I am currently in the research phase of my decision to buy a new refrigerator. The refrigerator in my kitchen right now is old, and the doors sag so that at the top of the door they don't fully seal shut. This clearly hurts the efficiency, as I know there is air getting in there. The freezer always has about 2 inches of ice that build up along this gap.
Now I need to decide what type of refrigerator I want to buy, along with deciding on a price. Quickly looking through some general pricing seems to show that the what I will call standard configuration with the freezer on top and the refrigerator on the bottom seems to be the cheapest. They also look like they are typically smaller. The bottom freezers, where the freezer is like a drawer that is below the large refrigerator, seem to be around the same price as the side by side models.
I currently have the traditional style top freezer configuration of refrigerator and to be honest, I'm not a big fan. For starters, I'm somewhat tall, being over 6 feet. I find that I go into the refrigerator multiple times a day, but might only need something out of the freezer every other day or something. That means that the space which I find most efficient to be using, the area from mid-chest to slightly above eye level, is the area of the appliance I use the least. The bottom shelf of the refrigerator goes largely unused, because I don't like to stoop down to get anything that isn't right at the front, and the same goes for the back of the top shelf. So right away I am leaning toward the side by side, or a bottom freezer configuration.
I do know a few people that have the bottom freezer setup, and most of them are not particularly fond of their purchase. None of them have had any reliability issues or any similar complaints, but they find that using the freezer is terribly inefficient, as only the items on the very top are accessible without shuffling a lot of things around. Another thing that I notice about the bottom freezer models is that, while they can be purchased with a water and ice dispenser in the door, those models are, from what I can see, all in the $2000 or more range. This is about double what a reasonable side by side can be bought for, and triple the price of a traditional top freezer model.
What I will be doing, is researching what it out there, and compiling some reviews and other information here, a site that isn't affiliated with any retailer, and has no bias whatsoever. I will be limiting my search to only refrigerators that are within the price range I am willing to spend, so I will be limiting my search to models that have an MSRP or $1250 or less.
Check back in the coming weeks as I post the fruits of my labor, and hopefully I can help someone else out in their search to buy a new refrigerator.
