French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Combining form and function, French-door refrigerators come with stylish double doors that open to a spacious fridge up top and freezer drawer below. Special features such as through-the-door dispensers, ice machines with higher-end features and adjustable flex drawers make them stand out from the crowd.
We asked experts like Ladina Schopf, an interior designer architect, founder, and co-founder of LS Projects, for tips on picking the right one. They weighed storage capacity as well as layout and energy efficiency, among other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
As its name suggests, the GE Profile series is aimed at consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge technology into their kitchen. This fridge has them all from a Keurig K cup coffee maker on 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. The refrigerator is expensive and I was expecting better.
This fridge is a great option, despite the slight blip. It has a large freezer compartment, which is quite uncommon in counter-depth French door refrigerators. Additionally, it can hold a decent amount of frozen foods as compared to similar models.
The fridge has 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment is 18.5 cubic feet, which is typical for a French-door fridge at this price. It also has a decent sized ice maker in the left-hand door, although it's not the biggest I've seen.
You can adjust the shelves in both compartments to create a the perfect storage solution. The GE PYE22PYNFS's interior design is stylish, too. The LED lighting is an appealing feature. The storage bins in the door have a third shelf which can be folded down to store tall items. The drawers are equipped with temperature controls, so you can set them for 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 comes with 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 compatible with iOS and Android devices and lets you control your refrigerator from anywhere across the globe. It also offers numerous options for customizing. It also gives you notifications when doors are left open, when the refrigerator or freezer needs to be defrosted and when it's time to change the filter.
It would be great if GE PYE22PYNFS offered Precise fill, an option found in a few GE refrigerators that allows users to select the number of cups they would like to disperse. It also has an indicator on the fridge's display to show how much water you have left, but it'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 appear 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 vegetable compartment which keeps vegetables and fruits fresher for longer and dual compressors to preserve food items. The ice maker is one of the top we've tested and produces a pyramid-shaped Ice with low water consumption. This refrigerator is the ideal option for a single family or kitchenettes looking for a sleek design and top-of-the-line food preservation.
This fridge was the top-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators Test for several reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained stable at a level that was just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit, never changing more than a fraction of an inch. This is essential in preventing freezer burn. The fridge section of the fridge also performed well. It reached the initial temperature set within an hour and maintained that temperature throughout our testing.
Bosch is a household name for its high-end appliances. It's therefore no surprise that the Bosch counter depth fridge can be connected to your home Wi Fi and Bosch's platform Home Connect. This app allows you to monitor and control your refrigerator remotely from your tablet or smartphone. The refrigerator is pricey and has great features and functionality at a reasonable price.
While the fridge is an incredible appliance however, it is important to understand the limitations. You may need to get creative with tall items because the fridge has a limited shelf space. Also the shelves aren't completely sprillproof, and can easily be damaged or stained by sharp objects. It is easy to take out the refrigerator trays However, be sure to clean them frequently to prevent the growth of mold.
If you are considering this refrigerator, be sure to 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 is a top counter-depth refrigerator that packs a lot of storage into a compact frame. 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 layout, with two rows of shelving with spill-capture and a set crisper drawers. The top shelf on the right side can be folded in order to create more space for tall items. There's also a full-width drawer for deli items and an internal water dispenser.
The refrigerator comes with an ice maker making it easy to transfer the frozen ice whenever you need it. The freezer also features innovative design features like sliding drawers that can help you organize your belongings. It has a large bin for storing frozen food and a separate bin for ice.
Smart InstaView panel is another awesome feature of the refrigerator. You can manage the temperature, lighting, and other aspects of your fridge using your smartphone. It's a simple method to keep track of your refrigerator and manage it, particularly when you're not at home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat but it doesn't improve the efficiency of the fridge. In fact it took longer to defrost and chill foods in this fridge than some of the others we test. This is probably due to its bigger capacity.
The other issue we have with the doors of this refrigerator. They have sunken handles on the front that allow smaller people to open them from the bottom, however they're difficult for taller people to steer closed without slamming them. It would have been better if they had front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is an excellent choice for those looking to blend the look of a French door refrigerator with a more efficient design. Its capacity is above average for counter-depth models and is able to cool evenly. It's also less expensive than the most expensive counter depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, making it a desirable choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for an French door refrigerator that won't cost you a fortune and isn't expensive, this Frigidaire is a great choice. It's a basic fridge that might not be as eye-catching like some of its competitors, but it still has enough features to make it a suitable choice. Its most notable characteristic is the adjustable temperature drawer which helps keep food items like veggies and meat fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser, as well as an excellent ice maker that operates quickly.
Another nice feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits over the two crisper bins. This drawer lets you direct the majority of your fridge's cooling power into this area so that you can keep food items which need extra attention. This feature can be adjusted using a slider on the outside of the drawer. You can also use this to set a general cooling setting for the whole fridge, however, I've found that changing the general settings tends to produce better results than specific ones.
In my tests, I discovered that the temperatures in the refrigerator were fairly consistent across various parts of the refrigerator. 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 a degree of 36. This is a great performance, but it doesn't quite 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 pair this fridge with a smart thermometer to get more precise readings of your fridge's internal temperature.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's outside is made of stainless steel with a grey-bodied body which has a "smudge-proof" finish. It wards off streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I've tested.
Stephanie Cronk, executive editor of Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews Team, oversees the site's buyer's guides and product test reviews. She has over 15 years of experience in publishing and commerce mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is passionate about finding the best products and recommending them to consumers. french style fridge freezer is particularly interested in home goods and technology.