French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators blend functionality and form. They come with stylish double doors that reveal the large fridge on top, and a freezer drawer beneath. These refrigerators stand out due to their special features, including door-to-door dispensers and more expensive ice makers.
We contacted Ladina Schopf - an interior designer, architect and the founder of LS Projects - for her tips on how to select the right home. We looked at the capacity of storage, layout, and energy efficiency, among other aspects.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
As the name suggests, GE's Profile series is geared towards those who want to incorporate cutting-edge features into their kitchen. This fridge has them all from a Keurig K cup coffee maker in the door to a sophisticated dispenser of water. But these flourishes don't mask mediocre performance, especially in the refrigerator's freezer and an ineffective temperature-controlled drawer. The refrigerator is expensive and I expected more.
Apart from that minor flaw however, this refrigerator is a fantastic choice. It has a huge freezer compartment that is not common for counter-depth French-door fridges. It also holds a lot of frozen food compared to other models.
Inside the fridge, there are 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment is 18.5 cubic feet, which is the standard for a French-door refrigerator at this price. It has a decent-sized refrigerator with an ice maker in the left door. But it's not the biggest one I've seen.
You can adjust the shelving in each compartment to create a customized storage layout for what you want to keep. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is also attractive. The LED lighting is a nice addition, and the in-door storage bins feature an additional shelf that folds up beneath itself to make it possible to store tall items. The drawers have temperature controls, so you can set them to Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. The drawers are simple to shut and open however I found the plastic's textured coatings to be a bit rough on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator includes all the features you'd expect from a refrigerator in this price range. It has Wi-Fi as well as app support and GE's SmartHQ Software. The app is compatible with iOS and Android devices and lets you manage your refrigerator from anywhere in the globe. It also has many options for customization. It also alerts you when a door is left open, when your fridge 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 it's an option in a few other GE fridges that allows you to choose how many cups of water you'd like to disperse at once. It does offer an indicator on the fridge display to display how much water have remaining, but that's not as useful as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Created to appear 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 boasts a veggie compartment to keep vegetables and fruits fresher for longer, and two compressors to ensure the best food preservation. The Ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient, and it produces pyramid shaped ice using minimal water. This refrigerator is a great choice for single household or kitchenettes that want a built-in look and top of the line food preservation.
The fridge was rated the best refrigerator in our Refrigerators test, for various reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained constant at just above 0° Fahrenheit and never fluctuated more than a fraction - this is crucial to prevent freezing burn. The fridge's refrigerator section also performed well, reaching the desired temperature for initial set within an hour and maintaining that temperature steady throughout the course of our testing.
Bosch is known for its top-of-the-line 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 and Bosch's Home Connect platform. This app allows you to monitor and control your refrigerator remotely on your tablet or smartphone. french door fridge freezers is expensive however, it offers excellent features and functions at a reasonable cost.
It is crucial to be aware of the limitations of your fridge. You may need to get inventive with tall items since the fridge has a limited shelf space. Additionally, the shelves are not completely sprillproof, and can easily be stained or damaged by sharp objects. The trays are easily removed from the refrigerator. However, they must be cleaned regularly to prevent the growth of mold.
If you're thinking of buying this refrigerator, you should also look over our review of the French Door GE Appliances Refrigerator and the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The LG LRFLC2706S is a top counter-depth refrigerator that packs plenty 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 the standard French-door layout, with gallon-sized door bins at each door and two rows of shelves that capture spills, and a set of more spacious drawers. The top shelf to the right can be folded in order to create more space for taller items. You'll also find a full width deli drawer and an internal water dispenser.
This refrigerator is equipped with an ice maker making it simple to transfer ice when needed. The freezer is designed with thoughtful elements, as well, such as sliding drawers to help you better organize the placement of your items. It also comes with a large bin that holds plenty of frozen food items as well as a separate storage bin for ice.
Another great 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 great way to control and monitor your refrigerator, especially when you're away from home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat, but it doesn't necessarily enhance the efficiency of the fridge. In fact, it took longer to defrost and chill food in this refrigerator as compared to other fridges we tested. This could be due to the larger capacity.
The doors are a different issue with this refrigerator. The handles that are sunken allow smaller people to open them from the bottom. However, taller people still have a hard time closing them without slamming. It would have been better if they had front-mounted handle.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is an excellent option for those looking to blend the look and feel of a French-door refrigerator with more efficient design. It has a capacity that is higher than average for counter-depth models, and it cools evenly. It's also a little cheaper than the top counter-depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, which helps make it an attractive option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a good option if you want a French-door fridge that doesn't break the budget. It's a minimalist design that's not as striking visually as some of the competition but it does have enough features that make it a great choice. Its main feature is the adjustable temperature drawer which helps keep food items like meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser, as well as an excellent Ice machine that is fast.
Another nice feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. This drawer lets you divert a portion of the fridge's cooling power directly to this area, which means you can store foods that require special attention. This feature can be adjusted by using a slider on the outside of the drawer. You can also alter the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I've found that the generic settings are more effective than the specific ones.
During my tests, the temperature of the refrigerator were fairly constant across the different areas of the fridge. The temperatures in the middle, top and bottom of the fridge didn't differ much from 38 degrees. That's a good performance however it doesn't make it into the top ten 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. The fridge can be linked with a smart thermostat in order to obtain more precise readings of the internal temperature of your fridge.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's exterior is made of stainless steel with a grey body that has 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 is the executive editor on Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews team and oversees the site's buyer's guide and review of test products. She has more than 15 years of experience in publishing and commerce mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is passionate about finding and recommending the best products for consumers, with an emphasis on home products and technology.