French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Melding form with functionality, french door fridge with water dispenser-door refrigerators have elegant double doors that open to an enormous fridge on the top and a freezer drawer below. Special features like door-to-door dispensers, high-end ice machines, and customizable flex drawers make them stand out from the rest.
We consulted Ladina Schopf – interior designer, architect and founder of LS Projects – for her tips on how to select the right home. They weighed storage capacity as well as layout and energy efficiency, among other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name implies that the GE Profile series is geared towards consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge technologies into their kitchen. This fridge is loaded with them all, from a Keurig K cup coffee maker in 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. Since this refrigerator costs an extra amount, I’d like to see higher quality.
Other than that the fridge is a fantastic choice. It comes with a huge freezer compartment, which is quite uncommon in counter-depth french door fridge vs side by side door fridges, and it holds a fair amount of frozen food when as compared to similar models.
The fridge is equipped with 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment is 18.5 cubic feet, which is typical for a fridge with a French door at this price. It also has an adequate-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 the perfect storage solution. The GE PYE22PYNFS’s design for the interior is attractive, too. The LED lighting is an attractive touch. The bins for storage inside have a third shelf which can be folded down to store large items. The drawers have temperature controls, so you can set them to Beverage, Meat, or Deli settings. The drawers are easy to open and close, but I found the textured plastic coatings to be a bit rough on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator includes the complete set of features you’d expect from a fridge in this price range that includes Wi-Fi as well as app support through GE’s SmartHQ software. The app is available for iOS and Android devices and lets you control your refrigerator from anywhere across the globe. It also comes with a lot of customization options. It will also send you notifications when the door is unlocked, when the fridge or freezer requires defrosting, and when the filter requires a change.
It is nice it GE PYE22PYNFS offered Precise fill, an option that is available in a few GE refrigerators that allow users to choose how many cups they want to disperse. The fridge displays a countdown timer to reveal how much water is left, but it’s not as effective as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Created to appear like a seamless part of your kitchen, Bosch’s French-door refrigerator is a standout. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also has a vegetable compartment which keeps vegetables and fruits fresher for longer periods, and two compressors for preserving food. The ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient, and it produces an ice pyramid with only a little water. This refrigerator is the ideal option for a single family or kitchenettes that want a sleek design and top-of-the-line food preservation.
This fridge was the top-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators test, for a few reasons. Its freezer temperatures remained constant at just above 0° Fahrenheit and never fluctuated more than a tiny fraction – this is crucial to avoid freezer burn. The fridge’s fridge section also performed well, achieving the temperature that was set for the initial setting within an hour and maintaining that temperature steady over the course of our testing.
Bosch is known for its top-of-the-line appliances, so it’s no surprise that this counter-depth refrigerator is also a smart appliance with the option to connect to your home Wi-Fi as well as Bosch’s Home Connect platform. The app allows you to control and monitor your refrigerator remotely from your smartphone or tablet. The refrigerator is pricey and has great features and functionality at a fair price.
While the fridge is an amazing piece of equipment however, it is important to understand the limitations. It has a limited space for shelves, so you may have to think creatively when storing tall items. Also the shelves aren’t sprillproof and can be easily stained or damaged by sharp objects. The trays are easily removed from the fridge. However, they should be cleaned frequently to stop the growth of mold.
If you’re thinking of buying this refrigerator, you should also read our review of the French style fridge freezer reviews uk 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 a lot of storage into a 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 an ordinary French-door design with gallon-sized bins for the doors on each door and two rows of shelves that capture spills, and a set of sleeker 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 items and an internal water dispenser.
One of the best features of this refrigerator is that its ice maker is in the freezer, making it simple to move ice into the fridge to use as needed. The freezer is designed with thoughtful elements, for instance, sliding drawers that can help you to organize the place of items. It also comes with a large bin that can accommodate plenty of frozen food items as well as an additional ice storage bin.
Smart InstaView panel is another cool feature of the refrigerator. You can control the temperature, lighting, and other aspects of your refrigerator from your smartphone. It’s a nice way to control and monitor your refrigerator, especially when you’re away from home.
Although the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it doesn’t necessarily enhance the overall performance of the refrigerator. The fridge took a bit longer to chill food and defrost it than other models we tried. This is likely due to the greater capacity.
The doors are another problem with this refrigerator. They have sunken handles on the front, which allow shorter people to easily pull them open from the bottom, however they’re not easy for taller people to pull closed without slamming them. It would have been much better if these had front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a good option for those looking to combine the benefits of a fridge with a French door with an efficient layout. Its capacity is higher than average for a counter-depth model and it cools well and has a nice layout. It’s also a little cheaper than the best counter-depth refrigerator that has an ice maker, which can make it a popular choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire french door fridge ice maker door refrigerator is a good option when you’re looking for a French door refrigerator that doesn’t cost a lot of budget. It’s a basic design that’s not as striking visually as some of the competition but it does have enough features to make it a solid choice. Its most significant feature, the adjustable temperature drawer, helps to keep food items such as vegetables and meat fresher longer. It also has a large water dispenser as well as a good Ice machine that is fast.
The “Chill Drawer”, which is situated above the two crisper bins, is a great feature. The drawer lets you use some of your fridge’s cooling power into this area so it can be used to store food items that require extra attention. You can alter this feature using a slider that’s located right in the middle 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 general settings tends to have a better effect than specific ones.
During my tests, the temperature of the refrigerator stayed fairly consistent across different areas of the fridge. The temperatures in the top and bottom of the fridge didn’t stray much from 38 degrees, and even the middle of the fridge was within one degree of 36. 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. You can also connect this fridge to a smart thermometer to get more precise readings of the internal temperature of your fridge.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made of grey-bodied stainless that has a “smudge proof” finish. It wards off streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I’ve tested.
Stephanie Cronk, executive editor of Reviewed’s Commerce/Product Reviews Team, oversees the site’s buyer’s guides and product test reviews. She has over 15 years of experience in publishing and commerce mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is committed to finding and recommending the top products for consumers, with a focus on home goods and technology.