French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Melding form with function, French-door refrigerators offer stylish double doors that open up to an enormous fridge on the top and a freezer drawer below. Special features such as through-the-door dispensers, ice machines with higher-end features, and customizable flex drawers make them stand out from the rest.
We contacted Ladina Schopf - interior designer, architect and founder of LS Projects - for her tips on how to select the right one. They considered the storage capacity, layout, and energy efficiency, among other aspects.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name of the series suggests that GE’s Profile series is targeted at consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge technology into their kitchen. This fridge is loaded with them, from an in-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. Since this refrigerator costs more, I'd expect higher quality.
This fridge is a good choice, despite the small blip. It has a large freezer compartment that is not common for counter-depth French-door fridges. It also holds a lot of frozen food, which is a big difference from other models.
Inside the fridge, you'll find 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment has 18.5 cubic feet, which is typical for a French-door fridge at this price. It also has a decent-sized icemaker in the left door, but it's not the largest I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in both compartments for a custom storage solution. The GE PYE22PYNFS's interior design is good-looking, too. The LED lighting is a nice feature, and the in-door storage bins come with an additional shelf that can fold down so that you can store large items. The drawers include temperature controls that allow you to set them to Meat, Beverage or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, although I found their textured plastic coatings to be a bit rough on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator is equipped with a complete set of features you'd expect from a refrigerator at this price that includes Wi-Fi as well as app support through GE's SmartHQ software. The app, which is available for iOS and Android devices allows you to control your refrigerator from anywhere in the world, and it has a ton of customization options. It will also send notifications when the door is left unlocked and when the freezer or fridge must be defrosted and when the filter requires a change.
It is nice to have GE PYE22PYNFS offered Precise fill which is a feature found in a few GE refrigerators that allows users to select how many cups they want to disperse. It does offer a countdown on the display of the fridge to show how much water you have remaining, but that'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 look like it's a seamless component of your kitchen. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also boasts a veggie compartment to keep vegetables and fruits fresher longer and dual compressors for maximum food preservation. The ice maker is one of the best we've ever tested and produces a pyramid-shaped Ice with low water consumption. This refrigerator is the ideal option for a single family or kitchenettes who want an integrated look and top of the line food preservation.
This fridge was rated the top in our Refrigerators Test for several reasons. The freezer temperature remained steady at just above 0°F and never fluctuated more than a tiny fraction - this is essential to avoid the risk of a freezer burn. The fridge section of the refrigerator also performed well. It reached the temperature it was set within an hour and maintained that temperature throughout our testing.
Bosch has a reputation for high-end appliances and appliances, so it's not a surprise that this counter depth refrigerator is also a smart appliance with the option to connect to your home Wi-Fi and Bosch's Home Connect platform. This app allows you to monitor and control your refrigerator remotely on your smartphone or tablet. The refrigerator is pricey and has great features and capabilities at a reasonable cost.
While the fridge is an amazing appliance however, it is important to understand the limitations. It is possible to be inventive with tall items since the fridge is limited in shelf space. The shelves are also not spillproof and can easily be damaged or stained by sharp objects. It's easy to remove the refrigerator trays, but be sure to clean them frequently to prevent the growth of mold.
If you are considering 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 is a top counter-depth refrigerator that packs plenty of storage in 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 refrigerator has an ordinary French-door design with gallon-sized door bins at each door, two rows of spill-capture shelves and a set of sleeker drawers. The top right shelf can be folded down to give taller items more headroom. You'll also find a full-width drawer for deli and an inside water dispenser.
One of the great features of this refrigerator is that its Ice maker is located in the freezer, which makes it easy to move ice into the fridge for use when required. The freezer also has clever design features, such as sliding drawers that help you organize your belongings. It comes with a large bin to store frozen food items, and a separate container for ice.
Another great feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. You can control the temperature, lighting and other aspects of your refrigerator from your smartphone. It's a great way to control and monitor your refrigerator, especially if 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 a bit longer to defrost and chill foods in this refrigerator as compared to other fridges we tested. This is likely due to its greater capacity.
The doors are another problem with this fridge. The handles with a sunken design let shorter people open them from the bottom. However visit the up coming document struggle to close them without slamming. It would have been much better if they had front-mounted handle.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a excellent choice for those who want to combine the advantages of a French-door refrigerator's aesthetics with an efficient layout. Its capacity is above average for counter-depth models, and it cools evenly. It's also a bit less than the best counter-depth refrigerator that has an ice maker, which helps make it a popular choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for a French door fridge that doesn't break the bank, this Frigidaire is a solid option. It's a basic fridge that may not be as eye-catching as its rivals however it has enough features to make a an excellent choice. Its most notable feature is the temperature adjustable drawer that helps keep food items like meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also has a large ice maker and a water dispenser.
Another feature that is worth mentioning is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. This drawer allows you to use the majority of the fridge's cooling power to this area, so that you can keep food items which need extra attention. You can adjust the feature using an adjustable slider that is located just on the outside of the drawer. You can also adjust the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I've noticed that the general settings work better than the specific ones.
In my tests, I discovered that the temperatures in the refrigerator were fairly consistent across different areas of the refrigerator. Temperatures at the top and bottom of the fridge didn't vary much from 38 degrees, and even the middle of the fridge was within a 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 in order to get more accurate readings on the internal temperature of your fridge.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from grey-bodied stainless with a "smudge proof" finish. It is capable of removing streaks and fingerprints, even compared to 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 guides and test-product reviews. She has more than 15 years of experience in commerce and publishing including retail and digital. Stephanie is enthusiastic about finding and recommending the best products for consumers, with a an emphasis on home products and technology.