'French door' fridge freezers?

Astraeus

Evening folks.

I'm hoping for some help.

We are after a new fridge-freezer as part of our kitchen renovation. My wife has settled on wanting a French door model.

We are lucky enough not to be tightly constrained by budget (not very MSE, I know...) so willing to spend up to around £2k - but only if it's worth it. 

I'm concerned that the expensive Samsung models seem riddled with problems, from ice makers freezing up to inverters going prematurely. But, other than that, I'm not seeing many French door options. Fisher & Paykel is too expensive for a similar model, as is Bosch (£3k plus apiece!).

So I thought I'd see what experience the MSE hive has of French door fridge-freezers and any recommendations please?

Thanks,

A.

MikeJXE

Google American style fridge freezer theres loads about 

gm0

Bought one of these for a relative. 

Siemens KA93NVIFP. 

Replaced a similar earlier model at about 20 years life when repairs started to come up and seals etc. degrading

Seems good. This is the no ice maker/water more space inside big fridge narrow freezer style of a specific width.

I would suggest you look at what the "common" widths are before planning the gap if you can. 
But fashions move on in 20 years time so that may not work out

I failed to replace a fridge recently as I wished because it is a size no longer made.

Real american ones can be enormously wide on the door.  All those gallon and juice milk jugs - that we don't have.

Doozergirl

Oh wow, I was going to recommend our Fisher & Paykel one thinking it was under your budget and was confused by your comment.  Welcome, inflation.   We paid £1,800 for a model before lockdown that is now £3,000! 😱

We had an F&P that we loved and lasted forever until we had to sell it when we then had a kitchen with an inbuilt Bosch FF for 10 years, then gone back to F&P with the big pull-out freezer drawer. I like it.  I prefer a bigger fridge element so the large freezer drawer helps get more into a smaller space. 

I was looking at John Lewis site as they used to do an own brand that I also would have chosen, but it seems no more.  There's a Bosch on there for £1699 though, in fact there's a choice in your budget and no doubt other sites may sell them a bit cheaper.  Can't go wrong with a Bosch either, no one seems to have a bad word to say about anything they do! 

Boots Online Appliances, by the way, are powered by AO but you get Boots points which add up
very quickly on a large purchase - you'd maybe get £80 to spend in Boots on a £2k spend.  

Probably cashback too through quidco or topcashback.   

ashe

MikeJXE said:

Google American style fridge freezer theres loads about 

American style is side by side, French style is one on top one on the bottom 

silvercar

ashe said:

MikeJXE said:

Google American style fridge freezer theres loads about 

American style is side by side, French style is one on top one on the bottom 

But french doors could well mean american style.

I thought that Samsung had sorted their earlier problems? Or at least covered it with a warranty. 

Eldi_Dos

ashe said:

MikeJXE said:

Google American style fridge freezer theres loads about 

American style is side by side, French style is one on top one on the bottom 

I wonder if under counter style has a national identity to describe it.

MikeJXE

ashe said:

MikeJXE said:

Google American style fridge freezer theres loads about 

American style is side by side, French style is one on top one on the bottom 

This is England and french doors are side by side 

Stable doors are one top one bottom 

ashe

MikeJXE said:

ashe said:

MikeJXE said:

Google American style fridge freezer theres loads about 

American style is side by side, French style is one on top one on the bottom 

This is England and french doors are side by side 

Stable doors are one top one bottom 

Google French door fridge freezer and see what you get. What country we are in isn't relevant, it's a type of fridge freezer simple as that, stable door fridge freezer is not. Appliance sites, electronics stores and consumers know them as such. 

EssexExile

I would strongly suggest that you go and see them in the flesh, the pretty pictures in the adverts don't show up some of the shortcomings of many models. Where to go see them is a problem nowadays though!

Astraeus

Thanks @gm0, took a look. Unfortunately that's a side by side rather than the French door we're after  I'm not too fussed about ice makers or water dispensers. Would probably prefer the fridge space.

@Doozergirl, tell me about it. We first budgeted and got quotes for our renovation 18 months ago. I almost wish we hadn't seen the price then versus the price now. Helpful to hear your experience, a few negative reports around about F&P since it was bought by Haier, but I think that's often driven by xenophobia.

@silvercar, they do offer a five year warranty now, I suspect to allay concerns, but I'm still seeing a lot of reports of newly purchased units failing. The warranty helps, for sure, but I haven't heard good things about the speed with which Samsung respond to warranty claims and with which a service centre sorts you out.