Do you prefer a refrigerator with a top or bottom freezer?

Neither. Side by side.

But if I had to choose – top, for sure. Less bending and back strain.

I prefer top for a couple of reasons. The main one is that I am not bending and digging in, essentially, a box, with a top freezer, I am on eye level going at it horizontally.
The other main reason is cost. My fridge died two months into the pandemic, so I was researching new ones and the borrow freezer models were significantly more expensive.

I regret giving up my top-freezer unit for a side by side. I hate the side by side. The cubic footage sounds okay, but the space is broken up into chunks too small for useful storage. Everything gets jammed into a too-narrow column. You can’t put a frozen pizza in there. Things get forgotten and shrivel or die in the far back and the bottom and especially the back of the bottom.

If I ever get to choose a refrigerator again, it’ll have the freezer on top.

@Jeruba Yes, I had a side by side in another house and wasn’t crazy about it. I love the look of the French door ones but don’t have the space for that.

Yeah, I hated my side by side as well.

I have a bottom freezer for the first time and I prefer it over the top freezer, which is what I’ve always had. The reason is that I’m seldom in my freezer and it puts my refrigerator at my level where I’m not bending to look through it. Yes, I do bend to look in my freezer, but again, I’m not in it that much.

Last 3 have been bottom freezers, owned a side by side 50 years ago and hated it.

Top freezer is my preference. I don’t like the draw-style of the bottom freezers and find them more difficult to keep organized.

I have a big top freezer with two big shelves which are easy to organize.

Side-by-sides are the worst, in my opinion. They create narrow but deep spaces and don’t accommodate full size sheet pans or large glass Pyrex, which we use a lot.

Bottom!!! I meant bottom!!!

French doors on top, freezer bottom, counter-depth and no dispensers on the door is my favorite layout. Everything I want is eye-level, there is no “back of the fridge” for stuff to get forgotten about.

@canidmajor Bottom freezer?

Trying to correct a typo from my first post. I am too tired to be interacting with other persons.

Also, I agree with @cookieman. But I was fortunate enough to have a top freezer fridge left in my garage by the previous owners and it’s still working 20 years later. But I do use that one to put sheet pans and pyrex dishes in.

@chyna, I think where she said “so I was researching new ones and the borrow freezer models were significantly more expensive” (second post above), she meant “bottom” and not “borrow.”

Top, frost free. Mine isn’t frost free and was bought new back in 1968.
A top freezer would be easier to see into.

Freezer on the bottom. I use the refrigerator 20 times more than the freezer. With it on top, I do much less bending.

Top. I’ve had every combo and prefer a 20 sq. ft. counter-depth top freezer refrigerator.

I like bottom freezer. I use the regular refrigerator much more frequently and everything is readily visible.
I don’t access the freezer nearly as often, and, fortunately, it is no trouble for me to bend down to get something out of the multiple freezer drawers and baskets. GE Profile
I intentionally did not select a unit with an ice-maker.

I bought a new refrigerator just a month ago & after careful thinking, I chose a top freezer. Like others above me, I use the fridge part much more than the freezer & I have found that it is much easier to organize a top freezer compared to the bottom. Most bottom freezers are more of a drawer style where things seem to end up on the bottom of the drawer no matter what plan you think you will use & how you’re not going to allow it to happen. I’ve also found that with the top freezer that I don’t need to keep the freezer door open as long as it is so much easier to organize the top freezer where I can just reach in & pull out what I need!!!

With my age & disability, a bottom freezer would be essentially useless because of the number of days that I just can’t bend over & hold it long enough to dig through the drawer/s. I’m hoping that this refrigerator will be tthe last one that I have to buy!!!

Bottom for certain. It’s a better use of space and side by side as well as top freezers basically empty out most of the cold air every time you open them. Our hose came with a side by side and I hate it.

I prefer top freezer. For the same reasons a lot of people mentioned. But I wish I could find one with top and bottom doors french style. Large doors start to sag from the weight and it becomes a problem for them to seal correctly. Plus they work better when you have put something big in the fridge because they usually swing out of the way better than the large doors.

I think bottom freezer is better, but really top or bottom are both fine with me. The items I use the most in the fridge I keep at a confortable height either way.

The drawer freezer at the bottom sometimes is annoying if it doesn’t have good sliding drawers, but most are good now. Reaching down into the freezer can be more back breaking than reaching the lower drawers of a refrigerator.

