Amana's top-freezer lineup is the rental-property special: dead simple, under a grand, and engineered with so few moving parts that failure modes shrink by design. The sparse owner signal leans positive (a 30-year survivor, a six-year ice-maker champ), but Consumer Reports rates current models middling and a 1.4-out-of-5 ConsumerAffairs aggregate screams widespread frustration, details unknown. If you need the cheapest functional box or value simplicity over performance, Amana delivers; if you want confidence in long-term reliability or competitive cooling power, the evidence isn't here.
The 800 Series is Bosch's premium counter-depth play, and it does sit flush with cabinetry like it promises, but the 72-inch height requirement is a real problem: most standard openings top out at 70 inches, so measure twice before you fall in love. The bigger question is value. Current USA-made models dropped the salt water softener that came on older German units (unclear if that mattered day-to-day), and Hisense sells a nearly identical fridge for half the price with the same internals under a different badge. If the Bosch name and the fit work for your kitchen, it's a solid choice; if you're counting dollars or your ceiling is standard height, the math gets harder to justify.