Five Things You Didn't Know About French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker
French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
French-door fridges combine design and function. They feature stylish double doors that reveal the large fridge on top and a freezer drawer beneath. These refrigerators stand out due to their special features, such as door-to-door dispensers and more expensive Ice makers.
We consulted Ladina Schopf - an interior designer, architect and founder of LS Projects - for her advice on how to choose the right home. They considered storage capacity, layout and energy efficiency among other aspects.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name implies that the GE Profile series is targeted at the consumer who wants to incorporate cutting-edge features into their kitchen. This refrigerator is packed with these, from an inside-the-door Keurig K-cup coffee maker to a clever water dispenser. 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.
Other than that the fridge is a great option. It comes with a huge freezer compartment, which is quite uncommon in counter-depth French door refrigerators. Additionally, it holds a good amount of frozen food when compared to similar models.
The fridge comes with 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment has 18.5 cubic feet, which is typical for a French-door refrigerator at this price. It also has a decent sized ice maker packed into the left door, but it's not the biggest I've seen.
You can adjust the shelves in both compartments to create custom storage setup for whatever you have to keep. The GE PYE22PYNFS's design for the interior is stylish, too. The LED lighting is a nice touch, and the in-door storage bins have a third shelf that can fold down to allow you to store large items. The drawers come with 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 textured plastic coatings a bit hard on the fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator includes the full suite of features you'd expect from a fridge at this price, including Wi-Fi and app support through GE's SmartHQ software. The app is available on iOS and Android devices and allows you to manage your refrigerator from anywhere in the globe. It also comes with many options for customization. It will also send you notifications when the door is left unlocked as well as when the freezer or fridge requires defrosting, and when the filter has to be changed.
It is nice if the GE PYE22PYNFS came with Precise Fill, an option available in a few other GE refrigerators that allows you to preset how many cups of water you'd like to disperse simultaneously. It does have a countdown feature on the display of the fridge to show how much water you have left, but it's not as effective as Precise Fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The Bosch French-door Refrigerator is a stunning piece of equipment. It's designed to look like it's a seamless part in 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 fruits and vegetables fresher longer and dual compressors to ensure maximum food preservation. The ice maker is one of the best we've ever tested and produces pyramid-shaped Ice with low water usage. This fridge is ideal for a single family or a kitchenette that wants an attractive design and top of the highest quality food preservation.
This fridge was rated as the best in our Refrigerators Test for a variety of reasons. The freezer temperatures remained steady at a level that was just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit, never changing more than a fraction an inch. This is essential to preventing freezing burn. The fridge's fridge section also performed well, achieving the desired initial set temperature within an hour and keeping that temperature steady throughout the course of our testing.
Bosch is known for its premium 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 lets you monitor and manage your fridge remotely using your tablet or smartphone. The refrigerator is costly and has great features and capabilities at a reasonable price.
While the fridge is a fantastic piece of equipment but it's important to be aware of the limitations. Frydge UK has a small shelf space, so you may have to think creatively when storing tall items. 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, you must keep them clean to avoid mold growth.
If you are considering this refrigerator, be sure to 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 great counter-depth refrigerator that packs a lot of storage in 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 a standard French-door layout with gallon-sized bins for the doors on each door and two rows of shelves that capture spills and a set more spacious drawers. The top shelf on the right can be folded down to give tall items more space. There's also a full-width drawer to store food items and an internal water dispenser.
This refrigerator is equipped with an ice maker, making it easy to move the frozen ice whenever you need it. The freezer also features clever design features, like sliding drawers that can help you sort your things. It has a large bin for storing frozen food and a separate one for ice.
Another great feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. It lets you manage the refrigerator's temperature as well as lighting via your smartphone. It's a good method of monitoring and managing your refrigerator, especially if you're away from home.
The Smart InstaView feature is neat however it doesn't improve the efficiency of the fridge. The fridge took a bit longer to chill food and defrost it than the other fridges we tested. This is likely due to the larger capacity.
The doors are another problem with this refrigerator. The sunken handles allow smaller people to open them from the bottom. However taller people will struggle to close them without slamming them. It would have been much better if they came with a front-mounted handles.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a good choice for those who want to combine the benefits of a fridge with a French door with a more efficient layout. Its capacity is above average for a counter-depth model and it cools evenly and has a great layout. It's also a little cheaper than the best counter-depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, which helps make it a desirable choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you're looking for a French door fridge that doesn't break the bank this Frigidaire is a solid option. It's a basic design that isn't as striking in appearance as some of the competition, but it has enough features to make it a good pick. Its most significant feature, the adjustable temperature drawer, helps to keep food items such as meat and vegetables fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser and a decent Ice machine that is fast.
Another great feature is the "Chill Drawer" that sits above the two crisper bins. This drawer lets you direct some of the refrigerator's cooling power to this area, so that you can store foods that require extra attention. You can alter this feature using the slider located on the outside of the drawer. You can also adjust the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I've found that the general settings are more effective than the specific ones.
During my tests, the refrigerator's temperatures were fairly constant across the different areas of the refrigerator. Temperatures at the top and bottom of the fridge didn't stray very far from 38 degrees, and even the middle of the fridge was within one degree of 36. That's a good performance however it doesn't rank among the best 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 connect this fridge to a smart thermometer for more precise readings of your fridge's internal temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from grey-bodied stainless with a "smudge resistant" finish. It does an excellent job of removing streaks and fingerprints, even compared to shiny stainless steel finishes on other appliances I've tested.
Stephanie Cronk is the executive editor on Reviewed's Commerce/Product Reviews team and oversees the site's buyer's guide and test-product reviews. She has over 15 years of experience in commerce and publishing mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is committed to finding and recommending the best products for consumers, with a a focus on home goods and tech.