French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Combining form and function, French-door refrigerators come with stylish double doors that open to a spacious fridge up the top and a freezer drawer beneath. These refrigerators stand out because of their unique features, like door-to-door dispensers and more expensive ice makers.
We asked experts like Ladina Schopf, interior designer, architect, and founder of LS Projects, for tips on picking the right one. They weighed the capacity of storage, layout and energy efficiency, among other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Like the name suggests, GE's Profile series is targeted at consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge technologies into their kitchen. This refrigerator has it 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. The refrigerator is expensive, so I expected better.
This fridge is a great choice, despite the small blip. It has a large freezer compartment which is uncommon for counter-depth French-door fridges. It also holds plenty of frozen food items compared to other models.
Inside the fridge, you'll find 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment is 18.5 cubic feet, which is the standard for a French-door fridge at this price. It comes with a decent size freezer in the left side. But, it's not the largest one I've seen.
You can alter the shelving in each compartment to create a customized storage arrangement for whatever you have to keep. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is also attractive. The LED lighting adds an attractive touch. The in-door storage bins come with a third shelf that can be folded down to store tall items. The drawers come with temperature controls, so you can set them to Beverage, Meat or Deli settings. The drawers are easy to open and shut, but I found the textured plastic coatings a bit hard on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator is equipped with a full suite of features you'd expect from a refrigerator at this price with Wi-Fi and app support via GE's SmartHQ software. The app, which is available for iOS and Android devices, lets you control your refrigerator from anywhere in the world, and has a ton of customization options. It will also send notifications when the door is unlocked and when the freezer or fridge needs to be defrosted, and when the filter has to be changed.
It would be nice if GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill, an option available in a few other GE refrigerators that allows you to set the number of cups of water you'd like to pour out simultaneously. The fridge shows a countdown to show you how much water is left however it's not as useful as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
It is 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 comes with a veggie compartment to keep vegetables and fruits fresher longer and has dual compressors for maximum food preservation. The ice maker is one of the best we've ever tested and produces a pyramid-shaped ice that is low in water consumption. This refrigerator is a great choice for single household or kitchenettes looking for a built-in look and top of the line food preservation.
This refrigerator was rated as the top in our Refrigerators Test for a variety of reasons. french style fridge freezer held firm at just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit, never fluctuating more than a fraction one degree. This is crucial to avoiding freezing burn. The fridge section of the fridge also performed well. It reached the initial temperature within an hour and remained at the temperature throughout our tests.
Bosch has a reputation for top-of-the-line appliances and appliances, so it's not a surprise that this counter depth refrigerator is also a smart appliance, with the option of connecting to your home Wi-Fi as well as Bosch's Home Connect platform. This app lets you monitor and control your fridge remotely from your tablet or smartphone. The refrigerator is costly and has great features and functions at a reasonable cost.
While the fridge is a fantastic piece of equipment, it's important to know the limitations. You might need to be inventive with tall items since the fridge has a limited shelf space. Additionally, the shelves are not completely sprillproof, and can easily be damaged or stained 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 thinking about 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 counter-depth fridge is a great option for those who need plenty of space in the space of a 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 door bins on each door as well as two rows of spill-capture shelves and a set crisper drawers. The top shelf on the right can be folded down to make space for tall items. There's also a full-width drawer to store food items and an internal water dispenser.
One of the best aspects of this refrigerator is that its ice maker is inside the freezer, which makes it easy to move ice into the fridge to use as needed. The freezer is designed with thoughtful elements, too, like sliding drawers that help better organize the position of your items. It has a large bin to store frozen food items, and a separate one for ice.
Another cool feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. It lets you control the fridge's temperature as well as lighting via your smartphone. It's a simple method to monitor your fridge and manage it, especially when you're not at home.
Although the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it does not necessarily enhance the overall performance of the refrigerator. In fact it took a bit longer to defrost and chill foods in this refrigerator than some of the others we tried. This is likely due to its bigger capacity.
The doors pose a problem with this refrigerator. They have handles that are sunken at the front, which allows smaller people to open them from the bottom, but they're difficult for taller people to steer shut without slamming them. It would have been better if these had front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a excellent option for those looking to combine the benefits of a French-door refrigerator's aesthetics with a more efficient layout. Its capacity is above average for a counter-depth model and it cools evenly and has a great layout. It's also a bit cheaper than the top counter depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, 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 refrigerator that might not be as attractive as some of its competitors however, it does have enough features to make it a an excellent option. Its most notable feature is 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 a good Ice machine that is fast.
Another great feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits over the two crisper bins. This drawer lets you redirect a portion of the fridge's cooling power directly to this area, which means you can store foods that require special attention. You can alter this feature by using an adjustable slider that is located just outside of the drawer. You can also 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 discovered that the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly consistent across different areas of the refrigerator. The temperatures in the top, bottom and middle of the refrigerator did not differ much from 38 degrees. This is a great performance, but it 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. This fridge can be connected with a smart thermostat in order to get more accurate readings on the internal temperature of your fridge.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's exterior is made of stainless steel with a grey body with a "smudge-proof" finish. It blocks streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I've tested.
Stephanie Cronk is the executive editor of Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews team and oversees the site's buyer's guides as well as test-product reviews. She has more than 15 years of commerce and publishing experience, with a focus on retail and digital. Stephanie is enthusiastic about finding and recommending the top products for consumers, with a a focus on home goods and tech.