French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators blend functionality and form. They feature elegant double doors that open to reveal an enormous fridge on top and a freezer drawer beneath. Special features like door-to-door dispensers, high-end ice machines, and customizable flex drawers make them stand out from the rest.
We asked experts like Ladina Schopf, interior designer architect, founder, and co-founder of LS Projects, for tips on choosing the right model. They evaluated the capacity of storage and layout, energy efficiency, and other aspects.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Like the name suggests, the GE Profile series targets consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge features into their kitchen. This fridge has 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. Since this refrigerator costs a premium, I expect higher quality.
Aside from that blip however, this refrigerator is a great option. It has a huge freezer compartment, which is unusual for counter-depth French-door fridges. It also holds plenty of frozen food, which is a big difference from other models.
Inside the fridge, you'll find 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment is 18.5 cubic feet, which is the standard for a French-door refrigerator at this price. It also has a decent-sized icemaker in the left door, but it isn't the largest I've seen.
You can adjust the shelves in each compartment to create a customized storage arrangement for the items you need to keep. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is good-looking, too. Its LED lighting is a nice touch, and the in-door storage bins come with a third shelf that folds down so that you can store tall items. The drawers are equipped with temperature controls so you can set them for Meat, Beverage or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, however I found their plastic textured coatings to be a bit hard on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator has all the features you'd expect from a refrigerator within this price range. This includes Wi-Fi, app support and GE's SmartHQ Software. The app is compatible with iOS and Android devices and lets you manage your refrigerator from anywhere across the globe. It also offers many options for customization. It will also send notifications when the door is left unlocked and when the fridge or freezer must be defrosted and when the filter has to be changed.
It would be nice to have GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill, an option available in a handful of GE refrigerators that allows users to set the amount of cups they wish to dispense. The fridge displays a countdown timer to reveal how much water is left, but it's not as useful as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Designed to look like a seamless part 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 has a vegetable compartment that keeps vegetables and fruits fresher for longer periods, and two compressors for preserving food. The ice maker is one of the most efficient we've ever tested and produces a pyramid-shaped Ice with low use of water. This refrigerator is a great option for a single family or kitchenettes looking for an integrated look and top of the line food preservation.
This fridge was rated as the top in our Refrigerators Test for a variety of reasons. Its freezer temperatures remained constant at just above 0° Fahrenheit and never fluctuated more than a tiny fraction - this is crucial to avoid freezer burn. The fridge section of the refrigerator also did well. It reached the temperature it was set within an hour, and remained at the temperature throughout our testing.
Bosch is a household name for its high-end 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 platform Home Connect. This app allows you to monitor and control your fridge remotely from your tablet or smartphone. The fridge is expensive however, it offers excellent features and capabilities at a reasonable cost.
It's important to understand the limitations of your fridge. It has a narrow shelf space, which means you'll require some creativity when it comes to storing large items. Also, the shelves are not impervious to sprills and could be damaged or stained by sharp objects. It's simple to remove the refrigerator trays however, you must keep them clean to avoid the growth of mold.
If you are considering this refrigerator, be sure to check out our review of the GE Appliances French Door Refrigerator and the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The LG LRFLC2706S is an excellent 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. The fridge has a standard French door layout, with two rows of spill-capture shelving and a set crisper drawers. The top right shelf can be folded down to give taller items more space. You'll also find a full width deli drawer and an internal water dispenser.
One of the best things about this refrigerator is that its ice maker is inside the freezer, which makes it easy to transfer frozen ice to the fridge to use as required. The freezer also features thoughtful design features, such as sliding drawers that can help you organize your belongings. It also has a huge bin that can accommodate plenty of frozen food items as well as an additional storage bin for ice.
Smart InstaView panel is another awesome feature of the refrigerator. french door refrigerator freezer can control the temperature, lighting, and other aspects of your fridge using your smartphone. It's a nice way to monitor and manage your refrigerator, especially when you're away from home.
But while the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it does not necessarily add to the overall performance of the refrigerator. In fact it took a bit longer to defrost and chill foods in this refrigerator as compared to other fridges we tested. This could be due to the greater capacity.
The other issue we have with the doors of this refrigerator. They have sunken handles on the front, which allow shorter people to easily pull them open from the bottom, however they're difficult for taller people to pull closed without slamming them. It would have been better if they had handles mounted on the front.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a good option for those looking to combine the benefits of a fridge with a French door with a more 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 less than the most expensive counter depth refrigerators that have an icemaker, which makes it a great option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a good choice if you want a French-door fridge that won't break the budget. It's a basic refrigerator which may not be as attractive like some of its competitors however it has enough features to make a an excellent choice. Its most important feature is the adjustable temperature drawer which helps keep food items like veggies and meat fresher for longer. It also has a large water dispenser and a decent ice maker that operates quickly.
The "Chill Drawer", which is situated above the two crisper bins, is a nice feature. This drawer lets you direct the majority of the fridge's cooling power into this area so that you can store foods which need extra attention. This feature can be adjusted by using a slider on the outside of the drawer. You can also set the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I've noticed that the general settings work better than the specific ones.
In my tests, the temperature of the refrigerator were fairly consistent across all areas of the fridge. The temperatures in the top, bottom and middle of the refrigerator did not differ much from 38 degrees. This is a pretty good performance however it doesn't rank among the best in 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. This fridge can be connected with a smart thermostat to gain more precise information on the internal temperature of your fridge.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made of grey-bodied stainless with a "smudge resistant" finish. It repels fingerprints and streaks better than other stainless steel finishes 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 over 15 years of experience in commerce and publishing including retail and digital. Stephanie is passionate about finding the best products and recommending them to customers. She focuses on home goods and technology.