Pros/cons of externally accessible middle drawer on refrigerator

[Kidlit]

We're in the market for a new fridge.  I'm pretty sold on the French door, freezer on bottom models (I've had one before), but I don't know if the kind with the external middle drawer is the way to go. Thoughts? If you have an external middle drawer, do you find it indispensable, and if so, why?  (I'm attaching the two styles I'm looking at.   I don't know why one picture is blurry and the other isn't.  Sorry!)

Edited June 22, 2023 by Kidlit
IN the market, not ON the market

[KatieJ]

I have the bottom one, drawer is only accessible inside. I keep meat and cheese in it. I rarely need only something from that drawer. 

I think it depends on how you want you use it.

Snacks for kids which don’t require the whole fridge open, it would be great. 

[vonfirmath]

We have a refrigerator just like this (the first picture with two separate drawers; But it only has water in the door. bought last Septemberish I think)

 

It has much less freezer space than our last refrigerator and that is the only thing I regret. (We have no garage freezer). I LOVE having a upper freezer drawer. I put ice cream and frozen corn, egg rolls, etc. up there. It also has the ice drawer that the ice maker dumps into (no outside the fridge ice. But that's okay with me) Things we are accessing frequently. And save the bottom drawer for freezer storage.

Edited June 22, 2023 by vonfirmath

[Kidlit]

Just now, vonfirmath said:

We have a refrigerator just like this (bought last Septemberish I think)

 

It has much less freezer space than our last refrigerator and that is the only thing I regret. (We have no garage freezer). I LOVE having an upper freezer drawer. I put ice cream and frozen corn, egg rolls, etc. up there. It also has the ice drawer that the ice maker dumps into (no outside the fridge ice. But that's okay with me) Things we are accessing frequently. And save the bottom drawer for freezer storage.

So--the temp on your drawer is adjustable?  I could see using it as a freezer.  🤔

[Drama Llama]

How old/tall all your kids?  

[vonfirmath]

3 minutes ago, Kidlit said:

So--the temp on your drawer is adjustable?  I could see using it as a freezer.  🤔

I don't know if it is adjustable. It has the ice bin in it and so was designed as freezer space.

Edited June 22, 2023 by vonfirmath

[Kidlit]

4 minutes ago, BandH said:

How old/tall all your kids?  

Youngest is 10 

[Katy]

I keep snacks in there on one side, cooked meat & cheese on the other so snacks & sandwiches are easy. I have bought the same style for multiple years. Don’t get Samsung, they have a myriad of problems with ice makers freezing up & lack of parts for repair if there’s a problem, which there is likely to be. 

[kbutton]

We love our middle drawer for snack foods and stuff to pack lunches.

[Selkie]

Ours is like the second picture and the drawer is only accessible from inside. I use it to stash things like tofu, miso, and dates. An outside drawer wouldn’t be useful to me, but our kids are all grown, so there aren’t snacks happening here. 

[Grace Hopper]

I would totally use it as a drawer for items anyone would know are fair game  for snacking without getting into things I need as ingredients for the week’s cooking. Wide drawers like that are also really handy if you make and need to store a party tray. 
 

I bet there would be energy savings by not opening the larger doors as often. Hopefully it could help eliminate the stand-staring-into-the-fridge-waiting-for-someone-to-hand-out-a-bag-of-Chipotle episodes that were common here when my house was full of teens. 

[Carol in Cal.]

I’ve looked at those and decided against them because the extra insulation all the way around takes up a lot of room, and I have limited space for a fridge in the first place so I need to maximize my fridge interior space.  On the same logic I avoided all water handling and left out the ice maker(s), again to maximize interior space.

[aggie96]

We love ours with the external drawer. We have 4 fridges in all (various places-long story how we came to own so many), and each one is a different type. This is by far our favorite. I've had this style for 15+ years. We use it for snacks and sandwich stuff. Now that it has moved to the garage, the drawer holds water. My kitchen fridge now is a "big" built-in otherwise I would be using the unit in question. I HATE how the quick accessible stuff requires the entire door to be opened and exposed, letting out cooled air. I HATE it. Definitely less efficient. Our kitchen has the drawer inside, which does nothing for efficiency for us.

Edited June 22, 2023 by aggie96

[Clarita]

I've got nothing for the middle drawer thing. 

