French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Combining form and function, French-door refrigerators offer elegant double doors that open up to an enormous fridge on top and freezer drawer below. Special features like door-to-door dispensers, higher-end ice machines and adjustable flex drawers make them stand out from the crowd.
We consulted Ladina Schopf - interior designer, architect, and the founder of LS Projects - for her suggestions on how to pick the right one. They weighed storage capacity and layout, energy efficiency, and other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
As the name suggests, GE's Profile series is targeted at consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge features in their kitchen. This refrigerator has it all including the Keurig K cup coffee maker in 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. Since this refrigerator costs an extra amount, I'd like to see higher quality.
This refrigerator is a good option, despite the slight blip. It features a large freezer compartment which is uncommon for counter-depth French door fridges. It also has a large capacity for frozen food, which is a big difference from other models.
The fridge has 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment has 18.5 cubic feet, which is the standard for a fridge with a French door at this price. It also has a decent sized ice maker that is tucked away in the left door, but it isn't the largest I've seen.
french door fridge freezers can alter the shelves in both compartments for the perfect storage solution. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS also looks attractive. The LED lighting adds an appealing feature. The storage bins in the door have a third shelf which can be folded down to store large items. The drawers come with temperature controls that let you set them to Meat, Beverage or Deli settings. The drawers are simple to open and shut however I found the plastic's textured coatings a bit hard on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator includes the all the features you'd expect from a fridge at this price 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 fridge from anywhere in the world, and has a ton of customization options. It also sends you notifications when a door is left open, when the refrigerator or freezer needs defrosting and when it's time to change the filter.
It would be great to have GE PYE22PYNFS offered Precise fill, an option available in a handful of GE refrigerators that allow users to set the amount of cups they wish to dispense. It does offer a countdown on the fridge display to display how much water you have left, but it's not as useful as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is a striking piece. It's designed to appear like it's a seamless component in 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 for 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 refrigerator is a great choice for single household or kitchenettes who want an integrated look and top-of-the-line food preservation.
This fridge was the top-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators Test for various reasons. The freezer temperatures remained steady at just a few degrees Fahrenheit and never moving more than a fraction of an inch. This is essential to preventing freezing burn. The refrigerator section of the fridge also did well. It reached the temperature it was set within an hour and maintained 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 that has the option to connect to your home Wi-Fi and Bosch's Home Connect platform. This app allows you to monitor and control the refrigerator remotely using your tablet or smartphone. The fridge is expensive, but offers great features and functionality at a reasonable cost.
While the fridge is an amazing piece of equipment but it's important to be aware of the limitations. It is possible to be creative with tall objects because the fridge has a limited shelf space. Additionally, the shelves are not impervious to sprills and could be stained or damaged by sharp objects. It's easy to remove the trays in the fridge However, be sure to clean them regularly to prevent mold growth.
If you are thinking about this refrigerator, be sure to look over our review of the French Door GE Appliances Refrigerator and the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The LG LRFLC2706S is a top counter-depth refrigerator that packs plenty of storage space into 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 design, and two rows of shelves that can be used to capture spills and a set crisper drawers. The top shelf on the right side can be folded in order to create more space for taller items. There's also a full-width deli drawer and an internal water dispenser.
The refrigerator comes with an ice maker, making it easy to move the ice when needed. The freezer also has innovative design features like sliding drawers that can help you organize your belongings. It has a large bin for storing frozen food and a separate bin 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 from your smartphone. It's a great way to control and monitor your refrigerator, especially when you're away from home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat however it doesn't enhance the performance of the fridge. This fridge took longer to defrost food and chill it than the other fridges we tried. This is likely due to its larger capacity.
The doors are a different issue with this fridge. The sunken handles let shorter people open them from the bottom. However, taller people still struggle to close them without slamming them. It would have been much better if these had front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a excellent option for those looking to combine the advantages of a fridge with a French door with a more efficient layout. Its capacity is higher than average for a counter-depth model and it cools evenly and has a great layout. It's also a little cheaper than the top counter-depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, which can make it an attractive option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a good option for those looking for a French-door refrigerator that doesn't cost a lot of budget. It's a basic refrigerator that might not be as appealing as some of its competitors, but it still has enough features to make it a an excellent option. Its most significant feature, the temperature adjustable drawer, helps to keep food items such as vegetables and meat fresher longer. It also comes with a large water and ice maker dispenser.
Another feature that is worth mentioning is the "Chill Drawer" that sits over the two crisper bins. This drawer lets you redirect the majority of the refrigerator's cooling power into the area so it can be used to store food items that require special attention. This feature can be adjusted by using a slider on the outside of 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 produce better results than specific ones.
In my experiments, I noticed that the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly consistent across different parts of the refrigerator. Temperatures in the top and bottom of the fridge did not vary very far from 38 degrees, and the middle of the fridge was within a degree of 36. This is a solid performance, but doesn't quite make it to the top of 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 combine this fridge with a smart thermometer for more precise readings of your fridge's internal temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from gray-bodied stainless with a "smudge proof" finish. It is capable of removing streaks and fingerprints even when compared with 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 commerce and publishing experience, primarily in digital and retail. Stephanie is passionate about finding and recommending the top products for consumers, with a focus on home goods and tech.