French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators blend functionality and form. They feature stylish double doors that reveal the large fridge on top and a freezer drawer beneath. Special features such as through-the-door dispensers, higher-end ice machines, and customizable flex drawers make them stand out from the crowd.
We asked experts like Ladina Schopf, interior designer architect, founder, and co-founder of LS Projects, for tips on picking the right one. They considered storage capacity as well as layout, energy efficiency, and other features.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Like its name implies, GE’s Profile series is aimed at consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge technology into their kitchen. This refrigerator is packed 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. This refrigerator is costly, so I expected better.
Aside from that blip, this fridge is a great choice. It has a large freezer compartment that is not common for counter-depth French-door refrigerators. It also has a large capacity for frozen food compared to other models.
Inside the fridge, you'll find 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment is 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is about what you would expect from an French door fridge costing this much. It has a decent-sized icemaker in the left door. However, it's not the largest one I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in each compartment to create a customized storage layout for whatever you have to store. The GE PYE22PYNFS's interior design is good-looking, too. The LED lighting adds a nice touch. The storage bins in the door include a third shelf that can be folded down to store tall objects. The drawers come with temperature controls that let you set them to Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, but I found their plastic textured coatings to be a bit difficult on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator includes the full suite of features you'd expect from a refrigerator at this price with Wi-Fi and app support through GE's SmartHQ software. The app, 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 will also send you notifications when the door is unlocked and when the fridge or freezer needs to 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 few other GE refrigerators that allows you to set the number of cups of water you'd like to disperse at a time. The fridge displays a countdown timer to reveal how much water remains however it's not as effective as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is a stunning piece of equipment. It's designed to appear 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 veggie compartment that keeps fruits and vegetables fresher for longer, and two compressors for preserving food items. The Ice maker is among the top we've tested, and it produces a pyramid-shaped form of ice with a 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 rated the top in our Refrigerators Test for a variety of reasons. Its freezer temperatures held firm at just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and never fluctuating more than a fraction of a degree--this is key in preventing freezer burn. The fridge section of the fridge also performed well, achieving the desired initial set temperature within an hour and keeping that temperature steady throughout the course of our testing.
Bosch is a household name for its top-quality appliances. Therefore, it's not a surprise that Bosch's counter depth fridge Bosch counter depth fridge 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 fridge is a bit expensive, but it offers excellent features and functionality for the price.
It is crucial to be aware of the limitations of your fridge. You might need to be inventive with tall items since the fridge has a limited shelf space. Also the shelves aren't impervious to sprills and could be stained or damaged by sharp objects. The trays are easily removed from the fridge. However, they must be cleaned frequently to stop the growth of mold.
If you're considering this refrigerator, make sure to review our opinions on 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 an ordinary French-door design with gallon-sized bins for the doors on each door and two rows of shelves for spill-capture and a set more spacious drawers. The top shelf on the right can be folded in order to create more space for taller items. There's also a full-width storage drawer for food items and an internal water dispenser.
One of the great aspects of this refrigerator is that the ice maker is in the freezer, which makes it easy to move ice into the fridge to use as required. The freezer features thoughtful design elements, for instance, sliding drawers that help better organize the position of your items. It also has a huge bin that can hold plenty of frozen food items as well as an additional ice storage bin.
Another awesome feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. You can control the temperature, lighting and more of your fridge from your smartphone. It's a simple way to keep track of your refrigerator and manage it, especially when you're away from home.
However, while american french style fridge freezer www.frydge.uk is a neat feature, it doesn't necessarily improve the overall performance of the refrigerator. In fact it took longer to defrost and chill food in this fridge than some of the others we test. This is likely due to the larger capacity.
The other issue we have with the door of this refrigerator. The sunken handles allow smaller people to open them from the bottom. However taller people will have a difficult time closing them without slamming them. It would have been much better to have front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a good option for those looking to combine the advantages of a fridge with a French door with a more efficient layout. It has a capacity that is above average for counter-depth models and also cools evenly. It's also a bit cheaper than the top counter depth refrigerator with an icemaker, which makes it an attractive choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a good option for those looking for a French-door fridge that won't break the budget. It's a basic design that isn't as striking visually like some of the competitors, but it has enough features that make it a great choice. Its most important characteristic is the adjustable temperature drawer, which helps keep foods like meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also comes with a large water and ice maker dispenser.
The "Chill Drawer", which sits above the two crisper bins, is another nice feature. This drawer lets you redirect some of your fridge's cooling power into this area, so that you can store foods which need extra attention. This feature is adjustable using a slider on the outside of 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 be more effective than specific ones.
During my tests, I found that the temperatures in the refrigerator were fairly consistent across different areas of the refrigerator. The temperatures in the top, bottom and middle of the refrigerator didn't vary much from 38 degrees. This is a great performance, but it isn't quite at 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 combine this fridge with a smart thermometer to get more precise measurements of your fridge's temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from gray-bodied stainless with a "smudge proof" finish. It wards off streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I've tested.
Stephanie Cronk, executive editor of Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews Team, oversees the site's buyer's guides and product test reviews. She has over 15 years of experience in commerce and publishing, primarily digital and retail. Stephanie is adamant about finding the best products and recommending them to consumers. She focuses on home goods and technology.