The GE GTS22KGNRWW is a budget 33-inch standard-depth top-freezer fridge. It's equipped with a simple cooling system with a fixed-speed compressor and a single evaporator in the freezer compartment. It's advertised as being garage-rated, with a listed environmental operating range of 38 °F (3.3 °C) to 110 °F (43 °C). This model can also be fitted with an in-freezer ice maker, which is available for purchase separately, and it comes with three removable shelves.
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Our Verdict
The GE GTS22KGNRWW is a good option for everyday use. It offers impressive produce preservation performance to keep delicate produce crisp and fresh. Temperature uniformity is also good for the most part, though its door bins do trend slightly higher than the main refrigerator cabinet, so you might want to keep delicate items further back in the main compartment. It also offers relatively high capacity for a 32-inch fridge, but its lack of split shelving can make it a challenge to fit tall items like some bottles or even fresh herbs. Its overall design is quite basic, with the flip side of that being that there are fewer opportunities for things to go wrong. An ice maker can also be purchased separately; its placement in the freezer is a far more reliable starting point than in-door units since the latter need to maintain a stable microclimate. The ice maker uses an ejector-style design, which is less likely to experience failure than a twist-tray design.
Great produce preservation performance.
Good overall ice making speed and tray capacity.
Large interior volume given relatively compact design.
Overall temperature uniformity is good.
Door bin temperatures trend a few degrees warmer than the rest of the cabinet.
No split shelving.
Might need to remove ice maker to fit really large items in freezer.
Dry main fridge cabinet can cause delicate produce to wilt.
The GE GTS22KGNRWW does a good job of ensuring produce stays crisp and fresh, provided you keep delicate items inside the crisper drawer. Humidity levels inside the latter space remain consistently high, so leafy greens won't lose their moisture or wilt within a few days. That said, the main fridge cabinet is a very dry environment, which can cause those sorts of foodstuffs to wilt quickly.
Great produce preservation performance.
Dry main fridge cabinet can cause delicate produce to wilt.
The GE GTS22KGNRWW's refrigerator capacity is good. Its full-depth design results in greater interior space than its 33-inch width would initially suggest. It also has highly capacious door bins that can fit loads of condiments and bigger items like milk jugs. That said, you're still likely to find its limits if you frequently make larger batches of soups, stews, or any other meal inside a larger casserole dish or pot. The lack of split shelving can also make it a challenge to fit some taller items inside the main cabinet.
Large interior volume given relatively compact design.
Refrigerator door bins have a generous capacity.
No split shelving.
The GE GTS22KGNRWW is a very good option for storing frozen food. Despite its relatively compact overall dimensions, its freezer compartment is pretty spacious. The main cabinet doesn't offer much in the way of flexibility, with simple full-width shelves and fixed positions for the door bins, but the space is configured in such a way that you can still fit fairly bulky items. That said, you'll probably want to remove the ice maker if you frequently buy bulkier things like frozen pizzas or packs of frozen fish or chicken filets.
Large interior volume given relatively compact design.
Might need to remove ice maker to fit really large items in freezer.
The GE GTS22KGNRWW's temperature uniformity is good. Temperatures inside the refrigerator remain consistent from top to bottom, though the door bins do trend a little higher than the rest of that compartment, so you might want to push things like bricks of butter further back in the unit if you want them as cold and as hard as possible.
Good refrigerator temperature uniformity in main cabinet.
Good freezer temperature uniformity.
Door bin temperatures trend a few degrees warmer than the rest of the cabinet.
The GE GTS22KGNRWW provides very good ice-making performance with its available ice maker. If you're expecting company for a party, you'll want to make and store some ice well in advance, with the maker itself only being able to produce a little over two and a half pounds in a 24-hour period. The ice maker uses an ejector-style design and is located inside the freezer, both of which indicate a lower-than-average likelihood of failure relative to most twist-tray units or ice makers that are in the fridge compartment.
Good overall ice making speed and tray capacity.
Performance Usages
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
This fridge is available in a broad selection of color finishes, each with a different model number.
| Model Number | Color |
|---|---|
| GE GTS22KGNRWW | White |
| GE GTS22KYNRFS | Stainless Steel |
| GE GTS22KMNRES | Slate |
| GE GTS22KMNRDS | Black Slate |
| GE GTS22KGNRBB | Black |
Our test unit was the White colorway. For those interested, here's a photo of our product's label.
