French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Combining form and function, French-door refrigerators come with stylish double doors that open to an enormous fridge on the top and a freezer drawer below. These refrigerators stand out due to their distinctive features, such as door-to-door dispensers and more expensive ice makers.
We sought out experts like Ladina Schopf, an interior designer, architect, and founder of LS Projects, for tips on picking the right one. They weighed storage capacity and layout, energy efficiency, and other aspects.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
As the name suggests, the GE Profile series is geared towards those who want to incorporate cutting-edge technology into their kitchen. This fridge is loaded with them all, from a Keurig K cup coffee maker inside the door to a smart dispenser of water. But these flourishes don't mask mediocre performance, especially in the refrigerator's freezer and an ineffective temperature-controlled drawer. Given that this fridge costs more, I'd expect better.
This refrigerator is a good choice, despite the small blip. It has a large freezer compartment, which is uncommon in counter-depth French door refrigerators. Additionally, it holds a fair amount of frozen foods as compared to similar models.
The fridge is equipped with 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment is 18.5 cubic feet, which is the standard for a French-door refrigerator at this price. It also has a decent sized ice maker packed into the left door, though it's not the biggest I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in both compartments to create a custom storage setup for the items you need to store. The GE PYE22PYNFS's interior design is attractive, too. The LED lighting is a nice feature and the inside storage bins feature an additional shelf that can fold down to allow you to store items that are tall. The drawers come with temperature controls, so 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 bit rough on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator includes the full suite of features you'd expect from a fridge in this price range, including Wi-Fi and app support via GE's SmartHQ software. The app, which is available for iOS and Android devices allows you to control your fridge from anywhere in world, and offers numerous options for customization. It will also send you notifications when the door is unlocked as well as when the fridge or freezer needs to be defrosted, and when the filter requires a change.
It would be nice if the GE PYE22PYNFS came with Precise Fill, an option available in a few other GE fridges that allows you to choose how many cups of water you'd like to disperse at a time. The fridge displays a countdown timer to display how much water remains, but it's not as effective as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is a striking piece. It's designed to look like it's a seamless component of your kitchen. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also features a veggie compartment that keeps vegetables and fruits fresher for longer periods, and two compressors for preserving food items. The ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient and makes an ice pyramid with only a little water. This fridge is ideal for a small household or a kitchenette that wants an elegant design and top of the best food preservation.
This fridge was the top-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators test, for several reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained stable at just a few degrees Fahrenheit, and never moving by more than a fraction an inch. This is essential in preventing freezing burn. The refrigerator section of the fridge also did well. It reached the temperature it was set within an hour and remained at the temperature throughout our tests.
Bosch is known for its premium appliances, so it's no surprise that this counter-depth refrigerator is also a smart appliance with the option to connect to your home Wi-Fi network and Bosch's Home Connect platform. This app allows you to monitor and manage your fridge remotely using your smartphone or tablet. The fridge is expensive, but offers great features and functionality at a reasonable price.
It's important to understand the limitations of your fridge. You may need to get creative with tall objects because the fridge has a limited shelf space. Additionally the shelves aren't completely sprillproof, and can easily be stained or damaged by sharp objects. It is easy to take out the trays from the fridge However, be sure to keep them clean to avoid mold growth.
If you're thinking of buying this refrigerator, you should also read our review of the GE Appliances French Door Refrigerator and the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The LG LRFLC2706S counter-depth fridge is a great option for those who need plenty of space in an extremely compact frame. It has a sleek, fingerprint-resistant stainless-steel finish and features thick handles that make them comfortable to grip. The fridge has a standard French door design, and two rows of shelves that can be used to capture spills and a set crisper drawers. The top right shelf can be folded down to give tall items more room. You'll also find a full-width drawer for deli and an inside water dispenser.
One of the great things about this refrigerator is that the ice maker is in the freezer, which makes it easy to transfer the ice to the refrigerator for use when required. The freezer also features clever design features, like sliding drawers that help you organize your items. It also has a large container to store frozen food items, and a separate bin for ice.
Smart InstaView panel is another awesome feature of the refrigerator. You can manage the temperature, lighting, and other aspects of your refrigerator from your smartphone. It's a good way to control and monitor your refrigerator, particularly if you're away from home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat but it doesn't improve the performance of the fridge. In fact it took longer to defrost and chill food in this refrigerator than some of the others we test. This is likely due to its greater capacity.
The other issue we have with the door of this refrigerator. The handles with a sunken design let shorter people open them from the bottom. However, taller people still have a hard time closing them without slamming. It would have been more effective if they had handles mounted on the front.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a excellent choice for those who want to combine the benefits of a French-door fridge's aesthetics with a more efficient layout. Its capacity is superior for a counter-depth model, and it cools well and has a nice layout. It's also a bit less than the best counter-depth refrigerator that has an ice maker, which can make it an attractive option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for a French door refrigerator that won't break the bank this Frigidaire is a great choice. It's a simple fridge which may not be as appealing as its rivals however, it does have enough features to make it a an excellent option. Its most notable feature is the adjustable temperature drawer which helps keep food items like meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also comes with a large ice maker as well as a water dispenser.
Another nice feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. This drawer lets you redirect some of the refrigerator's cooling power directly to this area, meaning you can keep food items that need extra attention. This feature is adjustable using an outside slider that is located inside the drawer. You can also set the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I've found that the general settings are more effective than the specific ones.
In my experiments, I noticed that the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly consistent across various parts of the fridge. The temperatures in the top, bottom and middle of the refrigerator did not differ significantly from 38 degrees. This is a pretty good performance, but it doesn't quite make it into the top ten in our ratings.
french door fridge freezers 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 pair this fridge with an intelligent thermometer to get more precise readings of your fridge's temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from gray-bodied stainless with a "smudge proof" finish. It does an excellent job of repelling fingerprints and streaks, even compared to shiny stainless steel finishes on other appliances I've tried.
Stephanie Cronk, executive editor of Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews Team, oversees the site's buyer's guides and product test reviews. She has more than 15 years of commerce and publishing experience, mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is passionate about finding the best products and recommending them to customers. She is particularly interested in home goods and technology.