French door refrigerators are a relatively new design, first appearing in the 1990s, and are very popular. They incorporate the advantages of other refrigerator types. Like a top freezer fridge, each compartment is full-width. Like a side-by-side, the doors span half the width of the refrigerator, minimizing front clearance requirements and making the doors lighter and easier to open and close. And like a bottom freezer design, the freezer uses a pull-out drawer on the bottom of the refrigerator for easier access. The French door design's capacity and accessibility make it a nice upgrade over the default top freezer fridge for families, especially with wider fridges where the half-width doors are a necessity. However, these fridges have more sealing surfaces, causing greater air leakage and potentially lower efficiency. French door fridges are also more expensive in general, so you won't find any budget models on the market. Ice makers, both in-door and in-freezer, are a common feature on these fridges too; if you're interested in seeing how they work, check out our article on the topic.
If you're looking for the best French door fridge, take a look at our recommendations below. We've tested 20 refrigerators and recommend these French door models based on their performance and capacity. Since refrigerators are routinely sold at considerable discounts, the price difference between our recommendations can be quite small. For more recommendations, see our picks for the best refrigerators, the best refrigerator brands, and the best counter-depth fridges.
Quick Look
We've recently started testing refrigerators. We independently purchase each unit from major retailers, just like you, to keep our reviews free from manufacturer influence. Each refrigerator goes through the same tests to measure objective data for metrics like temperature uniformity, produce preservation, and actual storage capacity so you can easily compare the results.
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Best French Door Refrigerator
Everyday Use8.4Produce Preservation8.6Refrigerator Capacity8.3Freezer Capacity7.6Temperature Uniformity8.6Standard Width36" (91 cm)StyleFrench DoorCounter-DepthNoIce MakerRefrigerator DoorSee all our test resultsWater DispenserIn-DoorThe best French door refrigerator we've tested is the Bosch 500 Series B36FD52SNS. While this spacious fridge gets nearly everything right, it's most notable for its excellent produce preservation performance. The produce bin's vent slider drops a tight-fitting lid over the entire top of the bin, keeping the crisper drawer's humidity high even as the main fridge environment gets quite dry due to this fridge's single evaporator. This leads to amazing produce preservation, provided you keep produce in the crisper drawer.
The refrigerator capacity is great, as it should be in this 36-inch-wide fridge, featuring split shelves, deep variable-height door bins, and a full-width deli drawer. The freezer's a little more utilitarian; it's fairly unremarkable with two drawers with dividers, but it still offers good capacity. Regarding performance, temperature uniformity is exceptional in the freezer and good in the refrigerator. Unfortunately, the door bins are a little warmer than the rest of the fridge. Additionally, the ice maker produces ice at a relatively slow rate, and the small tray is insufficient for storing a large amount of ice. If you're looking for an alternative to this fridge, the Café CGE29DP2TS1 is a high-performing alternative with separate evaporators for the fridge and freezer cabinets, resulting in longer produce lifespan outside of the produce drawer. Unlike the Bosch, it also has a separate temperature-controlled pull-out drawer that you can use for a number of things, including a wine cooler or a deli and cheese drawer. That said, its temperature uniformity performance lags slightly behind that of the Bosch.
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Best Mid-Range French Door Refrigerator
Everyday Use8.0Produce Preservation8.0Refrigerator Capacity8.6Freezer Capacity7.0Temperature Uniformity8.5Standard Width36" (91 cm)StyleFrench DoorCounter-DepthNoIce MakerFreezer CompartmentSee all our test resultsWater DispenserInternalThe best French door refrigerator we've tested in the mid-range category is the Samsung Bespoke RF30BB6200QL. This fridge has dual evaporators, leading to excellent temperature uniformity performance, especially in the freezer. The separate evaporator keeps the fridge's humidity high, ensuring very good produce preservation even outside of the crisper drawer. There's plenty of capacity in the fridge, with features including split shelving, many door bins, and two rows of storage drawers. The water dispenser consists of a docked auto-refill pitcher, which saves space over externally accessible in-door water and ice dispensers. However, you have to fill your own glass using the pitcher and can't use the dispenser directly. The ice maker is in the freezer, which is a better location than the fridge for reliability. It produces two types of ice and deposits a substantial amount in a large tray. Unfortunately, this tray takes up 30% of the freezer space.
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Best Lower Mid-Range French Door Refrigerator
Everyday Use7.3Produce Preservation6.2Refrigerator Capacity8.9Freezer Capacity7.5Temperature Uniformity8.2Standard Width36" (91 cm)StyleFrench DoorCounter-DepthNoIce MakerFreezer Compartment & Refrigerator DoorSee all our test resultsWater DispenserIn-DoorIf you're looking for the features of a French door model but don't want to spend too much, consider the Samsung RF32CG5400SR. This model is feature-packed for the price, particularly if ice making is a priority for your household. It has three ice makers: one in the fridge that makes crescent ice and two in the freezer that make ice cubes and smaller ice bites. The ice production rate and the capacity of the three ice trays are incredible.