I’d say it partly depends on if you keep a lot of items in your freezer and access it a lot.

I don’t know if money matters, but a standard top freezer is usually much cheaper, because it’s trendy to get the French doors with a bottom freezer.

Also for consideration: heat rises, cold falls — so I’ve found with a top freezer that the top shelf of my fridge tends to be colder, which I like for string fresh meat prior to cooking.

Not sure there’s any real science behind that, but that’s been my experience.

Bottom freezer for me.

I get 1 item from my freezer once a day.

I usually access my fridge about 4 times per day.

When I get stuff from my freezer, I don’t bend my back.
Instead, I use my legs by bending my knees so that my thighs are approximately parallel to the floor. I.e., I do a half-squat.
It’s kind of a tai chi approach to retrieving items from there, or anyplace that’s below waist level.

I’m thinking from all this that since I’m short, top freezer is probably fine. That’s what I have now and don’t have problems with bending down for fruits and veg or reaching up for freezer foods. I do really fancy a French door one but I just have a small opening in my cabinet wall for a fridge and don’t need a big one.

Bottom freezer. Two doors on top fridge.
Perfecto in my opinion.

Depends on how it’s used.

When the frozen items are put in like slots into a bottom drawer, I can see everything.

When everything is just dumped in (my current reality), I hate it.

With younger kids, I’d have much preferred a freezer on top.

The younger kids do not apply to you. But how meticulous you are about organizing would. I have a guess which way you lean, but don’t want to assume. :P

All of the refrigerators I have purchased were the basic freezer on top models. However, we stayed at a Staybridge Suites Hotel that had this model, and I liked it a lot.

https://www.lg.com/us/refrigerators/lg-lmws27626s-french-4-door-refrigerator

I liked the two drawers because they didn’t become a wasteland of stuff pushed to the back like my present, traditional freezer does. The drawers are deep enough but yet everything in them is pretty viewable and easy to move around without an avalanche. My present freezer, the top model, there’s definitely a shuffling things around issue every time I want to see what’s in there. Also, with the two drawers, the drawers aren’t too heavy. A friend has some other brand one drawer on the bottom freezer, and the drawer is so big and heavy that the handle has come out many times and had to be reinforced with additional hardware, and is still hanging loose.

The size of the LG that I linked was not too gargantuan, which was another bonus. I don’t have a big space. The hotel room had an open concept kitchen so the LG refrigerator that I linked was perfect – not huge but very adequate for an extended stay and would be adequate for home.

I liked the French doors because they made everything in the regular part accessible, as well.

I made the mistake of putting soda cans in the top drawer, not knowing it was also a freezer and they exploded but it was easy to clean. The drawers had plastic liners which came out and I put them in the shower to rinse. It was Diet Coke so not sticky, but easy cleanup and easy to put back together.

I like that the refrigerator was not too expensive when I googled it, too. I really don’t have 5 or 6k to spend on a refrigerator, so when this one that I have goes, I think the next will be the LG two drawer.

redacted

I realized another thing I liked about the two freezer drawers on the bottom model is that right now, with my “regular” refrigerator, when I want something on the bottom shelf, that’s all the way in the back, it takes a lot of bending and stretching to get it. When I want to clean the shelf back there, it takes a lot of bending and stretching. Every time I want something on the bottom shelf, it takes stooping over, bending over, knee bends. With the refrigerator section more at waist height, there’s none of that. Everything in there is within easy view. When I wanted to pluck something from the freezer drawers, it wasn’t hard because the drawer slides all the way out so it’s just a matter of looking downward and grabbing what you want. There’s no piling of stuff in the freezer because it’s all laid out in a layer or two.

I have a separate frizzer for cakes that are at eye level and always available when a party happens

I could do either, but my household has a combination of tallies and shorties, so the top freezer works best for everyone. Shorties like being able to get to all of the fridge and only need tallies to search the back of the freezer occasionally. Tallies like not bending way down for the freezer, and the bottom fridge shelf is just for sourdoughs anyway.

^^ I keep the bottom shelf for those items I don’t need very often or those foods that I’m NOT supposed to be eating!!! shock

I ‘prefer’ the top shelf being the freezer because it’s where my eyes and hands are so I don’t have to bend or squint. However, the bottom freezer is supposedly more efficient and keeps things colder. It’s simply a better design.