Is an American style fridge freezer with a water dispenser worth it?

An American style fridge freezer is 800-950mm wide against 550-600mm for a standard one, which buys you shelves that take a whole tray and a freezer you can reach into. It also brings a set of ongoing commitments — a filter, a plumbed supply, more running cost and a lot more floor — that the showroom does not dwell on.

Step by step

1. Measure the doorway and the delivery route first.This is the most common reason one gets sent back. Measure every doorway, turn and stairwell between the front door and the kitchen, and remember the appliance cannot be tilted much when packaged. Ask the retailer whether the doors come off for delivery.
2. Measure the space for the doors to open.French doors need less swing than a single wide door, which is one of their real advantages. But you still need to open a door far enough to pull the drawers out, and a side wall or an island can prevent that.
3. Decide plumbed or tank-filled, and be honest about it.A plumbed model connects to the cold supply and is the version people keep using. A non-plumbed model has an internal tank you refill by hand, and almost everyone stops bothering within a couple of months. If you cannot plumb it, weigh whether the dispenser is worth paying for at all.
4. Plan the plumbing before you buy.It needs a cold supply, usually 1/4 inch, taken from a convenient point with its own isolating valve, and a route behind the units to the appliance. Doing that after the kitchen is fitted is much harder than doing it during.
5. Budget for the water filter.Most models want a cartridge every six months. They are not cheap and they are appliance-specific. Over ten years that is a real running cost, and skipping it gives you cloudy, slow-flowing water and eventually a blocked line.
6. Weigh the running cost against a standard appliance.More volume, more door area, an ice maker with its own heater for harvest cycles, and a dispenser flap that leaks cold air. Compare the kWh per year figures directly rather than assuming the difference is small.
7. Check the floor can take it.These appliances weigh well over 100kg empty and considerably more full. On a suspended timber floor near the middle of a span, that concentrated load is worth a thought, and on vinyl or a soft floor the feet will indent.
8. Compare the layouts properly.Side by side gives a tall narrow freezer and a tall narrow fridge — good for freezer capacity, poor for wide items. French door gives wide fridge shelves over a freezer drawer — much better for platters and trays, and the freezer drawer is harder to organise.
9. Decide whether you actually want the ice maker.An automatic ice maker takes a meaningful bite out of freezer capacity and is a common failure point. If you use ice twice a year, a tray costs nothing and never breaks.

Tips

• If you want the width but not the dispenser, side-by-side and French door models without water are cheaper, quieter, simpler and have more usable capacity.
• Check the door bins take a 4-pint milk bottle upright. Some wide models have surprisingly shallow bins.
• A plumbed dispenser needs its own isolating valve somewhere accessible. Fitting one behind the appliance where you cannot reach it defeats the purpose.

Common mistakes

• Buying a non-plumbed dispenser model expecting to use it — Refilling a two-litre internal tank is a chore that competes with a jug in the fridge, and the jug wins. You pay for the dispenser and then stop using it.
• Ignoring the filter schedule — A neglected filter restricts flow, harbours bacteria in standing water, and the dispenser gradually becomes slow and unpleasant. Most people conclude the appliance is faulty.

Questions people ask