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Aaen Bengtson posted an update 6 months ago
French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker Review
Melding form with function, French-door refrigerators come with elegant double doors that open to a spacious fridge up top and freezer drawer below. These refrigerators stand out due to their distinctive features, such as through-the-door dispensers and higher-end Ice makers.
We consulted Ladina Schopf – interior designer, architect, and the founder of LS Projects – for her advice on how to choose the best one. They weighed the capacity of storage and layout, energy efficiency, and other factors.
GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
The name of the series suggests that the GE Profile series is targeted at consumers who want to incorporate cutting-edge technologies into their kitchen. The refrigerator is brimming with them, from an in-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 better.
This refrigerator is a good choice, despite the blip. It has a huge freezer compartment, which is unusual for counter-depth French-door refrigerators. It also holds plenty of frozen food items compared to other models.
The fridge comes with 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment is 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is about the same as a French door fridge costing this much. It also has a decent-sized icemaker in the left-hand door, although it’s not the biggest I’ve seen.
You can alter the shelves in each compartment to create a customized storage arrangement for what you want to keep. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is stylish, too. Its LED lighting is a nice addition and the inside storage bins come with an additional shelf that folds up beneath itself so that you can store tall items. The drawers have temperature controls, so you can set them for Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. The drawers are easy to shut and open however I found the plastic’s textured coatings to be a bit rough on my fingers.
The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator includes all the features you would expect from a refrigerator within this price range. This includes Wi-Fi as well as app support, and GE’s SmartHQ Software. The app, available for iOS and Android devices allows you to control your fridge from anywhere in world, and it has a ton of customization options. It also sends you notifications when the door is left unlocked as well as when the fridge or freezer needs to be defrosted, and when the filter requires a change.
It is nice it GE PYE22PYNFS offered Precise fill, an option that is available in a few GE refrigerators that allow users to set the amount of cups they wish to dispense. The fridge shows a countdown to show you how much water remains but it’s not as effective as Precise fill.
Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
It is designed to look as a seamless element of your kitchen Bosch’s French-door refrigerator looks seamless and is one of a kind. The fridge uses fingerprint-resistant stainless steel, which is a great feature for busy households. It also comes with a veggie compartment that keeps fruits and vegetables fresher longer, and two compressors for maximum preservation of food. The Ice maker is among the most efficient we’ve ever tested and produces a pyramid-shaped ice with a low water consumption. This fridge is perfect for a single family or kitchenette that needs an elegant design and top of the best food preservation.
The fridge was rated the best refrigerator in our Refrigerators test, for various reasons. The temperature of the freezer remained stable at a level that was just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and never fluctuating more than a fraction an inch. This is essential to preventing freezing burn. The fridge section of the refrigerator also performed well. It reached the initial temperature within an hour, and maintained that temperature throughout our testing.
Bosch is known for its premium appliances which is why it’s no surprise that this counter-depth refrigerator is also a smart appliance with the option of connecting to your home Wi-Fi as well as Bosch’s Home Connect platform. This app allows you to monitor and manage your fridge remotely using your smartphone or tablet. The fridge is a bit expensive, but it offers excellent features and functionality for the price.
While the fridge is a fantastic appliance however, it is important to understand the limitations. It is possible to be inventive with tall items since the fridge has a limited shelf space. The shelves are also not spillproof and can easily be stained or damaged by sharp items. The trays can be easily removed from the refrigerator. However, they must be cleaned frequently to stop the growth of mold.
If you’re thinking of buying this refrigerator, make sure to also read our reviews of the GE Appliances French Door Refrigerator as well as 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 an extremely compact frame. It has a sleek, fingerprint-resistant stainless-steel finish and features thick handles that make them comfortable to grip. The fridge has the standard French door design, and two rows of shelves that can be used to capture spills and a set crisper drawers. The upper right shelf can be folded down to give tall items more room. You’ll also find a full width deli drawer and an internal water dispenser.
This refrigerator has a freezer with an ice maker, making it easy to transfer the frozen ice whenever you need it. The freezer also has clever design features, such as sliding drawers that allow you to sort your things. It also has a large container to store frozen food items, and a separate one for ice.
Smart InstaView panel is a cool feature of the refrigerator. You can manage the temperature, lighting and other aspects of your refrigerator from your smartphone. It’s a great method of monitoring and managing your refrigerator, particularly if you’re away from home.
Although the Smart InstaView is a neat feature, it doesn’t necessarily add to the overall performance of the refrigerator. The fridge took a bit longer to defrost food and chill it than other models we tested. This could be due to the bigger capacity.
Another issue with this refrigerator is its doors. They have handles that are sunken on the front that allow smaller people to pull them open from the bottom, but they’re not easy for taller people to guide closed without slamming them. It would have been better if they came with a front-mounted handle.
The LG Counter-Depth MAX fridge is an excellent option for those looking to combine the aesthetics of a French-door refrigerator with an efficient design. Its capacity is superior for a counter-depth model, and it cools evenly and has a good layout. french door refrigerator freezer ‘s also a bit less than the best counter-depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, which helps make it a popular choice.
Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator
If you’re looking for an French door refrigerator that won’t cost a fortune this Frigidaire is a great choice. It’s a minimalist design that isn’t as striking in appearance as some of the competition, but it has enough features to make it a solid pick. Its most notable feature is the adjustable temperature drawer helps to keep food items like vegetables and meat fresher for longer. It also has a large water dispenser as well as a good ice maker that operates quickly.
The “Chill Drawer”, which sits above the two crisper bins, is a excellent feature. This drawer lets you redirect part of the refrigerator’s cooling power directly to this area, which means you can put away food items that require special attention. This feature can be adjusted by using an outside slider that is located inside the drawer. You can also alter the general cooling settings for the entire fridge. I have found that the generic settings are more effective than the specific ones.
During my tests, the refrigerator’s temperatures were fairly consistent across all areas of the fridge. The temperatures in the top, bottom and middle of the refrigerator didn’t vary much from 38 degrees. That’s a good performance however it doesn’t make it into the top ten 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 readings of your fridge’s internal temperature.
The exterior of the Frigidaire is made from grey-bodied stainless with a “smudge resistant” finish. It wards off streaks and fingerprints better than other stainless steel finishes I’ve seen.
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 digital and retail. Stephanie is passionate about finding the top products and recommending them to consumers. She is particularly interested in home goods and technology.