French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Melding form with function, French-door refrigerators offer stylish double doors that open to a spacious fridge up the top and a freezer drawer beneath. These refrigerators stand out due to their special features, such as door-to-door dispensers and more expensive ice makers.
We consulted Ladina Schopf - interior designer, architect, and the founder of LS Projects - for her advice on how to choose the right one. They weighed storage capacity and layout and energy efficiency, among other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
As the name suggests, the GE Profile series targets consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge technology in their kitchen. This refrigerator has it all from the 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. This refrigerator is costly, so I expected better.
This fridge is a great choice, despite the blip. It has a large freezer compartment which is uncommon for counter-depth French-door fridges. It also has a large capacity for frozen food, which is a big difference from other models.
Inside the fridge, there are 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment has 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is roughly on the same as a French door refrigerator that costs this much. It has a decent-sized freezer in the left side. However it's not the most spacious one I've seen.
You can adjust the shelves in both compartments for the perfect storage solution. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS also looks attractive. The LED lighting is a nice touch and the storage bins feature an additional shelf that folds down to allow you to store items that are tall. The drawers have temperature controls that let you 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 hard on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator comes with the full suite of features you'd expect from a refrigerator at this price, including Wi-Fi and app support through GE's SmartHQ software. The app, which is available for iOS and Android devices, lets you control your fridge from anywhere in world, and has a ton of customization options. It also gives you notifications when doors are left open, when the fridge or freezer is in need of defrosting, and when it's time to change the filter.
It would be great it GE PYE22PYNFS offered Precise fill, an option found in a few GE refrigerators that allows users to choose how many cups they want to dispense. It also has an indicator on the display of the fridge to display how much water you have remaining, but that'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 part 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 helps keep vegetables and fruits fresher longer, and two compressors for the best food preservation. The ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient and makes pyramid shaped ice using minimal water. This refrigerator is ideal for a single family or kitchenette that needs an attractive design and top of the line food preservation.
This refrigerator was rated as the most efficient in our Refrigerators Test for several reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained stable at just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit and never fluctuating by more than a fraction an inch. This is essential to preventing freezing burn. The fridge's fridge section also performed well, achieving the temperature that was set for the initial setting within a matter of hours and keeping that temperature steady throughout the course of our tests.
Bosch is a household name known for its top-quality appliances. Therefore, it's no surprise that Bosch counter depth refrigerator is one of them. Bosch counter depth refrigerator can be connected to your home Wi Fi and Bosch's platform Home Connect. This app allows you to monitor and control your fridge remotely from your smartphone or tablet. The fridge is expensive, however it has top-quality features and functions for the cost.
While the fridge is an incredible appliance but it's important to be aware of the limitations. It is possible to be creative with tall objects because the fridge has a small shelf space. Additionally, the shelves are not completely sprillproof, and can easily be stained or damaged by sharp objects. It's simple to remove the refrigerator trays however, you must keep them clean to avoid the growth of mold.
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 is a great counter-depth refrigerator that packs a lot of storage into 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, with two rows of shelves that can be used to capture spills and a set of crisper drawers. The upper right shelf can be folded down to give tall items more room. You'll also find a full width deli drawer and an internal water dispenser.
One of the best aspects of this refrigerator is that the ice maker is in the freezer, which makes it easy to move frozen ice to the fridge for use when required. The freezer features thoughtful design elements, for instance, sliding drawers that can help you better organize the placement of your items. It comes with a large bin for storing frozen food, and a separate container for ice.
Smart InstaView panel is another awesome feature of the refrigerator. It allows you to control the temperature of your fridge and lighting from your smartphone. It's an easy way to keep track of your refrigerator and control it, especially when you're not at home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat but it doesn't improve the efficiency of the fridge. In fact it took longer to defrost and chill foods in this refrigerator than some of the others we tested. This is likely due to the greater capacity.
The doors pose a problem with this fridge. They have handles that are sunken at the front, which allows shorter people to easily open them from the bottom, however they're not easy for taller people to guide closed without slamming them. It would have been better if they had a front-mounted handle.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a ideal option for those looking to combine the advantages of a fridge with a French door with a more efficient layout. Its capacity is higher than average for counter-depth models and also cools evenly. It's also a little cheaper than the best counter-depth refrigerator with an ice maker, which helps make it a popular choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a great choice for those looking for a French-door fridge that won't break the budget. It's a basic refrigerator that might not be as appealing like some of its competitors, but it still has enough features to make it a an excellent choice. Its most important feature, the temperature adjustable drawer, helps to keep food items such as vegetables and meat fresher for longer. It also has a large water dispenser, as well as an excellent Ice machine that is fast.
The "Chill Drawer", which sits above the two crisper bins, is a great feature. This drawer lets you use a portion of your fridge's cooling power to this area, so that you can keep food items that require extra attention. This feature can be adjusted using a slider on the outside of the drawer. You can also set the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. french door fridge freezers have found that the general settings are more effective than the specific ones.
During my tests, I discovered that the temperatures in the refrigerator were fairly consistent in different areas of the fridge. The temperatures in the middle, top and bottom of the refrigerator did not differ much from 38 degrees. This is a great performance but doesn't 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 pair this fridge with a smart thermometer for more precise measurements of the internal temperature of your fridge.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made of grey-bodied stainless with a "smudge resistant" 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 and product test reviews. french door fridge and freezer has more than 15 years of publishing and commerce experience, mostly in digital and retail. Stephanie is adamant about finding the most effective products and recommending them to consumers. She focuses on home goods and technology.