Counter depth has been fine for us except during early-pandemic shopping.

For the most part our counter depth fridge works for our family of 4 but the freezer is tiny. We had to buy a chest freezer for our basement.

I splurged and bought a sub zero September 2021, stainless built in. The model I bought was a little under $12K. I am not the type of person that needs the best, but after a lot research, I decided to spend on this. I am still waiting for my refrigerator, although the rest of my kitchen is completed. I am hoping to get it by the end of June. The sub zero pricing has gone up 2 times since I bought and now the similar model (they have had a product turn over) is over $13K.

Anonymous wrote:Counter depth is an issue if you regularly need something that's full-depth -- do you bring home large pizza boxes, or need to keep multiple trays of cookie dough chilled before baking? If you don't have a specific reason to avoid counter depth, it's probably fine.

We made a list of everything that lives in the refrigerator normally (milk, juice, condiments, cheese, eggs, meats, etc) and actually mapped out where everything would live. It helped us get comfortable with a counter depth fridge. We do have a second fridge in the basement for things like extra eggs and milk.

This. We probably use the basement fridge more for the freezer and extra beverage space and having it made us more comfortable with moving to a counter depth refrigerator.

As for built-in, I had to look up the definition https://www.athertonappliance.com/blog/freestanding-vs-builtin-refrigerators to make sure I was describing the correct thing. We have a free standing counter depth French door fridge with cabinetry around it (cabinets over the fridge, something so you don’t see the side of the fridge) but the fridge isn’t considered a built in refrigerator (which would typically be taller with compressor on top and way more expensive) and we don’t have our refrigerator paneled. Quite honestly I only had 4 concerns- could we live with less space in the counter depth fridge, what happens when we replace the fridge - is the cabinetry so specific that we would be locked into always replacing with the same fridge, could we hide the side of fridge while seeing the stainless front and did the price work with what we wanted to spend on appliances. It’s been many years later and we are on our second fridge since the renovation- no regrets but the basement fridge was key and a good backup when the fridge from the renovation was done after 7-8 years and we were trying to get a replacement.

we had the same debate and ended up w a built in stainless steel subzero that is counter depth (family of 4). The lead time was long, over 9 months, but it was the best decision and I love the fridge. The freezer is smaller and has taken some getting used to, if we had a place for a chest freezer I would get one just for Costco hauls etc, but we have had no issues.

We do store seltzer/beer/wine in a beverage fridge so that frees up a lot of space.

Your architect is right—you at the minimum want counter depth, but if you go to the showroom you’ll see that counterdepth (not built in) are not truly flush w the counters.

The fridge was our major major kitchen splurge and I have no regrets.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Counter depth is an issue if you regularly need something that's full-depth -- do you bring home large pizza boxes, or need to keep multiple trays of cookie dough chilled before baking? If you don't have a specific reason to avoid counter depth, it's probably fine.

We made a list of everything that lives in the refrigerator normally (milk, juice, condiments, cheese, eggs, meats, etc) and actually mapped out where everything would live. It helped us get comfortable with a counter depth fridge. We do have a second fridge in the basement for things like extra eggs and milk.

Can’t the go in sideways? Please say yes

Yes, of course they can.

Unless it’s a freaky narrow fridge.

Anonymous wrote:Counter depth is an issue if you regularly need something that's full-depth -- do you bring home large pizza boxes, or need to keep multiple trays of cookie dough chilled before baking? If you don't have a specific reason to avoid counter depth, it's probably fine.

We made a list of everything that lives in the refrigerator normally (milk, juice, condiments, cheese, eggs, meats, etc) and actually mapped out where everything would live. It helped us get comfortable with a counter depth fridge. We do have a second fridge in the basement for things like extra eggs and milk.

Ours fits sheet pans and big pizza boxes. We had to slide one door shelf down a couple notches but everything fits nicely.

Thermador.

Anonymous wrote:Counter depth is an issue if you regularly need something that's full-depth -- do you bring home large pizza boxes, or need to keep multiple trays of cookie dough chilled before baking? If you don't have a specific reason to avoid counter depth, it's probably fine.

We made a list of everything that lives in the refrigerator normally (milk, juice, condiments, cheese, eggs, meats, etc) and actually mapped out where everything would live. It helped us get comfortable with a counter depth fridge. We do have a second fridge in the basement for things like extra eggs and milk.

Can’t the go in sideways? Please say yes

Counter depth is an issue if you regularly need something that's full-depth -- do you bring home large pizza boxes, or need to keep multiple trays of cookie dough chilled before baking? If you don't have a specific reason to avoid counter depth, it's probably fine.

We made a list of everything that lives in the refrigerator normally (milk, juice, condiments, cheese, eggs, meats, etc) and actually mapped out where everything would live. It helped us get comfortable with a counter depth fridge. We do have a second fridge in the basement for things like extra eggs and milk.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone I know that bought counter depth regrets it. But you can buy a regular fridge and not put panels on it.

I bought a counter depth and have no regrets! FWIW my old Subzero was very energy inefficient. The new ones are better, but my new counter depth fridge is supposedly even more efficient, if that's a consideration for you.

I clicked on this thread mainly to understand what the differences are. I have a counter depth and never thought twice about it. While i believe that everyone who is willing to get into a discussion about fridge choices might regret counter depth, I think people that have them don't have complaints and just don't chat much about fridges.

Anonymous wrote:Everyone I know that bought counter depth regrets it. But you can buy a regular fridge and not put panels on it.

I bought a counter depth and have no regrets! FWIW my old Subzero was very energy inefficient. The new ones are better, but my new counter depth fridge is supposedly even more efficient, if that's a consideration for you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone I know that bought counter depth regrets it. But you can buy a regular fridge and not put panels on it.

why? If it's the size, I don't think I'll have that problem. I have never liked big fridges. I tend to "forget" food if it's not front and center and I hate that. Anyway, I have always had smaller fridges. Or at least normal fridges, not the big ones most people have so I think it will be fine.

Is there any other issue I haven't thought of?

Most “normal size” / older (ie 36” freestanding, not counter depth) fridges have 25 cu ft. capacity. The newer freestanding 36” counter depth feet have less depth than the older ones, so they have much less cu ft (usually 19-20 cu ft). To get the same storage capacity as the older fridges, you have to go for the much bigger counter depth fridges (eg 48”). If you don’t mind having much less space than the older/common fridges, then the newer freestanding counter depth is fine for you. But if you’re looking for similar capacity in counter depth, you pretty much have to go for built ins or combine a counter depth freestanding with a separate unit (eg under counter fridge drawers, fridge in the garage, etc).