I Own a Bottom Freezer and I Can't Wait to Go Back to a Side-by-Side (I Can't Be the Only One, Right?)

I’m thinking about breaking up with my refrigerator. On paper, the relationship should work. My fridge looks handsome, it runs great, and it’s in a popular style: French door-style fridge with a big freezer drawer on the bottom. I’ve tried to like it. I should like it. I just don’t.

My beef is with the freezer compartment—both its position and how impossible I find it to keep it organized. I hate having to bend over with all the blood rushing to my head and paw through bags and boxes to find what I’m looking for. Even with a shallow drawer at the top, a sliding divider in the main compartment, and my own makeshift labels made out of masking tape (meat here, veggies here, etc.), I just cannot crack the code on how to keep this thing organized. 

Yet, my appliance industry sources tell me that bottom freezer units (often called French door refrigerators) outsell side-by-sides two to one. It’s where the innovation and interest in the market have been for at least the past ten years. It’s the style I see in most of the kitchens I look at for my job. So what am I missing here? Am I the only person in North America who doesn’t like the freezer on the bottom?

I took my freezer woes to a couple of industry experts—Andy Spanyer, executive director for product management for refrigeration at GE Appliances, and Dean Brindle, head of product management at LG Electronics USA—to help me understand the pros and cons of each style and figure out whether I’m a total Luddite for preferring a side-by-side. 

When Did Bottom Freezers Take Over?

“I remember growing up, we had a bottom freezer in the 1970s,” says Spanyer. “They’ve been around a long time, but they went totally out of favor in the 1980s. In the late ‘90s, they started to come back in a big way. The last 20 years or so, they’ve overtaken side-by-sides.” 

Today, bottom freezers are twice as popular as side-by-sides. They account for 40% of all refrigerators sold; side-by-sides only about 20 percent. One explanation for the additional volume could be that there are more configurations and options in bottom freezers, whereas there's really just one style for side-by-sides. But mostly, it seems to come down to the kind of food you want to be able to store in that sweet spot of visibility and accessibility: eye level. 

Why Are People So In Love with Bottom Freezers?

They Put More Fresh Food at Eye Level

Having the top (and most visible and accessible) half of the appliance devoted to refrigeration seems to suit how people are grocery shopping and eating—more fresh, less frozen. “Certain people prefer to focus on fresh food storage, which is what the bottom freezer does well,” says Spanyer (himself a side-by-side guy). “It raises all the fresh food up off the floor and relegates freezer storage to something a little less convenient. Whereas side-by-sides treat them very democratically.”

The sheer width of both the refrigerator and freezer in this style of appliance is also a plus. Both compartments run the full width of the unit versus being cut in half(ish) vertically in a side-by-side. “You think about storing a wider container, a platter, a tray—the bottom freezer units have a lot wider storage space in the refrigerator,” says Brindle.

They Have More Features

Bottom freezers are where most of the innovation is happening right now. “With bottom freezers, there’s a lot of variety to choose from,” Spanyer says. “Feature sets are much more, generally speaking, engaging and interesting in bottom freezers.” Brindle adds that it is easier for manufacturers to build new features, innovations, and configurations into bottom freezers than it is for side-by-sides.

However, the feature game is something of a chicken-and-egg situation. Bottom freezers are popular, so more people are buying them. The more people buy them, the more manufacturers take notice and offer more features on bottom freezers, and not as many on side-by-sides, which have less sales volume. More people buy the new features, and the cycle continues. “Where consumers express an interest in a particular configuration, manufacturers like us will innovate in that space,” says Spanyer. 

They Offer More Flexibility in Size

Bottom freezers are available in smaller sizes than side-by-sides, which can make a big difference in a kitchen where space is tight. "You’ll see 30- and 33-inch bottom freezers, but in side-by-sides it’s almost exclusively 36 because when you start narrowing the total width, each compartment gets a little less functional,” says Spanyer. “There are 33-inch side-by-sides in the market, but the freezer compartment gets pretty narrow in that size. You’re not fitting a frozen pizza box in there, certainly not horizontally.”

What do Side-by-Sides Have Going for Them?

They Put Both Fresh and Frozen Food at Eye Level

Some of us, including me, want some fresh and some frozen food to occupy the space at eye level. We don't want to have to bend over and dig through a freezer compartment. We want to be able to snatch something off a shelf just like we do on the fridge side. And we're willing to give up a wide storage area for fresh food in order to get it. “I think ultimately the answer has to be about storage and organizational strategy. If you prefer equal access, then a side-by-side is absolutely the right answer,” says Brindle.

They Cost Less

Side-by-side fridges generally cost less than similarly equipped bottom-freezer units. The least expensive style of refrigerator has the freezer on the top; the most expensive is a bottom freezer. Side-by-sides fall in the middle. “Bottom freezers are generally more expensive because they’re a more complex product, especially French door bottom freezers that have articulating mullions, drawers, and drawer slide systems that side-by-sides don’t have,” says Spanyer.

Accessibility Is Better

Side-by-sides are easier for people of all ages to access and are better for aging in place. “A lot of side-by-sides are ADA-approved because you can reach equally the freezer and the fresh food compartment," says Spanyer. "Or maybe you want a youngster in your house to be able to get to both compartments—because it's much harder to reach things in a bottom freezer if you're a six-year-old. If those are factors in your home, then you're probably not going to end up with a bottom freezer."

How Manufacturers Are Making Bottom Freezers Easier to Organize

Appliance companies are designing in more more drawers and doors to subdivide freezer space and make it easier to manage. In some cases, this drive to subdivide is resulting in whole new styles of refrigerator. 

From the beginning, pretty much all bottom freezers have had some level of organization built in. That often consists of a divider in the main freezer compartment, a ledge for very small items, and a shallow drawer at the top. “The sliding drawer that a lot of brands put in the top of the upper drawer does make it easier to find small items. And then you still have the larger drawer underneath, which is kind of like the catch-all,” says Brindle.

The biggest leap forward in freezer organizing innovation comes in the form of a couple of relatively new styles: the four-door French door and the quad-door. “This is really where the most new feature innovation is happening,” says Spanyer. Four-door French door refrigerators have two almost equal-size freezer drawers rather than one large one. Quad units have two sets of French doors, one for the fridge and one for the freezer. Behind the freezer doors are pull-out drawers as well as shelves on the doors, just like in the fridge portion. On quad units, often some or all of the compartments can switch between refrigerator and freezer mode.

“The idea of breaking up freezer space into separate drawers is absolutely an attempt to improve the storage and organizational strategy of the bottom freezer,” says Spanyer. “But there are a lot of other tradeoffs. Now you have to remember where things are. And there’s an extra mullion divider, so that takes a little bit of the total space away.”

Could the Pendulum Swing Back to Side-by-Sides?

So far, sales data doesn't indicate any big shift back to side-by-sides, but it's telling that appliance manufacturers are starting to invest more in this style of refrigerator.

“I think it’s a little bit of whiplash," Spanyer says. "Bottom freezers became so popular that retailers showed them almost exclusively. Now, there are a lot of new side-by-sides in the market that have reinvigorated interest from a retailer’s standpoint. There are some people who are coming back to side-by-sides, having experienced both of them.”

If I Switch to a Side-by-Side, Will It Look Outdated?

“No, I don’t think so," Spanyer says. "In fact, you can point to the ultra high-end market where built-in refrigerators are dominated by side-by-side.” That's good news for those of us who just want to be able to access their Ben and Jerry's without getting a head rush.