French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators are a perfect blend of functionality and form. They have stylish double doors that reveal a large fridge on top and a freezer drawer below. Special features like door-to-door dispensers, higher-end ice machines, and customizable flex drawers make them stand out from the crowd.
We asked experts like Ladina Schopf, an interior designer architect, founder, and co-founder of LS Projects, for tips on picking the right one. They considered the capacity of storage, layout, and energy efficiency among other aspects.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name implies that 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 the Keurig K cup coffee maker on the door, to a clever dispenser of water. But these flourishes don't mask mediocre performance, especially in the refrigerator's freezer and an ineffective temperature-controlled drawer. This fridge is expensive, so I expected better.
This fridge is a good choice, despite the small blip. It boasts a spacious freezer compartment, which is uncommon in counter-depth French door refrigerators. Additionally, it holds a fair amount of frozen food compared to similar models.
The fridge comes with 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment is 18.5 cubic feet, which is the standard for a French-door fridge at this price. It also has a decent-sized icemaker that is tucked away in the left-hand door, although it's not the biggest I've seen.
You can adjust the shelves in both compartments to create customized storage layout for what you want to keep. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS also looks attractive. The LED lighting is a nice touch, and the in-door storage bins feature a third shelf that folds down to make it possible to store items that are tall. The drawers come with temperature controls that allow you to set them to Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, but I found their plastic textured coatings to be a little hard on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator has all the features you would expect from a refrigerator in this price range. It has Wi-Fi, app support and GE's SmartHQ Software. The app, available for iOS and Android devices, lets you control your refrigerator from anywhere in the world, and offers a ton of customization options. It also sends you notifications when the door is left unlocked and when the freezer or fridge requires defrosting, and when the filter has to be changed.
It would be great to have GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill, an option found in a few GE refrigerators that allow users to set the amount of cups they wish to pour out. The fridge shows a countdown to display how much water remains, but it's not as useful as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Designed to look like a seamless part of your kitchen Bosch's French door refrigerator is an eye-catching piece. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also has a vegetable compartment that keeps fruits and vegetables fresher longer and has dual compressors for maximum preservation of food. The Ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient and produces pyramid shaped ice using minimal water. This fridge is the perfect option for a single family or kitchenettes looking for a sleek design and top-of-the-line food preservation.
This fridge was the top-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators test for a few reasons. Its freezer temperatures held firm at a level that was just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit and never fluctuating by more than a fraction a degree--this is key to preventing freezer burn. The fridge section of the refrigerator also performed well. It reached the initial temperature within an hour and maintained the temperature throughout our tests.
Bosch is known for its high-end appliances. Therefore, it's not a 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 on your smartphone or tablet. The fridge is expensive however, it offers excellent features and functionality at a reasonable price.
It is crucial to be aware of 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 are not completely sprillproof, and can easily be damaged or stained by sharp objects. The trays can be easily removed from the refrigerator. However, they must be cleaned regularly to prevent the growth of mold.
If you are thinking about this refrigerator, you should also look over 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 refrigerator is a great choice for those who need lots of space within a small frame. It has a sleek, fingerprint-resistant stainless-steel finish and features thick handles that make them comfortable to grip. Inside, the refrigerator has a standard French-door layout with gallon-sized door bins at each door as well as two rows of shelves that capture spills and a set of sleeker drawers. The top shelf on the right side can be folded to provide more space for taller items. There's also a full-width drawer for deli and an inside water dispenser.
One of the best aspects of this refrigerator is that its ice maker is inside the freezer, which makes it simple to move the ice to the refrigerator to be used when it is required. The freezer also comes with innovative design features like sliding drawers that allow you to organize your belongings. It has a large bin for storing frozen food, and a separate one for ice.
Smart InstaView panel is a cool feature of the refrigerator. It allows you to control the temperature of your fridge, lighting, and more from your smartphone. It's a great method of monitoring and managing your refrigerator, especially when you're away from home.
But while the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it does not necessarily improve the overall performance of the refrigerator. In fact it took a bit longer to defrost and chill food in this fridge than other refrigerators we tested. This is likely due to its greater capacity.
The other issue we have with the door of this refrigerator. They have sunken handles on the front that allow smaller people to pull them open from the bottom, however they're difficult for taller people to pull closed without slamming them. It would have been better to have 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 a more efficient design. Its capacity is higher than average for a counter-depth model, and it cools evenly and has a good layout. It's also less expensive than the top counter-depth refrigerator with an ice maker, which helps make it an attractive option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for an French door fridge that doesn't break the bank, this Frigidaire is a solid option. It's a basic design that's not as striking visually as other models, but it has enough features to make it a good choice. Its main feature is the adjustable temperature drawer which helps keep food items like meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also has a large water dispenser as well as a good ice machine that works fast.
The "Chill Drawer", which sits over the two crisper bins, is another excellent feature. The drawer lets you use the majority of the fridge's cooling power to the area so it can be used to store food items that require extra attention. french door refrigerator freezer can adjust this feature using an adjustable slider that is located just outside of the drawer. It is also possible to use this to adjust the general cooling settings for the entire fridge, though I've found that adjusting the general settings tends produce better results than specific ones.
During french door refrigerator freezer , the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly consistent across all areas of the fridge. Temperatures in the top and bottom of the fridge did not vary much from 38 degrees, and even the middle of the fridge was within a degree of 36. This is a good performance but does not quite make it to the top of 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. You can also connect this fridge to a smart thermometer for more precise readings of your fridge's internal temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from gray-bodied stainless with a "smudge resistant" finish. It blocks 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 test-product reviews. She has more than 15 years of experience in commerce and publishing, primarily digital and retail. Stephanie is enthusiastic about finding and recommending the best products for consumers, with an emphasis on home products and tech.