I have come to dislike the icemaker in the refrigerator. For clarity from now on the refrigerator area of the refrigerator will be called "fridge", the freezer area "freezer" and the whole unit "refrigerator". The reason is in order to make that happen the refrigerator has to pump the cold air from the freezer up to the icemaker area of the fridge. Basically it's this whole pile mechanical things that can break or stuff they hadn't quite thought of to not operate ideally. For our refrigerator they forgot to put a defroster on the fan that pumps the cold air up to the icemaker; every so often we have to pull everything out of the freezer and chip ice off that stupid fan. That whole contraption feels like an afterthought and if I were to get a new refrigerator I would get one with the icemaker in the freezer (even if I still get the french door, bottom freezer style refrigerator).

I dislike this part of my refrigerator so much that I have to come and say this.

[Forget-Me-Not]

We lived with family while we built a house and they had a fridge very similar to the one shown with the external drawer.  It was used to hold soda and cheese/lunchmeat type things.  When our house was built, we bought a fridge that has an internal drawer.  I like my fridge for other reasons*, but I very much miss the external drawer and I wish I had held out for a fridge with one.  The main issue for me is that I have to open both  doors to access that internal drawer so it lets a lot of the cold air out.  We use that drawer a lot.  

 

*If you're wondering, we have an ice maker in the freezer drawer, and one on the fridge ice/water dispenser.  We entertain family a lot and it's awesome having two ice makers.  Plus, the fridge dispenser is a bit too small for some tall water bottles, so we scoop ice into those bottles out of the freezer drawer ice dispenser (which has a handy scoop).  

Edited June 22, 2023 by Forget-Me-Not

[Kidlit]

7 hours ago, Grace Hopper said:

I would totally use it as a drawer for items anyone would know are fair game  for snacking without getting into things I need as ingredients for the week’s cooking. Wide drawers like that are also really handy if you make and need to store a party tray. 
 

 

Great point about the party tray!

[Kidlit]

6 hours ago, Forget-Me-Not said:

We lived with family while we built a house and they had a fridge very similar to the one shown with the external drawer.  It was used to hold soda and cheese/lunchmeat type things.  When our house was built, we bought a fridge that has an internal drawer.  I like my fridge for other reasons*, but I very much miss the external drawer and I wish I had held out for a fridge with one.  The main issue for me is that I have to open both  doors to access that internal drawer so it lets a lot of the cold air out.  We use that drawer a lot.  

 

*If you're wondering, we have an ice maker in the freezer drawer, and one on the fridge ice/water dispenser.  We entertain family a lot and it's awesome having two ice makers.  Plus, the fridge dispenser is a bit too small for some tall water bottles, so we scoop ice into those bottles out of the freezer drawer ice dispenser (which has a handy scoop).  

I'm intrigued by what you describe. What brand is your fridge?

[Lady Marmalade]

Ours looks a lot like the one pictured.  We currently use the drawer for meats, cheeses and celery.  Celery because the dumb produce drawers inside the fridge are not long enough to hold a bunch of celery. 

The drawer has optional dividers and we used to also lay wine bottles in it to chill.  Haven't done that in a while.  Lately I've been thinking about reorganizing the fridge and using that drawer for beverages.  

I wouldn't say the drawer is a must-have.  I don't hate it, but I don't love it and could live without it for sure.  The french door top and freezer on the bottom however, are the components that I never want to be without. 

[vonfirmath]

I believe this is our fridge.

LG LRMDC2306D: 29 cu ft. French Door Refrigerator with Slim Design Water Dispenser | LG USA

[Forget-Me-Not]

2 hours ago, Kidlit said:

I'm intrigued by what you describe. What brand is your fridge?

Whirlpool

[KidsHappen]

Our refrigerator looks like the second one minus the ice/water dispenser. This leaves room for both doors to hold gallon jugs. We really like it because we have both more fridge space and more freezer space. Our freezer has two compartments one deep and the other shallow to hold pizzas and such. It does have a full width internal drawer. We do have to open both doors to use the internal drawer but we don't really mind because that's where we keep meats, cheeses and snacks so when accessing that drawer we are usually pulling out a few things anyhow. I have owned many fridges over the years and this is my favorite. 

[73349]

If I had a large, smart dog, I'd worry about that drawer on that account, but otherwise it might be useful.

Like some PPs, we are anti-water/icemaker for fridges--all the more so since a friend went away for a few weeks and came back to a ruined kitchen from a leak.