French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door fridges combine form and function. They feature stylish double doors that reveal an enormous fridge on top, and a freezer drawer below. These refrigerators stand out due to their special features, such as through-the-door dispensers as well as higher-end ice makers.
We consulted experts such as Ladina Schopf, an interior designer architect, founder, and co-founder of LS Projects, for tips on how to select the best one. They considered the capacity of storage as well as layout, energy efficiency, and other features.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name implies that the GE Profile series is targeted at consumers 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 clever 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 costs more, I'd expect better.
This fridge is a good choice, despite the small blip. It features a large freezer compartment which is uncommon for counter-depth French-door refrigerators. It also holds plenty of frozen food items compared to other models.
Inside the fridge, you'll find 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment has 18.5 cubic feet, which is the standard for a fridge with a French door at this price. It comes with a decent size freezer in the left side. However french style fridge freezer with ice dispenser 's not the biggest one I've seen.
You can adjust the shelves in both compartments to create custom storage setup for the items you need to keep. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is good-looking, too. The LED lighting is an appealing touch. The in-door storage bins include a third shelf that can be folded down to store tall items. The drawers include temperature controls that allow you to set them to 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 is equipped with a complete set of features you'd expect from a refrigerator at this price, including Wi-Fi and app support through GE's SmartHQ software. The app is available on iOS and Android devices and allows you to control your refrigerator from any place around the world. It also offers a lot of customization options. It also alerts you when doors are 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 GE PYE22PYNFS came with Precise Fill, an option available in a handful of other GE refrigerators that allows you to choose how many cups of water you'd like to dispense at once. The fridge shows a countdown to display 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 it's a seamless part of your kitchen. 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 to preserve food items. The ice maker we tested was one of the most efficient and produces an ice pyramid with only a little water. This refrigerator is the ideal option for a single family or kitchenettes looking for an integrated look and top-of-the-line food preservation.
The fridge was rated the best refrigerator in our Refrigerators test for various reasons. Its freezer temperatures remained constant at just above 0°F and never changed more than a tiny fraction - this is crucial to prevent the risk of a freezer burn. The fridge section of the refrigerator also performed well. It reached the initial temperature within an hour, and maintained the temperature throughout our tests.
Bosch has a reputation for top-of-the-line appliances which is why it's no surprise that this counter-depth refrigerator is also a smart appliance, with the option to connect to your home Wi-Fi and Bosch's Home Connect platform. The app allows you to control and monitor your refrigerator remotely from your smartphone or tablet. The refrigerator is costly, but offers great features and functions at a reasonable cost.
It is important to know the limitations of your fridge. You may need to get inventive with tall items since the fridge has a small shelf space. Additionally, the shelves are not sprillproof and can be easily damaged or stained by sharp objects. It's simple to remove the trays from the fridge However, be sure to clean them frequently to prevent the growth of mold.
If you're thinking of buying this refrigerator, be sure to read our review of the GE Appliances French Door Refrigerator and the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The LG LRFLC2706S counter-depth fridge is a great choice for those who need lots of space within 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. Inside, the fridge has 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 upper right shelf can be folded down to give taller items more headroom. You'll also find a full-width drawer for deli items and an internal water dispenser.
This refrigerator is equipped with an ice maker making it easy to transfer the frozen ice whenever you need it. The freezer also features thoughtful design features, like sliding drawers that can help you organize your items. It also has a large container for storing frozen food and a separate one for ice.
Another great feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. You can manage the temperature, lighting, and other aspects of your refrigerator from your smartphone. It's an easy way to keep track of your refrigerator and manage it, especially when not at home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat however it doesn't improve the efficiency of the fridge. The refrigerator took longer to defrost food and chill it than some others we test. This could be due to the greater capacity.
The other issue we have with this refrigerator is its doors. They have sunken handles at the front, which allows shorter people to easily open them from the bottom, however they're not easy for taller people to pull closed without slamming the doors. It would have been better to have front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a ideal choice for those who want to combine the benefits of a French-door refrigerator's aesthetics with a more efficient layout. Its capacity is above average for counter-depth models and also cools evenly. It's also less expensive than the most expensive counter depth refrigerator that comes with an icemaker, which makes it a desirable 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 won't break the budget. It's a simple fridge which may not be as eye-catching as some of its competitors however it has enough features to make it a good option. Its most notable characteristic is the adjustable temperature drawer which helps keep food items like veggies and meat fresher for longer. It also comes with a large water and ice maker dispenser.
The "Chill Drawer", which is located over the two crisper bins, is a great feature. This drawer allows you to redirect some of the refrigerator's cooling power to this area, so it can be used to store food items that require extra attention. This feature is adjustable using a slider on the outside of the drawer. It is also possible to use this to set a general cooling setting 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 refrigerator's temperatures stayed fairly consistent across different areas of the fridge. The temperatures in the middle, top and bottom of the refrigerator did not differ much from 38 degrees. This is a great performance, but does not quite make it to the top of 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. This fridge can be connected with a smart thermostat in order to get more accurate readings on the internal temperature of your fridge.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from grey-bodied stainless with a "smudge proof" finish. It does an excellent job of preventing streaks and fingerprints from appearing even when compared to the glossier stainless steel finishes on other appliances I've tried.
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 publishing and commerce experience, primarily in retail and digital. Stephanie is adamant about finding the best products and recommending them to customers. She is particularly interested in home goods and technology.