French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators are a perfect blend of form and function. They have elegant double doors that open to reveal the large fridge on top and a freezer drawer below. These refrigerators stand out because of their distinctive features, like door-to-door dispensers and more expensive Ice makers.
We contacted Ladina Schopf - interior designer, architect and the founder of LS Projects - for her tips on how to select the best one. We looked at the capacity of storage, layout, and energy efficiency, among other aspects.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
As the name suggests, the GE Profile series targets the consumer who wants to incorporate cutting-edge features 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. This refrigerator is costly, so I expected better.
Other than that the fridge is a fantastic choice. It has a large freezer compartment which is uncommon for counter-depth French-door fridges. It also holds plenty of frozen food items compared to other models.
The fridge has 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment is 18.5 cubic feet, which is typical for a French-door refrigerator at this price. It also has a decent sized ice maker in the left door, though it's not the biggest I've seen.
You can adjust the shelves in each compartment to create a customized storage arrangement for what you want to keep. The GE PYE22PYNFS's design for the interior is good-looking, too. The LED lighting is an appealing feature. The bins for storage inside have a third shelf which can be folded down to store large items. The drawers come with temperature controls, so you can set them to Beverage, Meat, or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, although I found their textured plastic coatings to be a little rough on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator has all the features you'd expect from a refrigerator within this price range. It has Wi-Fi as well as app support and GE's SmartHQ Software. The app is compatible with iOS and Android devices and allows you to control your refrigerator from anywhere around the world. It also offers many options for customization. It will also send notifications when the door is left unlocked as well as when the fridge or freezer must be defrosted and when the filter requires a change.
It is nice if the GE PYE22PYNFS included Precise fill which is an option that is available in other GE fridges that allows you to preset how many cups of water you'd like to disperse simultaneously. It also has a countdown on the display of the fridge to show how much water you have left, but it's not as useful as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Designed to look 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 features a veggie compartment that keeps fruits and vegetables fresher for longer and dual compressors to preserve food. The Ice maker is among the top we've tested, and it produces a pyramid-shaped form of ice with a low use of water. This fridge is perfect for a single family or a kitchenette that wants an elegant design and top of the highest quality food preservation.
This fridge was the top-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators test, for various reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained constant at just above 0° Fahrenheit and never fluctuated more than a fraction - this is crucial to avoid freezer burn. The refrigerator section of the refrigerator also performed well. It reached the initial temperature within an hour, and maintained that temperature throughout our testing.
Bosch is a household name known for its high-end appliances. It's therefore no surprise that Bosch's counter depth fridge Bosch counter depth refrigerator can be connected to your home Wi Fi and Bosch's Home Connect. This app allows you to control and monitor your refrigerator remotely on your tablet or smartphone. The fridge is expensive, but it offers excellent features and functionality for the price.
While the fridge is an amazing piece of equipment however, it is important to understand the limitations. It has a small shelf space, which means you'll need to be creative when it comes to storing large items. The shelves are also not spillproof and can easily be damaged or stained by sharp items. It is easy to take out the trays from the fridge however, you must keep them clean to avoid the growth of mold.
If you're thinking of buying this refrigerator, be sure to read our reviews of the GE Appliances French Door Refrigerator and the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The LG LRFLC2706S counter-depth fridge is a great option for those who need lots of space within an extremely compact frame. It has a sleek, fingerprint-resistant stainless-steel finish and features thick handles that make them comfortable to grip. Inside, the fridge features a standard French-door layout with gallon-sized door bins at each door as well as two rows of spill-capture shelves and a set of crisper drawers. The upper right shelf can be folded down to give tall items more headroom. You'll also find a full width drawer for deli and an inside water dispenser.
One of the nice aspects of this refrigerator is that its Ice maker is located in the freezer, making it easy to transfer frozen ice to the fridge for use when required. The freezer features thoughtful design elements, for instance, sliding drawers to help you better organize the position of your items. It also has a large bin that can hold plenty of frozen food items as well as an additional container for storing ice.
Smart InstaView panel is another cool feature of the refrigerator. You can manage the temperature, lighting and other aspects of your refrigerator from your smartphone. It's an easy way to keep track of your refrigerator and manage it, especially when away from home.
But while the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it does not necessarily add to the overall performance of the refrigerator. The refrigerator took longer to defrost food and chill it than some others we tried. This is likely due to its bigger capacity.
The doors pose a problem with this refrigerator. The handles with a sunken design allow smaller people to open them from the bottom. However, taller people still have a difficult time closing them without slamming them. It would have been better if they came with a front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a ideal option for those looking to combine the advantages of a French-door fridge's aesthetics with an efficient layout. It has a capacity that is above average for counter-depth models, and it cools evenly. It's also less expensive than the best counter-depth refrigerator that has an ice maker, which helps make it a desirable choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for an French door refrigerator that won't cost a fortune and isn't expensive, this Frigidaire is a good choice. It's a basic design that isn't as visually striking as other models but it does have enough features to make it a solid choice. Its most notable characteristic is the adjustable temperature drawer, which helps keep foods like veggies and meat fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser as well as a good ice maker that operates quickly.
french door fridge freezers ", which is located over the two crisper bins, is another excellent feature. The drawer lets you redirect some of your fridge's cooling power to the area so it can be used to store food items which need extra attention. You can adjust this feature using a slider that's located right outside of the drawer. You can also use this to set a general cooling level for the entire fridge, however, I've found that changing the general settings tends have a better effect than specific ones.
In my tests, I discovered that the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly consistent across various parts of the fridge. The temperatures in the middle, top and bottom of the refrigerator did not differ much from 38 degrees. This is a great 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. This fridge can be connected with a smart thermostat in order to get more accurate readings on the internal temperature of your fridge.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's exterior is made of stainless steel with a grey body with a "smudge-proof" finish. It wards off streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I've tried.
Stephanie Cronk is the executive editor of Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews team and oversees the site's buyer's guides and product reviews for test products. She has over 15 years of experience in commerce and publishing mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is passionate about finding the best products and recommending them to consumers. She focuses on home goods and technology.