French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators are a perfect blend of design and function. They come with stylish double doors that reveal a large fridge on top and a freezer drawer beneath. Special features like door-to-door dispensers, higher-end ice machines and flex drawers that can be customized make them stand out from the crowd.
We asked Ladina Schopf - an interior designer, architect and the founder of LS Projects - for her advice on how to choose the right one. They considered storage capacity as well as layout and energy efficiency, among other features.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Like the name suggests, the GE Profile series is targeted at consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge features in their kitchen. This fridge is loaded with them all, from the Keurig K cup coffee maker on 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. The refrigerator is expensive, so I expected better.
Aside from that blip however, this refrigerator is a fantastic choice. It boasts a spacious freezer compartment, which is quite uncommon in counter-depth French door refrigerators. Furthermore, it can hold a decent amount of frozen food when compared to similar models.
The fridge has 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment has 18.5 cubic feet, which is standard for a fridge with a French door at this price. It also has a decent sized ice maker packed into the left-hand door, although it isn't the largest I've seen.
You can adjust the shelves in both compartments to create a the perfect storage solution. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is also attractive. The LED lighting is a nice feature, and the in-door storage bins have an additional shelf that can fold down to allow you to store items that are tall. The drawers include temperature controls that let you set them to Meat, Beverage or Deli settings. The drawers are simple to open and close however I found the textured plastic coatings a bit hard on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator comes with all the features you would expect from a refrigerator in this price range. It has Wi-Fi as well as app support, and GE's SmartHQ Software. The app is available for iOS and Android devices and allows you to manage your refrigerator from anywhere across the globe. french door fridge and freezer has numerous options for customizing. It will also send you notifications when the door is unlocked, when the fridge or freezer requires defrosting, and when the filter requires a change.
It is nice if GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill, an option available in a handful of GE refrigerators that allow users to set how many cups they want to disperse. It also has an indicator on the fridge display to show how much water you have left, but it's not as useful as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is a stunning piece of equipment. It's designed to appear like it's a seamless part of your kitchen. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also has a vegetable compartment to keep vegetables and fruits fresher for longer and has dual compressors for the best food preservation. The ice maker is one of the best we've ever tested, and it produces a pyramid-shaped form of Ice with low use of water. This refrigerator is ideal for a small household or a kitchenette that wants an elegant design and top of the line food preservation.
This fridge was rated the best in our Refrigerators Test for several reasons. Its freezer temperatures held firm at just a few degrees Fahrenheit, and never fluctuating more than a fraction a degree--this is key to avoiding freezer burn. The refrigerator section of the refrigerator also performed well. It reached the initial temperature within an hour and remained at that temperature throughout our testing.
Bosch has a reputation for high-end appliances, so it's no surprise that this counter depth refrigerator is also a smart appliance, with the option of connecting to your home Wi-Fi and Bosch's Home Connect platform. This app allows you to monitor and control your refrigerator remotely on your smartphone or tablet. The fridge is expensive, but it offers top-quality features and functions for the price.
It's important to understand the limitations of the fridge. You may need to get creative with tall items because the fridge is limited in shelf space. The shelves aren't impervious to spills and could easily be stained or damaged by sharp items. It's simple to remove the trays from the fridge However, be sure to keep them clean to avoid the growth of mold.
If you're thinking about buying this refrigerator, be sure to read our reviews of the GE Appliances French Door Refrigerator as well as the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The LG LRFLC2706S counter-depth refrigerator is a great option for those who require a lot of space in the space of a compact frame. It has a sleek, fingerprint-resistant stainless-steel finish and features thick handles that make them comfortable to grip. Inside, the fridge features a standard French-door layout with gallon-sized bins for the doors on each door, two rows of shelves that capture spills and a set of more spacious drawers. The top shelf to the right can be folded down to make space for tall items. You'll also find a full-width deli drawer and an internal water dispenser.
One of the great features of this refrigerator is that the ice maker is inside the freezer, which makes it simple to move frozen ice to the fridge to use as needed. The freezer has thoughtful design elements, as well, such as sliding drawers to help you better organize the position of your items. It also comes with a large bin that can hold plenty of frozen food items and a separate ice storage bin.
Smart InstaView panel is another awesome feature of the refrigerator. It lets you manage the refrigerator's temperature as well as lighting via your smartphone. It's a nice method of monitoring and managing your refrigerator, especially if you're away from home.
Although the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it does not necessarily improve the overall performance of the refrigerator. The fridge took a bit longer to chill food and defrost it than the other fridges we tried. This is probably due to its bigger capacity.
Another issue with the doors of this refrigerator. They have handles that are sunken on the front, which allow smaller people to open them from the bottom, however they're still difficult for taller people to pull shut without slamming them. It would have been more effective if these had front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a excellent option for those looking to combine the benefits of a French-door refrigerator's aesthetics with an efficient layout. Its capacity is above average for a counter-depth model, and it cools evenly and has a great layout. It's also a bit cheaper than the best counter depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, which makes it an attractive option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a great choice when you're looking for a French door fridge that won't break the budget. It's a minimalist design that isn't as striking visually as some of the competition, but it has enough features that make it a great option. Its most notable feature is the temperature adjustable drawer, which helps keep foods like veggies and meat fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser, as well as an excellent ice maker that operates quickly.
Another nice feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. The drawer allows you to divert some of the refrigerator's cooling power directly into this area, meaning you can store foods that require extra attention. This feature is adjustable using a slider located outside the drawer. You can also use this to set a general cooling level for the entire fridge but I've noticed that adjusting the generic settings tends to produce better results than specific ones.
In my tests, the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly constant across the different areas of the refrigerator. The temperatures in the middle, top and bottom of the refrigerator did not differ significantly from 38 degrees. This is a great performance however it doesn't 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 connect this fridge to a smart thermometer for more precise measurements of your fridge's internal temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made of grey-bodied stainless that has a "smudge proof" finish. It blocks streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I've tested.
Stephanie Cronk, executive editor of Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews Team, oversees the site's buyer's guides as well as product test reviews. She has over 15 years of experience in publishing and commerce, primarily digital and retail. Stephanie is adamant about finding the best products and recommending them to consumers. She is particularly interested in home goods and technology.