French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators are a perfect blend of form and function. They have stylish double doors that show the large fridge on top, and a freezer drawer beneath. Special features like through-the-door dispensers, higher-end ice machines, and customizable flex drawers make them stand out from the rest.
We consulted experts such as Ladina Schopf, interior designer, architect, and founder of LS Projects, for tips on how to select the best one. They weighed storage capacity as well as layout and energy efficiency as well as other aspects.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name of the series suggests that the GE Profile series is targeted at people who want to incorporate cutting-edge technology into their kitchen. This fridge is loaded with them, from an in-the-door Keurig K-cup coffee maker to a clever water dispenser. 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 an extra amount, I'd like to see higher quality.
This fridge is a great choice, despite the small blip. It has a huge freezer compartment, which is unusual for counter-depth French-door fridges. french door refrigerator freezer has a large capacity for frozen food, which is a big difference from other models.
Inside the fridge, you'll find 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment offers 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is on the same as the size of a French door fridge costing this much. It also has a decent sized ice maker packed into the left door, though it's not the largest I've seen.
You can adjust the shelves in each compartment to create a customized storage layout for the items you need to store. The GE PYE22PYNFS's interior design is attractive, too. The LED lighting adds an appealing feature. The storage bins in the door include a third shelf that can be folded down to store tall objects. The drawers include temperature controls that let you set them to Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. The drawers are easy to open and shut, but I found the textured plastic coatings to be a bit rough on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator is equipped with a complete set of features you'd expect from a refrigerator at this price that includes Wi-Fi as well as app support through GE's SmartHQ software. The app is available on iOS and Android devices and lets you control your refrigerator from any place around the world. It also has numerous options for customizing. It will also send you notifications when the door is left unlocked as well as when the freezer or fridge requires defrosting, and when the filter needs to be changed.
It is nice if the GE PYE22PYNFS included Precise fill which is an option that is available in a handful of other GE refrigerators that allows you to choose how many cups of water you'd like to disperse at a time. The fridge shows a countdown to display how much water remains but it's not as helpful as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is an impressive product. It's designed to appear like a seamless piece in your kitchen. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also comes with a veggie compartment that keeps fruits and vegetables fresher longer and has dual compressors to ensure the best preservation of food. The Ice maker is among the best we've ever tested, and it produces a pyramid-shaped form of ice that is low in use of water. This fridge is the perfect choice for single household or kitchenettes that want a sleek design and top of the line food preservation.
This refrigerator was rated as the most efficient in our Refrigerators Test for several reasons. The freezer temperatures remained steady at just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit and never changing by more than a fraction one degree. This is crucial to preventing freezer burn. The fridge's refrigerator section also performed well, reaching the desired initial set temperature within an hour and keeping that temperature steady over the course of our testing.
Bosch is a household name known for its high-end appliances. Therefore, it's no surprise that the Bosch counter depth refrigerator can be connected to your home Wi Fi and Bosch's Home Connect. The app lets you monitor and control your refrigerator remotely from your tablet or smartphone. The refrigerator is expensive, but it comes with excellent features and functionality for the cost.
It's important to understand the limitations of the fridge. You might need to be creative with tall objects because the fridge has a small shelf space. Also the shelves aren't impervious to sprills and could be stained or damaged by sharp objects. It's easy to remove the trays from the fridge However, be sure to clean them frequently to prevent mold growth.
If you're considering this refrigerator, be sure to review our opinions on the French Door GE Appliances 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 require plenty of space in a small 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 and two rows of shelves for spill-capture and a set of crisper drawers. The top shelf to the right can be folded down to make space for tall items. There's also a full-width drawer for deli items and an internal water dispenser.
This refrigerator is equipped with an ice maker, making it simple to transfer frozen ice as needed. The freezer also features clever design features, such as sliding drawers that help you organize your items. It has a large bin to store frozen food items, and a separate bin for ice.
Smart InstaView panel is another awesome feature of the refrigerator. You can control the temperature, lighting and other aspects of your refrigerator from your smartphone. It's a simple method to monitor your fridge and manage it, particularly when you're not at home.
However, while the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it doesn't necessarily improve the overall performance of the refrigerator. In fact, it took longer to defrost and chill foods in this fridge than some of the others we tested. This could be due to the greater capacity.
Another issue with the doors of this refrigerator. They have handles that are sunken on the front, which allow shorter people to easily pull them open from the bottom, but they're not easy for taller people to steer closed without slamming the doors. It would have been better if these had front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is an excellent choice for those who want to combine the look and feel of a French-door refrigerator with more efficient design. Its capacity is higher than average for counter-depth models and also cools evenly. It's also a bit cheaper than the most expensive counter depth refrigerator that comes with an ice maker, making it a desirable option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a great choice if you want a French-door fridge that won't break the budget. It's a minimalist design that's not as striking visually as other models however it comes with enough features that make it a great option. Its most notable feature is the adjustable temperature drawer helps to keep food like vegetables and meat fresher longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser, as well as an excellent ice machine that works fast.
The "Chill Drawer", which is located over the two crisper bins, is a great feature. The drawer allows you to divert some of the fridge's cooling power directly to this area, meaning you can store foods that require 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 generic settings are more effective than the specific ones.
In my tests, the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly consistent across all areas of the refrigerator. The temperatures in the top and bottom of the fridge did not vary much from 38 degrees, and the middle of the fridge was within a degree of 36. That's a good performance however it doesn't rank among the best in our rankings.
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. This fridge can be connected with a smart thermostat to obtain more precise readings of the internal temperature of your fridge.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from grey-bodied stainless with a "smudge proof" finish. It does an excellent job of removing streaks and fingerprints, even compared to shiny stainless steel finishes on other appliances 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 more than 15 years of commerce and publishing experience, with a focus on digital and retail. Stephanie is enthusiastic about finding and recommending the best products for consumers, with a a focus on home goods and technology.