We’re building a kitchen extension and are in the fortunate position to have room for an American style fridge – should we?

Been a bit sniffy about them before but having had a good old look around John Lewis at the weekend they seem to fit the bill better than any other solution. Love the fact that most of them have an ice/cold water dispenser, such luxury having come from a teeny 50-ish cm freestanding Fridge Freezer which was always full to bursting. But are they a bit excessive?

Went looking at kitchens over the weekend as in the same position. Think we’ll opt for a fully built in 70/30 fridge freezer and keep the under-counter freezer in the garage.

We decided that the look we are after on that particular wall is going to be spoilt by a huge silver, white or whatever colour they come in fridge/freezer, which to us is more important than refrigerated water and ice dispenser.

I can see the appeal, just doesn’t suit our requirements

There’s one in a holiday home we sometimes stay at and it’s pretty good tbh. Just opening the door and the way it lights up is an event. I like the temperature display as well.

Having so much space is great. Instead of just a few cans/bottles you can put the whole lot in there and not have to ferret about looking for stuff. The chilled water/ice dispenser is also most excellent although it’s plumbed in so it needs a little thought. The freezer section is fairly modest so not too good for bodies etc but if I had the space I wouldn’t hesitate

Carlos, I’d think very seriously about a built in unit, if it goes wrong it will be a nightmare. I paid top money for a Leibherr larder fridge that failed after 2 years, they wouldn’t replace and I ended up calling many engineers until finally calling it a day and replacing it with a freestanding one. It was aggro because doors had to come off every time, the plinth got damaged etc etc etc. Just much less hassle to not build in especially a big fridge – Dishwashers etc are light and easy to move a sodding great fridge not so much. The new fridge is stainless, matches the cookers and looks good.

I’m fitting one in my new kitchen. We are going for a Samsung one with double door fridge top, and freezer drawers underneath.

I’d think very seriously about a built in unit

Been there done that, never again, also a Liebherr incidentally, plus built in fridges unless they’re cu$tom built are quite small.

If you want one and it’s appropriate for the spac and style of your house why not? Having a small kitchen we have been limited to a freestanding fridge freezer. Augments when the kids were at home with a 2nd fridge in the shed which held beer/milk/pots of soup etc.

Fridge space is a useful luxury. Why not?

We’ve this one:

http://www.johnlewis.com/smeg-fq55fx1-4-door-american-style-fridge-freezer-a-energy-rating-84cm-wide-stainless-steel/p1569112

Bloody brilliant, huge and you can see everything.

Big 2 door Samsung here, but out in utility room as we have smaller kitchen, little integrated one near kettle for most used stuff. Ice and water thingy. When the Christmas shop gets done it’ll still be rammed full though.

They are ok but they are deeper than a standard kitchen unit so you better not mind them sticking out. We went for two integrated fridge-freezers built in side by side so probably have more capacity than one US style unit.

We bought a house last year that came with one, (the sellers new place was all integrated – left the big range cooker too – result) at first we thought it was a big honking silver monstrosity, but tbh it’s bloody brilliant (even if the ice chute needs defrosting more regularly than I can be bothered with – I end up just fishing the cubes out of the internal tray) – we just covered it in offensive fridge magnets / other magnetic tat so it doesn’t look like a bit off a space shuttle has fallen through the kitchen

We have a huge silver thing and it works great. An ice dispenser might seem like a novelty but you end up using it a lot in the summer.

Jools/bimbler – I know the risks with the integrated stuff and happy with that.

As for storage space, there’s only 2 of us, so a 200ltr fridge + 60ltr freezer is plenty when there’s a beer fridge and under counter freezer in the garage.

We have a large american style Samsung stainless one with the water and ice dispenser. Its really good, massive inside and looks fantastic (for a fridge). I thought the filtered water and ice dispenser would be a novelty that wore off but we use it for pretty much every drink we make. No way would I want to go back to tiny integrated ones. They really are a compromise in form over function.

We’ve got a 70/30 type one, plumbed in for ice-cubes on tap.

It’s good, but the freezer is actually surprisingly small, and obviously quite narrow, so can be a bit of a PITA. The fridge size is huge, and generally half empty. If I did it again I’d go for a 50/50 one.

@ BR

We’ve this one:

We’ve got the same one. Its very good although its irritating that you have to open both doors to pull trays out on either side but other than that its ace.

We have a huge silver thing and it works great. An ice dispenser might seem like a novelty but you end up using it a lot in the summer.

The beer goes flat. We decided against one given that they take up quite a lot of space inside the fridge. My 18yr old son can empty the fridge contents in a day so inside space is a must!