I bought a 30" LG french door fridge this weekend and I love it. I had a small space for the fridge and did a lot of research before I bought this one. It's so much easier to see everything in both the fridge and freezer.

how nice, a post about gigantic fridges. i keep writing you guys a question about some SMALL and sleek fridges, all to no avail. sigh...i guess i'll have to break down and buy myself a mcmansion.

ditto, I also just installed the 30" LG french door fridge, it is my favorite part of my kitchen renovation so far.

I have a GE profile with ice & water in the door. I looove it!

I wrote in the "type of fridge" survey thread about our Kenmore Elite French door we got last year. I love that thing like its nobody's business.

When shopping for a new fridge, since I bake a lot, I literally took a half sheet pan into stores to see how it would fit in fridges and freezers, this virtually eliminated side-by-side models because I think I found one model that would fit a half sheet pan in the freezer without monumental effort.

Since the doors open so wide you get a great view of everything, you can fit half sheet pans in lengthwise and widthwise. The doors have ample shelves that are adjustable. There are shelves not wire racks so you don't have to worry about spilling between racks and cleanup is very easy since they slide out and up and down. They adjust to many levels, a couple of them have sliding areas to make room for taller items when you need more space.

I think these are very well designed fridges.

My father recently bought a french door fridge with a pull out bottom freezer, and while I rather enjoyed the freezer part, I did not really like the french doors. I can't quite put my finger on why that is - it might have had something to do with opening one door to find that the item I wanted was on the other side, and having that happen repeatedly.

I have a GE Profile. I didn't care for the french doors at first but overall I've really grown to like the design. What I've missed the most from my very old fridge was all the space in the door to keep various sized bottles--it's far less convenient with this mode. I also found I had far more usable space by completely removing one of the pull-out shelves.

I have water in the door but I wish we had ice in the door also. The kids are constantly dropping ice when they get it out and it drops through the pull-out basket and onto the floor. We didn't have that problem with the old top freezer model.

@the polish chick, we haven't seen any emails come through about small refrigerators. Have you sent your question through our Contact Us form? Please do - we'll be covering smaller fridges later this week

i have the jenn air like this and i love it. my only quibble is that it's counter depth, but then you put on the doors and it's not so counter depth but it works great!

i have to store my milk on the door, though!

The Jenn Air, Amana, Maytag, and Whirlpool are all the same and they make the Viking and one or two other brands as well. The LG and Samsung are also made by the same manufacturer (both the three and four door). That Viking that is pictured also has some extras added (Top grill kit and stainless steel side panels) that are extra. GE is the one brand not listed that would be at the top of my list as well as Electrolux.

The Sub Zero is obviously a completely different animal. I think you may be a couple thousand light on the current price too. It is an amazing piece of machinery though.

When I was researching refrigerators a couple of years ago, the general consensus seemed to be that these fridges are not very energy efficient (from Consumer Reports, eco-friendly blogs, etc). The Energy Star rating was important to me, so I ended up eliminating this style for that reason.

I really dislike French door models. They seem less useable than a regular up/down fridge. Plus not as energy efficient and more expensive.

The Polish Chick -
My fridge is actually smaller than the 20 year old traditional that it replaced. Yeah, most of the french door fridges are gigantic but not all, at it's energy star and supposed to cost about $48 a year to run.

We have a French door refrigerator, and I do love certain things about it. It is MUCH easier to use than our old side-by-side, which we could never fit anything into, and we use the refrigerator part more often than the freezer part, so it makes sense for that to be on top. Not sure how it would be less usable than a regular fridge? For those who don't like having to open two doors, I believe some models just have the one door on top?

Watch out though, LG owners, ours has been nothing but problems since we got it (we've had it for about three years now), and we get ice build up in the bottom of the freezer which my husband has to hammer out, or it melts all over the floor. We've had 3 or 4 new defrost units put in, which they say should fix it, but never does. Oh, and their customer service is awful. My next fridge will be French door, but of a different brand.

