French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door fridges combine design and function. They have stylish double doors that reveal a large fridge on top and a freezer drawer beneath. Special features like door-to-door dispensers, high-end ice machines 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 best one. They considered the capacity of storage, layout, and energy efficiency, among other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Like its name implies, GE’s Profile series is targeted at consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge technology into their kitchen. This fridge has them all from the Keurig K cup coffee maker in the door, to a clever dispenser of water. But these flourishes don't mask mediocre performance, especially in the refrigerator's freezer and an ineffective temperature-controlled drawer. Given that this fridge costs more, I'd expect better.
This refrigerator is a good choice, despite the blip. It features a large freezer compartment that is not common for counter-depth French-door refrigerators. It also holds a lot of frozen food compared to other models.
The fridge comes with 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment is 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is roughly on what you would expect from an French door fridge that costs this much. It has a decent-sized freezer in the left side. But it's not the most spacious one I've seen.
You can adjust the shelves in both compartments to create a an individual storage solution. The GE PYE22PYNFS's interior design is good-looking, too. Its LED lighting is a nice touch and the storage bins come with the third shelf, which folds up beneath itself so that you can store tall items. The drawers come with temperature controls so that you can set them for Beverage, Meat or Deli settings. The drawers are simple to open and close however I found the plastic's textured coatings to be a bit rough on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator comes with all the features you'd expect from a refrigerator within this price range. This includes Wi-Fi as well as app support, and GE's SmartHQ Software. french door fridge freezers is compatible with iOS and Android devices and allows you to manage your refrigerator from anywhere around the world. It also offers many options for customization. It also sends you notifications when the door is left unlocked and when the fridge or freezer needs to be defrosted, and when the filter has to be changed.
It is nice if GE PYE22PYNFS offered Precise fill, an option available in a handful of GE refrigerators that allows users to choose the amount of cups they wish to pour out. It does have an indicator on the fridge's display to display how much water have left, but it's not as useful as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Designed to look like a seamless part 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 boasts a veggie compartment that keeps vegetables and fruits fresher for longer, and two compressors to ensure the best preservation of food. The Ice maker is among the top we've tested and produces a pyramid-shaped ice with a low water usage. This fridge is ideal for a small household or a kitchenette with an attractive design and top of the line food preservation.
This refrigerator was rated as the most efficient in our Refrigerators Test due to a variety of reasons. Its freezer temperatures held firm at just a few degrees Fahrenheit, never moving more than a fraction a degree--this is key in preventing freezer burn. The refrigerator section of the fridge also did well. It reached the temperature it was set within an hour, and remained at the temperature throughout our tests.
Bosch is known for its top-quality appliances. Therefore, it's no 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 lets you monitor and control your refrigerator remotely on your tablet or smartphone. The fridge is expensive and has great features and functions at a fair price.
While the fridge is an incredible piece of equipment, it's important to know the limitations. It is possible to be creative with tall objects because the fridge has a small shelf space. Additionally, the shelves are not sprillproof and can be easily damaged or stained by sharp objects. The trays can be easily removed from the refrigerator. However, they should be cleaned regularly to prevent the growth of mold.
If you are considering this refrigerator, make sure you check out 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 into 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 an ordinary French-door design with gallon-sized door bins on each door as well as two rows of shelves for spill-capture and a set of 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 deli drawer and an internal water dispenser.
One of the nice features of this refrigerator is that its ice maker is inside the freezer, making it simple to move ice into the fridge for use when required. The freezer also features thoughtful design features, like sliding drawers that can help you organize your belongings. It also has a large container for storing frozen food, and a separate bin for ice.
Another great feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. It allows you to control the fridge's temperature and lighting using your smartphone. It's a simple method to monitor your fridge and manage it, especially when away from home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat however it doesn't improve the performance of the fridge. In fact it took a bit longer to defrost and chill foods in this refrigerator than some of the others we test. This could be due to the bigger capacity.
The doors are another problem with this fridge. The handles with a sunken design allow shorter people to open them from the bottom. However, taller people still have a hard time closing them without slamming them. It would have been much better if they came with a front-mounted handle.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is an excellent option for those looking to blend the look of a French door refrigerator with an efficient design. It has a capacity that is superior to counter-depth models, and it cools evenly. It's also less expensive than the best counter-depth refrigerator that has an ice maker, which can make it a popular choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a great choice if you want a French-door fridge that doesn't break the budget. It's a basic refrigerator that may not be as attractive as its rivals, but it still has enough features to make a good option. Its most notable feature is the adjustable temperature drawer which helps keep food items such as meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser and a decent ice machine that works fast.
Another feature that is worth mentioning is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. The drawer allows you to divert some of the refrigerator's cooling power directly to this area, meaning you can put away food items that require extra attention. french door refrigerator freezer 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, though I've found that adjusting the general settings tends to have a better effect than specific ones.
In my experiments, I noticed that the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly consistent across different areas of the refrigerator. The temperatures in the middle, top and bottom of the fridge didn't differ much from 38 degrees. This is a good performance but doesn't quite make it to 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 an intelligent thermometer to get more precise readings of the internal temperature of your fridge.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's outside is made of stainless steel with a grey-bodied body with a "smudge-proof" finish. It blocks streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes 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 mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is passionate about finding the most effective products and recommending them to consumers. She focuses on home goods and technology.