French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators blend functionality and form. They come with stylish double doors that reveal the large fridge on top, and a freezer drawer beneath. These refrigerators stand out because of their unique features, including door-to-door dispensers and more expensive Ice makers.
We asked experts like Ladina Schopf, interior designer architect, founder, and co-founder of LS Projects, for tips on choosing the right model. They considered the storage capacity, layout, and energy efficiency among other features.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name of the series suggests that GE’s Profile series is aimed at those who wish to incorporate cutting-edge technology into their kitchen. This fridge has them all including a Keurig K cup coffee maker on 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 more, I'd expect higher quality.
Other than that, this fridge is a great option. It features a large freezer compartment which is uncommon for counter-depth French door fridges. It also holds plenty of frozen food, which is a big difference from other models.
The fridge comes with 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment has 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is on what you would expect from an French door fridge costing this much. french style fridge freezer has a decent-sized freezer in the left side. But, it's not the largest one I've seen.
You can adjust the shelving in both compartments to create custom storage setup for what you want to store. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is good-looking, too. The LED lighting adds a nice feature. The bins for storage inside include a third shelf that can be folded down to store tall items. The drawers have temperature controls so you can set them to Beverage, Meat, or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, although I found their plastic textured coatings to be a little hard on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator is equipped with a complete set of features you'd expect from a fridge in this price range, including Wi-Fi and app support through GE's SmartHQ software. The app is available on iOS and Android devices and allows you to manage your refrigerator from anywhere around the world. It also comes with a lot of customization options. It also alerts you when a door is left open, when your fridge or freezer needs defrosting and when it's time to change the filter.
It would be nice if the GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill it's an option in a few other GE fridges that allow you to preset how many cups of water you'd like to pour out simultaneously. The fridge displays a countdown timer to reveal how much water remains, but it's not as effective as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is an impressive product. It's designed to appear like it's a seamless component of your kitchen. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also comes with a veggie compartment that helps keep vegetables and fruits fresher longer, and two compressors to ensure maximum food preservation. The ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient and makes the shape of a pyramid using only water. This fridge is perfect for a single family or kitchenette that needs an attractive design and top of the highest quality food preservation.
The fridge was rated the best refrigerator in our Refrigerators test, for a few reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained stable at just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit and never moving by more than a fraction a degree--this is key to preventing freezing burn. The fridge's fridge section also performed well, reaching the temperature that was set for the initial setting within a matter of hours and keeping that temperature steady over the course of our testing.
Bosch is a household name for its high-end appliances. It's therefore no surprise that Bosch counter depth refrigerator is one of them. Bosch counter depth fridge can be connected to your home Wi Fi and Bosch's platform Home Connect. The app lets you monitor and manage your fridge remotely using your tablet or smartphone. The fridge is expensive, but offers great features and functions at a reasonable price.
While the fridge is an amazing appliance but it's important to be aware of the limitations. It is possible to be inventive with tall items since the fridge has a small shelf space. Additionally the shelves aren't sprillproof and can be easily stained or damaged by sharp objects. The trays can be easily removed from the refrigerator. However, they should be cleaned frequently to stop the growth of mold.
If you are considering this refrigerator, you should also check out 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 fridge is a great option for those who require 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. The fridge has the standard French door layout, with two rows of shelving with spill-capture and a set crisper drawers. The top shelf on the right can be folded to provide more space for taller items. You'll also find a full-width deli drawer and an internal water dispenser.
The refrigerator comes with an ice maker making it easy to move the frozen ice whenever you need it. The freezer is designed with thoughtful elements, as well, such as sliding drawers that can help you to organize the place of your items. It also has a large bin that can hold plenty of frozen food and an additional storage bin for ice.
Another cool feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. It lets you control the temperature of your fridge and lighting via your smartphone. It's a simple way to keep track of your refrigerator and control it, particularly when you're not at home.
But while the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it does not necessarily improve the overall performance of the refrigerator. In fact it took longer to defrost and chill food in this refrigerator than some of the others we test. This could be due to the larger capacity.
The doors are a different issue with this refrigerator. They have handles that are sunken on the front, which allow shorter people to easily pull them open from the bottom, however they're still difficult for taller people to pull closed without slamming them. It would have been better if they came with a front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is a great choice for those looking to combine the aesthetics of a French-door refrigerator with more efficient design. Its capacity is above average for a counter-depth model, and it cools evenly and has a good layout. It's also a little cheaper than the best counter-depth refrigerator with an ice maker, which helps 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 and isn't expensive, this Frigidaire is a great choice. It's a basic design that's not as striking in appearance as other models but it does have enough features that make it a great pick. Its main characteristic is the adjustable temperature drawer that helps keep food items like meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also has a large water dispenser as well as a good Ice machine that is fast.
Another feature that is worth mentioning is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. This drawer allows you to direct some of your fridge's cooling power to this area so it can be used to store food items which need extra attention. This feature can be adjusted using a slider on the outside of the drawer. You can also use this to set a general cooling level for the entire fridge though I've found that adjusting the generic settings tends to be more effective than specific ones.
During my tests, the refrigerator's temperatures stayed fairly consistent across different areas of the refrigerator. The temperatures in the top, bottom and middle of the fridge didn't differ significantly from 38 degrees. This is a great performance, but it doesn't quite rank among the best 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. This fridge can be connected with a smart thermostat in order to gain more precise information on the internal temperature of your fridge.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made of grey-bodied stainless that has a "smudge resistant" finish. It is capable of repelling fingerprints and streaks even when compared to the shiny stainless steel finishes on other appliances I've tried.
Stephanie Cronk is the executive editor on Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews team and oversees the site's buyer's guides and product reviews for test products. She has more than 15 years of commerce and publishing experience, mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is passionate about finding and recommending the best products for consumers, with particular focus on home items and technology.