French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators are a perfect blend of design and function. They have stylish double doors that show a large fridge on top and a freezer drawer beneath. Special features like door-to-door dispensers, high-end ice machines and flex drawers that can be customized make them stand out from the crowd.
We asked Ladina Schopf - an interior designer, architect, and the founder of LS Projects - for her advice on how to choose the right home. They considered storage capacity, layout and energy efficiency, among other aspects.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Like its name implies, GE’s Profile series is aimed at consumers 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 sophisticated dispenser of water. 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.
Apart from that minor flaw however, this refrigerator is a great choice. It has a large freezer compartment, which is uncommon in counter-depth French door fridges, and it holds a fair amount of frozen food compared to similar models.
Inside the fridge, there are 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment is 18.5 cubic feet, which is the standard for a French-door refrigerator at this price. It also has a decent sized ice maker in the left-hand door, although it's not the biggest I've seen.
You can alter the shelving in each compartment to create a custom storage setup for whatever you have to store. The GE PYE22PYNFS's design for the interior is stylish, too. Its LED lighting is a nice addition, and the in-door storage bins come with a third shelf that can fold down to make it possible to store items that are tall. The drawers include temperature controls that let you set them to Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, however I found their textured plastic coatings to be a bit rough on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator is equipped with a full suite of features you'd expect from a fridge in this price range, including Wi-Fi and app support via GE's SmartHQ software. The app, which is available for iOS and Android devices can let you control your fridge from anywhere in world, and has many options for customizing. It will also send you notifications when the door is left unlocked, when the fridge or freezer requires defrosting, and when the filter needs to be changed.
It would be nice if GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill, an option available in a handful of other GE fridges that allow you to set the number of cups of water you'd like to dispense simultaneously. The fridge displays a countdown to display how much water is left, but it's not as helpful as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is an impressive product. It's designed to appear like a seamless piece of your kitchen. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also boasts a veggie compartment to keep vegetables and fruits fresher for longer and has dual compressors to ensure the best food preservation. The ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient and produces an ice pyramid with only a little water. This refrigerator is a great option for households with a single member or kitchenettes that want a sleek design and top of the line food preservation.
This fridge was the top-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators test for a few reasons. The freezer temperatures remained steady at just a few degrees Fahrenheit, never fluctuating by more than a fraction a degree--this is key to preventing freezing burn. The fridge section of the fridge also performed well, achieving the desired temperature for initial set within an hour and keeping that temperature steady throughout the course of our tests.
Bosch is known for its top-of-the-line appliances which is why it's no surprise that this counter depth refrigerator is also a smart appliance, with the option to connect to your home Wi-Fi network and Bosch's Home Connect platform. The app lets you monitor and manage your fridge remotely using your smartphone or tablet. The fridge is expensive and has great features and functionality at a reasonable price.
While the fridge is an amazing piece of equipment, it's important to know the limitations. It has a small space for shelves, so you'll have to think creatively when storing tall objects. Additionally the shelves aren't sprillproof and can be easily damaged or stained by sharp objects. It's simple to remove the trays from the fridge, but be sure to clean them frequently to prevent mold growth.
If you're thinking of buying this refrigerator, make sure to read our reviews of the French Door GE Appliances Refrigerator as well as 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 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 door fridge freezers features the standard French-door layout, with gallon-sized door bins at each door, two rows of spill-capture shelves, and a set of more spacious drawers. The top shelf on the right can be folded down to give taller items more space. There's also a full-width drawer for deli items and an internal water dispenser.
One of the great features of this refrigerator is that the ice maker is in the freezer, making it simple to move the ice to the refrigerator to use as required. The freezer also comes with clever design features, like sliding drawers that help you sort your things. It also has a large bin that holds plenty of frozen food and an storage bin for ice.
Another great feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. It allows you to control the temperature of your fridge and lighting via your smartphone. It's a great way to monitor and manage your refrigerator, especially when you're away from home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat however it doesn't improve the efficiency of the fridge. The refrigerator took longer to defrost food and chill it than some others we tried. This could be due to its larger capacity.
Another issue with the door of this refrigerator. The handles that are sunken allow shorter people to open them from the bottom. However, taller people still have a hard time closing them without slamming. french door fridge and freezer would have been more effective if these had front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is an excellent choice for those who want to combine the look and feel of a French-door refrigerator with an efficient design. It has a capacity that is higher than average for counter-depth models and also cools evenly. It's also a bit less than the best counter-depth refrigerator with an ice maker, which can make it a desirable choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for an French door refrigerator that won't cost a fortune this Frigidaire is a great choice. It's a basic fridge that might not be as attractive as its rivals however it has enough features to make a good option. Its most important characteristic is the adjustable temperature drawer that helps keep food items such as meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also has a large water dispenser as well as a good ice machine that works fast.
Another great feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits over the two crisper bins. This drawer lets you divert a portion of the refrigerator's cooling power directly to this area, so you can keep food items that need extra attention. You can adjust this feature using an adjustable slider that is located just in the middle of the drawer. You can also use this to adjust the general cooling settings for the entire fridge, but I've noticed that adjusting the general settings tends be more effective than specific ones.
During my experiments, I noticed that the temperatures in the refrigerator were fairly consistent in various parts of the fridge. The temperatures in the top, bottom and middle of the refrigerator didn't vary much from 38 degrees. This is a great performance however it doesn't make it into the top ten in our rankings.
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 pair this fridge with a smart thermometer to get more precise measurements of your fridge's temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made of gray-bodied stainless with a "smudge resistant" finish. It blocks streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I've tried.
Stephanie Cronk is the executive editor of Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews team and oversees the site's buyer's guide and product reviews for test products. She has over 15 years of experience in publishing and commerce including retail and digital. Stephanie is adamant about finding the most effective products and recommending them to consumers. She focuses on home goods and technology.