If you come across another variant of this fridge, please let us know in the comments below so that we can update our review.
Popular Refrigerator Comparisons
The GE GTS22KGNRWW is a budget 33-inch top-freezer fridge. It executes quite well in terms of the fundamentals: its freezer and refrigerator cabinets are relatively spacious for a fridge of this type and size, it does a great job of keeping delicate produce crisp and fresh thanks to its well-sealing crisper drawers, and temperatures within its freezer and fridge are quite uniform overall. While this model's door bins are a few degrees warmer than the main refrigerator cabinet, it comprehensively outguns the Whirlpool WRT311FZDW, its closest rival in terms of price and size, in this respect. Its cooling system, with a fixed-speed compressor and single evaporator, isn't fancy nor the most efficient system on the market, but it's well-established and presents few obvious failure points. The optional ice maker uses a robust ejector-style design and delivers surprisingly good capacity for something that simple.
Test Results
The GE GTS22KGNRWW's refrigeration storage capacity is good. There are three shelves in total, two of which are movable. The bottom shelf extends approximately four inches past the upper shelves, making it a far better spot to place larger casserole dishes or any other kind of bulky item, which might not sit comfortably on the upper shelves. The door bins provide a good amount of flexibility. Milk cartons and standard 2 L bottles can fit on the middle bin, though the upper bins can be a little tight and are really only meant for condiments, cans, and the like.
This unit offers very good usable freezer capacity, particularly for a basic top-freezer unit. In terms of the main compartment, even the smaller bottom shelf can accommodate shorter items like meal prep containers or Tupperware containers stacked two high, while the taller upper shelf can fit bulkier frozen meals. Even with the ice maker in place, you should still be able to fit things like smaller pizza boxes. The door bins are also quite usable, though you'll want to fit larger items like bags of frozen fruit or veggies inside the bottom bin, as there's a bit more space there.
The GE's IM4D ice maker is an optional accessory, which is available online and is removable to give you more space inside the freezer cabinet. Removing the ice maker and tray yields a usable freezer volume of 6.23 cu ft (176.4 L).
The GE GTS22KGNRWW uses a single fixed-speed compressor, which, as the name implies, can only operate at a single speed. This means that its energy costs over time can be slightly higher than a variable speed compressor found in a higher-end unit like the KitchenAid KRQC506MPS, which can modulate compressor speed based on the required load. Inverter compressors can also maintain a slightly more consistent temperature level, though not by a huge degree in real-world terms.
It's also worth noting that this cooling system has a very basic design overall. While simplicity doesn't necessarily guarantee reliability, it presents fewer failure points compared to higher-end models with more complex designs.
The GE GTS22KGNRWW can be purchased with an in-freezer ice maker with an ejector-style design. An ejector-style design uses a heating element to warm a metal mold, melting the outer layer of ice inside, which is then scraped into the ice tray by a plastic rake. These types of ice makers tend to be more reliable than twist-style units, with fewer fragile plastic components that could be rendered brittle over time as they're twisted inside the cold environment of a freezer.
If you purchased this fridge without the ice maker, the latter can be purchased separately directly from the manufacturer and installed afterwards.
This refrigerator provides good overall temperature uniformity in the fridge compartment. Items won't be noticeably cooler or warmer depending on where you place them in the main fridge space. That said, this unit's door bins are a few degrees warmer than the rest of the fridge, to the point where you might want to avoid storing anything other than drinks and condiments inside.
This refrigerator's temperature uniformity inside its freezer compartment is also very good. This unit's lack of an inverter compressor does result in slightly higher temperature fluctuations than pricier alternatives like the KitchenAid KRQC506MPS, but not to an exorbitant degree, and certainly not to the point where items won't remain frozen.
This fridge's produce preservation performance is great, as long as you keep delicate produce stored in the crisper drawer. The latter environment is kept quite humid, which helps keep things like celery, leafy greens, or cucumbers from drying out while they're tucked away in the crisper drawer. That said, as is typical for a lot of single-evaporator units, the main fridge cabinet is quite dry, and you can expect to see wilting in delicate produce quite quickly if you keep these sorts of items in that space.
