French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators are a perfect blend of functionality and form. They have stylish double doors that show an enormous fridge on top and a freezer drawer below. Special features such as through-the-door dispensers, ice machines with higher-end features and adjustable flex drawers make them stand out from the rest.
We asked Ladina Schopf - interior designer, architect, and founder of LS Projects - for her suggestions on how to pick the right home. They evaluated storage capacity as well as layout and energy efficiency as well as other features.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
As its name suggests, the GE Profile series is aimed at people who want to integrate cutting-edge features in their kitchens. This fridge is loaded with them all from a Keurig K cup coffee maker inside the door to a smart dispenser of water. But these flourishes don't mask mediocre performance, especially in the refrigerator's freezer and an ineffective temperature-controlled drawer. This fridge is expensive and I was expecting better.
Other than that however, this refrigerator is a great option. It comes with a huge freezer compartment, which is uncommon in counter-depth French door fridges, and it holds a good amount of frozen foods in comparison to similar models.
The fridge has 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment has 18.5 cubic feet, which is the standard for a French-door fridge at this price. It has a decent sized icemaker in the left door. But it's not the biggest one I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in each compartment to create a customized storage layout for what you want to keep. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is attractive, too. Its LED lighting is a nice addition, and the in-door storage bins feature the third shelf, which can fold down to allow you to store tall items. The drawers have temperature controls that let you set them to Meat, Beverage or Deli settings. The drawers are simple to open and shut, but I found the textured plastic coatings to be a bit rough on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator comes with the all the features you'd expect from a fridge in this price range that includes Wi-Fi as well as app support through GE's SmartHQ software. The app, available for iOS and Android devices, lets you control your refrigerator from anywhere in the world, and offers numerous options for customization. It will also send you notifications when the door is left unlocked as well as when the freezer or fridge needs to be defrosted, and when the filter needs to be changed.
It would be nice if GE PYE22PYNFS included Precise fill which is an option that is available in a handful of other GE fridges that allow you to set the number of cups of water you'd like to disperse at once. The fridge shows a countdown to display how much water remains, but it's not as helpful as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is a stunning piece of equipment. It's designed to look like a seamless piece in your kitchen. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also has a vegetable compartment that helps keep vegetables and fruits fresher for longer and dual compressors for maximum food preservation. The ice maker we tested was one of the most efficient and makes the shape of a pyramid using only water. This fridge is ideal for a single family or a kitchenette that wants an attractive design and top of the best food preservation.
This fridge was the top-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators test for several reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained constant at just above 0° Fahrenheit and never fluctuated by more than a fraction, this is crucial to avoid freezer burn. The refrigerator section of the fridge also did well. It reached the initial temperature set within a matter of hours, and remained at that temperature throughout our testing.
Bosch is known for its high-end 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 network and Bosch's Home Connect platform. The app allows you to control and monitor your refrigerator remotely from your smartphone or tablet. The fridge is a bit expensive, however it has top-quality features and functions for the price.
While the fridge is a fantastic appliance however, it is important to understand the limitations. It has a narrow shelf space, so you may have to think creatively when storing tall objects. Additionally, the shelves are not sprillproof and can be easily stained or damaged by sharp objects. The trays are easily removed from the refrigerator. However, they must be cleaned regularly to prevent the growth of mold.
If you are considering this refrigerator, you should also look over our review of the GE Appliances French Door Refrigerator and the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The LG LRFLC2706S is an excellent counter-depth refrigerator that packs a lot of storage in 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, french style fridge freezer frydge.uk features a standard French-door layout with gallon-sized door bins on each door, two rows of spill-capture shelves, and a set of more spacious drawers. The top right shelf can be folded down to give taller items more space. You'll also find a full-width drawer for deli items and an internal water dispenser.
One of the great features of this refrigerator is that its ice maker is in the freezer, making it easy to move ice into the fridge to use as required. The freezer also has innovative design features like sliding drawers that allow you to sort your things. It comes with a large bin to store frozen food items, and a separate one for ice.
Another great feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. You can control the temperature, lighting, and other aspects of your fridge using your smartphone. It's a great way to control and monitor your refrigerator, particularly if you're away from home.
However, while the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it does not necessarily add to the overall performance of the refrigerator. This fridge took longer to defrost food and chill it than the other fridges we tested. This could be due to the larger capacity.
Another issue with this refrigerator is its doors. They have handles that are sunken on the front, which allow shorter people to easily open them from the bottom, but they're still difficult for taller people to guide closed without slamming them. It would have been much better if they had 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 a more efficient design. It has a capacity that is above average for counter-depth models and is able to cool evenly. It's also less expensive than the top counter depth refrigerator that comes with an ice maker, which makes it a great choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a great choice when you're looking for a French door refrigerator that doesn't cost a lot of budget. It's a simple fridge which may not be as attractive as some of its competitors however, it does have enough features to make it a suitable option. Its most significant feature, the adjustable temperature drawer, helps to keep food like vegetables and meat fresher longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser, as well as an excellent ice maker that operates quickly.
The "Chill Drawer", which is situated above the two crisper bins, is a nice feature. This drawer lets you divert part of the refrigerator's cooling power directly to this area, so you can keep food items that need extra attention. This feature is adjustable using an outside slider that is located inside the drawer. It is also possible to use this to set a general cooling level for the entire fridge however, I've found that changing the generic settings tends to be more effective than specific ones.
In my tests, I found that the temperatures in the refrigerator were fairly consistent in different areas of the fridge. The temperatures in the top, bottom and middle of the refrigerator did not differ much from 38 degrees. This is a great performance however it doesn't 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 get more accurate readings on the internal temperature of your fridge.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made of gray-bodied stainless with a "smudge resistant" finish. It does a great job of preventing streaks and fingerprints from appearing even when compared to the shiny stainless steel finishes on other appliances I've tried.
Stephanie Cronk, executive editor of Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews Team, oversees the site’s buyer’s guides and product test reviews. She has more than 15 years of experience in commerce and publishing including retail and digital. Stephanie is adamant about finding the most effective products and recommending them to customers. She focuses on home goods and technology.