Ralph,
There are now a number of bottom freezer French door fridges that have through the door water and crushed ice. They are of course more expensive than models without the feature, but it's a feature I value.
All,
I think SXS fridges got a bad rap for energy efficiency early because back in the '70's when they came around, they were loaded with lots of energy gulping conveniences, like butter warmers, door gasket heaters, automatic defrost, thermally inefficient water/ice dispensers, etc. But by 2000 when I replaced a '78 GE SXS with a new KA model, the energy consumption dropped from 1700 KWH/yr to about 640. That's a huge drop, thanks to more efficient compressors, more intelligent auto-defrost, and better insulation.
Personally I don't see how a SXS dumps all that much more chilled air when a door is opened than a top freezer or even a bottom freezer model. In all cases there nothing to prevent chilled air to flow out the lower part of the door opening. And, I think bottom freezer models with simple suspended wire baskets for the freezer compartment are probably some of the worst for dumping chilled air. When you slide out that drawer, it's like yanking everything in the freezer into the warm room air. I can't see that as being very energy efficient. Models with a plastic kind of tub probably prevent some chilled air from escaping, but then there is still the air left in the cabinet that will be expelled like a plunger when the drawer is pushed back into the freezer compartment.
Fridge models with subdoors for frequently accessed items probably save some energy, but I'm not sure it's worth the extra cost.
I have the same issue with a wall to the right of my SXS making bin removal difficult. Fortunately there's an open door to the dining room on that wall, so all that needs to be done is the roll the fridge out enough that the fridge door will swing into the dining room a little, in order to pull the bins for cleaning. I don't see any other design resolving this issue, as a top or bottom freezer model will still need to swing the door into the wall, as will a French door model. However when I was fridge shopping in 2000, I noticed that Amana made a model where the door bins didn't extend into the crisper bin region. This mean that it was possible to pull the crisper bins with the doors opened only 90 degrees. Alas, at the time, the Amana wasn't all that energy efficient, so I went with the KA instead. And I don't see that other mfg's have had the presence of mind to construct their doors so that bins can be removed when the doors are opened only 90 degrees. Once in a while I'll look at a model when at least one of the bins can be removed, but not all.
