French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Melding form with functionality, French-door refrigerators have stylish double doors that open up to an expansive fridge on the top and a freezer drawer below. Special features like through-the-door dispensers, ice machines with higher-end features and adjustable flex drawers make them stand out from the crowd.
We consulted experts such as Ladina Schopf, an interior designer and architect, as well as the founder of LS Projects, for tips on choosing the right model. We looked at the capacity of storage, layout, and energy efficiency among other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name of the series suggests that GE’s Profile series is targeted at those who wish to incorporate cutting-edge technology into their kitchens. This refrigerator is packed with these, from an inside-the-door Keurig K-cup coffee maker to a sophisticated water dispenser. 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.
Aside from that blip the fridge is a great choice. french door fridge freezers boasts a spacious freezer compartment, which is quite uncommon in counter-depth French door refrigerators. Additionally, it holds a fair amount of frozen food when as compared to similar models.
Inside the fridge, you'll find 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment is 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is about par for a French door refrigerator that costs this much. It has a decent sized freezer in the left side. But french style fridge freezer 's not the biggest one I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in each compartment to create a custom storage setup for what you want to keep. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS also looks attractive. The LED lighting is a nice touch and the inside storage bins feature the third shelf, which folds up beneath itself so that you can store tall items. The drawers are equipped with temperature controls so you can set them for Meat, Beverage or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, although I found their textured plastic coatings to be a little hard on the fingers.
french style fridge freezer includes all the features you'd expect from a refrigerator within this price range. This includes Wi-Fi, app support and GE's SmartHQ Software. The app is available for iOS and Android devices and lets you control your refrigerator from any place around the world. It also offers many options for customization. It also alerts you when a door is left open, when the fridge or freezer needs to be defrosted and when it's time to change the filter.
It would be nice if GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill which is an option that is available in other GE fridges that allows you to set the number of cups of water you'd like to pour out at a time. It also has a countdown on the fridge display to display how much water have remaining, but that's not as helpful as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is a stunning piece of equipment. It's designed to appear 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 features a veggie compartment that keeps vegetables and fruits fresher for longer periods, and two compressors for preserving food items. The Ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient, and it produces the shape of a pyramid using only water. This refrigerator is ideal for a single household or a kitchenette that wants an elegant design and top of the highest quality food preservation.
This fridge was the top-rated refrigerator in our Refrigerators test, for a few reasons. Its freezer temperatures remained constant at just above 0°F and never changed by more than a fraction, this is crucial to avoid freezing burn. The fridge section of the fridge also performed well. It reached the initial temperature within a matter of hours, and maintained the temperature throughout 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 as well as Bosch's Home Connect platform. The app allows you to monitor and control your refrigerator remotely on your tablet or smartphone. The fridge is a bit expensive, however it has excellent features and functionality for the price.
While the fridge is an incredible appliance however, it is important to understand the limitations. It has a small shelf space, so you may have to think creatively when storing tall objects. The shelves are also not spillproof and can easily be damaged or stained by sharp objects. The trays can be easily removed from the fridge. However, they must be cleaned frequently to stop the growth of mold.
If you're thinking about buying this refrigerator, make sure to review our opinions on the GE Appliances French Door Refrigerator and the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.
LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The LG LRFLC2706S counter-depth refrigerator is a great option for those who need plenty of space in a small frame. It has a sleek, fingerprint-resistant stainless-steel finish and features thick handles that make them comfortable to grip. The fridge has an ordinary French door design, and two rows of spill-capture shelving and a set of crisper drawers. The top right shelf can be folded down to give taller items more room. You'll also find a full width drawer for deli items and an internal water dispenser.
One of the best things about this refrigerator is that its ice maker is in the freezer, making it simple to move the ice to the refrigerator to be used when it is required. The freezer also features thoughtful design features, such as sliding drawers that help you organize your items. It also has a large container to store frozen food items, and a separate bin for ice.
Another great feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. You can control the temperature, lighting and other aspects of your refrigerator from your smartphone. It's a nice method of monitoring and managing 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 chill food and defrost it than some others we tried. This is likely due to the larger capacity.
Another issue with the door of this refrigerator. The sunken handles allow smaller people to open them from the bottom. However, taller people still struggle to close them without slamming them. It would have been much better if they had a front-mounted handle.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is an excellent choice for those looking to blend the look of a French door refrigerator with more efficient design. Its capacity is superior to counter-depth models and is able to cool evenly. It's also a little cheaper than the best counter-depth refrigerator with an ice maker, which helps make it an attractive option.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for a French door fridge that doesn't cost you a fortune this Frigidaire is a great choice. It's a minimalist design that's not as striking in appearance as other models, but it has enough features to make it a good option. Its main feature is the temperature adjustable drawer which helps keep food items like meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water and ice maker dispenser.
Another nice feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above 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 put away food items that require special attention. This feature can be adjusted using an outside slider that is located inside the drawer. You can also use this to set a general cooling level for the whole fridge, but I've noticed that adjusting the general settings tends produce better results than specific ones.
In my tests, I found that the temperatures in the refrigerator were fairly consistent in different areas of the refrigerator. The temperatures in the top, bottom and middle of the refrigerator did not differ significantly from 38 degrees. This is a good performance but does not 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 pair this fridge with an intelligent thermometer to get more precise readings of your fridge's temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from grey-bodied stainless with a "smudge resistant" 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 publishing and commerce experience, with a focus on retail and digital. Stephanie is committed to finding and recommending the best products for consumers, with particular focus on home items and tech.
