French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators are a perfect blend of form and function. They come with elegant double doors that open to reveal the large fridge on top and a freezer drawer beneath. These refrigerators stand out because of their distinctive features, such as through-the-door dispensers and higher-end ice makers.
We asked Ladina Schopf - interior designer, architect, and the founder of LS Projects - for her advice on how to choose the right home. They looked at the capacity of storage, layout, and energy efficiency among other features.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name of the series suggests that the GE Profile series is aimed at those who wish to incorporate cutting-edge technology into their kitchen. The refrigerator is brimming with these, from an inside-the-door Keurig K-cup coffee maker to a sophisticated 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 an extra amount, I'd like to see higher quality.
This refrigerator is a good choice, despite the small blip. It has a large freezer compartment, which is unusual for counter-depth French door fridges. It also holds plenty of frozen food items compared to other models.
The fridge has 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment has 18.5 cubic feet, which is typical for a French-door refrigerator at this price. It has a decent sized freezer in the left side. However it's not the biggest one I've seen.
You can adjust the shelving in each compartment to create a custom storage setup for what you want to store. The GE PYE22PYNFS's interior design is stylish, too. The LED lighting is a nice addition, and the in-door storage bins have a third shelf that folds down to allow you to store large items. The drawers have 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 a bit hard on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator comes with all the features you would expect from a refrigerator within this price range. It has Wi-Fi as well as app support, and GE's SmartHQ Software. The app is compatible with iOS and Android devices and lets you control your refrigerator from anywhere in the globe. It also offers a lot of customization options. It will also send you notifications when the door is left unlocked as well as when the freezer or fridge must be defrosted and when the filter requires a change.
It is nice it GE PYE22PYNFS could offer Precise Fill, an option available in a handful of GE refrigerators that allow users to select how many cups they want to dispense. It does have a countdown on the fridge's display to display how much water you have left, but it's not as useful as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Designed to look as a seamless element of your kitchen, Bosch's French-door refrigerator is a standout. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also comes with a veggie compartment to keep vegetables and fruits fresher for longer, and two compressors to ensure the best preservation of food. The Ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient and makes pyramid shaped ice using minimal water. This refrigerator is ideal for a single family or kitchenette that needs a built-in appearance and top-of-the highest quality food preservation.
This fridge was rated the most efficient in our Refrigerators Test for a variety of reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained stable at a level that was just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and never moving more than a fraction one degree. This is crucial to avoiding freezer burn. The refrigerator section of the fridge also did well. It reached the initial temperature within an hour, and maintained the temperature throughout our testing.
french door refrigerator freezer has a reputation for top-of-the-line appliances which is why it's no surprise that this counter depth refrigerator is also a smart appliance that has the option to connect to your home Wi-Fi network and Bosch's Home Connect platform. This app lets you monitor and control the refrigerator remotely using your smartphone or tablet. The refrigerator is expensive, but it offers great features and capabilities for the price.
It's important to understand the limitations of your fridge. You may need to get creative with tall items because the fridge is limited in shelf space. The shelves are not resistant to spills and are easily damaged or stained by sharp objects. It's simple to remove the trays in the fridge, but be sure to clean them regularly to prevent the growth of mold.
If you are thinking about 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 counter-depth refrigerator is a great choice for those who require a lot of space in 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 features a standard French door design, with two rows of shelving with spill-capture and a set crisper drawers. The top shelf to the right can be folded in order to create more space for tall items. There's also a full-width drawer for products from the deli and an inside water dispenser.
One of the best features of this refrigerator is that its Ice maker is located in the freezer, which makes it simple to move the ice to the refrigerator to use as needed. The freezer is designed with thoughtful elements, too, like sliding drawers to help you to organize the place of 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 manage the temperature, lighting, and more of your fridge from your smartphone. It's a good way to control and monitor your refrigerator, especially if you're away from home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat but it doesn't enhance the performance of the fridge. In fact it took a bit longer to defrost and chill food in this fridge as compared to other fridges we test. This is likely due to its larger capacity.
Another issue with this refrigerator is its doors. They have sunken handles on the front, which allow smaller people to open them from the bottom, however they're still difficult for taller people to pull closed without slamming them. 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 fridge's aesthetics with a more efficient layout. Its capacity is superior to counter-depth models and also cools evenly. It's also less expensive than the best counter depth refrigerator that comes with an ice maker, making it an attractive option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a good option for those looking for a French-door refrigerator that doesn't cost a lot of budget. It's a simple fridge that might not be as attractive as some of its competitors however it has enough features to make it a suitable option. Its main characteristic is the adjustable temperature drawer which helps keep food items like meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser as well as a good Ice machine that is fast.
Another nice feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits over the two crisper bins. This drawer lets you divert some of the fridge's cooling power directly to this area, which means you can keep food items that require extra attention. This feature can be adjusted using a slider located outside the drawer. You can also use this to adjust the general cooling settings for the entire fridge though I've found that adjusting the general settings tends to produce better results than specific ones.
In my tests, I found that the temperatures in the refrigerator were fairly consistent in different parts of the refrigerator. The temperatures in the top, bottom and middle of the refrigerator didn't vary 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 combine this fridge with a smart thermometer to get more precise measurements of the internal temperature of your fridge.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's outside is made of grey-bodied stainless steel with a "smudge-proof" finish. It blocks streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I've tried.
Stephanie Cronk is the executive editor of Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews team and oversees the site's buyer's guides and test-product reviews. She has more than 15 years of experience in commerce and publishing including retail and digital. Stephanie is committed to finding and recommending the top products for consumers, with a a focus on home goods and tech.