Upright fridges: freezer on top or bottom?

I have had the freezer on the top since I moved out of my parents house in 1978.

I have been longing for a fridge with a freezer on the bottom for quite some time, and was thrilled when my boyfriend bought one. After using it for the past three months, we are not all that thrilled with it, as we thought we would be. It just does not seem to have the flexibility in the fridge and freezer, as we thought.

Surprisingly, we don't like the fridge section. We always seem to find ourselves engaging in a puzzle as we attempt to get things in and out. Thinking this could be the fault of the shelving set up, this weekend we plan to empty the fridge and come up with a new arrangement of the shelving because the way it is now is just not working. There seems to be quite a bit of wasted space on the door shelving as we can fit in a few more shelves in empty slots, but will have to order them.

The freezer is an aggravation because the sliding shelving drawers continually catch if the contents are not absolutely perfectly stacked and level. One must empty quite a bit of frozen food to reach the desired item and then jig saw puzzle it all back together to get it to close properly. In the upper drawer section, a frozen item shifted during closing and broke the light bulb in the socket, leaving behind the screw mechanism that is hard to reach to replace.. UGH.

So, we are disappointed but are willing to reconfigure the shelving in the fridge before listing it on Craigslist.com to replace it.

Top i got a LG with the bottom drawer IT SUCKS ,IS LIMITED IN SPACE AND OVERALL ....they suck .Its a lame euro thing and i wish i did not let my lady talk me into this euro trash piece of crap I hate it .Wish the freezer was on top cause the whole bending over looking for things that are much easier found in a top freezer and the top freezer has way more usable space and you wont need to stoop over digging for something that got buried in that lame bottom freezer In my opinion euro looks should stay in Europe. There a complete hassle also new fridges suck in general i have never had issues like this with my old ugly fridges until i got some euro junk with a "mother board " New fridges suck ,are unreliable ,and it takes a act of congress to get a repair person out WHO KNOWS WHAT THERE DOING Sears in all there dipsh!tmess try and trouble shoot your newly bought euro crap OVER THE PHONE without sending out a tech to "look "at it .No wonder sears is dead .Basically the more "frills" a fridge has .The more problematic they are Everyone i know myself included who got new fridges in the last 3 years have had at least 2 service calls done While the old fridges had ZERO service calls and lasted 20 plus years Over the two decades i had mine and after asking all my friends The old units had maybe 1 to 3 service calls over those 20 plus years In less than a year my Pile of crap LG has had 5 service issues two times i was not home and lost all my perishables adding up to about 400 bucks so be aware of any reliability issues read reviews of the brand you like and stay away from Samsung units there pure unreliable crap the worst in my opinion i had one before i got ripped off on a very expensive euro trash LG unit Seems i paid all my service calls in advance or something All i know is i want my Frigidaire unit back i got in the mid 80's but i gave it away to friend who.....still uses it without any problems today In my opinion i would rather pay for more electricity than pay twice for spoiled groceries which you have no recourse on getting back So your stuck with buying groceries AGAIN and in the back of my mind its not worth it cause the damn POS will just break again What sucks they cant even tell me why my POS unit keeps frying mother boards The damn techs cant even figure out why its such a pile of garbage they just remove and replace th main board and not once has it been free even under the useless warranty i still paid to fix a 3500 dollar fridge less than a year after purchase So choose wisely it can be a financial drain on your wallet They all look pretty but most function like crap and there all prone to stupid ticky tack problems that bleed you dry

Bottom makes easier. Probably 90% of time your in fridge an its nice to not have to bend over to get to drawers on bottom. Any jury's still out on efficiency California says bottom are more efficient.

The top freezer model is the most efficient combo refrigerator / freezer design because the freezer actually cools the refrigerator by the effect of gravity which draws cold air down from the freezer to cool the refrigerator. The lower drawer units I have seen do a very poor job of keeping the refrigerator chest area cold in the hot summertime. This is the same reason why a furnace AC unit has a hard time cooling the second floor of a house, because it's hard to push cold air up or heated air down in any cooling or HVAC air circulation system. With a lower freezer, you can guarantee that everything in the refrigerator will spoil if the power goes out for any long period of time, an upper freezer will allow your food to last many hours longer during a power outage situation where you don't open the doors. Without the electric fan running to push cold air upwards in a power outage, the refrigerator contents will spoil quickly. Buy a chest freezer.

ADD; I have a 15 year old Frigidaire top freezer unit that has cost nothing but a new bulb in the last 10 years I have owned the house. I would assume it's been running fine since it was installed new, basically a zero problems unit.

bottom

NEITHER is best. They are functionally identical. This is 100% a matter of preference.

I am very happy with my new refrigerator freezer combo.

The freezer is on the bottom - is a large pull-out drawer - well lit, and I don't have to search in a cramped shelf, bent over, for food in the dark.

Stepping up the fridge I can easily spot what I have on hand for cooking - no bending down and searching on the bottom shelf.

Refrigerator being so conveniently at a higher level is used so many more times daily than searching in the freezer just a few times a week.

I have one of each. I like the freezer on the bottom better. Think about how often you get something out of the refrigerator versus how often you get something out of the freezer. I like opening the refrigerator door and having everything easily visible and close to eye level.

The freezer that is on the bottom has pull-out drawers so that even when I have to bend over to get something from the freezer, it's easy to see and access items.

When the 'fridge on bottom/freezer on top version dies, I'll replace it with another freezer on the bottom version.

Freezer should be on the bottom. If on top and you drop a frozen turkey on your foot, you'll spend the rest of your life paying medical bills.

Bottom. Typically they're built kind of like chest freezers, so you can stack stuff better without it falling out on you. Also, due to the way heat and cold rise and fall, respectively, bottom freezers tend to be more energy efficient.