French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Melding form with functionality, French-door refrigerators have stylish double doors that open up to an enormous fridge on top and freezer drawer below. These refrigerators stand out due to their distinctive features, including through-the-door dispensers and higher-end ice makers.
We sought out experts like Ladina Schopf, an interior designer, architect, and founder of LS Projects, for tips on picking the right one. They evaluated storage capacity and layout and energy efficiency, among other features.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name of the series suggests that the GE Profile series is targeted at those who wish to incorporate cutting-edge technologies into their kitchen. This fridge is loaded with them all, from a Keurig K cup coffee maker inside 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 and I was expecting better.
This fridge is a great choice, despite the small blip. It has a large freezer compartment, which is uncommon in counter-depth French door fridges, and it holds a fair amount of frozen food when as compared to similar models.
Inside the fridge, there are 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment has 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is about par for a French door fridge costing this much. It comes with a decent size refrigerator with an ice maker in the left door. However 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 what you want to keep. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS also looks attractive. Its LED lighting is a nice addition and the storage bins come with the third shelf, which can fold down to allow you to store items that are tall. The drawers have temperature controls, so you can set them to Beverage, Meat, or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, although I found their textured plastic coatings to be a little rough on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator comes with the all the features you'd expect from a fridge in this price range that includes Wi-Fi as well as app support through 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 also gives you notifications when doors are left open, when the refrigerator or freezer is in need of defrosting, and when it's time to change the filter.
It would be nice if GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill which is an option that is available in a few other GE fridges that allow you to choose how many cups of water you'd like to disperse at once. It also has an indicator on the display of the fridge to show how much water you have remaining, but that's not as helpful as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is a striking piece. It's designed to look like a seamless piece of your kitchen. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also has a vegetable compartment that keeps vegetables and fruits fresher for longer, and dual compressors to preserve food items. The ice maker is one of the most efficient we've ever tested and produces a pyramid-shaped Ice with low water consumption. This fridge is the perfect option for households with a single member 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 several reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained stable at just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and never moving more than a fraction one degree. This is crucial to avoiding freezer burn. The refrigerator section of the refrigerator also did well. It reached the temperature it was set within an hour and maintained that temperature throughout our testing.
Frydge is a household name for its high-end appliances. It's therefore 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 lets you monitor and control your refrigerator remotely from your smartphone or tablet. The refrigerator is costly and has great features and functions at a reasonable cost.
It is crucial to be aware of the limitations of your fridge. It is possible to be inventive with tall items since the fridge is limited in shelf space. Also the shelves aren't sprillproof and can be easily damaged or stained by sharp objects. The trays are easily removed from the fridge. However, they must be cleaned regularly to prevent the growth of mold.
If you're thinking of buying this refrigerator, be sure to review our opinions on the French Door GE Appliances Refrigerator as well as 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 in an extremely compact 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 spill-capture shelves, and a set of crisper drawers. The upper right shelf can be folded down to give tall items more headroom. You'll also find a full-width drawer for deli items and an internal water dispenser.
This refrigerator is equipped with an ice maker, making it easy to transfer the frozen ice as needed. The freezer has thoughtful design elements, too, like sliding drawers to help you better organize the position of items. It comes with a large bin for storing frozen food, and a separate one for ice.
Another awesome feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. It allows you to control the temperature of your fridge and lighting from your smartphone. It's a simple method to keep track of your refrigerator and manage it, especially when you're away from home.
Although the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it does not necessarily improve the overall performance of the refrigerator. In fact it took longer to defrost and chill food in this fridge as compared to other fridges we tested. This is likely due to its bigger capacity.
The doors pose a problem with this refrigerator. The handles with a sunken design allow smaller people to open them from the bottom. However taller people will struggle to close them without slamming them. It would have been better if they had handles mounted on the front.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is a great choice for those looking to combine the look of a French door refrigerator with 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 best counter-depth refrigerator with an ice maker, which can make it an attractive option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for an French door refrigerator that won't break the bank this Frigidaire is a good choice. It's a basic design that isn't as striking in appearance as other models, but it has enough features to make it a good option. Its main feature is the temperature adjustable drawer that helps keep food items such as meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser, as well as an excellent ice maker that operates quickly.
The "Chill Drawer", which sits over the two crisper bins, is a nice feature. This drawer lets you divert a portion of the refrigerator's cooling power directly into this area, so you can put away food items that require extra attention. You can adjust the feature using the slider located on the on the outside of the drawer. It is also possible to use this to set a general cooling level for the entire fridge though I've found that adjusting the generic settings tends to be more effective than specific ones.
In my tests, I found that the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly consistent in various parts of the fridge. Temperatures at the top and bottom of the fridge didn't vary very far from 38 degrees, and the middle of the fridge was within one degree of 36. This is a good performance, but isn't quite at the top of 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 an intelligent thermometer to get more precise readings of your fridge's internal temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from gray-bodied stainless with a "smudge proof" finish. It does a great job of removing streaks and fingerprints, even compared to shiny stainless steel finishes on other appliances I've tried.
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 commerce and publishing experience, with a focus on retail and digital. Stephanie is passionate about finding the best products and recommending them to consumers. She is particularly interested in home goods and technology.