French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators are a perfect blend of functionality and form. They come with stylish double doors that show the large fridge on top and a freezer drawer beneath. Special features like door-to-door dispensers, higher-end ice machines, and customizable flex drawers make them stand out from the rest.
We sought out experts like Ladina Schopf, interior designer architect, founder, and co-founder of LS Projects, for tips on how to select the best one. We looked at the capacity of storage, layout, and energy efficiency among other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
As the name suggests, GE's Profile series targets consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge technology into their kitchen. This fridge is loaded with them all, from the Keurig K cup coffee maker in the door to a sophisticated 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 is a premium, I expect better.
Apart from that minor flaw, this fridge is a great option. It has a large freezer compartment, which is quite uncommon in counter-depth French door refrigerators. Additionally, it holds a fair 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 of space, which is about what you would expect from the size of a French door fridge that costs this much. It has a decent-sized freezer in the left side. However it's not the most spacious one I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in both compartments to make the perfect storage solution. french style fridge freezer for the interior is good-looking, too. The LED lighting is a nice accent. The in-door storage bins come with a third shelf that can be folded down to store tall items. The drawers are equipped with temperature controls, so you can set them to Beverage, Meat, or Deli settings. The drawers are easy to shut and open, but I found the textured plastic coatings a bit hard on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator is equipped with a complete set of features you'd expect from a fridge in this price range with Wi-Fi and app support via GE's SmartHQ software. The app, 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 must be defrosted and when the filter requires a change.
It is nice if the GE PYE22PYNFS came with Precise Fill which is an option that is available in a few other GE fridges that allow you to set the number of cups of water you'd like to dispense at once. It does offer a countdown on the fridge's display to show how much water you have left, but it's not as helpful as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Designed to look like a seamless piece of your kitchen Bosch's French door refrigerator is one of a kind. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also has a vegetable compartment that helps keep fruits and vegetables fresher longer and dual compressors to ensure the best preservation of food. The Ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient and makes an ice pyramid with only a little water. This refrigerator is the ideal choice for single household or kitchenettes looking for a built-in look and top of the line food preservation.
The fridge was rated the best refrigerator in our Refrigerators test, for several reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained stable at just a few degrees Fahrenheit, never moving more than a fraction of a degree--this is key to avoiding freezing burn. The fridge section of the fridge also performed well, achieving the temperature that was set for the initial setting within an hour and keeping the temperature constant over the course of our tests.
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 of connecting to your home Wi-Fi and Bosch's Home Connect platform. The app lets you monitor and control your fridge remotely from your tablet or smartphone. The refrigerator is costly however, it offers excellent features and functionality at a reasonable price.
It is crucial to be aware of the limitations of your fridge. It has a narrow shelf space, so you'll have to think creatively when storing tall objects. Also the shelves aren't impervious to sprills and could be damaged or stained by sharp objects. The trays are easily removed from the refrigerator. However, they should be cleaned frequently to stop the growth of mold.
If you are considering this refrigerator, make sure you 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 a lot 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 the standard French door design, and two rows of shelves that can be used to capture spills and a set crisper drawers. The top shelf to 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.
This refrigerator has a freezer with an ice maker making it simple to transfer frozen ice as needed. The freezer has thoughtful design elements, for instance, sliding drawers to help you better organize the position of items. It also has a huge bin that can accommodate plenty of frozen food items and an storage bin for ice.
Another awesome feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. It lets you control the fridge's temperature, lighting, and more from your smartphone. It's a great way to control and monitor your refrigerator, especially when you're away from home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat, but it doesn't necessarily enhance the performance of the fridge. In fact, it took longer to defrost and chill foods in this fridge as compared to other fridges we tried. This could be due to the greater capacity.
The doors are a different issue with this refrigerator. They have handles that are sunken on the front that allow shorter people to easily pull them open from the bottom, however they're still difficult for taller people to guide closed without slamming the doors. It would have been better if these had front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is a great choice for those looking to combine the look and feel of a French-door refrigerator with an efficient design. Its capacity is superior for a counter-depth model, and it cools evenly and has a great layout. It's also a little less than the best counter depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, which makes it a great choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for an French door fridge that doesn't break the bank this Frigidaire is a good choice. It's a basic fridge which may not be as attractive as some of its competitors, but it still has enough features to make it a good option. Its most important characteristic is the adjustable temperature drawer that helps keep food items like veggies and meat fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge ice maker as well as a water dispenser.
Another nice feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. The drawer lets you redirect a portion of your fridge's cooling power to the area so that you can keep food items that require extra attention. You can alter the feature using the slider located on the outside of the drawer. You can also alter the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I've found that the general settings are more effective than the specific ones.
In my experiments, I noticed that the temperatures in the refrigerator were fairly consistent across different areas of the refrigerator. Temperatures in the top and bottom of the fridge did not vary significantly from 38 degrees, and even the middle of the fridge was within a degree of 36. This is a solid performance but doesn't quite make it to 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. You can also connect this fridge to an intelligent thermometer to get more precise readings of your fridge's internal temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from grey-bodied stainless with a "smudge proof" finish. It wards off streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I've seen.
Stephanie Cronk is the executive editor on Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews team and oversees the site's buyer's guides as well as review of test products. She has more than 15 years of publishing and commerce experience, primarily in retail and digital. Stephanie is adamant about finding the top products and recommending them to consumers. She is particularly interested in home goods and technology.