French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators are a perfect blend of design and function. They have stylish double doors that show an enormous fridge on top, and a freezer drawer beneath. These refrigerators stand out because of their special features, such as through-the-door dispensers as well as higher-end Ice makers.
We sought out experts like Ladina Schopf, interior designer architect, founder, and co-founder of LS Projects, for tips on choosing the right model. They considered storage capacity, layout and energy efficiency among other aspects.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name of the series suggests that GE’s Profile series is targeted at consumers who want to integrate cutting-edge features in their kitchen. This fridge is loaded with them all from a Keurig K cup coffee maker in 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. The refrigerator is expensive, so I expected better.
Other than that, this fridge is a great choice. It comes with a huge freezer compartment, which is quite uncommon in counter-depth French door refrigerators. Additionally, it holds a good amount of frozen food when as compared to similar models.
Inside the fridge, there are 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment has 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is roughly on the same as a French door refrigerator that costs this much. It has a decent-sized refrigerator with an ice maker in the left door. But, it's not the largest one I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in both compartments to create a a custom storage solution. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is attractive. The LED lighting is a nice feature and the storage bins have a third shelf that can fold down to allow you to store tall items. The drawers come with temperature controls so you can set them to Beverage, Meat, or Deli settings. The drawers are simple to open and close however I found the plastic's textured coatings to be a bit rough on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator includes all the features you would expect from a refrigerator in this price range. It has Wi-Fi as well as app support, and GE's SmartHQ Software. The app is available for iOS and Android devices and allows you to control your refrigerator from anywhere around the world. It also comes with many options for customization. It will also send notifications when the door is unlocked as well as when the fridge or freezer needs to be defrosted, and when the filter needs to be changed.
It would be great if GE PYE22PYNFS could offer Precise Fill the option that is available in a handful of GE refrigerators that allows users to choose the amount of cups they wish to disperse. The fridge displays a countdown timer to reveal how much water is left, but it's not as helpful as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Created to appear like a seamless part of your kitchen Bosch's French-door refrigerator looks seamless and is a standout. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also has a vegetable compartment to keep fruits and vegetables fresher longer, and two compressors to ensure maximum food preservation. The ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient and produces the shape of a pyramid using only water. This fridge is the perfect choice for single household or kitchenettes that want a built-in look and top of the line food preservation.
This refrigerator was rated as the best in our Refrigerators Test due to a variety of reasons. Its freezer temperatures remained constant at just above 0°F and never changed more than a fraction - this is crucial to prevent freezing burn. The fridge section of the fridge also performed well, achieving the temperature that was set for the initial setting within an hour and maintaining that temperature steady throughout the course of our testing.
Bosch is known for its top-quality appliances. Therefore, it's not a 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. french door fridge freezers lets you monitor and control the refrigerator remotely using your tablet or smartphone. The fridge is expensive, but offers great features and functions at a reasonable cost.
While the fridge is an amazing appliance however, it is important to understand the limitations. It has a small shelf space, so you may need to be creative when it comes to storing large items. Additionally the shelves aren't impervious to sprills and could be stained or damaged by sharp objects. The trays are easily removed from the fridge. However, they must be cleaned regularly to prevent the growth of mold.
If you're thinking about buying this refrigerator, be sure to also 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 plenty of storage into the frame's compact size. It has a sleek, fingerprint-resistant stainless-steel finish and features thick handles that make them comfortable to grip. The fridge has a standard French door design, and two rows of spill-capture shelving and a set of crisper drawers. The top shelf to the right can be folded to provide more space for taller items. There's also a full-width drawer for food items 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 the ice to the refrigerator to be used when it is needed. The freezer is designed with thoughtful elements, for instance, sliding drawers that can help you to organize the place of your items. It also has a huge bin that can accommodate plenty of frozen food items and an additional container for storing ice.
Another cool 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 nice way to monitor and manage your refrigerator, especially when you're away from home.
But while the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it doesn't necessarily improve the overall performance of the refrigerator. This fridge took longer to defrost food and chill it than some others we tried. This is likely due to the bigger capacity.
The doors pose a problem with this refrigerator. They have handles that are sunken on the front, which allow shorter people to easily pull them open from the bottom, but they're difficult for taller people to steer closed without slamming the doors. It would have been much better if they had front-mounted handle.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is an excellent option for those looking to combine the look and feel of a French-door refrigerator with a more efficient design. Its capacity is above average for a counter-depth model, and it cools evenly and has a good layout. It's also a little cheaper than the best counter-depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, which helps make it a desirable choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a good option when you're looking for a French door fridge that doesn't break the budget. It's a basic refrigerator which may not be as appealing like some of its competitors however it has enough features to make it a suitable option. Its main feature is the adjustable temperature drawer which helps keep food items like meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser, as well as an excellent ice machine that works fast.
Another nice feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. This drawer lets you use some of the refrigerator's cooling power into this area so that you can store foods that require extra attention. This feature can be adjusted by using a slider on the outside of the drawer. You can also use this feature to adjust the general cooling settings for the whole fridge, however, I've found that changing the general settings tends to produce better results than specific ones.
In my tests, the temperature of the refrigerator were fairly constant across the different areas of the refrigerator. The temperatures in the top, bottom and middle of the refrigerator did not differ significantly from 38 degrees. That's a good performance however it doesn't make it into the top ten in 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 connect this fridge to an intelligent thermometer to get more precise readings of your fridge's internal temperature.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's exterior is constructed of grey-bodied stainless steel with a "smudge-proof" finish. It repels fingerprints and streaks better than other stainless steel finishes I've seen.
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 over 15 years of experience in publishing and commerce including retail and digital. Stephanie is passionate about finding the best products and recommending them to customers. She focuses on home goods and technology.