French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door refrigerators blend design and function. They feature stylish double doors that show an enormous fridge on top, and a freezer drawer below. These refrigerators stand out because of their distinctive features, such as through-the-door dispensers and higher-end Ice makers.
We sought out experts like Ladina Schopf, interior designer, architect, and founder of LS Projects, for tips on choosing the right model. They evaluated storage capacity and layout and energy efficiency as well as other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Like the name suggests, the GE Profile series is geared towards those who want to incorporate cutting-edge features into their kitchen. This fridge has them all, from the Keurig K cup coffee maker on 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. The refrigerator is expensive and I expected more.
This fridge is a great choice, despite the blip. It comes with a huge freezer compartment, which is quite uncommon in counter-depth French door refrigerators. Additionally, it holds a fair amount of frozen food when in comparison to similar models.
Inside the fridge, there are 17 shelves and compartments. The refrigerator compartment has 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is on par for a French door refrigerator that costs this much. It also has a decent sized ice maker in the left door, but it's not the largest I've seen.
You can adjust the shelves in both compartments to create a an individual storage solution. click this site for the interior is stylish, too. The LED lighting is an appealing accent. The storage bins in the door come with a third shelf that 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 close, but I found the plastic's textured coatings to be a bit rough on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator includes the full suite of features you'd expect from a refrigerator in this price range with Wi-Fi and app support through GE's SmartHQ software. The app, available for iOS and Android devices allows you to control your fridge from anywhere in world, and has a ton of customization options. It also gives you notifications when a door is left open, when your fridge or freezer needs to be defrosted and when it's time to change the filter.
It would be great it GE PYE22PYNFS offered Precise fill, an option found in a few GE refrigerators that allows users to select the number of cups they would like to dispense. The fridge displays a countdown timer to display 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 boasts a veggie compartment to keep vegetables and fruits fresher for longer and dual compressors to ensure maximum preservation of food. The Ice maker is among the most efficient we've ever tested and produces pyramid-shaped ice that is low in water consumption. This refrigerator is a great choice for single household or kitchenettes that want a sleek design and top of the line food preservation.
This refrigerator was the highest-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators Test for various reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained stable at just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and never changing more than a fraction one degree. This is crucial in preventing freezer burn. The fridge's fridge section also performed well, achieving the temperature that was set for the initial setting within an hour and maintaining the temperature constant over the course of our tests.
Bosch has a reputation for high-end 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 network and Bosch's Home Connect platform. This app lets you monitor and control your fridge remotely from your tablet or smartphone. The fridge is a bit expensive, however it has great features and capabilities for the cost.
It is crucial to be aware of the limitations of the fridge. You may need to get inventive with tall items since the fridge is limited in shelf space. Also the shelves aren't completely sprillproof, and can easily be damaged or stained by sharp objects. It's easy to remove the refrigerator trays however, you must clean them frequently to prevent mold growth.
If you are considering this refrigerator, you should also check out 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 the frame's compact size. It has a sleek, fingerprint-resistant stainless-steel finish and features thick handles that make them comfortable to grip. The fridge is built with a standard French door design, and two rows of shelving with spill-capture and a set crisper drawers. The top right shelf can be folded down to give tall items more room. There's also a full-width drawer for deli items and an internal water dispenser.
This refrigerator has a freezer with an ice maker, making it easy to transfer the frozen ice as needed. The freezer is designed with thoughtful elements, for instance, sliding drawers that can help you better organize the placement of your items. It also has a huge bin that can hold plenty of frozen food items and an additional ice storage bin.
Smart InstaView panel is another cool feature of the refrigerator. You can control the temperature, lighting, and other aspects of your refrigerator from your smartphone. It's a great way to monitor and manage your refrigerator, particularly if you're 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 fridge than other refrigerators we tried. This is likely due to the greater capacity.
Another issue with the door of this refrigerator. They have sunken handles at the front, which allows smaller people to pull them open from the bottom, but they're not easy for taller people to pull closed without slamming them. It would have been much better if they had a front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is a great choice for those looking to combine the look of a French door refrigerator with more efficient design. Its capacity is higher than average for counter-depth models and also cools evenly. It's also less expensive than the best 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 great choice for those looking for a French-door fridge that won't break the budget. It's a simple fridge that may not be as appealing as its rivals, but it still has enough features to make a suitable option. Its most notable feature is the temperature adjustable drawer, helps to keep food items like vegetables and meat fresher for longer. It also comes with a large ice maker and a water dispenser.
The "Chill Drawer", which is located above the two crisper bins, is another excellent feature. This drawer lets you divert some of the refrigerator's cooling power directly to this area, which means you can store foods that require special attention. You can adjust this feature using a slider that's located right on the outside of the drawer. You can also alter the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I've found that the general settings are more effective than the specific ones.
During my experiments, I noticed that the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly consistent across different areas of the refrigerator. Temperatures at the top and bottom of the fridge didn't stray very far from 38 degrees, and the middle of the fridge was within a degree of 36. This is a pretty good performance, but it doesn't quite make it into the top ten in 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 a smart thermometer to get more precise measurements of the internal temperature of your fridge.
The Frigidaire FGHB2866PF's outside is made of stainless steel with a grey body with a "smudge-proof" finish. french door refrigerator freezer does a great job of repelling fingerprints and streaks, even compared to glossy stainless steel finishes on other appliances I've tried.
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 experience in commerce and publishing mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is adamant about finding the top products and recommending them to consumers. She focuses on home goods and technology.