French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door fridges combine design and function. They feature stylish double doors that reveal a large fridge on top, and a freezer drawer beneath. These refrigerators stand out due to their unique features, including through-the-door dispensers and higher-end Ice makers.
We consulted Ladina Schopf - an interior designer, architect and the founder of LS Projects - for her suggestions on how to pick the right home. They evaluated the capacity of storage, layout and energy efficiency as well as other aspects.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
As its name suggests, the GE Profile series is targeted at consumers who want to integrate cutting-edge features in their kitchen. This fridge has them all including the Keurig K cup coffee maker in the door, to a clever 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, so I expected better.
This fridge is a good choice, despite the blip. It comes with a huge freezer compartment, which is quite uncommon in counter-depth French door refrigerators. Additionally, it can hold a decent amount of frozen food when in comparison to similar models.
Inside the fridge, there are 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment has 18.5 cubic feet, which is standard for a French-door refrigerator at this price. It has a decent sized freezer in the left side. But, it's not the largest one I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in both compartments to create a an individual storage solution. The GE PYE22PYNFS's design for the interior is attractive, too. The LED lighting is a nice addition, and the in-door storage bins come with a third shelf that folds down to make it possible to store tall items. The drawers have temperature controls that let you set them to Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. The drawers are easy to open and close however I found the textured plastic coatings a bit hard on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator has all the features you'd expect from a refrigerator within this price range. This includes Wi-Fi, app support and GE's SmartHQ Software. The app, which is available for iOS and Android devices can let you control your refrigerator from anywhere in the world, and offers numerous options for customization. It also sends you notifications when the door is left unlocked and when the freezer or fridge needs to be defrosted, and when the filter needs to be changed.
It would be nice if GE PYE22PYNFS came with Precise Fill, an option available in a handful of other GE fridges that allows you to choose how many cups of water you'd like to pour out simultaneously. It does offer an indicator on the fridge display to display how much water have left, but it's not as helpful as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Designed to look like a seamless part 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 boasts a veggie compartment to keep vegetables and fruits fresher for longer, and two compressors to ensure maximum preservation of food. The ice maker we tested was one of the most efficient and makes pyramid shaped ice using minimal water. This fridge is the perfect option for households with a single member or kitchenettes who 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. The temperature of the freezer remained stable at just a few degrees Fahrenheit, and never moving by more than a fraction one degree. This is crucial to avoiding freezing burn. The refrigerator section of the fridge also performed well. It reached the initial temperature within a matter of hours, and maintained the temperature throughout our testing.
Bosch is known for its premium appliances and appliances, so it's not a surprise that this counter depth refrigerator is also a smart appliance that has the option to connect to your home Wi-Fi and Bosch's Home Connect platform. This app lets you monitor and control your fridge from your smartphone or tablet. The refrigerator is expensive, but it offers excellent features and functionality for the price.
While the fridge is an amazing piece of equipment, it's important to know the limitations. You might need to be creative with tall objects because the fridge has a limited shelf space. Additionally, the shelves are not completely sprillproof, and can easily be damaged or stained by sharp objects. It's easy to remove the refrigerator trays, but be sure to clean them regularly to prevent the growth of mold.
If you're thinking of buying this refrigerator, you should also 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 counter-depth fridge is a great option for those who need lots of space within 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 fridge features a standard French-door layout with gallon-sized door bins at each door as well as two rows of spill-capture shelves, and a set of sleeker drawers. The top shelf on the right can be folded to provide more space for tall items. There's also a full-width drawer to store products from the deli and an inside water dispenser.
One of the best aspects of this refrigerator is that its ice maker is inside the freezer, making it easy to transfer frozen ice to the fridge to be used when it is required. The freezer also has clever design features, such as sliding drawers that allow you to sort your things. It comes with a large bin to store frozen food items, and a separate container for ice.
Another cool feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. It allows you to control the temperature of your fridge as well as lighting using your smartphone. It's a nice way to control and monitor your refrigerator, especially when you're away from home.
But while the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it doesn't necessarily add to the overall performance of the refrigerator. The fridge took a bit longer to chill food and defrost it than some others we tried. This is likely due to its greater capacity.
The doors are a different issue with this fridge. The sunken handles allow shorter people to open them from the bottom. However taller people will have a hard time closing them without slamming them. It would have been much better if they had a front-mounted handle.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is an excellent choice for those who want to combine the look of a French door refrigerator with more efficient design. Its capacity is above average for a counter-depth model and it cools evenly and has a good layout. It's also a bit cheaper than the most expensive counter depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, making it a desirable choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a good choice when you're looking for a French door fridge that won't break the budget. It's a minimalist design that's not as striking visually as other models but it does have enough features to make it a good choice. Its most important feature, the temperature adjustable drawer, helps to keep food items like vegetables and meat fresher longer. It also comes with a huge ice maker as well as a water dispenser.
The "Chill Drawer", which is located over the two crisper bins, is another excellent feature. This drawer lets you use the majority of the refrigerator's cooling power into the area so that you can keep food items that require extra attention. french door fridge freezer can alter this feature using the slider located on the in the middle of the drawer. It is also possible to use this to set a general cooling setting for the whole fridge, but I've noticed that adjusting the general settings tends be more effective than specific ones.
In my experiments, I noticed that the temperatures in the refrigerator were fairly consistent in different areas of the fridge. Temperatures in the top and bottom of the fridge didn't vary very far from 38 degrees, and the middle of the fridge was within one degree of 36. This is a solid performance, but it isn't quite at the top of our ratings.
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 obtain more precise readings of the internal temperature of your fridge.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's outside is made of stainless steel with a grey-bodied body that has a "smudge-proof" finish. It does a great job of removing streaks and fingerprints even when compared with 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 publishing and commerce experience, with a focus on digital and retail. Stephanie is passionate about finding and recommending the best products for consumers, with a focus on home goods and tech.