French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Combining form and function, French-door refrigerators come with stylish double doors that open to a spacious fridge up top and freezer drawer below. Special features like through-the-door dispensers, high-end ice machines, and customizable flex drawers make them stand out from the rest.
We consulted experts such as Ladina Schopf, an interior designer and architect, as well as the founder of LS Projects, for tips on choosing the right model. They considered storage capacity as well as layout, energy efficiency, and other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
As the name suggests, GE's Profile series is geared towards consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge technologies in their kitchen. This refrigerator has it 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. Given that this fridge costs an extra amount, I'd like to see better.
Apart from that minor flaw however, this refrigerator is a fantastic choice. It has a large freezer compartment, which is quite uncommon in counter-depth French door refrigerators. Furthermore, it can hold a decent amount of frozen food compared to similar models.
Inside the fridge, there are 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment is 18.5 cubic feet, which is the standard for a fridge with a French door at this price. It also has a decent sized ice maker in the left door, though it's not the biggest I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in both compartments to make a custom storage solution. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is also attractive. The LED lighting is a nice feature and the storage bins come with the third shelf, which can fold down to allow you to store large items. The drawers have temperature controls, so you can set them for Beverage, Meat or Deli settings. The drawers are easy to open and close, but I found the plastic's textured coatings to be a bit rough on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator is equipped with a all the features you'd expect from a refrigerator at this price that includes Wi-Fi as well as app support through 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 it has numerous options for customization. It also sends you notifications when a door is left open, when the refrigerator or freezer needs to be defrosted and when it's time to change the filter.
It is nice it GE PYE22PYNFS offered Precise fill the option that is available in a handful of GE refrigerators that allow users to select how many cups they want to dispense. The fridge shows a countdown to reveal how much water is left, but it's not as helpful 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 a seamless piece in your kitchen. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also boasts a veggie compartment that keeps fruits and vegetables fresher longer and dual compressors for the best preservation of food. The Ice maker is among the best we've ever tested and produces pyramid-shaped ice that is low in water consumption. This fridge is the perfect choice for single household or kitchenettes looking for a sleek design and top of the line food preservation.
This refrigerator was the highest-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators test, for several reasons. Its freezer temperatures remained constant at just above 0° Fahrenheit and never changed more than a tiny fraction - this is crucial to avoid the risk of a freezer burn. The fridge section of the fridge also did well. It reached the initial temperature within an hour and remained at the temperature throughout our testing.
Bosch is known for its premium 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. This app lets you monitor and control your refrigerator remotely on your tablet or smartphone. The refrigerator is costly, but offers great features and functions at a reasonable cost.
french door refrigerator freezer is important to know the limitations of the fridge. It is possible to be creative with tall objects because the fridge has a limited shelf space. The shelves aren't impervious to spills and could easily be stained or damaged by sharp objects. The trays are easily removed from the refrigerator. However, french door refrigerator freezer must be cleaned regularly to prevent the growth of mold.
If you are considering this refrigerator, you should also read our review of the GE Appliances French Door Refrigerator and the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The LG LRFLC2706S is an excellent counter-depth refrigerator that packs plenty of storage space 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 refrigerator has a standard French-door layout with gallon-sized door bins at each door and two rows of spill-capture shelves and a set of more spacious drawers. The top shelf to the right can be folded down to make 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 in the freezer, which makes it simple to move frozen ice to the fridge for use when needed. The freezer features thoughtful design elements, too, like sliding drawers that can help you to organize the place of items. It has a large bin to store frozen food items, and a separate container for ice.
Another great feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. It lets you control the fridge's temperature and lighting 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 enhance the performance of the fridge. The fridge took a bit longer to defrost food and chill it than some others we tested. This could be due to the larger capacity.
Another issue with this refrigerator is its doors. The sunken handles allow shorter people to open them from the bottom. However taller people have a difficult time closing them without slamming them. It would have been better if they came with a front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a excellent option for those looking to combine the benefits of a French-door fridge's aesthetics with a more efficient layout. It has a capacity that is above average for counter-depth models, and it cools evenly. It's also a little cheaper than the best counter-depth refrigerator that has an ice maker, which can make it an attractive option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for a French door refrigerator that won't break the bank, this Frigidaire is a good choice. It has a simple design that isn't as striking visually as some of the competition, but it has enough features to make it a good choice. Its most important feature, the adjustable temperature drawer helps to keep food like vegetables and meat fresher for longer. It also has a large 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 redirect part of the refrigerator's cooling power directly into this area, meaning you can keep food items that require special attention. This feature is adjustable using an outside slider that is located inside the drawer. You can also set the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I've found that the generic settings work better than the specific ones.
During my tests, the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly constant across the different areas of the refrigerator. The temperatures in the middle, top and bottom of the refrigerator did not differ much from 38 degrees. That's a good 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. The fridge can be linked with a smart thermostat in order to get more accurate readings on the internal temperature of your fridge.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from grey-bodied stainless that has a "smudge resistant" finish. It repels fingerprints and streaks 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 and product test reviews. She has more than 15 years of publishing and commerce experience, with a focus on retail and digital. Stephanie is adamant about finding the most effective products and recommending them to consumers. She concentrates on home and technology.