French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators blend form and function. They have stylish double doors that show a large 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 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 considered storage capacity as well as layout, energy efficiency, and other features.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name implies that the GE Profile series targets those who want to incorporate cutting-edge technology into their kitchen. This refrigerator has it all including the Keurig K cup coffee maker in the door to a smart 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 more, I'd expect higher quality.
This fridge is a great choice, despite the small blip. It features a large freezer compartment which is uncommon for counter-depth French-door fridges. It also holds plenty of frozen food, which is a big difference from other models.
The fridge is equipped with 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment is 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is about the same as a French door refrigerator that costs this much. It also has a decent sized ice maker that is tucked away in the left door, but it's not the largest I've seen.
You can alter the shelving in both compartments to create a custom storage setup for the items you need to keep. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS also looks attractive. The LED lighting is a nice feature, and the in-door storage bins have an additional shelf that folds up beneath itself to make it possible to store large items. The drawers are equipped with temperature controls, so you can set them for Beverage, Meat or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, but I found their plastic textured coatings to be a little hard on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator comes with all the features you would expect from a refrigerator within this price range. This includes Wi-Fi as well as app support, and GE's SmartHQ Software. The app, available for iOS and Android devices can let you control your refrigerator from anywhere in the world, and offers numerous options for customization. It also sends you notifications when doors are left open, when the fridge or freezer needs to be defrosted and when it's time to change the filter.
It would be great if GE PYE22PYNFS could offer Precise Fill, an option available in a handful of GE refrigerators that allow users to choose the number of cups they would like to pour out. It also has a countdown feature on the fridge display to display how much water you have remaining, but that's not as effective as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Designed to look as a seamless element of your kitchen Bosch's French-door refrigerator looks seamless and 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 to keep vegetables and fruits fresher for longer and dual compressors for the best food preservation. The Ice maker is among the top we've tested and produces pyramid-shaped Ice with low use of water. This fridge is ideal for a small household or a kitchenette that wants an elegant design and top of the best food preservation.
This refrigerator was rated as the best in our Refrigerators Test for a variety of reasons. Its freezer temperatures held firm at a level that was just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit and never fluctuating by more than a fraction one degree. This is crucial to preventing freezer burn. The fridge section of the fridge also did well. It reached the initial temperature within an hour, and maintained the temperature throughout our tests.
Bosch is a household name known for its high-end appliances. Therefore, it's no surprise that Bosch's counter depth fridge Bosch counter depth refrigerator can be connected to your home Wi Fi and Bosch's platform Home Connect. The app lets you monitor and control your refrigerator remotely from your smartphone or tablet. The refrigerator is expensive, but it offers top-quality features and functions for the price.
While the fridge is an amazing appliance however, it is important to understand the limitations. It has a small space for shelves, so you may require some creativity when storing tall objects. Additionally reference aren't sprillproof and can be easily damaged or stained by sharp objects. The trays can be easily removed from the fridge. However, they should be cleaned regularly to prevent the growth of mold.
If you are considering this refrigerator, you should also look over 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 refrigerator is a great option for those who need a lot of space in a small frame. It has a sleek, fingerprint-resistant stainless-steel finish and features thick handles that make them comfortable to grip. The fridge features a standard French door layout, with two rows of shelves that can be used to capture spills and a set crisper drawers. The top shelf to the right can be folded to provide more space for taller items. There's also a full-width storage drawer for deli items and an internal water dispenser.
One of the great aspects of this refrigerator is that its ice maker is in the freezer, making it simple to move the ice to the refrigerator to be used when it is needed. The freezer has thoughtful design elements, for instance, sliding drawers that can help you to organize the place of items. It has a large bin for storing frozen food, and a separate one for ice.
Smart InstaView panel is another awesome feature of the refrigerator. You can control the temperature, lighting, and more of your fridge from your smartphone. It's a simple method to keep track of your refrigerator and control it, especially when not at home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat, but it doesn't necessarily improve the performance of the fridge. In fact it took a bit longer to defrost and chill food in this fridge than some of the others we test. This is likely due to the greater capacity.
The other issue we have with this refrigerator is its doors. The sunken handles allow smaller people to open them from the bottom. However taller people will struggle to close them without slamming. It would have been much better to have front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is an excellent choice for those looking to combine the aesthetics of a French-door refrigerator with more efficient design. It has a capacity that is superior to counter-depth models and is able to cool evenly. It's also a little less than the most expensive counter depth refrigerator that comes with an ice maker, which makes it an attractive choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for an French door fridge that doesn't break the bank and isn't expensive, this Frigidaire is a solid option. It's a minimalist design that's not as striking visually as other models however it comes with enough features to make it a solid pick. Its most important characteristic is the adjustable temperature drawer that helps keep food items like meat and vegetables fresher for longer. french door fridge freezer comes with a large ice maker and a water dispenser.
Another nice feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. The drawer lets you use some of the refrigerator's cooling power into this area, so that you can store foods that require special attention. You can alter this feature by using an adjustable slider that is located just in the middle of the drawer. You can also set the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I've noticed that the general settings are more effective than the specific ones.
In my tests, I found that the temperatures in the refrigerator were fairly consistent in different areas of the refrigerator. Temperatures in the top and bottom of the fridge didn't vary much from 38 degrees, and the middle of the fridge was within a degree of 36. This is a great performance, but it 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 of grey-bodied stainless with a "smudge proof" finish. It blocks streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I've tried.
Stephanie Cronk, executive editor of Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews Team, oversees the site's buyer's guides and product test reviews. She has more than 15 years of publishing and commerce experience, mostly in digital and retail. Stephanie is enthusiastic about finding and recommending the best products for consumers, with a particular focus on home items and tech.