French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Combining form and functionality, French-door refrigerators have elegant double doors that open to an expansive fridge on top and freezer drawer below. Special features like door-to-door dispensers, higher-end ice machines and adjustable flex drawers make them stand out from the rest.
We asked experts like Ladina Schopf, interior designer and architect, as well as the founder of LS Projects, for tips on picking the right one. They looked at storage capacity, layout and energy efficiency, among other features.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Like the name suggests, the GE Profile series is geared towards the consumer who wants to incorporate cutting-edge technology into their kitchen. This refrigerator is packed with them, from an in-the-door Keurig K-cup coffee maker to a sophisticated water dispenser. But these flourishes don't mask mediocre performance, especially in the refrigerator's freezer and an ineffective temperature-controlled drawer. This fridge is expensive and I expected more.
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 can hold a decent amount of frozen food when as compared to similar models.
The fridge is equipped with 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment is 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is about par for a French door fridge that costs this much. It comes with a decent size refrigerator with an ice maker in the left door. But it's not the most spacious one I've seen.
You can adjust the shelves in each compartment to create a custom storage setup for the items you need to keep. The GE PYE22PYNFS's design for the interior is stylish, too. Its LED lighting is a nice touch and the inside storage bins come with the third shelf, which 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, however I found their plastic textured coatings to be a little rough on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator comes with the full suite of features you'd expect from a refrigerator in this price range that includes Wi-Fi as well as 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 the world, and offers a ton of customization options. It will also send you notifications when the door is unlocked, when the fridge or freezer must be defrosted and when the filter requires a change.
It would be great if GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill the option that is found in a few GE refrigerators that allows users to select the number of cups they would like to pour out. The fridge displays a countdown timer to show you how much water remains, but it's not as useful as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is an impressive product. 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 comes with a veggie compartment that helps keep fruits and vegetables fresher longer, and two compressors to ensure maximum preservation of food. The Ice maker is among the top we've tested, and it produces a pyramid-shaped form of ice that is low in water consumption. This refrigerator is ideal for a single household or a kitchenette that wants an elegant design and top of the line food preservation.
This fridge 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 in preventing freezer burn. The fridge section of the fridge also did well. It reached the initial temperature within an hour and maintained the 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 as well as Bosch's Home Connect platform. The app lets you monitor and control your fridge remotely from your tablet or smartphone. The fridge is expensive and has great features and capabilities at a reasonable cost.
It is crucial to be aware of the limitations of your fridge. It has a limited shelf space, which means you'll need to be creative when storing tall objects. Also the shelves aren't sprillproof and can be easily damaged or stained by sharp objects. It's easy to remove the trays in the fridge however, you must keep them clean to avoid mold growth.
If you are considering this refrigerator, be sure to 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 fridge 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. The fridge has the standard French door design, with two rows of shelving with spill-capture and a set crisper drawers. The top shelf to the right can be folded in order to create more space for tall items. There's also a full-width drawer to store deli items and an internal water dispenser.
This refrigerator is equipped with an ice maker, making it simple to transfer frozen ice whenever you need it. The freezer also has innovative design features like sliding drawers that allow you to sort your things. It has a large bin for storing frozen food 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 an easy way to keep track of your refrigerator and control it, especially when not at home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat, but it doesn't necessarily improve the performance of the fridge. The fridge took a bit longer to chill food and defrost it than some others we tried. This is probably due to its larger capacity.
The other issue we have with the doors of this refrigerator. They have sunken handles at the front, which allows smaller people to pull them open from the bottom, however they're difficult for taller people to steer closed without slamming the doors. It would have been more effective if they had handles mounted on the front.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a excellent option for those looking to combine the benefits of a French-door refrigerator's aesthetics with a more efficient layout. Its capacity is superior for a counter-depth model, and it cools evenly and has a good layout. It's also a bit cheaper than the most expensive counter depth refrigerators that have an icemaker, which makes it a great option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for an French door refrigerator that won't cost you a fortune and isn't expensive, this Frigidaire is a good choice. It's a basic refrigerator that may not be as eye-catching like some of its competitors, but it still has enough features to make it a good option. Its most significant feature, the adjustable temperature drawer helps to keep food like vegetables and meat fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser and a decent ice maker that operates quickly.
french door fridge freezers is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. reference allows you to divert a portion of the fridge's cooling power directly to this area, which means you can keep food items that need extra attention. This feature can be adjusted using a slider on the outside of the drawer. You can also use this feature to adjust the general cooling settings for the entire fridge, but I've noticed that adjusting the general settings tends have a better effect than specific ones.
In my tests, the refrigerator's temperatures stayed fairly consistent across different areas of the fridge. Temperatures in the top and bottom of the fridge didn't vary very far from 38 degrees, and even the middle of the fridge was within one 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. This fridge can be connected with a smart thermostat in order to get more accurate readings on the internal temperature of your fridge.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's exterior is made of grey-bodied stainless steel which has a "smudge-proof" finish. It blocks streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I've seen.
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 experience in commerce and publishing, primarily digital and retail. Stephanie is committed to finding and recommending the top products for consumers, with a an emphasis on home products and technology.