French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Melding form with functionality, French-door refrigerators have stylish double doors that open up to a spacious fridge up top and freezer drawer below. Special features like door-to-door dispensers, ice machines with higher-end features, and customizable flex drawers make them stand out from the rest.
We contacted Ladina Schopf - an interior designer, architect, and the founder of LS Projects - for her suggestions on how to pick the right home. They considered the storage capacity, layout, and energy efficiency among other features.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
As the name suggests, GE's Profile series targets the consumer who wants to incorporate cutting-edge technologies in their kitchen. The refrigerator is brimming with these, from an inside-the-door Keurig K-cup coffee maker to a clever 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, so I expected better.
This refrigerator is a good choice, despite the blip. It has a huge freezer compartment that is not common for counter-depth French-door fridges. It also has a large capacity for frozen food compared to other models.
The fridge has 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment has 18.5 cubic feet, which is the standard for a French-door fridge at this price. It has a decent-sized refrigerator with an ice maker in the left door. But it's not the biggest one I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in both compartments to create a custom storage setup for the items you need to store. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS also looks attractive. The LED lighting adds an attractive touch. The bins for storage inside include a third shelf that can be folded down to store large items. The drawers come with temperature controls so that you can set them for Beverage, Meat or Deli settings. The drawers are easy to open and close, but I found the textured plastic coatings a bit hard on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator comes with all the features you'd expect from a refrigerator in this price range. It has Wi-Fi as well as app support and GE's SmartHQ Software. The app, available for iOS and Android devices, lets you control your fridge from anywhere in world, and offers a ton of customization options. It also alerts you when doors are left open, when the refrigerator or freezer needs defrosting and when it's time to change the filter.
It would be nice to have GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill the option that is that is available in a few GE refrigerators that allows users to choose the amount of cups they wish to pour out. The fridge shows a countdown to display how much water remains but it's not as effective 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 of your kitchen. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also comes with a veggie compartment that helps keep fruits and vegetables fresher longer and has dual compressors for maximum food preservation. The Ice maker is among the best we've ever tested and produces a pyramid-shaped ice with a low use of water. This fridge is ideal for a small household or a kitchenette that wants a built-in appearance and top-of-the highest quality food preservation.
This refrigerator was rated as the top in our Refrigerators Test for a variety of reasons. Its freezer temperatures held firm at just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit, never changing by more than a fraction a degree--this is key to avoiding freezing burn. The fridge section of the fridge 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 has a reputation for top-of-the-line appliances, so it's no surprise that this counter-depth refrigerator is also a smart appliance with the option of connecting to your home Wi-Fi and Bosch's Home Connect platform. The app allows you to monitor and control your refrigerator remotely on your tablet or smartphone. The fridge is expensive and has great features and capabilities at a fair price.
It is crucial to be aware of the limitations of the fridge. It has a small space for shelves, so you'll have to think creatively when it comes to storing large items. The shelves aren't spillproof and can easily be stained or damaged by sharp objects. The trays can be easily removed from the refrigerator. However, they should be cleaned regularly to prevent the growth of mold.
If you're thinking of buying this refrigerator, be sure to read our reviews of the French Door GE Appliances Refrigerator as well as the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth
miele french door fridge freezer 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. Inside, the fridge has the standard
French Door Fridge With Water Dispenser-door layout, with gallon-sized door bins at each door as well as two rows of shelves for spill-capture and a set of sleeker 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 storage drawer for deli items and an internal water dispenser.
One of the best aspects of this refrigerator is that its ice maker is in the freezer, making it easy to transfer the ice to the refrigerator for use when needed. The freezer features thoughtful design elements, for instance, sliding drawers that help better organize the position of your items. It also has a huge bin that can hold plenty of frozen food and a separate storage bin for ice.
Smart InstaView panel is a cool feature of the refrigerator. It lets you control the temperature of your fridge and lighting via your smartphone. It's a good method of monitoring and managing your refrigerator, especially when you're away from home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat, but it doesn't necessarily improve the efficiency of the fridge. In fact, it took longer to defrost and chill food in this refrigerator than other refrigerators we tested. This could be due to the greater capacity.
The other issue we have with the doors of this refrigerator. They have sunken handles on the front that allow shorter people to easily open them from the bottom, but they're still difficult for taller people to steer closed without slamming the doors. It would have been better if they came with a front-mounted handle.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is a great choice for those looking to blend the look of a
french door fridge with ice & water dispenser 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 a bit less than the top counter-depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, which helps make it a desirable choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth
french style fridge freezer sale Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for a French door fridge that doesn't cost a fortune this Frigidaire is a good choice. It's a simple fridge that might not be as attractive like some of its competitors however it has enough features to make it a an excellent option. Its most important feature is the temperature adjustable drawer that helps keep food items like meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water and ice maker dispenser.
Another nice feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. This drawer lets you divert a portion of the refrigerator's cooling power directly to this area, so you can keep food items that need extra attention. You can alter this feature using the slider located on the in the middle of the drawer. You can also adjust the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I've found that the generic settings work better than the specific ones.
During my tests, the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly constant across the different areas of the fridge. The temperatures in the top, bottom and middle of the fridge didn't differ much from 38 degrees. This is a good performance, but isn't quite at the top of 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 obtain more precise readings of the internal temperature of your fridge.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from grey-bodied stainless that has a "smudge proof" finish. It repels fingerprints and streaks better than other stainless steel finishes I've tested.
Stephanie Cronk is the executive editor on 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 including retail and digital. Stephanie is passionate about finding and recommending the most effective products for consumers, with a an emphasis on home products and tech.