French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Melding form with function, French-door refrigerators come with elegant double doors that open up to an enormous fridge on the top and a freezer drawer below. These refrigerators stand out due to their special features, such as door-to-door dispensers and more expensive ice makers.
We contacted Ladina Schopf – an interior designer, architect, and founder of LS Projects – for her suggestions on how to pick the right home. They considered storage capacity, layout and energy efficiency, among other aspects.
GE Profile Counter Depth french door fridge only Door Refrigerator
Like its name implies, GE’s Profile series what is a french fridge freezer aimed at people who want to integrate cutting-edge features in their kitchens. This fridge is loaded with them all, from the 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. This refrigerator is costly and I was expecting better.
This fridge is a great option, despite the slight blip. It has a huge freezer compartment that is not common for counter-depth French-door refrigerators. It also has a large capacity for frozen food items compared to other models.
Inside the fridge, you’ll find 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment is 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is on the same as an French door fridge costing this much. It comes with a decent size icemaker in the left door. But, it’s not the largest one I’ve seen.
You can alter the shelves in both compartments for a custom storage solution. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is stylish, too. The LED lighting is an attractive feature. The storage bins in the door have a third shelf which can be folded down to store tall objects. The drawers have temperature controls that let you set them to Meat, Beverage or Deli settings. The drawers are simple to open and shut, but I found the textured plastic coatings to be a bit rough on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator includes 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 allows you to control your refrigerator from anywhere in the world, and it has a ton of customization options. It also alerts you when doors are left open, when your fridge or freezer needs to be defrosted and when it’s time to change the filter.
It would be nice if the GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill, an option available in a few other GE fridges that allows you to set the number of cups of water you’d like to dispense at a time. It also has a countdown feature 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
Created to appear like a seamless piece 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 which keeps vegetables and fruits fresher for longer, and two compressors for preserving food. The ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient and makes an ice pyramid with only a little water. This fridge is the perfect choice for single household or kitchenettes that want a built-in look and top of the line food preservation.
This fridge was rated the best in our Refrigerators Test for a variety of reasons. Its freezer temperatures held firm at just a few degrees Fahrenheit, and never fluctuating by more than a fraction one degree. This is crucial to avoiding freezer burn. The fridge section of the refrigerator also performed well. It reached the temperature it was set within an hour and remained at that temperature throughout our testing.
Bosch is known for its premium appliances which is why it’s no surprise that this counter-depth refrigerator is also a smart appliance that has the option of connecting to your home Wi-Fi as well as Bosch’s Home Connect platform. This app lets you monitor and control your fridge from your tablet or smartphone. The refrigerator is expensive, however it has top-quality features and functions for the cost.
While the fridge is an incredible piece of equipment, it’s important to know the limitations. You may need to get creative with tall objects because the fridge is limited in shelf space. The shelves are not resistant to spills and are easily stained or damaged by sharp items. It’s easy to remove the trays from the fridge, but be sure to keep them clean to avoid mold growth.
If you are considering this refrigerator, you should also read our review of the GE Appliances french style fridge freezer sale Door Refrigerator and the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The LG LRFLC2706S counter-depth refrigerator is a great choice for those who require a lot of space 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 as well as two rows of shelves that capture spills and a set of more spacious drawers. The top shelf on the right can be folded down to give taller items more room. You’ll also find a full width deli drawer and an internal water dispenser.
One of the great things about this refrigerator is that its Ice maker is located in the freezer, making it easy to move the ice to the refrigerator to be used when it is required. The freezer is designed with thoughtful elements, as well, such as sliding drawers that can help you better organize the placement of items. It comes with a large bin to store frozen food items, and a separate bin for ice.
Smart InstaView panel is another awesome feature of the refrigerator. You can control the temperature, lighting and other aspects of your fridge using your smartphone. It’s a nice method of monitoring and managing your refrigerator, especially when you’re away from home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat however it doesn’t enhance the efficiency of the fridge. The refrigerator took longer to chill food and defrost it than some others we test. This is likely due to the greater capacity.
The doors pose a problem with this fridge. They have handles that are sunken at the front, which allows shorter people to easily open them from the bottom, but they’re not easy for taller people to steer closed without slamming the doors. It would have been more effective if they had handles mounted on the front.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is a great choice for those who want to combine the look and feel of a french door fridge energy efficient-door refrigerator with an efficient design. Its capacity is higher than average for a counter-depth model, and it cools evenly and has a great layout. It’s also a bit cheaper than the most expensive counter depth refrigerator with an icemaker, which makes it an attractive choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you’re looking for a French door refrigerator that won’t cost you a fortune this Frigidaire is a solid option. It’s a basic refrigerator that may not be as appealing like some of its competitors, but it still has enough features to make a suitable choice. Its most important feature, the adjustable temperature drawer helps to keep food like meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water and ice maker dispenser.
Another great feature is the “Chill Drawer” that sits above the two crisper bins. The drawer allows you to divert part of the refrigerator’s cooling power directly into this area, which means you can store foods that require special attention. This feature can be adjusted by using a slider located outside the drawer. You can also use this feature to set a general cooling setting for the entire fridge though I’ve found that adjusting the general settings tends be more effective than specific ones.
In my tests, I found that the temperatures in the refrigerator were fairly consistent in different parts of the fridge. The temperatures in the top and bottom of the fridge didn’t stray significantly from 38 degrees, and the middle of the fridge was within a degree of 36. This is a great 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. You can also pair this fridge with an intelligent thermometer to get more precise readings of your fridge’s temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from gray-bodied stainless with a “smudge proof” finish. It wards off streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I’ve seen.
Stephanie Cronk, executive editor of Reviewed’s Commerce/Product Reviews Team, oversees the site’s buyer’s guides as well as product test reviews. She has more than 15 years of publishing and commerce experience, primarily in retail and digital. Stephanie What Is A French Fridge Freezer adamant about finding the top products and recommending them to customers. She focuses on home goods and technology.