French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Melding form with function, French-door refrigerators offer stylish double doors that open up to a spacious fridge up top and freezer drawer below. Special features like through-the-door dispensers, ice machines with higher-end features, and customizable flex drawers make them stand out from the rest.
We asked experts like Ladina Schopf, interior designer and architect, as well as the founder of LS Projects, for tips on choosing the right model. We looked at storage capacity, layout and energy efficiency among other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Like its name implies, the GE Profile series is aimed at people who want to incorporate cutting-edge technologies into their kitchen. This fridge is loaded with them all from the Keurig K cup coffee maker on 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. Since this refrigerator costs more, I'd expect better.
This fridge is a great option, despite the slight blip. It comes with a huge freezer compartment, which is uncommon in counter-depth French door fridges, and it holds a fair amount of frozen food when as compared to similar models.
Inside the fridge, you'll find 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment offers 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is roughly on what you would expect from a French door refrigerator that costs this much. It also has an adequate-sized icemaker that is tucked away in the left-hand door, although it isn't the largest I've seen.
You can adjust the shelves in both compartments for the perfect storage solution. The GE PYE22PYNFS's design for the interior is stylish, too. Its LED lighting is a nice feature, and the in-door storage bins feature the third shelf, which folds up beneath itself to make it possible to store large items. The drawers include temperature controls that let you set them to Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, however I found their textured plastic coatings a bit rough on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator is equipped with a all the features you'd expect from a fridge at this price with Wi-Fi and app support via GE's SmartHQ software. The app is available for iOS and Android devices and lets you control your refrigerator from any place around the world. It also comes with a lot of customization options. It will also send you notifications when the door is left unlocked, when the fridge or freezer requires defrosting, and when the filter requires a change.
french door fridge vs side by side would be nice if the GE PYE22PYNFS included Precise fill it's an option in other GE fridges that allows you to preset how many cups of water you'd like to dispense simultaneously. The fridge shows a countdown to display how much water remains but it's not as useful as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is a stunning piece of equipment. It's designed to look like it's a seamless component in your kitchen. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also has a vegetable compartment to keep fruits and vegetables fresher longer, and two compressors for maximum preservation of food. The Ice maker is among the top we've tested, and it produces a pyramid-shaped form of Ice with low use of water. This refrigerator is ideal for a single family or kitchenette that needs an attractive 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 held firm at a level that was just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit, never fluctuating more than a fraction one degree. This is crucial in preventing freezer burn. The fridge section of the fridge also performed well. It reached the temperature it was set within a matter of hours, and remained at that temperature throughout our testing.
Bosch is known for its high-end appliances. It's therefore no surprise that the Bosch counter depth refrigerator can be connected to your home Wi Fi and Bosch's platform Home Connect. The app allows you to monitor and control your refrigerator remotely from your tablet or smartphone. The refrigerator is costly, but offers great features and functions at a reasonable price.
While the fridge is an incredible piece of equipment however, it is important to understand the limitations. It has a limited shelf space, which means you may have to think creatively when storing tall objects. The shelves are not resistant to spills and are easily stained or damaged by sharp objects. The trays are easily removed from the fridge. However, they must be cleaned regularly to prevent the growth of mold.
If you're thinking of buying this refrigerator, make sure you check out 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 a lot of storage into the frame's compact size. It has a sleek, fingerprint-resistant stainless-steel finish and features thick handles that make them comfortable to grip. Inside, the fridge has a standard French-door layout with gallon-sized door bins at each door, two rows of spill-capture shelves and a set of more spacious drawers. The top shelf to the right can be folded to provide more space for tall items. There's also a full-width drawer to store food items and an internal water dispenser.
This refrigerator has a freezer with an ice maker making it simple to transfer frozen ice as needed. The freezer features thoughtful design elements, for instance, sliding drawers to help you better organize the position of items. It also has a large container for storing frozen food, and a separate container for ice.
Another cool feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. It allows you to manage the refrigerator's temperature, lighting, and more from your smartphone. It's a good method of monitoring and managing your refrigerator, particularly if you're away from home.
However, while the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it doesn't add to the overall performance of the refrigerator. In fact, it took longer to defrost and chill food in this refrigerator than other refrigerators we test. This is probably due to its greater capacity.
Another issue with this refrigerator is its doors. The handles with a sunken design allow shorter people to open them from the bottom. However taller people have a hard time closing them without slamming. It would have been better if they had a front-mounted handle.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a good option for those looking to combine the advantages of a French-door refrigerator's aesthetics with a more efficient layout. Its capacity is higher than average for counter-depth models, and it cools evenly. It's also a little cheaper than the best counter-depth refrigerator with an ice maker, which can make it an attractive option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for an French door fridge that doesn't break the bank and isn't expensive, this Frigidaire is a good choice. It's a basic refrigerator that might not be as appealing as some of its competitors however it has enough features to make it a good choice. Its most notable feature is the adjustable temperature drawer, helps to keep food items such as vegetables and meat fresher for longer. It also has a large water dispenser as well as a good ice maker that operates quickly.
The "Chill Drawer", which sits over the two crisper bins, is another nice feature. This drawer lets you divert some of the refrigerator's cooling power directly into this area, which means you can keep food items that need extra attention. You can alter this feature using a slider that's located right in the middle of the drawer. You can also use this to set a general cooling level for the entire fridge, however, I've found that changing the general settings tends to be more effective than specific ones.
In my tests, the temperature of the refrigerator were fairly consistent across all areas of the refrigerator. The temperatures in the top, bottom and middle of the fridge didn't differ much from 38 degrees. That's a good performance however it doesn't make it into the top ten in 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. You can also pair this fridge with a smart thermometer to get more precise measurements of your fridge's internal temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made of grey-bodied stainless that has a "smudge proof" finish. It does a great job of preventing streaks and fingerprints from appearing even when compared to the shiny stainless steel finishes on other appliances I've tried.
Stephanie Cronk is the executive editor of Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews team and oversees the site's buyer's guides as well as product reviews for test products. She has more than 15 years of publishing and commerce experience, primarily in digital and retail. Stephanie is passionate about finding the most effective products and recommending them to consumers. She focuses on home goods and technology.