French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Combining form and functionality, French-door refrigerators have stylish double doors that open up to a spacious fridge up the top and a freezer drawer below. These refrigerators stand out because of their special features, like through-the-door dispensers and higher-end Ice makers.
We sought out experts like Ladina Schopf, interior designer and architect, as well as the founder of LS Projects, for tips on choosing the right model. We looked at storage capacity, layout and energy efficiency among other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name of the series suggests that GE’s Profile series is aimed at people who want to incorporate cutting-edge technologies into their kitchen. This fridge is loaded with these, from an inside-the-door Keurig K-cup coffee maker to a sophisticated water dispenser. But these flourishes don't mask mediocre performance, especially in the refrigerator's freezer and an ineffective temperature-controlled drawer. This fridge is expensive and I was expecting better.
This fridge is a great choice, despite the blip. It comes with a huge freezer compartment, which is uncommon in counter-depth French door fridges, and it holds a fair amount of frozen food when compared to similar models.
The fridge comes with 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment has 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is roughly on what you would expect from the size of a French door fridge that costs this much. It also has a decent-sized icemaker packed into the left door, but it isn't the largest I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in both compartments for the perfect storage solution. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is attractive, too. The LED lighting is a nice feature, and the in-door storage bins have the third shelf, which folds up beneath itself so that you can store large items. The drawers have temperature controls so that you can set them to Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, although I found their textured plastic coatings to be a little hard on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator is equipped with a full suite of features you'd expect from a fridge at this price with Wi-Fi and app support via GE's SmartHQ software. The app is available for iOS and Android devices and lets you control your refrigerator from any place in the globe. It also comes with numerous options for customizing. It will also send you notifications when the door is left unlocked and when the fridge or freezer requires defrosting, and when the filter requires a change.
It would be nice to have GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill the option that is found in a few GE refrigerators that allow users to choose the amount of cups they wish to disperse. It also has a countdown feature on the fridge display to display how much water have left, but it's not as useful as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Created to appear like a seamless part of your kitchen Bosch's French-door refrigerator looks seamless and is a standout. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also boasts a veggie compartment that helps keep vegetables and fruits fresher for longer and has dual compressors for maximum food preservation. The Ice maker is among the most efficient we've ever tested and produces a pyramid-shaped Ice with low water consumption. This refrigerator is ideal for a single household or kitchenette that needs an attractive design and top of the highest quality food preservation.
The fridge was rated the best refrigerator in our Refrigerators test, for several reasons. Its freezer temperatures remained constant at just above 0° Fahrenheit and never fluctuated by more than a fraction, this is crucial to avoid the risk of a freezer burn. The refrigerator section of the refrigerator also performed well. It reached the temperature it was set within a matter of hours, and maintained the temperature throughout our testing.
Bosch is known for its top-quality appliances. It's therefore no surprise that Bosch's counter depth fridge Bosch counter depth fridge can be connected to your home Wi Fi and Bosch's Home Connect. This app lets you monitor and control your fridge from your tablet or smartphone. The fridge is expensive, however it has excellent features and functionality for the price.
While the fridge is an amazing piece of equipment however, it is important to understand the limitations. You might need to be creative with tall objects because the fridge is limited in shelf space. Additionally, the shelves are not sprillproof and can be easily stained or damaged by sharp objects. It's simple to remove the refrigerator trays, but be sure to clean them frequently to prevent mold growth.
If you are thinking about this refrigerator, be sure to look over our review of the French Door GE Appliances Refrigerator and the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The LG LRFLC2706S is a great counter-depth refrigerator that packs a lot of storage into the frame's compact size. It has a sleek, fingerprint-resistant stainless-steel finish and features thick handles that make them comfortable to grip. Inside, the fridge features an ordinary French-door design with gallon-sized bins for the doors on each door and two rows of shelves that capture spills and a set of more spacious drawers. The top shelf on the right can be folded to provide more space for taller items. There's also a full-width drawer for food items and an internal water dispenser.
This refrigerator is equipped with an ice maker making it easy to transfer the frozen ice whenever you need it. The freezer also features clever design features, like sliding drawers that allow you to organize your belongings. It also has a large bin that can accommodate plenty of frozen food and an ice storage bin.
Another awesome feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. You can manage the temperature, lighting and other aspects of your refrigerator from your smartphone. It's a simple way to monitor your fridge and manage it, especially when you're not at home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat but it doesn't improve the performance of the fridge. The refrigerator took longer to defrost food and chill it than the other fridges we tested. This is probably due to its bigger capacity.
Another issue with the doors of this refrigerator. They have handles that are sunken at the front, which allows shorter people to easily pull them open from the bottom, but they're difficult for taller people to steer closed without slamming the doors. It would have been better if they had handles mounted on the front.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is a great choice for those who want to combine the look and feel of a French-door refrigerator with an efficient design. Its capacity is above average for a counter-depth model, and it cools evenly and has a good layout. It's also a bit cheaper than the top counter depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, which makes it an attractive option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for a French door fridge that doesn't cost you a fortune this Frigidaire is a great choice. It's a basic fridge which may not be as attractive as some of its competitors however it has enough features to make it a good choice. Its most important feature, the temperature adjustable drawer, helps to keep food like meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also has a large ice maker as well as a water dispenser.
Another feature that is worth mentioning is the "Chill Drawer" that sits over the two crisper bins. The drawer allows you to divert a portion of the refrigerator's cooling power directly to this area, meaning you can keep food items that require special attention. You can adjust the feature using an adjustable slider that is located just in the middle of the drawer. french door refrigerator freezer can also adjust the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I've noticed that the general settings are more effective than the specific ones.
During my tests, I found that the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly consistent in different parts of the fridge. The temperatures in the top and bottom of the fridge didn't vary significantly from 38 degrees, and the middle of the fridge was within one degree of 36. This is a pretty good performance, but it doesn't quite make it into the top ten in our ratings.
This fridge has a few other neat features, including a temperature-monitoring display that alerts you to fluctuations and provides a forecast for the day ahead. You can also combine this fridge with a smart thermometer for more precise readings of your fridge's temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from gray-bodied stainless with a "smudge resistant" finish. It wards off streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I've seen.
Stephanie Cronk is the executive editor on Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews team and oversees the site's buyer's guides and review of test products. She has more than 15 years of experience in commerce and publishing including retail and digital. Stephanie is passionate about finding and recommending the top products for consumers, with a a focus on home goods and technology.