With the exception of photo #2, there is not a "French" door to be seen here. French doors, by definition, have glass panes, and can exist either singly or in pairs.

@pippigirl, that may be so, in home decor, but for whatever reason, all the manufacturers call this style of fridge "French-door"! Two doors that open into the same space, basically.

i have the samsung 29cuft and i love it. it is a beast though. i just had a house built and it sticks out about 6-7 in past the counter! its not that big of a deal because i absolutely love it.

why is it that the one fridge that makes me say "oh, I love that one" costs more than my car?!?! Oh well...not like I'd be able to afford anything on the top row anyway, but a girl can dream...

We have the LG 3-door one. That price is much higher than what we paid: about $950 at Home Depot. There was a reduction, and also a discount...it was a fantastic deal and we love our new fridge.

It's pretty energy efficient, and meets the new Energy Star ratings. I love the fact that we can store so much in it, though...our side-by-side had issues with large pizza boxes and other things. One thing I do dislike, though: you have to manually shut the doors, because they won't latch on their own. Ours beeps if the doors are open too long, so that helps.

Also, the freezer drawer is not for the organizationally-challenged. We don't have water or ice, though, because we don't use either...and there's significantly more space because of it.

Ha, just posted on the "what fridge do you have/do you like it" thread but I love my fridge enough to cross-post... I have a Jenn-Air 36" counter-depth french door fridge and LOVE it. It's made by Maytag but the handles are much sleeker than the Maytag version. (Incidentally, the "Viking" branded ones are also the exact same fridge, but with giant chunky handles and a grill on top, and a huge Viking decal. We were buying a Viking stove so they pushed us hard on the Viking fridge but the branding was too much for me, especially for an extra $500 or whatever the cost difference was.)

Anyway, terrific fridge. Love it. It replaced a narrower regular-depth fridge and easier holds more, everything keeps way longer, and the counter-depth made a world of difference in our narrow kitchen.

Jenn-Air is the "big fish" for Whirlpool (Rpoole11). They also have this 72" (reg. 69") cabinet depth unit: http://www.jennair.com/flash.cmd?/#/product/JFC2290VEM/.

Tip: "Cabinet Depth" = 25" deep not including door, but including bulk of plug in a pocket outlet.

"Built-In" is completely flush to depth of cabinets.

WAIT!

I have one of these fridges and I sure wish I didn't. The kids can't reach the shelves in the fridge, which makes me their perpetual slave, and I can't find anything in the freezer because although you stack things just as you do when you have a door, not a drawer, you don't have the ability to see the spines of all the items (think of keeping your books inside a box instead of in a shelf).

I love my french door fridge. after using a hand me down "beer fridge" that had no door storage and a failing top freezer all throughout my apartment years, i opted for something nice when i bought my house. Thank you to Lowes for for having a crazy sale on a last year's Samsung model inbetween the ones shown here. Best purchase i ever made. My westie though still can't understand that the noise of the ice dropping is NOT someone trying to break into the house.

My husband and I bought a new house last summer that didn't have any appliances, so we had the awesome pleasure of buying the ones we really wanted.

We have a french door fridge close to the Samsung RFG297AARS, but we have the RFG299AARS, which has a small LCD display on it, that my husband loaded with LOLCATS pictures (thanks to the built-in card reader). I do love that it has such a large capacity without really bulking up the outside dimensions, and I'm absolutely in love with the deli drawer. (It's my favorite thing about the entire fridge.)

I'm also with ladymelody here, my cairn will stare at the fridge for nearly an hour as it makes and drops ice.

After researching this last year, I bought the KitchenAid Architect Series version. I was close to getting an LG, but my brother forwarded me links about how they can explode (for real - google it!).

I am really happy with the KitchenAid. The interior is much roomier than my old side-by-side model. The extra width comes in really handy. The freezer section took some getting used to; things end up getting buried on the bottom and I've learned that I need to label everything! I like being able to see how much ice I have, because the entire compartment is visible.

