels or use adjacent tall cabinets to create cubbies. And there are PLENTY of 33" wide refrigerators available if you should decide to change to something standard. The only issue will be the depth of them will be deeper than the twins.

Both rhome410 and I have the Twins installed with basically this setup. I have had it for 7 years. The pull out on the left is from Lee Valley. Can't say enough good things about it ! I love the book shelves and the pullout. We are only 2 but I manage to keep both units full ! It is wonderful having only cabinet depth...nothing ever gets lost. Hope this helps. Would be glad to measure for you. c

Trailrunner is right. Nothing gets lost. I do wish the ice maker would make ice faster. There are only two of us, but it doesn't seem to keep up. It's only May so we don't use that much. We both use insulated cups so ice lasts a long time though. We bought the Frigidaire twins. I also wish the ice maker was lower like the GE Monogram. We keep an old ice bin on a lower shelf so it can be reached easier. I would also like the Frigidaire to have a separate meat compartment.

Here is a picture of our 26 year old GE refrigerator. It looks dwarfed by the twins. It was a very big refrigerator. 26.9 cf side by side. I really doubt you will downsize from the twins because they are so easy to find things in it.

If you put the Frigidaires together, you will save only a few inches of space. I love them together. They are 67" wide plus at least two inches of cabinet on each side. It is hard to tell since there is some extra detail on the side cabinet pieces so they don't look so plain from the side.

Peke.that is interesting about the ice...I have to shut ours off all the time as it overflows and spills out all over :) We use a lot of ice all day...wonder what the deal is? Do you have you cold setting up really high ? As to meat drawer..do you mean in the fridge ? We use the pull out drawer on the upper mid left as our cheese drawer and occasional meat..since we don't eat meat hardly ever. It is great for all the cheese. I really like the roomy doors...we keep a ton of stuff in them . I hope the op will get some useful ideas. Your old GE was amazing LOL ! c

I'm glad to hear you all love your twins :), and to hear from you "twosomes" who haven't felt the need to downsize!

I'm (really!) looking forward to all the room, just wanting to make sure that I don't make a mistake having cabinetry that won't fit much else.

I'd thought I'd have standard refrigerator cabinets above the twins (sorry, hollysprings, that's what I meant), but maybe open shelving or display would be better, in terms of having additional height for (possible) built-in units down the road.

I like your pullout, trainrunner, and will have to check Lee Valley out!

Help!!

I just pent 1.5 hours at appliance store and was told the fridge referenced above will do an extremely poor job of preserving food. He said this was due to the underperforming compressor and the frequency of the door being opened. If the door is opened more than 12 times a day, the refrigerator won't be able to keep up and maintain satisfactory temperature for maintaining food quality. Has this been your experience? I want a large capacity fridge but refuse to pay $9,000 for a sub-zero. thank you

Bentley...so your appliance store has a fridge on their display floor that they believe is SO unreliable that food spoils in it ????? Hmm...that is just plain weird. Believe me if my Twins didn't keep my food from spoiling and the compressor was bad I would not have it for 7 years !! I buy groceries once a week. I buy 1/2 and 1/2 every other week. The 1/2 and 1/2 stays in the door of the fridge. We open the doors countless times a day as we cook 3 meals a day as well as get out snacks etc. If there was a problem the milk products stored in the door would be bad LONG before 2 weeks !! Your salesman is a NUT...you need to ask them why they would carry such an "inferior " product line and what they would suggest you buy instead ? Hmm..wonder if it is a more expensive line ???? Perhaps you should talk to the manager and let him know that he has a sales person using this sales technique LOL ! c

mommy...we put in the Twins when we remodeled 7 yrs ago , It has only ever been the 2 of us here in this house except for temporary live ins. We would never downsize ! You will love anything you buy from Lee Valley ! c

Bentley, I agree with trailrunner. You could also go someplace else. If you get a different opinion, go back to the first place and tell them you want it at 50% off since it is such a " bad" model. LOL Couldn't hurt.

Trailrunner, I didn't think of that. Maybe it is the temperature. I would like to have had a place to defrost meat so it would not touch anything else. My old GE had a dedicated meat drawer that I could keep much colder than the veggie drawer.

We are thinking about hooking up the ice maker in the GE in the garage because it makes a lot of ice. But it will probably quit working as soon as we spend the money on running a water line to the garage. ðÂÂÂ

Mommytoc, the open shelves will be very high and 24" deep and will be as dusty as the tops of cabinets that don't go all the way to the ceiling. At least mine are. LOL I really should clean up there more often. ðÂÂÂ
I keep big seldom used items above the twins like electric skillet, huge Tupperware containers, carryall for crock pot, etc. I told my cabinet guy I might need one of those library ladders on a rail. He thought I was serious and said he had never seen one before.

mommytoc, I've got the Frigidaire twins, and LOVE them. It's just DH and me and 7yo DD, and the refrigerator isn't filled to the brim, but it gets that way when I'm preparing for a party or when our 3 older kids plus DSIL are home for the holidays. BTW, we also decided to split up the twins. The wall oven cabinet is between them.

