French door or side by side refrigerator?

I like French Door because I like the wider freezer section. We had a side-by-side and I didn’t like how narrow the two sides were.

ETA - I do think the side-by-side freezer section is easier to organize because you don’t have to pile a lot of things on top of each other. But, I still prefer the width of my French Door.

We love our French door and would never ever go back to a side by side.

Love my French Door. I absolutely hated the side by side. I would never own another one.

Exactly this!

Have had each. Prefer French door.

French Door with wide freezer drawer & ice-maker on the bottom! Love it!!

Disclaimer: We've never owned a side-by-side but have used them, including during several extended stays at my late father's house, and I hated it with the passion of a thousand suns. Neither side was big enough and stuff had to be piled on top of other things, plus you could never find anything in the freezer. Our old fridge that we replaced with a french door fridge was a traditional style with the freezer on top, and it was just okay/so-so. (We still have that style for our 2nd fridge in the basement, and it works great as a backup for larger items, drinks, frozen meats, etc.)

After 18 houses, hands down I would pick the French door. You can’t get a Costco pizza box in a side-by-side and I always felt like things got lost in the back. And I love the big drawer—make sure it’s separate from the door section.

Ours has the French doors, a wide drawer under that, then a big freezer drawer. one of the refrigerator doors has a two-sided door. You can open the right drawer to access the front of the bins on the door, or the entire drawer to access shelves and the inside of the door. It seems like overkill when I first saw it, but I really like it. The freezer drawer is divided in half and has a big drawer across the width of the fridge that slides back to access what is under it.

I hate our French door fridge, especially since I hate having the freezer portion on the bottom.

I think I got spoiled by the SubZero fridge at my parents' house. It is a side by side, but the fridge side is large enough for a full size pizza box (and then some), while freezer side could comfortably hold a frozen pizza box.

That must have been a minute ago. The least expensive Sub-Zero side by side that size is $11,200 (without panels/handles).

I have no idea how much it cost when they built the house in 1994, but it is still there (and working!), so I guess it was worth the cost!

I LOVE!LOVE!LOVE! our French door Whirlpool fridge that we have at the lake cabin. I love that the shelves inside are adjustable up and down on each side so you can change them on a whim if you ever have something extra tall that you need to refrigerate such as a large layer cake or a tall bottle of some sort. I love that a gallon of milk fits in the door. I love that a giant pizza box will fit inside. I love that it has chilled filtered water, ice cubes or crushed ice through the door. You really only need to open one side if you don’t need to get at something in the wide drawer at the bottom. I love that there’s a special tall narrow slot at the front of the freezer where frozen pizzas fit upright on end. I love that it has a separate shallow drawer on the top of the freezer section where you can put things like popsicles, ice cream novelties or other smaller things that tend to get lost in a deep drawer.

We have a SubZero at home and I’m not a fan. Others love them but I do not. I’m sure it was expensive when the previous owners put it in and I know it would be horrifically expensive to replace so it’s staying. It’s a single door with a bottom drawer freezer. I don’t like how shallow it is.

Our renter had a side by side and honestly I don’t know how she could ever find anything in that thing. The individual sides might be deep but they’re skinny so things like a pizza box or frozen pizza are always a challenge, and I think anyone with mobility issues or bad knees like she has would have a really hard time getting at anything toward the bottom that’s at the back on either the fridge or freezer side. You would constantly have to move the stuff at the front of the shelf to get at the stuff at the back of the shelf. I personally would never get one.

I love our French doors, bottom freezer with two drawers and section separators. And water /ice outside the door. I used to have side by side and the freezer just wasn’t wide enough. 

I think she means that because of the narrow opening, it may be hard to access the back of the fridge.

While I liked the French door/bottom freezer we had, DH hated the freezer. Said it was like digging through a kid's toybox to find anything. I had it very organized with bins in both the drawer and slide out basket, but he just hated it. My issue with it was how deep the fridge was (it was a 29 cu ft). Being short I had trouble reaching things in the back and top shelf.

We replaced it with Subzero 36" refrigerator and 12" freezer columns and everyone is much happier. The freezer does hold a pizza box (tested it in the showroom!) and has enough drawers to keep it organized. We just had a 5 day power outage and it kept the ice cubes frozen solid for 3 full days! It is taller and I still have trouble reaching the top shelf but that is where I keep things I rarely use. DH uses it most of the time.