Everything You Need To Know About French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker
French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Combining form and function, French-door refrigerators offer elegant double doors that open to an enormous fridge on top and freezer drawer below. These refrigerators stand out due to their special features, like door-to-door dispensers and more expensive ice makers.
We asked Ladina Schopf - an interior designer, architect, and founder of LS Projects - for her advice on how to choose the right home. They evaluated the capacity of storage, layout and energy efficiency, among other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Like the name suggests, GE's Profile series is geared towards the consumer who wants to incorporate cutting-edge technologies in their kitchen. This fridge has them all including the Keurig K cup coffee maker inside 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. Since this refrigerator is more, I'd expect higher quality.
This fridge is a great choice, despite the small blip. It has a large freezer compartment which is uncommon for counter-depth French door fridges. It also has a large capacity for frozen food items compared to other models.
Inside the fridge, there are 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment has 18.5 cubic feet, which is standard for a French-door refrigerator at this price. It also has an adequate-sized icemaker in the left-hand door, although it isn't the largest I've seen.
You can alter the shelves in both compartments to create a custom storage setup for what you want to keep. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is also attractive. The LED lighting adds a nice touch. The bins for storage inside have a third shelf which can be folded down to store tall objects. The drawers include temperature controls that allow you to set them to Meat, Beverage or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, but I found their plastic textured coatings to be a bit rough on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator is equipped with a all the features you'd expect from a refrigerator at this price, including Wi-Fi and app support via GE's SmartHQ software. The app is available for iOS and Android devices and lets you manage your refrigerator from anywhere across the globe. It also has a lot of customization options. It will also send you notifications when the door is left unlocked, when the freezer or fridge must be defrosted and when the filter needs to be changed.
It would be nice if GE PYE22PYNFS offered Precise fill the option that is available in a handful of GE refrigerators that allow users to select the number of cups they would like to disperse. The fridge displays a countdown to display how much water is left however it's not as useful as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
Created to appear like a seamless piece of your kitchen Bosch's French-door refrigerator looks seamless and is an eye-catching piece. 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 longer and has dual compressors for maximum food preservation. The ice maker is one of the most efficient we've ever tested and produces pyramid-shaped ice with a low water usage. This fridge is perfect for a small household or a kitchenette that wants an attractive design and top of the best food preservation.
This fridge was rated the most efficient in our Refrigerators Test for several reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained constant at just above 0° Fahrenheit and never fluctuated more than a fraction - this is essential to avoid the risk of a freezer burn. The refrigerator section of the refrigerator also did well. It reached the temperature it was set within a matter of hours, and remained at the temperature throughout our testing.
Bosch is known for its high-end appliances, so it's no surprise that this counter-depth refrigerator is also a smart appliance, with 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 it comes with great features and capabilities for the cost.
While the fridge is an incredible appliance however, it is important to understand the limitations. You may need to get inventive with tall items since the fridge has a limited shelf space. The shelves are also not resistant to spills and are easily stained or damaged by sharp objects. It's simple to remove the trays from the fridge however, you must clean them frequently to prevent mold growth.
If you're thinking of buying this refrigerator, be sure to read our reviews 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 a lot of storage space into a compact frame. It has a sleek, fingerprint-resistant stainless-steel finish and features thick handles that make them comfortable to grip. The fridge is built with the standard French door design, with two rows of spill-capture shelving and a set of crisper drawers. The top shelf on the right side can be folded in order to create more space for taller items. You'll also find a full width drawer for deli items and an internal water dispenser.
One of the best aspects of this refrigerator is that its Ice maker is located in the freezer, which makes it easy to transfer the ice to the refrigerator to be used when it is needed. The freezer has thoughtful design elements, for instance, sliding drawers that help to organize the place of items. It also has a huge bin that can hold plenty of frozen food items as well as an container for storing ice.
Smart InstaView panel is a cool feature of the refrigerator. You can control the temperature, lighting and other aspects of your refrigerator from your smartphone. It's a good way to monitor and manage your refrigerator, particularly if you're away from home.
However, while the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it doesn't necessarily add to the overall performance of the refrigerator. french door fridge and freezer took longer to defrost food and chill it than the other fridges we test. This is probably due to its larger capacity.
The other issue we have with this refrigerator is its doors. They have sunken handles on the front that allow smaller people to open them from the bottom, but they're still difficult for taller people to guide closed without slamming them. It would have been better if these had front-mounted handles.
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 more efficient design. It has a capacity that is above average for counter-depth models and is able to cool evenly. It's also less expensive than the most expensive counter depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, making it a great choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for an French door refrigerator that won't break the bank this Frigidaire is a great choice. It has a simple design that's not as striking in appearance like some of the competitors but it does have enough features to make it a good pick. Its most important feature, the temperature adjustable drawer, helps to keep food items like vegetables and meat fresher longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser as well as a good Ice machine that is fast.
Another feature that is worth mentioning is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. The drawer allows you to divert a portion of the refrigerator's cooling power directly into this area, so you can keep food items that need extra attention. This feature is adjustable using a slider 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.
In my tests, I found that the temperatures of the refrigerator were fairly consistent in different areas of the fridge. The temperatures in the middle, top and bottom of the fridge didn't differ much from 38 degrees. That's a good performance, but it doesn't quite rank among the best 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 internal temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made of grey-bodied stainless that has a "smudge resistant" finish. It repels fingerprints and streaks better than other stainless steel finishes 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 retail and digital. Stephanie is enthusiastic about finding and recommending the top products for consumers, with a a focus on home goods and tech.