You'll Never Guess This French Door Refrigerator With Ice Maker's Benefits

french door fridge freezer door refrigerator with ice maker (Suggested Resource site) Review

French-door fridges combine design and function. They have elegant double doors that open to reveal a large fridge on top, and a freezer drawer beneath. Special features like door-to-door dispensers, high-end ice machines and flex drawers that can be customized make them stand out from the rest.

We contacted Ladina Schopf - an interior designer, architect and founder of LS Projects - for her tips on how to select the right home. We looked at the storage capacity, layout, and energy efficiency among other features.

GE Profile Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator

The name implies that GE's Profile series is targeted at those who want to incorporate cutting-edge technology into their kitchen. This fridge has them all from a Keurig K cup coffee maker in the door to a sophisticated dispenser of water. But these flourishes don't mask mediocre performance, especially in the refrigerator's freezer and an ineffective temperature-controlled drawer. This fridge is expensive and I expected more.

Aside from that blip the fridge is a fantastic choice. It has a large freezer compartment, which is uncommon in counter-depth French door fridges, and it can hold a decent amount of frozen foods in comparison to similar models.

The fridge is equipped with 17 shelves and compartments. The fridge compartment offers 18.5 cubic feet of space, which is about par for an French door fridge that costs this much. It also has a decent-sized icemaker in the left-hand door, although it's not the largest I've seen.

You can adjust the shelves in both compartments to create customized storage layout for whatever you have to keep. The interior design of the GE PYE22PYNFS is attractive. Its LED lighting is a nice addition, and the in-door storage bins come with a third shelf that folds up beneath itself to allow you to store items that are tall. The drawers come with temperature controls, so you can set them to Meat, Beverage, or Deli settings. They're easy to open and close, although I found their plastic textured coatings to be a little hard on the fingers.

The GE PGE29BYTFS Smart Refrigerator includes all the features you'd expect from a refrigerator in this price range. It has Wi-Fi as well as app support, and GE's SmartHQ Software. The app, available for iOS and Android devices, lets you control your fridge from anywhere in the world, and it has a ton of customization options. It will also send notifications when the door is unlocked and when the freezer or fridge requires defrosting, and when the filter needs to be changed.

It would be nice if GE PYE22PYNFS had Precise Fill, an option available in a handful of other GE fridges that allow you to preset how many cups of water you'd like to disperse at a time. The fridge shows a countdown to show you how much water remains however it's not as useful as Precise fill.

Bosch Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator

It is designed to look like a seamless piece 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 has a vegetable compartment that helps keep vegetables and fruits fresher longer and dual compressors for maximum preservation of food. The Ice maker we tested is one of the most efficient and produces pyramid shaped ice using minimal water. This refrigerator is ideal for a single household or kitchenette that needs an elegant design and top of the line food preservation.

This fridge was rated the most efficient in our Refrigerators Test for a variety of reasons. The freezer temperatures remained steady at a level that was just above 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and never moving more than a fraction one degree. This is crucial to avoiding freezer burn. The fridge's refrigerator section also performed well, achieving the temperature that was set for the initial setting within an hour and maintaining that temperature steady throughout the course of 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 of connecting to your home Wi-Fi as well as Bosch's Home Connect platform. This app allows you to monitor and control your fridge from your smartphone or tablet. The fridge is expensive however, it offers excellent features and capabilities at a fair price.

It is crucial to be aware of the limitations of your fridge. You might need to be inventive with tall items since the fridge has a small shelf space. The shelves aren't spillproof and can easily be damaged or stained by sharp objects. It is easy to take out the refrigerator trays however, you must clean them frequently to prevent the growth of mold.

If you are thinking about this refrigerator, make sure you check out our review of the GE Appliances french door fridge with water dispenser Door Refrigerator and the Bosch Bottom Freezer Refrigerator.

LG Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator

The LG LRFLC2706S counter-depth fridge is a great option for those who need a lot 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 features a standard best french style fridge freezer door layout, with two rows of spill-capture shelving and a set crisper drawers. The top shelf on the right can be folded in order to create more space for tall items. 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 transfer the frozen ice whenever you need it. The freezer has thoughtful design elements, as well, such as sliding drawers that help to organize the place of items. It also has a large container to store frozen food items, and a separate container for ice.

Another great feature of this refrigerator is its Smart InstaView panel. It lets you control the fridge's temperature and lighting from your smartphone. It's a nice way to monitor and manage your refrigerator, especially when you're away from home.

The Smart InstaView feature is neat but it doesn't enhance the performance of the fridge. This fridge took longer to defrost food and chill it than some others we tested. This could be due to its larger capacity.

Another issue with the door of this refrigerator. They have sunken handles on the front that allow shorter people to easily pull them open from the bottom, but they're not easy for taller people to steer closed without slamming the doors. It would have been better to have front-mounted handles.

The LG Counter-Depth MAX is a good option for those looking to combine the benefits of a retro french door refrigerator-door fridge's aesthetics with an efficient layout. It has a capacity that is superior to counter-depth models and also cools evenly. It's also a bit cheaper than the top counter depth refrigerators that have an ice maker, making it a great choice.

Frigidaire Counter Depth French Door Refrigerator

This Frigidaire French door refrigerator is a good choice if you want a French-door fridge that won't break the budget. It's a basic design that's not as visually striking like some of the competitors, but it has enough features to make it a good option. Its main characteristic is the adjustable temperature drawer that helps keep food items like veggies and meat fresher for longer. It also comes with a huge water dispenser as well as a good ice machine that works fast.

The "Chill Drawer", which sits above the two crisper bins, is a nice feature. This drawer lets you redirect a portion of the fridge's cooling power directly to this area, meaning you can store foods that require 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 have found that the general settings work better than the specific ones.

During my tests, the temperature of the refrigerator were fairly constant across the different areas of the refrigerator. Temperatures in the top and bottom of the fridge did not vary much from 38 degrees, and the middle of the fridge was within one degree of 36. This is a great performance, but isn't quite at 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. This fridge can be connected with a smart thermostat to get more accurate readings on the internal temperature of your fridge.

The exterior of the Frigidaire is made of gray-bodied stainless with a "smudge resistant" finish. It does an excellent job of preventing streaks and fingerprints from appearing even when compared to the glossier stainless steel finishes on other appliances 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 experience in commerce and publishing mostly in retail and digital. Stephanie is passionate about finding and recommending the most effective products for consumers, with a an emphasis on home products and technology.