Peke, I have the slow ice problem as well. The temp is set to -5 F. I would think that would be cold enough?

bentley, my new refrigerator is in a different league from the old. In every way, but specifically when it comes to keeping food fresh. Here's an example: bought too many strawberries Saturday a week ago, and only got to eating them last Friday. They were perfect. In my old unit strawberries would last 3 days max before getting soft and/or moldy.

I too have the Frigidaire all refrig. That salesman was being absurd. Perhaps he wanted to bump you up into a SZ? We love our frig!

I also have the twins, mine are Kenmore Pros which I think are rebranded Frigidaires. Food stays fresh in the fridge for such a long time it's ridiculous. 2+ weeks for fruits and veggies.

I shop the sales and stock up on broccoli when it's on for $.88, cauliflower for $1.49 a head, brussels sprouts when they're on for 1.99/lb. Won't pay more than $.88/lb for pears or apples, or $1.49 for a pint of strawberries anymore. I don't know if those are good prices stateside or not, but they're great prices for Toronto. This fridge is saving us a fortune. :)

Don't have the issue with ice but I don't know if that's saying much because we don't use it as much as it sounds like some of you do. Like trailrunner I turn mine off to give us several days to use the ice up. When I turn it on again (at night before going to bed) it's full by the next morning.

mommytoc, we're also down to two in our house, just DH and me, and I can only wish we had this fridge/freezer years ago. So glad to put the days of going to the garage freezer (and worse, defrosting that beast -- ugggh what a horrible job!) behind me. And like I say above, it's great to be able to stock up items when they're on sale. Once you have these I don't think you'll want to downsize. Good luck whatever you decide.

BTW, I gather there are different configurations to the interiors depending on exactly what model is bought. We don't have a meat tray either (wish we did!), but I totally LOVE the huge veggie and fruit drawers across the bottom. Stores a ton of fresh produce.

trailrunner, Peke, fouramblues, would you mind posting a pic of your interior configs? Inquiring minds ... especially interested in seeing yours with the meat tray, trailrunner. Mine look like this:

OK..show and tell :) Here is mine...

freezer:door has mostly my spices in pint jars. Keeps them fresh for years unlike room temp. Also the white bin you see on shelf below icemaker is a dishpan :) Used for my specialty baking stuff so I just pull it all out at once.

{{!gwi}}

fridge: drawer is on the left midway up...we use it for all out cheese. Rarely have meat. Note we have 2 drawers on the bottom of the fridge. That is all. Rest is shelves. Suits me as I don't need more drawers. I use the wide shelves to retard my huge trays of sourdough breads.

{{!gwi}}

trailrunner, thanks for your pics. Love the freezer door shelving on your units, and great use of them for the spices!!!

And best of all, thank you for the dishpan idea. OMG I am totally slapping my forehead over that as now I have the perfect solution to my meat tray dillema. You are a genius!! Or I am a moron! Or both, lol. :-)

taggie...I am no genius ! It does make sorting and neatness easier. I love the wide wide shelves. Could never go back. Here is a pic of the reason I love my TWINS !!

sourdough boules and bagels retarding and lots of room !

OK, I'll play! Outside (because I wanted OP to see them when they're separate):

And inside the refrige (the freezer is exactly the same, but harder to get a shot of because of the angle):

Oh wow, home made bagels??!! Yuuuummmm, what time would like me there for brunch next weekend. :-)

fouramblues, your twins look fantastic separated by the wall ovens! Love the cabinetry on top of them as well -- is it backlit patterned glass, or a decorative finish that the room light is playing off of? Looks amazing.

taggie, thanks for the compliment! That's just punched radiator cover with a frame. Got the idea from phorbin, who painted it the same color as the cabinets. (One of my favorite GW kitchens of all time.) I wanted to play on the stainless riff I've got going throughout the kitchen, so left it plain. The only bad part about that is that in some lights you can see that the one sheet over the refrigerator is a little bent.

Here is a link that might be useful: phorbin's 1917 house kitchen reveal

brunch with bagels is at 10 AM every day :)

fouramblues...very cool ...I love those covers and a neat idea to separate the Twins ! You are right phorbin's place is one of my fave's too ! c

Thank you for all the pictures! (especially fouramblues, for showing me her "separated" twins.) I'm feeling much more comfortable with the idea of 33" spaces for my twins, and just need to decide what to do above.

Thank you again!

mommytoC

mommytoc, I'm glad the pics helped!

Thanks, trailrunner! And, though brunch at your place sounds wonderful, I'm still dreaming of a trip to Lexington to visit your DS's restaurant!

This post was edited by fouramblues on Sun, May 19, 13 at 22:13