French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators blend form and function. They feature elegant double doors that open to reveal a large fridge on top and a freezer drawer beneath. These refrigerators stand out due to their distinctive features, such as door-to-door dispensers and more expensive ice makers.
We sought out experts like Ladina Schopf, interior designer architect, founder, and co-founder of LS Projects, for tips on picking the right one. They weighed the capacity of storage, layout and energy efficiency as well as other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
As the name suggests, the GE Profile series is targeted at consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge technology in their kitchen. This fridge is loaded with these, from an inside-the-door Keurig K-cup coffee maker to a smart water dispenser. But these flourishes don't mask mediocre performance, especially in the refrigerator's freezer and an ineffective temperature-controlled drawer. The refrigerator is expensive and I expected more.
This refrigerator is a good choice, despite the blip. It features a large freezer compartment which is uncommon for counter-depth French door fridges. It also has a large capacity for frozen food items compared to other models.
Inside the fridge, you'll find 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment is 18.5 cubic feet, which is the standard for a French-door fridge at this price. It also has a decent-sized icemaker packed into the left door, but it isn't the largest I've seen.
You can adjust the shelves in both compartments to create a customized storage arrangement for what you want to keep. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS also looks attractive. The LED lighting is a nice feature. The bins for storage inside have a third shelf which can be folded down to store tall objects. The drawers come with temperature controls that let you set them to Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, however I found their textured plastic 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 fridge at this price, including Wi-Fi and app support through GE's SmartHQ software. The app is compatible with iOS and Android devices and lets you manage your refrigerator from anywhere across the globe. It also comes with a lot of customization options. It also sends you notifications when a door is left open, when the fridge or freezer needs to be defrosted and when it's time to change the filter.
It is nice if the GE PYE22PYNFS came with Precise Fill which is an option that is available in a few other GE refrigerators that allows you to choose how many cups of water you'd like to pour out simultaneously. The fridge displays a countdown to reveal how much water remains, but 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 look like a seamless piece in 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 vegetables and fruits fresher for longer and two compressors to preserve food items. The Ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient, and it produces the shape of a pyramid using only water. This fridge is perfect for a single household or a kitchenette with a built-in appearance and top-of-the highest quality food preservation.
The fridge was rated the best refrigerator in our Refrigerators Test for a few reasons. The freezer temperatures remained steady at just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit, never moving more than a fraction of one degree. This is crucial to avoiding freezing burn. https://telegra.ph/7-Easy-Tips-For-Totally-Rolling-With-Your-What-Is-French-Door-Fridge-09-08 performed well, reaching the desired temperature for initial set within an hour and maintaining the temperature constant over the course of our testing.
Bosch has a reputation for high-end appliances which is why it's no surprise that this counter depth refrigerator is also a smart appliance, with the option of connecting to your home Wi-Fi network and Bosch's Home Connect platform. The app lets you monitor and control your fridge from your tablet or smartphone. The refrigerator is costly however, it offers excellent features and functionality at a fair price.
While the fridge is an incredible appliance but it's important to be aware of the limitations. It has a small space for shelves, so you may require some creativity when storing tall items. The shelves are not spillproof and can easily be damaged or stained by sharp items. It's simple to remove the refrigerator trays, but be sure to clean them regularly to prevent mold growth.
If you are thinking about this refrigerator, be sure to read 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 refrigerator 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 is built with the standard French door design, and two rows of shelving with spill-capture and a set of crisper drawers. The top shelf on the right can be folded down to give taller items more space. There's also a full-width drawer to store food items and an internal water dispenser.
One of the great features of this refrigerator is that its ice maker is in the freezer, which makes it easy to move ice into the fridge for use when needed. The freezer also has clever design features, such as sliding drawers that allow you to organize your items. It also has a large container to store frozen food items, and a separate container for ice.
Smart InstaView panel is another cool feature of the refrigerator. You can manage the temperature, lighting, and more of your fridge from your smartphone. It's a simple method to keep track of your refrigerator and manage it, especially when you're not at home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat however it doesn't enhance the performance of the fridge. This fridge took longer to defrost food and chill it than some others we tested. This could be due to the greater capacity.
Another issue with this refrigerator is its doors. They have handles that are sunken on the front, which allow shorter people to easily pull them open from the bottom, however they're difficult for taller people to pull closed without slamming the doors. It would have been more effective if these had front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is an excellent option for those who want to combine the aesthetics of a French-door refrigerator with an efficient design. Its capacity is higher than average for a counter-depth model and it cools evenly and has a great layout. It's also a bit less than the top counter-depth refrigerator with an ice maker, which can make it a desirable choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for a French door fridge that doesn't cost a fortune, this Frigidaire is a solid option. It's a basic design that's not as visually striking as some of the competition however it comes with enough features that make it a great pick. Its most important feature, the temperature adjustable drawer, helps to keep food items like meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also has a large water dispenser, as well as an excellent ice maker that operates quickly.
The "Chill Drawer", which is situated above the two crisper bins, is another excellent feature. This drawer allows you to use some of the refrigerator's cooling power to this area, so that you can store foods that require extra attention. This feature can be adjusted using a slider on the outside of the drawer. You can also set the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I have found that the generic settings are more effective than the specific ones.
In my tests, I found that the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly consistent across various parts of the refrigerator. Temperatures at the top and bottom of the fridge didn't stray much from 38 degrees, and even the middle of the fridge was within one degree of 36. This is a pretty good performance, but it doesn't quite rank among the best 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. This fridge can be connected with a smart thermostat to gain more precise information on the internal temperature of your fridge.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from grey-bodied stainless that has a "smudge resistant" finish. It is capable of removing streaks and fingerprints even when compared to the glossy stainless steel finishes on other appliances I've tried.
Stephanie Cronk is the executive editor on Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews team and oversees the site's buyer's guide and review of test products. She has more than 15 years of publishing and commerce experience, mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is committed to finding and recommending the top products for consumers, with an emphasis on home products and technology.