I prefer s/s, too. I"m short, but still hate having to bend down and rummage to get things from the bottom drawer. We had a french door fridge when we moved in to our new house. The fridge was newish, but we replaced it with s/s.

I love my side by side and hate the French door/bottom drawer freezer style. I hate digging around in the freezer and especially hate when someone knocks something behind the drawer and you have to figure out a way to retrieve it before you can re-close it. To me the only downside of a side by side is the frozen pizza issue, but I don't buy those anyhow...

I love our two side-by-sides as does my husband. We had a fancy-schmancy SubZero fridge in our last house with a bottom freezer and we hated that with a passion. We cook and freeze a lot of food so organization and easy viewability is worth the sacrifice in width for us. Our old kitchen fridge died recently so we went and kicked the tires on a lot of fridge models, including French door fridges, and we just couldn't go back to the jumbled mess of a bottom freezer. We don't need the width for party platters or frozen pizzas or whatever.

I think it really depends on what kinds of foods you buy, cook, and store. I would go in-person to a retailer and look at as many models as you can. Make a list of what's in your freezer right now and measure any key dimensions and take those (and a measuring tape( with you to get a good sense of how any particular fridge will meet your needs.

Hate my side by side. Can't wait til it dies. I may help it one of these days.

Anonymous wrote:In the history of refrigerators, the side-by-side is just an unfortunate misstep made on the way toward the far superior French-door model.

Get a French-door fridge...you will not be disappointed.

Only thing with the French doors are that sometimes the doors do not close all the way. The alarm on ours was too quite and we left it open couple of times.

In the history of refrigerators, the side-by-side is just an unfortunate misstep made on the way toward the far superior French-door model.

Get a French-door fridge...you will not be disappointed.

I love our side by side - it's easy to keep things organized. Frozen veggies/meats/microwave meals, etc have their own shelf. Same sort of thing on the fridge side.

Having a standard door full sized freezer in the garage helps too. Plenty of space for Costco runs.

Our freezer drawer has two seperate sliding sections and the deeper drawer is divided. I keep things vertical in there so it's very easy to see everything.

Anonymous wrote:I hated mine when I had one. Occasionally, I would make things on cookie sheets that needed to be put in the freezer for a short time. Couldn’t do it. Couldn’t keep a large ice cream cake frozen.
Just didn’t like the limitation on the width.

+1000

Hate my side by side! Cannot wait to replace it. No freezer space and the freezer door won't open all the way due to a door jamb. Thanks, previous owners!

OP here. Some good feedback here. Thanks for helping me think this through.

I didn't like SxS-- I literally had to stop buying a certain frozen pizza bcs it didn't fit (although maybe that's not such a bad thing).

Here's the thing-- some people swear that things get lost in a bottom freezer but I would swear things are easier to find. Who's right? What will you think? Who knows?

We have one of each (the side-by-side is our basement fridge, inherited from the inlaws), and I definitely prefer the French door version.

You're right that the pull-out freezer is a jumble, but at least it's an accessible jumble. It's easy to pull out and get to all the parts, even if there is digging and rummaging involved.

I'm tall and I hate hate hate having to bend, sit, or squat to get stuff that's low in the fridge. With the side-by-side I have to do that on both sides, to get to the stuff at the bottom. It's especially a pain on the freezer side with the big basket at the bottom, which also is jumbly and requires digging. With the French door model, at least it pulls out so you can get at it from above, not have to squat down to look into it.

Apart from the bend-over thing, the side-by-side is also really narrow on each side. It's hard to fit big things. With the French door, you open it up and you can see everything. Plus you have door space on both sides, not just one.

I hated mine when I had one. Occasionally, I would make things on cookie sheets that needed to be put in the freezer for a short time. Couldn’t do it. Couldn’t keep a large ice cream cake frozen.
Just didn’t like the limitation on the width.

Tell me about your experience with a side by side fridge. I'm drawn to it as I think it would be easier to keep the freezer items organized. Also because my fridge is next to a doorway and I like that the doors on a side-by-side fridge don't take up as much space (and block the doorway) when opened.

The french door models are likely my other option. But when I open the freezer parts of those, it seems like the items would just be a jumble to hunt through.

Thanks for your thoughts!