French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators blend functionality and form. They come with elegant double doors that open to reveal a large fridge on top, and a freezer drawer below. These refrigerators stand out due to their unique features, like through-the-door dispensers as well as higher-end Ice makers.
We contacted Ladina Schopf - interior designer, architect, and founder of LS Projects - for her tips on how to select the best one. They looked at the storage capacity, layout, and energy efficiency, among other aspects.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name of the series suggests that the GE Profile series is aimed at people who want to integrate cutting-edge features in their kitchen. This refrigerator is packed with these, from an inside-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 better.
This fridge is a great option, despite the slight blip. It boasts a spacious freezer compartment, which is quite uncommon in counter-depth French door fridges, and it can hold a decent amount of frozen food when as compared to similar models.
The fridge has 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment has 18.5 cubic feet, which is standard for a fridge with a French door at this price. It comes with a decent size icemaker in the left door. However it's not the biggest one I've seen.
You can alter the shelving in each compartment to create a customized storage layout for the items you need to store. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is also attractive. The LED lighting is a nice accent. The bins for storage inside include a third shelf that can be folded down to store tall items. The drawers come with temperature controls that let you set them to Meat, Beverage or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, but I found their textured plastic coatings to be a bit rough on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator includes all the features you'd expect from a refrigerator within this price range. This includes 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 fridge from anywhere in world, and has a ton of customization options. It will also send notifications when the door is unlocked as well as when the fridge or freezer requires defrosting, and when the filter requires a change.
It is nice if the GE PYE22PYNFS included Precise fill it's an option in a few other GE fridges that allow you to choose how many cups of water you'd like to pour out at once. The fridge shows a countdown to display how much water is left but it's not as effective as Precise fill.
french door fridge freezers is designed to look like a seamless piece of your kitchen Bosch's French-door refrigerator looks seamless and is an eye-catching piece. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also has a vegetable compartment that keeps vegetables and fruits fresher for longer periods, and dual compressors to preserve food. The Ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient, and it produces an ice pyramid with only a little water. This fridge is perfect for a single household or a kitchenette that wants an elegant design and top of the line food preservation.
This fridge was the top-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators test for several reasons. Its freezer temperatures held firm at a level that was just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit, never moving by more than a fraction one degree. This is crucial to avoiding freezing burn. The fridge's refrigerator section also performed well, reaching the temperature that was set for the initial setting within a matter of hours and keeping that temperature steady over the course of our tests.
Bosch is a household name for its high-end appliances. It's therefore no surprise that Bosch's counter depth fridge Bosch counter depth fridge can be connected to your home Wi Fi and Bosch's platform Home Connect. This app allows you to monitor and control your refrigerator remotely on your smartphone or tablet. The fridge is expensive however, it offers excellent features and functionality at a fair price.
It is crucial to be aware of the limitations of the fridge. You may need to get creative with tall items because the fridge has a small shelf space. Also, the shelves are not sprillproof and can be easily damaged or stained by sharp objects. It's simple to remove the trays in the fridge however, you must clean them regularly to prevent mold growth.
If you're thinking of buying this refrigerator, be sure to look over 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 space 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 is built with a standard French door layout, with two rows of spill-capture shelving and a set crisper drawers. The top shelf on the right can be folded down to make space for tall items. There's also a full-width storage drawer for food items and an internal water dispenser.
One of the nice things about this refrigerator is that its ice maker is inside the freezer, which makes it simple to move frozen ice to the fridge to use as needed. The freezer also comes with innovative design features like sliding drawers that help you organize your items. It has a large bin for storing frozen food and a separate bin for ice.
Smart InstaView panel is another cool feature of the refrigerator. You can control the temperature, lighting and more of your fridge from your smartphone. It's a nice way to monitor and manage your refrigerator, especially when you're away from home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat, but it doesn't necessarily improve the performance of the fridge. The fridge took a bit longer to defrost food and chill it than some others we test. This is likely due to its greater capacity.
The doors are a different issue with this fridge. They have handles that are sunken on the front that allow shorter people to easily open them from the bottom, however they're difficult for taller people to steer closed 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 option for those who want to combine the look of a French door refrigerator with more efficient design. It has a capacity that is higher than average for counter-depth models and also cools evenly. It's also a little less than the most expensive counter depth refrigerator with an ice maker, which makes it a desirable option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a great choice when you're looking for a French door fridge that doesn't break the budget. It has a simple design that's not as visually striking as other models, but it has enough features to make it a good choice. Its most important characteristic is the adjustable temperature drawer which helps keep food items such as meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also has a large water dispenser and a decent ice maker that operates quickly.
Another great feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits over the two crisper bins. This drawer lets you redirect part of the refrigerator's cooling power directly to this area, meaning you can put away food items that require extra attention. You can alter this feature using the slider located 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.
During my tests, the refrigerator's temperatures were fairly constant across the different areas of the refrigerator. The temperatures in the middle, top and bottom of the fridge didn't differ significantly from 38 degrees. This is a good performance, but it 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. You can also combine this fridge with a smart thermometer for more precise measurements of your fridge's internal temperature.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's outside is made of stainless steel with a grey-bodied body with a "smudge-proof" finish. It does a great job of removing streaks and fingerprints even when compared to the shiny stainless steel finishes on other appliances 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 more than 15 years of experience in publishing and commerce mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is adamant about finding the top products and recommending them to customers. She is particularly interested in home goods and technology.