Whether you have a large or a small home, it’s going to need a kitchen, because few of us can live on takeout forever. And while you can choose a number of appliances to keep in your kitchen, at a minimum, you’re probably going to have both a stove for cooking and a fridge and freezer for preserving whatever you’ve bought or cooked. If you need a gas range that will last for decades while giving restaurant-grade performance, we suggest skipping the cheap options and upgrading to something like a 30″ Thor Kitchen (e.g., the HRG3080U) or Kucht (e.g., the KRG3080U) so you can spend more time cooking and less time troubleshooting. However if you need a fridge and freezer, aside from price and reliability, you’re also going to need to think about ergonomics and storage capacities, which is why it’s handy to have a quality fridge guide. We’ve spent the last few weeks comparing the benefits and drawbacks of the major fridge styles: all refrigerators, top freezer fridges, bottom freezer mount refrigerators, and side-by-side fridges. Today we’ll look at the final significant style, the French door variation, to see if it’s the best model for your lifestyle.

What are the benefits and advantages of a French door refrigerator?

Unlike all fridges, top and bottom freezer mount fridges, and side-by-side fridges, it isn’t inherently obvious what distinguishes a French door fridge from other refrigerator styles. To put it simply, a French door fridge is essentially a blend of a side-by-side fridge and a bottom freezer fridge; it has split doors in the top 3/5ths that open to a full-width fridge while the bottom 2/5ths are devoted to a full-width freezer with a slide-out cabinet drawer. Unlike side-by-side fridges, the doors split evenly, and ice makers, when included, are typically located inside the freezer compartment instead of in the doors.

While the precise capacity will vary depending on how much you’re willing to spend on one, as well as on the height, width, and depth you can accommodate in your kitchen, you usually won’t see French door fridges with less than 20 cubic feet of capacity on the lower end; the higher end can top out at more than 30 cubic feet. There’s no other way to put it; you’re buying a large fridge when you invest in this style. The design is highly popular among homeowners seeking high-end kitchen appliances, and due to its popularity, is readily available in multiple finishes with a range of features. In other words, you can typically find whatever accommodations you’re looking for as long as you’re willing to pay for them. The Thor Kitchen HRF3601F 36″ Cabinet Depth French Door Refrigerator (which we’ve reviewed here) is a good example of what you can get for under $2,000; it has nearly 21 cubic feet of combined storage, it’s built from stainless steel, and includes amenities like a built in ice maker and independent cooling systems in the fridge and freezer to maintain consistent temperatures and humidity levels in both compartments.

French door fridges give you the most convenient fridge access while retaining freezers

While the status and style of French door fridges are undoubtedly part of their appeal, the biggest advantage to owning one is the fridge access they offer. While you don’t get nearly as much room per dollar as you would with other fridge designs, a French door fridge is easier to open than any other style due to the double doors, which make it easy to store and retrieve large, oddly shaped, or bulky items, including full-width food trays. Single door fridges require a lot more room to maneuver around than double door designs, even if they can offer the same amount of space (or more in the case of all fridges). The short door swing in a French door fridge means you don’t have to move several feet out of the way of one when opening or shutting it, which means you can use larger fridges in less space. They also offer more convenient freezer access than top freezer fridges and don’t require any compromises against bottom freezer fridges aside from price.

What are the drawbacks and disadvantages of a French door fridge setup?

The main con to French door fridges, as you’ve likely guessed by now, involves their prices. There’s no way around it; you’re going to spend more on a French door design than you would on any other fridge style in terms of the amount of storage you get per dollar. On average, you’ll need to spend at least 30% more to get the same amount of cubic footage you’d find in a quality bottom freezer fridge like the Kenmore Elite 79043 24.1 cubic foot bottom freezer refrigerator pictured above. In other words, if your goal is to get as many cubic feet of storage as possible for as little money out of your wallet as possible, it’s important to know that you’ll get a better value from side-by-side and top- and bottom-freezer fridges. The French door fridge is a premium style. But if you can afford it, it’s easily the best compromise of all the fridge / freezer units.

You can buy the Thor Kitchen HRF3601F French door fridge here on Amazon. For a side-by-side design,  we recommend the Kenmore Elite 51773 28 cubic foot side by side refrigerator in several sizes and finishes here. For a bottom freezer design, try the Kenmore Elite 9042 24 cubic foot bottom freezer refrigerator in a range of sizes and finishes here on Amazon. If you’d rather have a top-mounted freezer fridge, buy the Kenmore 71215 top freezer refrigerator in a range of sizes and finishes here instead.

Canadians, unfortunately, the HRF3601F is not yet available. However, you can buy the GE Profile 20 cubic foot bottom freezer refrigerator here. For a top mounted freezer option, buy the Kenmore 71215 top freezer refrigerator here on Amazon.

If you find our research on PMC helpful, you can follow our efforts to keep maniacally reviewing home appliances by shopping through our links above. We promise to keep fighting the good fight against every horror children, animals, and grown, yet messy humans can inflict upon a clean home.