KitchenAid also has a white french door/bottom freezer fridge.
I tend to agree. I used to live and die by Consumer Reports for car, computer, appliance, and just about any purchase. However, its 2021 fridge buying guide didnāt seem to have a lot of detail. That concerned me a bit because Iām used to its very detailed analysis.
And I agree with you about other reviews that are available online etc: so many of these are paid for advertisements or have given reviewers promotional credits, that itās hard, if not impossible, to know whatās true or not.
Yes, and the cafe series has hideous brass colored handles and are more than twice the cost of any other regular French door fridge. For $600 additional, you can swap the handles out for white. No thank you. And anywayā¦they are not available for delivery anywhere around here. Plus, I (like @WayOutWestMom ) will never buy another GE fridge again. The one I have now is such a piece of garbage. Itās seven years old and has rust on the inside door. Piece of junk.
Yes, but kitchenaid and Whirlpool are right now not making any white French door refrigerators. They are on āpauseā. We will order anyway so when they start production, we might see a new fridge in a year.
Seriouslyā¦why are ALL of the manufacturers so sure that everyone wants stainless or black?
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The handles are customizable. Iām on the Cafe website right now, and at least for the model weāre looking at, you can choose from a variety of handles in the white base color.
That being said, they are pricey. Weāre looking at an available one that is all stainless steel and it has a $400 discount. That makes it much lower priced than the Bosch 800 series fridges weāre looking at. On the Home Depot site, there are several French door models much more expensive than the Cafe.
I take your point about quality. Will research this (to the extent I can, since there is so much distorted information out there). Thanks for the guidance!
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I was at the appliance store last week. To get white handles on the Cafe series is an up charge. Since Iām not a GE fan to begin with, the likelihood of me paying the high cost for a Cafe series and an up charge is about zero.
Plus, they currently are not available for delivery anywhere I went (two excellent local appliance stores and HD and Loweās.
The fridge in white (even if I could find one) is $3000ā¦plus an additional up charge to change the handles to white.
AND if I want white sides to the fridge(the sides are black unless you get the white side panels), they are each an additional $399ā¦so between the white side panels and the white handles, this gem would cost me over $4000.
And I would still have a GE fridge, which I just think is garbage.
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Points all well-taken. I just saw that the āstainless steelā model is only on the doors. The two sides are black. That being the case, our current Jenn-Air side-by-side is stainless steel doors only with black sides. At least for us, that wonāt be an issue, since itās what we have now.
One thing to mention. So many of these brands are just brands. They are manufactured by the same company. GE was independent and tried to sell its appliance business to Electrolux, but that was blocked on antitrust grounds. All GE (and Cafe) brands are now built by Haier.
For folks looking at buying based on brands, take a look at something like this that deconstructs what companies are REALLY making what refrigerator brands: https://en.tab-tv.com/?p=15310 . Itās clearly NOT clear!
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We have a built-in Kitchen Aid. I would not recommend it, we have had repeated issues with the lights burning out and they are not easy to replace. We had a problem with one of the door hinges. Also, the freezer is far too small. But this is probably an issue with all French door refrigerators and households with multiple very active teens.
Exact same here - both old and new.
I passed on the see-through front window, as well a the āknock on the door and it lights upā features for hundreds of dollars - not needed.
I also got the 3 door instead of the 4 door as it allows for more space.
Consumer Reportsā review, which weighed into my selection, is available at http://reprints.theygsgroup.com/cr/reprints/C113820-1_FrenchDoor_Ratings.pdf
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I might look at LG but how are their repairs if needed?
So agree on the GE Profile side by sideā¦except it did last almost 20 years and was actually still running well when we got the French door. Oh well.
I hate appliance shopping but now itās as bad as it gets with all of the supply issues.
We wanted a GE Cafe fridge when our old Maytag died last summer (after 17 yrs) but it wouldāve taken months to order, so we went with an LG French door that was on the floor. So far itās been great, and although itās a silly feature, we enjoy the second ice maker that makes round ice.
Iāve read the horror stories about LGās compressor issues, but we took what was on hand since all our food was in coolers at the time. As an aside, American Freight (what used to be the Sears outlet) can have some good deals/selection.
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I havenāt needed any repairs, so I canāt comment on LG. We purchased through Costco, so it was cheaper and doubled the warranty period
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I havenāt needed any repairs on my LG refrigerator either. Mine has a 10 warranty.
Butā¦@thumper1 LG doesnāt make refrigerators in white (or black). Only stainless, black stainless and platinum.
Then I wonāt be getting LG!
We are very happy with our counter depth, french door GE Monogram. It has an interior water dispenser and the sides are also stainless. This was very important to me as part of one side is visible and I hate the black/gray sides on many models. I was initially worried about switching to counter depth. I read an article that basically said, nothing good happens in the back 6 inches of a refrigerator. Realizing that this was so true for us, helped convince me. I donāt miss the extra room and love being able to more easily see everything in there.
This replaced a Samsungā¦just donāt!
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Looks like they donāt make them anymore:(
We have an Amana french door one, with bottom freezer. Counter depth - love it! Hated the way the old fridge stuck out so much in front of the cabinets.
We have an ice maker in the freezer drawer, but no ice in the door. We had read that the door ice maker was the most problematic (and also cuts into space available).
Weāve had this for 15 years now and the only repairs weāve done is to replace the ice-maker once. The black handle on the freezer bottom drawer broke a while ago and after a couple of attempts at fixing this, we just gave up. You can open the freezer drawer just fine from the side.
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We have both a Whirlpool and a Frigidaire French door refrigerator. The biggest problem weāve had is that the door with the flange should be closed first in order to seal well. H never thinks to do that. Fortunately, he gets it right by pure luck much of the time. Iāve found the doors of each refrigerator partially open several times and have had to throw out food twice. For the new house Iāve specified side-by-side.
I also asked for the ice maker to be deleted. Several years ago I found some ice sphere molds, made in Japan, that we like far better than our refrigeratorās ice. Itās easy enough to refill them a couple of times a week and store the balls in a ziploc bag in the freezer. They last longer and donāt dilute drinks as much. If we ever entertain again, Iāll buy some bagged ice, too.
We could not get the KA counter depth, but the WP I got is still a coupleof CuFt smaller, and the day I moved everything into it, oh my, I was aware of every single missed Cu inch that was gone. Now, itās fine.
We have a 10+ year old GE Profile French door fridge with water and ice in the door. Never any problems except with the ice maker which we have replaced twiceābut itās an easy DIY. If I had it to do over I think I would get ice in the freezer. At the time we bought, GE and Samsung were working together and our friends bought the same model in the Samsung. Theirs is still working too but is more beat up than ours.