Those with American Fridge Freezers…

[Badromancer]

Trying to decide between integrated F&F or American.

I like the streamlined clean look of integrated but worried they are smaller inside?

Are American FF any good? How much food can you realistically fit in? 4 DC & lots of entertaining, so need serious storage!

Also, how far out does yours stick out? Does it bother you, look rubbish that it sits forward of neighbouring units? My would have to go in the middle of a long run of units. I could build over the top for ‘built in’ look but it will still protrude out for the doors.

Looking forward to unbiased opinions!

We had one in our last kitchen, I found the freezer side very small as you lose space for the ice and water machine. This time we went for a fridge and freezer integrated and there's so much more space and I think it looks nicer too

The fridge is good, spacious but I still manage to ram it !
The freezer has a lot of shelves but they're quite small and as pp mentioned ice box takes up room and never really get used, i should take it out to be honest

Ours isn’t exactly American style, it has “French doors” at the top for the fridge and drawers for the freezer. Like this

I love it. It’s the same depth as the cabinets so doesn’t stick out. The freezer drawers are nice and big, much more space efficient than usual tiny freezer drawers.

We've just got rid of ours as the freezer side was just too small and we just 2 adults and one child!
Changed it for build in separate fridge and freezer.
Only miss the water and ice dispenser.

I like built in

if you want lots of space just get full height built integrated fridge and then freezer side by side.

We have the same kind as a PP with double fridge doors at the top and 2 drawers at the bottom. We had a very specific gap to fit it into so had to buy the Smeg one. Ours does sit out further than the units and took a bit of getting used to but we don't notice it now at all.

We do have a separate small freezer in the utility as we always have too much stuff.

If I was starting from scratch I'd get the biggest fridge and freezer I possibly could, the ones that are a full big larder cupboard size.

Might be worth factoring in how bloody expensive American ones are to run. I saw an article in the paper this week about a man who discovered that 20% of his energy bill was down to his American FF.

DM has just replaced her 30+ year old integrated FF. As it was so old and highly inefficient, the one she replaced it with runs at 1/4 of the energy.

We have an American style one but without ice maker or water dispenser so it has much more room.

I like the ones with double doors on top for the fridge and the freezer drawer underneath. Plenty of space. Mine is plumbed in for cold water and ice, which I love.

I've had 2 American ff and 1 integrated ff.

Never again for the integrated! That goes for all integrated appliances. They are annoying to replace and can damage the doors and then you can't get a replacement door etc. I hated it.

Our American ones are great. We have them both 'built in'. Our current one has loads of space. We have the top half as fridge and the bottom half are 2 freezer drawers. Plenty for the 4 of us. I meal plan a lot though so I try to have an empty fridge on a Sunday before shop day.

We have one that has the fridge part on the top and the freezer on the bottom, but with french doors on the top half - so double doors that reveal the whole fridge section when both open. I HATE this design. You've got to memorise which hemisphere of your fridge the thing you want is in, otherwise you will inevitably open the wrong door then saying oops where's that thing, closing it, and opening the other. The way to avoid this is to always open both doors at once but this requires two free hands and is just a pain IMHO.

Glad to get that off my chest 😅

After buying a power usage reader, we recently replaced the conglomeration of fridges and freezers we had in the utility room with a separate 6ft tall freestanding fridge and freezer because we realised just how much they were costing to run. We looked at American style ones and they didn’t give the freezer space we needed as the freezer always seemed much smaller. They are slightly deeper than what we had before but I’m not fitting in to a run of cupboards. They did have integrated versions but I didn’t look at the dimensions.

Assuming the cost to run is accurate, we’ll be saving just over 1800kwh a year (or £640) and that was a factor in the choice we made alongside capacity.

We have this: ao.com/product/htf540dp7-haier-slim-depth-cube-american-fridge-freezer-stainless-steel-77999-27.aspx

I love it. Fits absolutely loads in.