Despite all the ice-making hardware, this fridge still offers excellent capacity in its refrigerator compartment. Features include split shelves with height adjustment options, a full-width deli drawer that is both deep and short, and numerous door bins, some of which are quite deep. The divided ice tray doesn't occupy much space in the freezer, leaving plenty of capacity for a small family. As far as performance goes, freezer temperature uniformity is exceptional. Like all Samsung refrigerators, this model prioritizes ice production so much that it will temporarily lower the freezer temperature to expedite the ice-making process.
Unfortunately, the refrigerator's temperature uniformity performance is only okay; while the shelves are quite consistent, the door bins are a lot warmer than the fridge, so you shouldn't place temperature-sensitive items like milk there. Also, though the produce drawers seal pretty well, the humidity in the main fridge compartment is so low in this single-evaporator refrigerator that produce preservation performance suffers.
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Best Counter-Depth French Door Refrigerator
Everyday Use8.1Produce Preservation9.0Refrigerator Capacity7.1Freezer Capacity6.7Temperature Uniformity8.4Standard Width36" (91 cm)StyleFrench DoorCounter-DepthYesIce MakerFreezer CompartmentSee all our test resultsWater DispenserInternalThe Bosch 800 Series B36CT80SNS is the best French door refrigerator we've tested if you don't mind giving up some capacity and require a counter-depth refrigerator. It offers outstanding performance in nearly every category. Produce preservation is superb due to the well-sealing crisper drawers and the separate evaporator in the fridge, which keeps the humidity in the compartment fairly high. The refrigerator exhibits very good temperature uniformity in each compartment, allowing you to place groceries wherever you like in the fridge or freezer with confidence, knowing they're cooled to the right temperature regardless of their location. The freezer ice maker has a good production rate and a very large ice tray.
The refrigerator's high performance is due to its construction, which features not only dual evaporators but also dual compressors, similar to those found in commercial refrigerators. This feature prevents odor transfer between compartments and delivers precise temperature and humidity control. Due to its sophisticated build and high performance, this would be the best French door fridge we've ever tested. However, its main drawback is its counter-depth design, which compromises capacity. This refrigerator simply can't compete with the standard-depth Bosch 500 Series B36FD52SNS or Bosch 100 Series B36FD10ENS in terms of capacity. It's somewhat decent in the fridge, with multiple storage options to make the most of the limited 14-inch deep cabinet. But the freezer is quite cramped, and storing frozen food for even a small family here will be a struggle.
Notable Mentions
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Bosch 100 Series B36FD10ENS:
The Bosch 100 Series B36FD10ENS features an identical internal layout to the Bosch 500 Series B36FD52SNS, offering the same impressive capacity and storage flexibility at a lower cost. However, it doesn't perform to the level of the Bosch 500 series, since the crisper drawers don't seal nearly as well, and the temperature uniformity is worse, especially in the fridge.
See our review -
GE Profile PGE29BYTFS:
The GE Profile PGE29BYTFS has a separate temperature-controlled pull-out drawer that you can configure to be at a different temperature than the rest of the fridge, a feature not offered by the Samsung Bespoke RF30BB6200QL. However, despite its dual evaporator design, the Samsung model's produce preservation performance is substantially worse than that of the GE Profile. The Samsung model also offers higher capacity in the fridge since the GE Profile's drawer hardware takes up space.
See our review -
LG LRFLC2706S:
The LG LRFLC2706S has a very high capacity for a counter-depth fridge, far more than the Bosch 800 Series B36CT80SNS. It has almost as much capacity as a standard-depth fridge. However, it doesn't perform like the flagship Bosch 800 in terms of preserving produce, although it's nearly comparable in terms of temperature uniformity.
See our review -
Maytag MRFF4236RZ:
The Maytag MRFF4236RZ is a 36-inch standard-depth French door fridge. It has fewer features than the Samsung Bespoke RF30BB6200QL and lacks capacity in its fridge and freezer cabinets, although it still offers good temperature uniformity and preserves produce well.
See our review -
HMS044M6RRE
The Hisense HRM260N6TSE is a 36-inch standard-depth French door fridge. Compared to the Samsung Bespoke RF30BB6200QL, it offers comparable produce preservation performance and does a similarly good job of maintaining uniform temperatures in both cabinets. There's also the bonus of an additional temperature-controlled drawer. However, its in-fridge ice maker reduces usable space in its fridge.
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All Reviews
Our recommendations are based on what we think are currently the best options for most people. We don't just base our results on overall performance, but also on factors like availability, price, and reader feedback.
If you'd like to do the work of choosing yourself, here's the list of all our French door refrigerator reviews. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. While no refrigerator is perfect for every use, most are good enough to please almost everyone (as long as they fit in your living space), and the differences are often not noticeable unless you really look for them.