French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door fridges combine form and function. They come with stylish double doors that reveal the large fridge on top and a freezer drawer beneath. Special features such as through-the-door dispensers, ice machines with higher-end features and adjustable flex drawers make them stand out from the crowd.
We contacted Ladina Schopf - interior designer, architect and founder of LS Projects - for her tips on how to select the right one. They evaluated storage capacity as well as layout and energy efficiency as well as other aspects.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name implies that GE's Profile series is geared towards those who want to incorporate cutting-edge technologies in their kitchen. This fridge is loaded with features, from an in-the-door Keurig K-cup coffee maker to a sophisticated water dispenser. But these flourishes don't mask mediocre performance, especially in the refrigerator's freezer and an ineffective temperature-controlled drawer. Since this refrigerator is a premium, I expect better.
Apart from that minor flaw, this fridge is a great option. It has a huge freezer compartment, which is unusual for counter-depth French-door refrigerators. It also holds a lot of frozen food items compared to other models.
The fridge comes with 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment is 18.5 cubic feet, which is standard for a fridge with a French door at this price. It also has a decent-sized icemaker packed into the left-hand door, although it's not the biggest I've seen.
You can adjust the shelves in both compartments to create customized storage arrangement for whatever you have to store. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is attractive. The LED lighting adds an appealing feature. The storage bins in the door come with a third shelf that can be folded down to store large items. The drawers have temperature controls that let you set them to Meat, Beverage or Deli settings. The drawers are easy to shut and open however I found the textured plastic coatings to be a bit rough on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator comes with the full suite of 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, available for iOS and Android devices, lets you control your refrigerator from anywhere in the world, and has a ton of customization options. It will also send you notifications when the door is unlocked, when the fridge or freezer requires defrosting, and when the filter has to be changed.
It would be great it GE PYE22PYNFS could offer Precise Fill which is a feature available in a handful of GE refrigerators that allow users to select how many cups they want to disperse. The fridge displays a countdown timer to reveal how much water remains but it's not as helpful as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
It is designed to look like a seamless part of your kitchen Bosch's French-door refrigerator looks seamless and is an eye-catching piece. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also features a veggie compartment that keeps fruits and vegetables fresher for longer and two compressors for preserving food items. The ice maker we tested was one of the most efficient and produces the shape of a pyramid using only water. This fridge is the perfect option for households with a single member or kitchenettes that want a sleek design and top of the line food preservation.
This refrigerator was rated as the most efficient in our Refrigerators Test for several reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained stable at just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit, never fluctuating by more than a fraction one degree. This is crucial to avoiding freezing burn. The fridge section of the fridge also performed well, achieving the desired initial set temperature within an hour and keeping the temperature constant over the course of our testing.
Bosch has a reputation for premium appliances and appliances, so it's not a surprise that this counter depth refrigerator is also a smart appliance that has the option to connect to your home Wi-Fi and Bosch's Home Connect platform. This app allows you to monitor and control your refrigerator remotely from your smartphone or tablet. The fridge is expensive, but offers great features and functions at a reasonable price.
It's important to understand the limitations of your fridge. You might need to be creative with tall items because the fridge has a small shelf space. Additionally, the shelves are not impervious to sprills and could be stained or damaged by sharp objects. It is easy to take out the refrigerator trays However, be sure to keep them clean to avoid mold growth.
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 counter-depth refrigerator is a great choice for those who need plenty of space in the space of a compact frame. It has a sleek, fingerprint-resistant stainless-steel finish and features thick handles that make them comfortable to grip. The fridge is built with a standard French door design, with two rows of spill-capture shelving and a set crisper drawers. The top shelf on the right side can be folded to provide more space for tall items. There's also a full-width deli drawer and an internal water dispenser.
One of the nice things about this refrigerator is that the ice maker is inside the freezer, which makes it easy to move frozen ice to the fridge to be used when it is needed. french door fridge freezers , as well, such as sliding drawers that can help you to organize the place of your items. It also has a large container for storing frozen food and a separate one for ice.
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 a simple method to monitor your refrigerator and manage it, especially when away from home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat but it doesn't improve the performance of the fridge. The fridge took a bit longer to defrost food and chill it than some others we tested. french door fridge freezer could be due to the bigger capacity.
The other issue we have with the doors of this refrigerator. The handles with a sunken design allow shorter people to open them from the bottom. However taller people will have a difficult time closing them without slamming. It would have been much better if they had a front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is an excellent option for those who want to combine the look of a French door refrigerator with a more efficient design. Its capacity is superior to counter-depth models, and it cools evenly. It's also a bit less than the best counter-depth refrigerator that has an ice maker, which can make it a desirable choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for a French door refrigerator that won't break the bank and isn't expensive, this Frigidaire is a good choice. It's a basic refrigerator which may not be as appealing as some of its competitors, but it still has enough features to make a good choice. Its most important feature is the adjustable temperature drawer, which helps keep foods like veggies and meat fresher for longer. It also has a large water and ice maker dispenser.
Another nice feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. The drawer allows you to divert a portion of the fridge's cooling power directly to this area, which means you can store foods that need extra attention. You can adjust the feature using an adjustable slider that is located just on the outside of the drawer. You can also alter the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I have found that the general settings work better than the specific ones.
During my tests, the refrigerator's temperatures stayed fairly consistent across different areas of the fridge. The temperatures in the top and bottom of the fridge didn't vary very far from 38 degrees, and even the middle of the fridge was within a degree of 36. That's a good performance however it doesn't make it into the top ten 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. You can also combine this fridge with a smart thermometer to get more precise measurements of your fridge's internal temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from grey-bodied stainless with a "smudge proof" finish. It does a great job of removing streaks and fingerprints even when compared with glossy stainless steel finishes on other appliances I've tested.
Stephanie Cronk, executive editor of Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews Team, oversees the site's buyer's guides as well as product test reviews. She has more than 15 years of publishing and commerce experience, mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is passionate about finding the most effective products and recommending them to customers. She is particularly interested in home goods and technology.