French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators are a perfect blend of form and function. They come with stylish double doors that reveal an enormous fridge on top and a freezer drawer below. These refrigerators stand out due to their distinctive features, including through-the-door dispensers and higher-end Ice makers.
We asked experts like Ladina Schopf, interior designer and architect, as well as the founder of LS Projects, for tips on choosing the right model. 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 consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge technology in their kitchen. This fridge has them all from the Keurig K cup coffee maker in 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 good choice, despite the blip. It has a large freezer compartment, which is uncommon in counter-depth French door refrigerators. Furthermore, it can hold a decent amount of frozen food when in comparison 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 what you would expect from the size of a French door fridge costing this much. It also has an adequate-sized icemaker that is tucked away in the left-hand door, although it's not the biggest I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in both compartments to create a a custom storage solution. The GE PYE22PYNFS's design for the interior is stylish, too. Its LED lighting is a nice touch, and the in-door storage bins have a third shelf that can fold down to allow you to store large items. The drawers come with temperature controls that let you set them to Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, however I found their textured plastic coatings to be a little difficult on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator has 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 available for iOS and Android devices and lets you manage your refrigerator from anywhere in the globe. It also comes with many options for customization. It also alerts you when a door is 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 the GE PYE22PYNFS came with Precise Fill it's an option in a handful of other GE fridges that allow you to preset how many cups of water you'd like to pour out at a time. The fridge displays a countdown timer to reveal how much water remains however it's not as helpful as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Designed to look like a seamless piece of your kitchen, Bosch's French-door refrigerator is one of a kind. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also features a veggie compartment that keeps vegetables and fruits fresher for longer and two compressors for preserving food items. The ice maker we tested was one of the most efficient, and it produces pyramid shaped ice using minimal water. This refrigerator is a great option for households with a single member or kitchenettes looking for a built-in look and top of the line food preservation.
This fridge was the top-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators test for various reasons. Its freezer temperatures held firm at just a few degrees Fahrenheit and never moving more than a fraction of one degree. This is crucial to preventing freezing burn. The refrigerator section of the refrigerator also performed well. It reached the initial temperature within an hour, and maintained that temperature throughout our testing.
Bosch is known for its top-quality appliances. Therefore, it's not a surprise that Bosch's counter depth fridge Bosch counter depth fridge can be connected to your home Wi Fi and Bosch's Home Connect. This app lets you monitor and control your fridge from your tablet or smartphone. The refrigerator is expensive, but it offers great features and capabilities for the price.
While the fridge is an incredible appliance, it's important to know the limitations. You may need to get creative with tall objects because the fridge is limited in shelf space. Also the shelves aren't impervious to sprills and could be 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 french style fridge freezer of buying this refrigerator, you should also check out our review of the French Door GE Appliances Refrigerator and the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The LG LRFLC2706S counter-depth refrigerator is a great option for those who require plenty of space in 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 features a standard French door design, and two rows of shelves that can be used to capture spills and a set crisper drawers. The top shelf on 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 easy to move the frozen ice as needed. The freezer features thoughtful design elements, for instance, sliding drawers that can help you to organize the place of items. It also comes with a large bin that can hold plenty of frozen food items and an additional ice storage bin.
Another awesome feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. You can control the temperature, lighting and other aspects of your fridge using your smartphone. It's an easy way to monitor your refrigerator and control it, particularly 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 fridge than some of the others we test. This is likely due to its bigger capacity.
The doors pose a problem with this refrigerator. They have handles that are sunken on the front that allow shorter people to easily pull them open from the bottom, but they're difficult for taller people to pull closed without slamming them. It would have been more effective to have front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a excellent choice for those who want to combine the advantages of a French-door refrigerator's aesthetics with a more efficient layout. french door fridge freezers is superior for a counter-depth model, and it cools evenly and has a great layout. It's also a bit less than the best 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 choice for those looking for a French-door fridge that doesn't break the budget. It's a minimalist design that's not as striking in appearance as some of the competition but it does have enough features to make it a good pick. Its most significant feature, the adjustable temperature drawer, helps to keep food like vegetables and meat fresher longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser as well as a good ice maker that operates quickly.
The "Chill Drawer", which sits over the two crisper bins, is another excellent feature. This drawer lets you redirect a portion of the refrigerator's cooling power directly into this area, meaning you can put away food items that need extra attention. You can adjust this feature by using the slider located on the outside of the drawer. You can also alter the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I've noticed that the generic settings work better than the specific ones.
In my tests, the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly consistent across all areas of the fridge. The temperatures in the top and bottom of the fridge didn't stray significantly from 38 degrees, and even the middle of the fridge was within one degree of 36. This is a solid performance but does not quite make it to 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 pair this fridge with a smart thermometer to get more precise measurements of your fridge's internal temperature.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's exterior is constructed of grey-bodied stainless steel with a "smudge-proof" finish. It does a great job of preventing streaks and fingerprints from appearing even when compared to the shiny stainless steel finishes on other appliances I've tested.
Stephanie Cronk is the executive editor of 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 commerce and publishing experience, primarily in digital and retail. Stephanie is enthusiastic about finding and recommending the best products for consumers, with a an emphasis on home products and technology.