French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Combining form and function, French-door refrigerators come with elegant double doors that open to a spacious fridge up the top and a freezer drawer below. These refrigerators stand out due to their distinctive features, like through-the-door dispensers as well as higher-end ice makers.
We asked experts like Ladina Schopf, interior designer and architect, as well as the founder of LS Projects, for tips on how to select the best one. We looked at storage capacity, layout and energy efficiency among other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name implies that the GE Profile series is geared towards consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge technologies in 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. This refrigerator is costly and I expected more.
This fridge is a great choice, despite the 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.
The fridge is equipped with 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment has 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is roughly on what you would expect from a French door fridge costing this much. It also has a decent-sized icemaker that is tucked away in the left door, but it isn't the largest I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in both compartments to create customized storage layout for whatever you have to store. The GE PYE22PYNFS's interior design is good-looking, too. The LED lighting is a nice addition, and the in-door storage bins come with the third shelf, which can fold down so that you can store large items. The drawers come with temperature controls so you can set them for Beverage, Meat, or Deli settings. The drawers are easy to open and close however I found the textured plastic coatings a bit hard on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator includes the complete set of features you'd expect from a refrigerator in this price range with Wi-Fi and app support via GE's SmartHQ software. The app is available for iOS and Android devices and allows you to control your refrigerator from anywhere around the world. It also offers numerous options for customizing. It also gives you notifications when doors are left open, when your fridge or freezer needs defrosting and when it's time to change the filter.
It is nice if the GE PYE22PYNFS came with Precise Fill, an option available in other GE refrigerators that allows you to choose how many cups of water you'd like to pour out at a time. The fridge displays a countdown to reveal how much water is left, but it's not as effective as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is a striking piece. It's designed to look like it's a seamless component of your kitchen. 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 has dual compressors for maximum preservation of food. The Ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient and produces pyramid shaped ice using minimal water. This fridge is perfect for a small household or kitchenette that needs an attractive design and top of the best food preservation.
This refrigerator was rated as the most efficient in our Refrigerators Test due to a variety of reasons. The freezer temperatures remained steady at just a few degrees Fahrenheit, and never changing more than a fraction of one degree. This is crucial to preventing freezing 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 has a reputation for top-of-the-line appliances, so 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 and Bosch's Home Connect platform. This app allows you to control and monitor your refrigerator remotely on your smartphone or tablet. The fridge is expensive, but offers great features and capabilities at a reasonable cost.
While the fridge is an incredible appliance, it's important to know the limitations. You might need to be creative with tall objects because the fridge has a limited shelf space. Also, the shelves are not impervious to sprills and could be 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're considering this refrigerator, make sure to check out our reviews of the French Door GE Appliances 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 require a lot 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 fridge features the standard French-door layout, with gallon-sized door bins at each door, two rows of shelves for spill-capture and a set of sleeker drawers. The top shelf to the right can be folded down to make space for taller items. There's also a full-width drawer for deli and an inside water dispenser.
The refrigerator comes with an ice maker, making it easy to transfer the frozen ice whenever you need it. The freezer has thoughtful design elements, too, like sliding drawers to help you better organize the position of your items. It comes with a large bin to store frozen food items, and a separate container for ice.
Another great feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. It allows you to control the fridge's temperature as well as lighting using your smartphone. It's an easy way to monitor your fridge and manage it, particularly when you're not at home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat however it doesn't enhance the efficiency of the fridge. The refrigerator took longer to chill food and defrost it than other models we test. This could be due to its greater capacity.
The doors are another problem with this fridge. french door refrigerator freezer have handles that are sunken on the front that allow smaller people to open them from the bottom, however they're difficult for taller people to guide closed without slamming the doors. It would have been more effective if they had handles mounted on the front.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is a great choice for those looking to blend the look and feel of a French-door refrigerator with an efficient design. Its capacity is above average for a counter-depth model, and it cools evenly and has a good layout. It's also less expensive than the top counter-depth refrigerator with an ice maker, which helps make it a desirable choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a great choice when you're looking for a French door fridge that won't break the budget. It's a simple fridge which may not be as appealing as its rivals however it has enough features to make a suitable option. Its most significant feature, the temperature adjustable drawer, helps to keep food items such as meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also has a large water dispenser, as well as an excellent ice machine that works fast.
The "Chill Drawer", which is located above the two crisper bins, is another excellent feature. This drawer lets you divert a portion of the fridge's cooling power directly to this area, which means you can store foods that require extra attention. This feature is adjustable using a slider on the outside of the drawer. You can also use this to set a general cooling setting for the whole fridge, however, I've found that changing the generic settings tends to have a better effect than specific ones.
In my tests, the temperature of the refrigerator were fairly constant across the different areas of the refrigerator. The temperatures in the top and bottom of the fridge didn't vary very far from 38 degrees, and even the middle of the fridge was within one 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. french door fridge freezer can be connected with a smart thermostat in order to gain more precise information on the internal temperature of your fridge.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from grey-bodied stainless with a "smudge proof" finish. It blocks streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I've seen.
Stephanie Cronk is the executive editor on Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews team and oversees the site's buyer's guides and product reviews for test products. She has more than 15 years of publishing and commerce experience, with a focus on digital and retail. Stephanie is passionate about finding the top products and recommending them to consumers. She focuses on home goods and technology.