American fridge freezer pro/cons

[Nomoremoves]

Hi im wanting to replace my fridge freezer and chest freezer. I hate the drawers in freezers. They always cracks and they don't hold much. The chest freezer is awful to dig through.

So I was wanting to get an American fridge freezer. I was just wondering if anyone can tell me pros and cons . Thanks 😊

There's a piece about them on Which? see link https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/american-fridge-freezers-cost-44-more-to-run-than-regular-fridge-freezers-says-which-akxb01Q7aV4h

Do make sure you can see the model you are interested in on the whole the freezer section holds very little and is further reduced by space given to making ice or holding water. We ended up buying seperate fridge and freezer and placed them side by side. There was adjoining strip available to make them look like one unit.

Making sure it will fit through your front door when being delivered, as we found out the hard way!

Managed to find a work around but it wasn’t something that occurred to us!

If the main issue is the freezer, just one thing to consider is that the freezer spaces/drawers in many of the American style fridge/freezers are individually quite small. So fine in that it's nice not to be trying to put too much into one drawer and struggling to get through things, but I know my sister finds she needs her chest freezer for bigger items - but then, she entertains a lot and buys things like large roasts and huge bags of prepared food etc.

But for me, I think they're amazing to have all that space! If I had space, I'd have one in a heartbeat.

If you are used to a chest freezer then the freezer volume will be nowhere near big enough.

My chest freezer is small . I hate it. Everything spills out . Things get lost in the bottom my fingers sting from the cold .

You can get ones that have large freezer drawers underneath and the fridge is double width and usually there's one or two very large fridge drawers. They're especially great if you like entertaining and prepare things in advance - eg big salad in big bowls can go in the lower fridge drawers or marinade a big tray of meat or a roast and easily fit it in.

Always think the freezer section looks very small

Absolutely love mine which has 2 full width basket type freezer draws which work well. No ice maker.

Just the size. Other than that I love it

We went for an upright 6ft freezer and 6ft fridge

I don't like the ice dispenser on a lot of them- much prefer the ones which make a bowl of ice that you can scoop out rather than dispensing it in such an erratic and vomitous way.

if you want an ice maker, yes.

Definitely get one with a double width fridge at the top & freezer below, the side by side ones are too barrow to fitt duff in the freezer & it all falls out. Ours dispensed ice into a container which is better than those you press to get the ice out (tend to get iced up). Check the volume of the freezer first, they vary enormously.

I dont want a freezer that has the plastic drawers. They end up cracking /breaking or don't close well the things you put in need to be dead flat or drawer won't close

I did this a few years back hated it

I shall have a look. Now

I'm a bit confused where people are saying the freezer part is small? I'm thinking it still holds more than a standard under counter freezer?

I always find American fridge freezers are way deeper than the surrounding cabinets and therefore stick out so far and it’s annoying and looks bad. Full height fridge and full heights freezer instead?

Ooh. Sorry missed this - can you share why you hated it as were doing the kitchen and going for this. I guess you can’t get into the top of the freezer without steps but any other reason?

I thought the ones with full width fridge and freezer drawers below were called French style.

Some of them just have very little space for their size, it varies enormously depending on the design, but yes, should be bigger than an under the counter freezer, just best to maximise available space.

Yes way more

It's likely to be a me thing really . I just find the drawers often crack. And things have to be as flat as possible. Or the drawers don't shut as they should and you can't fit much in each drawer. Once you have opened something it's hard to get it flat without spilling. As I say probably a me thing as others manage.

Thank you . That was the main thing I needed.

As an example I randomly looked at 3 American fridge freezers on AO.com. The freezer capacities were:
Hisense 191 litres
LG: 219
Samsung: 250
A Beko.under the counter one was 95 litres