French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Melding form with functionality, French-door refrigerators have elegant double doors that open up to an enormous fridge on top and freezer drawer below. These refrigerators stand out because of their unique features, like through-the-door dispensers and higher-end Ice makers.
We consulted Ladina Schopf - an interior designer, architect and the founder of LS Projects - for her advice on how to choose the right home. They evaluated storage capacity, layout, energy efficiency, and other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Like its name implies, the GE Profile series is targeted at consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge technologies into their kitchen. This fridge is loaded with them all, from the Keurig K cup coffee maker inside 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. This refrigerator is costly and I was expecting better.
Other than that however, this refrigerator is a great choice. It has a large freezer compartment that is not common for counter-depth French door fridges. It also has a large capacity for frozen food items compared to other models.
The fridge is equipped with 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment has 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is on par for the size of a French door refrigerator that costs this much. It also has a decent-sized icemaker packed into the left-hand door, although it isn't the largest I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in both compartments to create a an individual storage solution. The GE PYE22PYNFS's interior design is stylish, too. Its LED lighting is a nice feature and the inside storage bins have an additional shelf that folds up beneath itself to make it possible to store items that are tall. The drawers include temperature controls that allow you to set them to Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. The drawers are simple to open and close, but I found the textured plastic coatings to be a bit rough on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator comes with the complete set of features you'd expect from a refrigerator at this price with Wi-Fi and app support through GE's SmartHQ software. The app is available for iOS and Android devices and lets you control your refrigerator from any place across the globe. frydge.uk comes with numerous options for customizing. It also alerts you 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 would be great to have GE PYE22PYNFS could offer Precise Fill which is a feature that is available 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 display of the fridge to show how much water you have remaining, but that's not as useful as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is a stunning piece of equipment. It's designed to appear like it's a seamless part of your kitchen. 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 two compressors to ensure maximum preservation of food. The Ice maker is among the most efficient we've ever tested, and it produces a pyramid-shaped form of ice that is low in use of water. This fridge is perfect for a small household or a kitchenette with an elegant design and top of the highest quality food preservation.
This fridge was rated as the top in our Refrigerators Test for a variety of reasons. The freezer temperature remained steady at just above 0°F and never fluctuated more than a fraction - this is crucial to avoid the risk of a freezer burn. The fridge's refrigerator section also performed well, achieving the desired initial set temperature within a matter of hours and keeping that temperature steady over the course of our testing.
Bosch is a household name 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 Home Connect. This app lets you monitor and manage your fridge remotely using your tablet or smartphone. The refrigerator is costly, but offers great features and functions at a reasonable price.
It is important to know the limitations of the fridge. It has a small space for shelves, so you may need to be creative when storing tall objects. Additionally, the shelves are not sprillproof and can be easily stained or damaged by sharp objects. It's simple to remove the trays in the fridge, but be sure to clean them regularly to prevent mold growth.
If you're considering this refrigerator, make sure to also read our reviews of the French Door GE Appliances Refrigerator and the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The LG LRFLC2706S is an excellent counter-depth refrigerator that packs a lot of storage into 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 features the standard French door design, and two rows of shelves that can be used to capture spills and a set crisper drawers. The top right shelf can be folded down to give taller items more space. You'll also find a full-width drawer for deli and an inside water dispenser.
One of the great things about this refrigerator is that the ice maker is inside the freezer, which makes it easy to move the ice to the refrigerator for use when needed. The freezer is designed with thoughtful elements, too, like sliding drawers that can help you better organize the placement of your items. It also has a large bin that can accommodate plenty of frozen food items as well as an ice storage bin.
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 a simple method to keep track of your refrigerator and manage it, especially when away from 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 other refrigerators we test. This could be due to the greater capacity.
The doors are a different issue with this refrigerator. They have sunken handles at the front, which allows smaller people to open them from the bottom, but they're still difficult for taller people to steer shut without slamming them. It would have been much better if they came with a front-mounted handle.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is an excellent choice for those looking to blend the look of a French door refrigerator with an efficient design. It has a capacity that is above average for counter-depth models and also cools evenly. It's also a bit cheaper than the top counter depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, which makes it an attractive option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a good option for those looking for a French-door fridge that doesn't break the budget. It's a minimalist design that's not as striking visually as other models, but it has enough features that make it a great option. Its main feature is the temperature adjustable drawer which helps keep food items like veggies and meat fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water and ice maker dispenser.
Another feature that is worth mentioning is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. This drawer lets you divert some of the fridge's cooling power directly to this area, so you can put away food items that need extra attention. You can alter this feature by using the slider located on the on the outside of the drawer. It is also possible to use this to set a general cooling level for the entire fridge, but I've noticed that adjusting the generic settings tends to be more effective than specific ones.
In my tests, the refrigerator's temperatures were fairly consistent across all areas of the fridge. The temperatures in the middle, top and bottom of the refrigerator did not differ significantly from 38 degrees. This is a great performance however it doesn't make it into the top ten in our ratings.
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 the internal temperature of your fridge.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's exterior is constructed of stainless steel with a grey-bodied body that has 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 on Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews team and oversees the site's buyer's guides and review of test products. She has more than 15 years of experience in publishing and commerce including retail and digital. Stephanie is adamant about finding the most effective products and recommending them to consumers. She concentrates on home and technology.