French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators are a perfect blend of form and function. They have stylish double doors that show an enormous fridge on top and a freezer drawer below. Special features like through-the-door dispensers, high-end ice machines and adjustable flex drawers make them stand out from the crowd.
We consulted Ladina Schopf - interior designer, architect, and founder of LS Projects - for her tips on how to select the best one. They considered the capacity of storage and layout, energy efficiency, and other aspects.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name of the series suggests that GE’s Profile series is targeted at those who wish to incorporate cutting-edge technologies into their kitchen. This fridge has them all from the Keurig K cup coffee maker inside the door to a sophisticated 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 is a premium, I expect better.
Other than that, this fridge is a great choice. It has a large freezer compartment that is not common for counter-depth French-door fridges. It also holds plenty of frozen food items compared to other models.
The fridge is equipped with 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment has 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is about what you would expect from the size of a French door fridge that costs this much. It has a decent-sized refrigerator with an ice maker in the left door. However it's not the biggest one I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in both compartments for the perfect storage solution. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is also attractive. The LED lighting adds a nice feature. The bins for storage inside have a third shelf which can be folded down to store tall items. The drawers come with temperature controls so that you can set them to Meat, Beverage or Deli settings. The drawers are easy to open and close, but I found the plastic's textured coatings to be a bit rough on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator has all the features you'd expect from a refrigerator in this price range. This includes Wi-Fi, app support and GE's SmartHQ Software. The app is available on iOS and Android devices and lets you manage your refrigerator from anywhere across the globe. It also has a lot of customization options. It will also send notifications when the door is left unlocked, when the fridge or freezer requires defrosting, and when the filter has to be changed.
It would be great to have GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill the option that is available in a handful of GE refrigerators that allows users to set the number of cups they would like to pour out. french door fridge freezer has a countdown feature on the fridge's display to display how much water you have remaining, but that's not as useful as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is a striking piece. 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 vegetable compartment which keeps vegetables and fruits fresher for longer, and two compressors for preserving food items. The ice maker is one of the top we've tested and produces a pyramid-shaped ice with a low water usage. This fridge is the perfect option for a single family or kitchenettes who want a built-in look and top of the line food preservation.
This refrigerator was the highest-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators test for a few reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained constant at just above 0° Fahrenheit and never changed more than a fraction - this is essential to avoid freezing burn. The fridge's fridge section also performed well, reaching the desired temperature for initial set within an hour and maintaining that temperature steady throughout the course of our testing.
Bosch is known for its high-end 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 allows you to monitor and control the refrigerator remotely using your tablet or smartphone. The fridge is expensive, but it offers great features and capabilities for the cost.
While the fridge is an amazing piece of equipment however, it is important to understand the limitations. You may need to get creative with tall objects because the fridge has a limited shelf space. Also the shelves aren't sprillproof and can be easily stained or damaged by sharp objects. The trays are easily removed from the fridge. However, they should be cleaned frequently to stop the growth of mold.
If you are thinking about this refrigerator, you should also look over our review of the French Door GE Appliances 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 plenty of space 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 the 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 down to make space for taller items. There's also a full-width drawer to store products from the deli and an inside water dispenser.
This refrigerator has a freezer with an ice maker making it simple to transfer frozen ice as needed. The freezer also comes with thoughtful design features, like sliding drawers that allow you to organize your items. It also has a huge bin that can accommodate plenty of frozen food and an ice storage bin.
Smart InstaView panel is a cool feature of the refrigerator. You can control the temperature, lighting, and more of your fridge from your smartphone. It's a nice method of monitoring and managing your refrigerator, especially when you're away from home.
But while the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it doesn't add to the overall performance of the refrigerator. The refrigerator took longer to defrost food and chill it than the other fridges we tested. This is probably due to its greater capacity.
The other issue we have with the door of this refrigerator. The handles with a sunken design allow shorter people to open them from the bottom. However, taller people still have a hard time closing them without slamming. It would have been much better if they had handles mounted on the front.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a excellent option for those looking to combine the advantages of a fridge with a French door with a more efficient layout. It has a capacity that is superior to counter-depth models, and it cools evenly. It's also a bit less than the top counter-depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, which helps make it a popular choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a good choice when you're looking for a French door refrigerator that doesn't cost a lot of budget. It's a basic fridge that might not be as eye-catching as its rivals, but it still has enough features to make it a an excellent choice. Its most notable feature is the adjustable temperature drawer that helps keep food items like veggies and meat fresher for longer. It also comes with a large ice maker as well as a water dispenser.
Another great feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits over the two crisper bins. The drawer allows you to divert a portion of the fridge's cooling power directly to this area, so you can keep food items that require extra attention. You can adjust the feature using a slider that's located right on the outside of the drawer. You can also set the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I've found that the generic settings work better than the specific ones.
In my tests, I discovered that the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly consistent across different areas of the fridge. The temperatures in the top and bottom of the fridge didn't stray much from 38 degrees, and even the middle of the fridge was within a degree of 36. This is a pretty 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. The fridge can be linked with a smart thermostat in order to get more accurate readings on the internal temperature of your fridge.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's outside is made of grey-bodied stainless steel with a "smudge-proof" finish. It is capable of removing streaks and fingerprints even when compared to the shiny stainless steel finishes on other appliances I've tested.
Stephanie Cronk is the executive editor of Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews team and oversees the site's buyer's guides as well as review of test products. She has over 15 years of experience in commerce and publishing, primarily digital and retail. Stephanie is committed to finding and recommending the top products for consumers, with a focus on home goods and tech.