@FuncaMunca I love that design!! All open and easy to see/find stuff. Don't you vaguely know where things are in your fridge? I have systems eg cheese is middle left, soft drinks top right etc

People with American fridge freezers, how do you find the temp control on the fridge? Mines a bit erratic, can't decide if that's just mine or a design flaw.

@AlwaysMunching - This was my first thought, so I had a look for a wide integrated Fridge & wide integrated Freezer. Found some that are 80cm or 90cm wide & 2n tall (average is 60cm wide & 1.7’m tall) but they were £5k each as all premium brands like Miele & F&P. So not an option this costly.

I also worry if the door would be hard to open & inconvenient for daily use being that wide.
Unless anyone can correct me?

Tall Integrated Fridges & Freezers look tiny inside! I guess so much space is taken up with the casing? But I do like the streamlined look & can get extra unit doors so not an issue.

But DC would like water/ice!

But would it bug me how far the Americans stick out? And do they really have much more storage space than integrated?

We have this one too. Given that it’s not much larger than our previous traditional style one, it has so much space and never seems to get full even after a big shop. Ours has one large double width vegetable drawer, which seems to create a lot more space there, and I really like but some may not.

We're replacing our kitchen and have spent an inordinate amount of time looking at fridges, freezers, fridge-freezers and American Style FFz.

We've come to the conclusion that a freestanding full size larder fridge, and a matching freestanding full size larder freezer is the best bet for us. Second choice would be two matching fridge freezers (50/50 split) standing next to each other. This is mainly based on needing plenty of freezer storage, which doesn't seem forthcoming in any other set up.

We have a free standing American style FF. The fridge is simply vast, we have never come close to filling it. The freezer has lots of shelves & drawers but is quite narrow, so storing flat things like pizzas can be a problem.

I should say, we're planning to get Samsung separates, which will give us both an ice maker and a water cooler. www.appliancecity.co.uk/refrigeration/fridge-freezers/freestanding-matching-sets/samsung-rr39m7340sa-rz32m7125sa-larder-fridge-and-frost-free-freezer-pack-silver/

This set up. But not necessarily from that website!

The depth of our American fridge freezer doesn't bother me but we went for one without ice or water and keep jugs topped up in the fridge. I looked long and hard for one with sufficient freezer space and it's enough but not plenty.

We have this. It's a massive carbunkle and you knock your shins on the horror. It sits clattering and chuckling while it uses all the power and sucks all the light from the room.
it also costs £500 to fill so you don't look like your going away.
we do get ice though....
(Don't do it)

We had the old side-by-side American before, but now have this model. MUCH better configuration.

Ours isn't in a run of cupboards, so can't comment on that (although it would stick out, I'm sure).

I have an American one, but it fits in a suave in the utility room and doesn't stick out. I would try and find one that doesn't stick out, as I know this would bother me.
We use all of our fridge space but the freezer is quite small as the ice compartment takes up LOADS of room. I struggle to get big pizza boxes in it unless they are on the very top shelf.
However the ice and water dispenser gets used numerous times a day so I do find these really worthwhile. More than I thought I would.

One point to note is that I have to change the water filter every six months, which I didn't realise. It's at the back of the fridge so quite a pain in the arse to do, which is worth thinking about if it's not in an easily accessible space

I deeply dislike side by side American FFs. I will get rid of mine as soon as I can. I've lived with different models and they all have the same problem: the narrow freezer.

My ideal would be two British style 60/40 fridge over freezer. Side by side in the kitchen, so I never have to scramble around on the floor for the veg at the bottom.

Failing that, I would go for American width fridge over freezer, with French doors for the fridge and drawers for the freezer.

I'm not bothered about the protrusion. I don't feel the need to disguise the fridge.

For me the big pro of a built-in is the ease of cleaning around it, no narrow gaps to collect dust and spiders and dried up spilt peas.

The big con OTOH is that built-ins are always shallower and therefore smaller inside.