Shendalee's comments are right on--my kids are older and can reach most of what they need so I'm not having to fetch things for them. Plus I have a big upright freezer so I only keep a few items in my fridge freezer for ice and convenience.

I was happy enough with my old top freezer and would have replaced it with a similar model but I couldn't find a good quality fridge in that style in the size we needed.

A $3300 Viking? I don't think so. After building upper end homes for the last 15 years I've seen all the fads in appliances. The french door is novel, but not very practical. You must open both doors to access the interior, and that quickly becomes an annoyance. The bottom freezer single door refrigerator works well, but is often not ostentatious enough for people. Massive side by sides are still the preferred choice. Or two units; separate freezer and refrigerator side by side. Which takes up 5 or 6 feet in width.
I'm waiting for a post on small refrigerators. I stayed with my in-laws over the holidays in the UK and managed to cook for vast amounts of people utilizing a fridge the size of a water cooler (slight exaggeration) and small cooker. I really have to question the "need" for a HUGE refrigerator.

At our house having the two doors wasn't a hassle for very long. Everyone got used to looking on whatever side we generally keep something, plus honestly it isn't that much extra effort to pull open two doors.

we adore our kenmore with the french-door-style top, freezer on the bottom. my favorite thing about it, from my germophobe POV, is that the water dispenser is inside. my husband did a ton of research before we got it, and it's far far more energy efficient than many others. we have no trouble keeping organized, thanks to the moveable shelves and the slide out rack in the freezer section.

I sell appliances at Sears and highly recommend the Samsung RFG297AARS. It's the best value for the size and price and has had three consecutive JD Power and Associate awards. Otherwise, Kenmore is GREAT too. French Door models now outsell side by side models in the same price range. Sears matches and Beats prices, so buy from your local Sears, our service can't be beat as well.

I, too, have the kenmore "french store" I love it. I love the water spigot inside.
But the temperature control in the freezer gets bumped when the freezer is full, and that then affects the refrigerator temperature. The this is the ONLY negative.

One thing to note on the Sub-Zero. It's over 800 lbs. I am in the planning stages of remodeling my kitchen and discussed the Sub-Zero with a friend who has one. She had to have an architect come in and put in reinforcements underneath both her Sub-Zero fridge and her Wolf range. She also had to hire piano movers to bring it in, the contractors wouldn't touch it and she had to have her front steps reinforced just to bring it up through the front door. I'm leaning toward the Viking for my home. I like the more commercial refrigerator look and it's lighter and less expensive. I'm so glad to hear that the kids can't reach things in the refrigerator on these models. My kids are always getting into everything and have broken lots of drawers etc., messing about in the crappy refrigerator we have now.

I tried a French-style Kitchenaid but found that a single top door refrigerator worked better for me. The small half doors, if you make things like chocolates or wedding cakes, didn't always stay open properly (despite the fridge being level) and I had a few 'oops' moments that were just way too frustrating.

I'm not sure why but the French door fridges just bother me. We ended up with a freezer on the bottom one door Whirlpool, with no water "feature" other than an ice maker than I don't plan on hooking up. Those features are the first things to break on any fridge, and they're just not necessary. I don't happen to like super-cold water anyway.

Just to put in my two cents about Sears/Kenmore brand, don't buy it!!! Sorry atomicranch79, but I bought my Kenmore two years ago, and it broke on the wrong side of my one year warranty. It still doesn't work, the repairman said he couldn't fix it unless he came while the fan wasn't running or something, so every couple of weeks or so, we have to pull everything out of the freezer and defrost with a blow dryer so cold air can reach the refrigerator. It's annoying, and I will never buy a Kenmore again.

Well the Kenmore products are all made buy different manufacturers to Sears specifications. So the french doors models are made by either Whirlpool or LG. It is not because it is a kenmore that it failed. I highly recommend getting a service plan with a new refrigerator. Sears includes a yearly check up for preventative maintenance when you purchase the plan. In general All brands of refrigerators do not last as long as they use to, they are more delicate now to meet energy standards.