Please tell me about your "american style" fridge freezers

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we want a bigger fridge freezer. we can't decide whether to have a side-by-side - or one where the freezer has drawers beneath the fridge.

do we bother with water/ice dispensers? if so, should we plumb it in or refill from tap manually?

please help me - I bow down to the wisdom of mumsnet :)

I have a Samsung side by side. With ice and water dispenser. We do not get on the freezer has ridiculously small capacity. It won't even take a frozen pizza. I would go for drawers at the bottom and double door fridge next time.

I had a Haier and had so many problems with it that in the end I sent it back and got a Bosch instead which I love and have had no problems at all with it.

The freezer drawers take an enormous amount and finding things is OK if you have a system for where they go! We are six, and we do also have a standalone Samsung freezer (the Brexit Freezer as it's known in our house) but mostly because we buy a huge amount of food, and freeze lots of leftovers and stock.

I've got a French door fridge freezer (this sort of thing https://donaghybros.co.uk/offers/jan-sales/jsrefrigeration/samsung-rf24r7201sr-french-door-fridge-freezer-stainless-steel.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5DL4NOo8QIVx7TtCh3FDQwjEAQYBiABEgKUvfDD_BwE)

I love it - definitely plumb it in! The cold water and ice are really handy. I also like the drawer freezer- you can fit a lot in there. Some of my friends have the side by side styles and I've noticed that they have to pack them really carefully as the shelves are pretty shallow and cold, hard, slippy frozen packages seem to fall out pretty easily.

We have a Samsung American fridge freezer, side by side. It has a water and ice dispenser and we love it! However ours isn't plumbed in so need to refill the water dispenser which is a PITA to be honest. I usually end up not bothering and using tap water and wait for OH to fill it I think the other upside to having it plumbed in is the water pressure is higher. Ours is quite slow at pouring water compared to my parents which is plumbed.

Ok, plumbed in for sure.

Jury is out with regards to drawers or no drawers...

We’ve got side by side, with ice/water dispenser on the freezer section door.

This does compromise the amount of freezer space but we don’t eat a huge amount of frozen food and are a family of 3 anyway so it’s not a problem for us. I use the ice dispenser all the time. Hate having drinks without ice now!

Oh, and it’s plumbed in, with a filter you change every 6 months (or when I remember).

We have a Beko side by side but I would never go for an American style one again. The freezer has very shallow shelves plus the water tank thingy takes up a fair amount of space & the fridge isn’t very practical or roomy either. It looks great though!

I've bought several of these fridges. My main piece of advice is don't buy one with lots of fancy features - they'll just go wrong. Icemaker and water dispenser are nice, but anything more than that is just unnecessary.

The main advantage of having the freezer at the bottom is that you open the fridge much more often, so it's nice to have it higher so you're not bending over to find stuff.

We have the French door type (two doors on the fridge, then the freezer below with drawers) and I do love it, but we also have a spare freezer in the basement. TBF there are 6 of us at home.

I forgot to mention that we have one of the Samsungs with a 'flex drawer'. It has its own individual temperature control so you can keep things slightly cooler or warmer than the rest of the fridge, and we keep our meat and fish in it. It does steal space from the freezer but we love the fact that we know the stuff that is most likely to poison us has been kept at a constant lowish temperature.

We have a massive subzero over under fridge /freezer .Hands down the best appliance we’ve bought ,
The freezer drawer is so roomy and much prefer it to our old Miele with its tiny freezer drawers.

I like my water dispenser but I'd like a bigger freezer. We picked the one with the biggest freezer at the time and it's just too small

I didn't like it!
The water dispenser takes up so much room.
I'd choose a separate fridge and freezer if there was space.

My water dispenser takes up no room at all. It’s inside the fridge rather than in the door.

Canadian here. We have a Samsung. It has double French style doors on the fridge and a freezer drawer with two slide out shelves below.

We also have an ice and cold water dispenser which we use all the time. If I don't put ice in the dog's water bowl he looks at me sideways!

We have a separate smallish upright freezer in our storage pantry.

We have had the fridge for a good ten years and are happy with it.

We have a big Samsung one and I love it. The plumbed filtered water and ice dispenser was a 'nice to have' at the time we bought it - we weren't really that fussed, but we use it ALL the time and would never be without one now. Love it! And our dog loves the filtered water too.

Get one with freezer drawers below. (French-door, they're called in America.) You will never lost sight of a head of lettuce again. They're ideal.

@UpsyDaisysarmpit

We've had our Samsung one for over 15 years. It's amazing. I use the ice dispenser and the water constantly. It is the best appliance ever.

Exactly the same here. Samsung 15 years and love it. It’s actually on its way out now but I’ll be replacing for similar. Definitely plumbed in water is the way to go. I wouldn’t get anything needing to be refilled manually. Always go for highest spec is my advice.

We inherited a side by side American fridge freezer when we bought the house. Beautiful thing and the fridge is fab but the freezer is so narrow and drives me mad. It's got two tiny drawers and three little shelves and unless it's packed with military precision (I tend to go for the bung it in approach) the things slide off the shelves and fall out when you open the door. And trying to fit oversized things like pizza boxes in is a nightmare. Next time I'd definitely go for drawers underneath :)

Like a previous poster we’ve got a matching pair of fridge and freezer from Samsung each 60cm wide, 6ft tall, fit together with trim.
I wanted an American style, but freeze a lot of fruit and veg, and didn’t like the small freezer space on those.
Ours are about 8yrs old and have been excellent.

We have the Samsung with freezer drawers, deli drawer & sparkling water. The Ice maker - well I’ve lost count the amount of times I’ve had someone to fix it. The engineers have now told me it’s a known fault & I’m waiting for that in writing. I have to make ice regularly which is annoying. We’ve had it for 4 years & the Ice maker hasn’t ever really worked. I really don’t rate Samsung & their customer service is terrible.

We have a Fisher and Paykel one, no dispenser as we just wouldn’t use it. Ours has freezer doors and standard drawers inside, so less flexible freezer space but much easier to find things.

@AncientandFabulous

We have the Samsung with freezer drawers, deli drawer & sparkling water. The Ice maker - well I’ve lost count the amount of times I’ve had someone to fix it. The engineers have now told me it’s a known fault & I’m waiting for that in writing. I have to make ice regularly which is annoying. We’ve had it for 4 years & the Ice maker hasn’t ever really worked. I really don’t rate Samsung & their customer service is terrible.

That’s a shame! Mine is about 14 years old and used heavily by lots of children and the ice maker has never had a fault! You’ve been unlucky and yours must have a known fault.