French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door fridges combine functionality and form. They feature stylish double doors that reveal an enormous fridge on top and a freezer drawer beneath. These refrigerators stand out due to their special features, such as through-the-door dispensers and higher-end ice makers.
We asked experts like Ladina Schopf, an interior designer, architect, and founder of LS Projects, for tips on how to select the best one. They weighed the capacity of storage as well as layout and energy efficiency as well as other features.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name of the series suggests that the GE Profile series is aimed at people who want to integrate cutting-edge features in their kitchens. This fridge is loaded with them, from an in-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. The refrigerator is expensive and I expected more.
This refrigerator is a good choice, despite the small blip. It comes with a huge freezer compartment, which is uncommon in counter-depth French door refrigerators. Furthermore, it holds a good amount of frozen foods as compared to similar models.
The fridge comes with 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator 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 icemaker packed into the left door, but it's not the largest I've seen.
You can adjust the shelving in each compartment to create a customized storage layout for what you want to keep. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS also looks attractive. Its LED lighting is a nice feature and the storage bins have the third shelf, which folds down to allow you to store large items. The drawers have temperature controls that allow you to set them to Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, however I found their plastic textured coatings to be a bit rough on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator comes with all the features you would expect from a refrigerator in this price range. This includes Wi-Fi, app support and GE's SmartHQ Software. The app is available for iOS and Android devices and allows you to control your refrigerator from any place across the globe. It also offers numerous options for customizing. It also sends 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 if the GE PYE22PYNFS included Precise fill which is an option that is available in a handful of other GE fridges that allow you to choose how many cups of water you'd like to dispense simultaneously. It does have 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
Created to appear like a seamless part of your kitchen Bosch's French-door refrigerator looks seamless and 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 to keep vegetables and fruits fresher longer and dual compressors to ensure maximum 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 refrigerator is ideal for a single family or a kitchenette with an attractive design and top of the best food preservation.
This fridge was rated as the most efficient in our Refrigerators Test for several reasons. The freezer temperature remained steady at just above 0°F and never fluctuated by more than a fraction, this is crucial to prevent freezing burn. The fridge's fridge section also performed well, achieving the temperature that was set for the initial setting within an hour and maintaining that temperature steady over the course of our tests.
Bosch 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 of connecting to your home Wi-Fi and Bosch's Home Connect platform. This app allows you to monitor and control your fridge from your smartphone or tablet. The fridge is expensive, but offers great features and functionality at a reasonable price.
It is important to know the limitations of your fridge. It has a limited shelf space, which means you'll require some creativity when storing tall objects. Additionally the shelves aren't completely sprillproof, and can easily be stained or damaged by sharp objects. The trays can be easily removed from the refrigerator. However, they must be cleaned regularly to prevent the growth of mold.
If you're considering this refrigerator, make sure to also check out our reviews 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 option for those who need plenty 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. Inside, the refrigerator has the standard French-door layout, with gallon-sized bins for the doors on each door as well as two rows of shelves for spill-capture and a set of crisper drawers. The top right shelf can be folded down to give tall items more headroom. There's also a full-width storage drawer for food items and an internal water dispenser.
One of the nice things about this refrigerator is that the ice maker is inside the freezer, which makes it simple to move the ice to the refrigerator to be used when it is needed. The freezer also comes with thoughtful design features, such as sliding drawers that can help you organize your items. It also has a large container for storing frozen food, and a separate bin for ice.
Smart InstaView panel is a cool feature of the refrigerator. It allows you to control the fridge's temperature as well as lighting via your smartphone. It's a great method of monitoring and managing your refrigerator, particularly if you're away from home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat, but it doesn't necessarily improve the efficiency of the fridge. In fact, it took longer to defrost and chill foods in this refrigerator than other refrigerators we tried. This is likely due to the greater capacity.
Another issue with the door of this refrigerator. The sunken handles allow shorter people to open them from the bottom. However, taller people still struggle to close them without slamming. It would have been much better if they had a front-mounted handle.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is an excellent option for those looking to combine the look of a French door refrigerator with an efficient design. It has a capacity that is above average for counter-depth models, and it cools evenly. It's also less expensive than the top counter-depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, which can make it a desirable choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a good option when you're looking for a French door fridge that won't break the budget. It's a basic refrigerator that might not be as appealing as some of its competitors however it has enough features to make a an excellent option. Its most important feature, the adjustable temperature drawer helps to keep food items like vegetables and meat fresher for longer. It also has a large water dispenser, as well as an excellent Ice machine that is fast.
The "Chill Drawer", which is located over the two crisper bins, is a excellent feature. This drawer allows you to direct a portion of your fridge's cooling power to this area, so that you can store foods that require extra attention. This feature is adjustable using a slider located outside the drawer. You can also use this feature to set a general cooling setting for the entire fridge but I've noticed that adjusting the generic settings tends to be more effective than specific ones.
During my experiments, I noticed that the temperatures in the refrigerator were fairly consistent in various parts of the refrigerator. Temperatures at the top and bottom of the fridge didn't stray significantly from 38 degrees, and the middle of the fridge was within a degree of 36. This is a great performance, but it doesn't quite 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 connect this fridge to a smart thermometer to get more precise measurements of the internal temperature of your fridge.
french style fridge freezer of the Frigidaire is made from gray-bodied stainless with a "smudge resistant" finish. It does a great job of repelling fingerprints and streaks even when compared with glossier 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 as well as product test reviews. She has more than 15 years of experience in commerce and publishing mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is passionate about finding and recommending the top products for consumers, with particular focus on home items and tech.