French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Melding form with functionality, French-door refrigerators have stylish double doors that open to a spacious fridge up the top and a freezer drawer below. These refrigerators stand out because of their special features, such as door-to-door dispensers and more expensive Ice makers.
We consulted Ladina Schopf - interior designer, architect and founder of LS Projects - for her tips on how to select the best one. They weighed storage capacity as well as layout, energy efficiency, and other features.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Like its name implies, GE’s Profile series is aimed at people who want to incorporate cutting-edge technologies into their kitchen. This fridge is loaded with them all, from a Keurig K cup coffee maker on 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. Given that this fridge costs a premium, I expect better.
Apart from that minor flaw, this fridge is a great choice. It has a huge freezer compartment that is not common for counter-depth French-door fridges. It also holds plenty of frozen food compared to other models.
Inside the fridge, there are 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment has 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is on the same as an French door refrigerator that costs this much. It has a decent-sized icemaker in the left door. However french door fridge freezers 's not the most spacious one I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in both compartments for a custom storage solution. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS also looks attractive. Its LED lighting is a nice feature, and the in-door storage bins have an additional shelf that folds down to allow you to store tall items. The drawers have temperature controls that let you set them to Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. The drawers are simple to open and shut, but I found the textured plastic coatings a bit hard on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator has all the features you would expect from a refrigerator within this price range. This includes Wi-Fi as well as app support, and GE's SmartHQ Software. The app, which is available for iOS and Android devices can let you control your fridge from anywhere in world, and it has a ton of customization options. It will also send you notifications when the door is left unlocked, when the fridge or freezer must be defrosted and when the filter requires a change.
It would be nice if the GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill it's an option in a handful of other GE fridges that allow you to set the number of cups of water you'd like to dispense simultaneously. The fridge shows a countdown to show you how much water is left, but it's not as helpful as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is an impressive product. 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 veggie compartment that keeps vegetables and fruits fresher for longer, and dual compressors to preserve food items. The ice maker is one of the top we've tested, and it produces a pyramid-shaped form of ice that is low in water consumption. This fridge is perfect for a single household or a kitchenette that wants an attractive design and top of the line food preservation.
This fridge was the top-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators Test for various reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained stable at a level that was just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit and never moving more than a fraction a degree--this is key to preventing freezer burn. The fridge section of the fridge also performed well, achieving the desired temperature for initial set within an hour and maintaining that temperature steady throughout the course of our tests.
Bosch is known for its top-quality appliances. It's therefore no surprise that Bosch's counter depth fridge Bosch counter depth fridge can be connected to your home Wi Fi and Bosch's platform Home Connect. The app lets you monitor and manage your fridge remotely using your tablet or smartphone. The fridge is expensive, however it has top-quality features and functions for the price.
While the fridge is a fantastic piece of equipment, it's important to know the limitations. You might need to be creative with tall objects because the fridge is limited in shelf space. The shelves aren't resistant to spills and are easily damaged or stained by sharp objects. It is easy to take out the trays in the fridge however, you must clean them frequently to prevent mold growth.
If you're thinking about buying this refrigerator, be sure to also read our reviews 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 need lots of space within 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 fridge features a standard French-door layout with gallon-sized bins for the doors on each door as well as two rows of spill-capture shelves and a set of crisper drawers. The top shelf to the right can be folded down to make space for tall items. You'll also find a full-width drawer for deli items and an internal water dispenser.
This refrigerator has a freezer with an ice maker making it simple to transfer ice when needed. The freezer has thoughtful design elements, as well, such as sliding drawers that can help you better organize the placement of items. It also has a large container for storing frozen food and a separate container for ice.
Another cool feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. It allows you to control the fridge's temperature as well as lighting using your smartphone. It's a good method of monitoring and managing your refrigerator, particularly if you're away from 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 other models we test. This is likely due to the greater capacity.
The other issue we have with the doors of this refrigerator. The handles that are sunken let shorter people open them from the bottom. However taller people will struggle to close them without slamming. It would have been much better if they had handles mounted on the front.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a ideal option for those looking to combine the benefits of a French-door refrigerator's aesthetics with an efficient layout. Its capacity is higher than average for a counter-depth model and it cools evenly and has a good layout. It's also a little cheaper than the best counter-depth refrigerator with an ice maker, which helps make it a desirable choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for an French door fridge that doesn't break the bank this Frigidaire is a good choice. It's a minimalist design that's not as striking visually as some of the competition, but it has enough features that make it a great choice. Its most notable feature is the adjustable temperature drawer, helps to keep food items like vegetables and meat fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser and a decent ice machine that works fast.
The "Chill Drawer", which is located above the two crisper bins, is another great feature. This drawer lets you redirect some of the fridge's cooling power directly to this area, meaning you can keep food items that need extra attention. You can adjust this feature by using an adjustable slider that is located just outside of the drawer. You can also use this feature to adjust the general cooling settings for the entire fridge, though I've found that adjusting the generic settings tends to be more effective than specific ones.
In my tests, the temperatures of the refrigerator 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 the middle of the fridge was within a 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. The fridge can be linked with a smart thermostat to obtain more precise readings of the internal temperature of your fridge.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's outside is made of grey-bodied stainless steel that has a "smudge-proof" finish. It blocks streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I've tested.
Stephanie Cronk is the executive editor on 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, mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is adamant about finding the most effective products and recommending them to consumers. She focuses on home goods and technology.