French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators blend form and function. They have elegant double doors that open to reveal a large fridge on top, and a freezer drawer below. Special features like door-to-door dispensers, ice machines with higher-end features and adjustable 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 how to select the best one. They looked at the storage capacity, layout, and energy efficiency among other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Like the name suggests, the GE Profile series is targeted at the consumer who wants to incorporate cutting-edge technology in their kitchen. This refrigerator is packed with them, 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 an extra amount, I'd like to see higher quality.
Aside from that blip however, this refrigerator is a great choice. It comes with a huge freezer compartment, which is quite uncommon in counter-depth French door fridges, and it can hold a decent amount of frozen foods compared to similar models.
The fridge has 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment has 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is about the same as an French door refrigerator that costs this much. It also has a decent sized ice maker that is tucked away in the left-hand door, although it's not the largest I've seen.
You can adjust the shelving in both compartments to create a custom storage setup for what you want to store. The GE PYE22PYNFS's design for the interior is attractive, too. The LED lighting is a nice addition and the inside storage bins feature an additional shelf that folds down to make it possible to store tall items. The drawers come with temperature controls so that you can set them for Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, but I found their textured plastic coatings to be a bit hard on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator includes the complete set of features you'd expect from a refrigerator at this price that includes Wi-Fi as well as app support via GE's SmartHQ software. The app is compatible with iOS and Android devices and lets you manage your refrigerator from anywhere around the world. It also offers numerous options for customizing. It also gives you notifications when a door is left open, when your fridge or freezer needs to be defrosted and when it's time to change the filter.
It is nice it GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill, an option found in a few GE refrigerators that allow users to select the number of cups they would like to pour out. The fridge displays a countdown to show you how much water is left however it's not as useful as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is an impressive product. It's designed to appear 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 fruits and vegetables fresher for longer and dual compressors to preserve food. The Ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient, and it produces pyramid shaped ice using minimal water. This fridge is ideal for a single household or kitchenette that needs a built-in appearance and top-of-the highest quality food preservation.
This fridge was the top-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators test, for a few 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 avoiding freezer burn. The fridge's refrigerator section also performed well, achieving the desired initial set temperature within an hour and maintaining that temperature steady throughout the course of our testing.
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 that has the option to connect to your home Wi-Fi as well as Bosch's Home Connect platform. This app lets you monitor and manage your fridge remotely using your smartphone or tablet. The refrigerator is pricey however, it offers excellent features and functions at a reasonable price.
While the fridge is a fantastic piece of equipment however, it is important to understand the limitations. It has a limited shelf space, which means you'll need to be creative when it comes to storing large items. The shelves are also not impervious to spills and could easily be stained or damaged by sharp items. It's easy to remove the trays from the fridge, but be sure to keep them clean to avoid the growth of mold.
If you're considering this refrigerator, make sure to read our reviews of the GE Appliances French Door Refrigerator as well as the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The LG LRFLC2706S is a great counter-depth refrigerator that packs a lot of storage space into the frame's compact size. click here now has a sleek, fingerprint-resistant stainless-steel finish and features thick handles that make them comfortable to grip. Inside, the fridge features an ordinary French-door design with gallon-sized door bins at each door as well as two rows of shelves that capture spills and a set crisper drawers. The top right shelf can be folded down to give tall items more space. 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 simple to transfer ice when needed. The freezer features thoughtful design elements, too, like sliding drawers that help better organize the placement of your items. It also has a large container to store frozen food items, and a separate container for ice.
french door refrigerator freezer 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 fridge and manage it, especially when not at home.
But while the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it does not necessarily improve the overall performance of the refrigerator. The fridge took a bit longer to defrost food and chill it than some others we tried. This could be due to the larger capacity.
The doors pose a problem with this refrigerator. They have sunken handles on the front that allow shorter people to easily pull them open from the bottom, however they're still difficult for taller people to steer shut without slamming them. It would have been better to have front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is an excellent choice for those looking to blend the look and feel of a French-door refrigerator with more efficient design. Its capacity is above average for a counter-depth model, and it cools well and has a nice layout. It's also less expensive than the top counter-depth refrigerator that has an ice maker, which can make it a popular choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for an French door refrigerator that won't cost you a fortune, this Frigidaire is a solid option. It's a basic refrigerator which may not be as attractive like some of its competitors however, it does have enough features to make a an excellent option. Its most notable feature is the temperature adjustable drawer, helps to keep food items like vegetables and meat fresher longer. It also comes with a huge ice maker and a water dispenser.
Another nice feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. This drawer lets you redirect part of the refrigerator's cooling power directly to this area, so you can store foods that require extra attention. You can adjust this feature using an adjustable slider that is located just on the outside of the drawer. You can also adjust the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I've found that the generic settings work better than the specific ones.
In my experiments, I noticed that the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly consistent in different areas of the fridge. Temperatures at the top and bottom of the fridge didn't vary very far from 38 degrees, and even the middle of the fridge was within one degree of 36. 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. You can also pair this fridge with a smart thermometer for more precise readings of your fridge's temperature.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's outside is made of grey-bodied stainless steel with a "smudge-proof" finish. It does an excellent job of removing streaks and fingerprints even when compared with glossy stainless steel finishes on other appliances I've tried.
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 over 15 years of experience in commerce and publishing mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is passionate about finding the best products and recommending them to customers. She focuses on home goods and technology.