GE Profile PVD28BYNFS French Door Refrigerator Review

We only had a few complaints about the fridge, and they feel fairly pedantic compared to what we love about this fridge. It tends to run about 1°F warmer than we'd like, costs just a bit more per year to operate than average, and has slightly less space than the average French door. Though not perfect, its overall performance and feature set more than make up for this minor missteps. It's price may be prohibitive for many consumers, but it's a great choice if it fits in your budget.

About the GE Profile PVD28BYNFS 4-door French door refrigerator

Dimensions: 69.88” x 35.63” x 36.75” (H x W x D) Finish: Fingerprint-resistant stainless steel Usable space: 10.2 cu. ft. fridge capacity, 4.11 cu. ft. freezer capacity Dispensers: Hands-free, through-the-door water dispenser with filter and auto-fill Additional features: LED-backlit interior, door-in-door design with rotating bin, a separate flexible drawer with its own temperature controls and removable bins, WiFi-enabled smartphone features like open door and temperature alerts, spill-capture shelves GE Profile PVD28BYNFS manual and warranty

What we like

The backlight is both practical and luxurious

Much like the Café CVE28DM5NS5, this fridge has a unique feature: Its main fridge compartment is illuminated by an LED backlight that spans the entire back of the fridge. Not only does this soft backlighting make it easier to see your food without harsh shadows, it also really ups the overall aesthetic quality of the fridge.

If there's one feature that makes you fall in love with this fridge, chances are it's the LED panel. We loved this design in the Café CVE28DM5NS5 and we love it here. Here's hoping that, like flex drawers, LED backlighting panels also becoming staples of higher-end fridges.

The flex drawer is perfect for platters or chilling beverages

Flex drawers are an increasingly common staple of higher-end refrigerators. In the case of the PVD28BYNFS, the flex drawer is separate from both the fridge and the freezer compartments, with its own temperature controls. Flex drawers have many uses, and can simply serve as additional fridge or freezer space in a pinch—removable bins make storing platters a breeze.

Sodas and beer can be chilled to temperatures just above freezing, without endangering the rest of your food. Likewise, you can perfectly chill wine to temperatures that would be unsuitably warm for perishable items.

The GE Profile PVD28BYNFS's implementation of the flex drawer was one of the better ones we've tested. We like that it's in a completely separate drawer, which helps all compartments maintain more stable temperatures. We also liked the temperature controls, which are responsive and clear—there are even buttons to help easily regulate chilling temperatures for snacks and wine.

The water dispenser has an auto-fill feature

In addition to its large, clear buttons, the through-the-door dispenser has an auto-fill features that will sense when your glass is almost full and stop filling it automatically. This is one of those features that's nice to have and something you really miss once you're used to it. It's perfect for those who tend to multi-task in the kitchen, or for those of us who have been reminded about a forgotten glass by the sound of water pouring onto the floor.

In addition to auto-filling glasses with filtered water, the PVD28BYNFS can dispense ice cubes as well as crushed ice. It also has a proximity sensor that will automatically turn on its light to help you find the dispenser in the dark.

A new door-in-door design makes it easy to grab food

The door-in-door feature is an uncommon feature of some higher-end fridges. It splits the door into an outer and inner portion, so you can quickly access the door bins without fully opening up the door. This design is helpful for keeping commonly used items within easy reach, and retaining more of its cold air when compared to opening the door the whole way.

A nice-to-have feature on its own, GE takes the concept slightly further by letting the door bin rotate outwards, giving full, easy access to the bin's contents. We haven't seen this particular design before, but it's a welcome innovation to the door-in-door concept.

The crispers are great at maintaining humidity levels

An oft-overlooked function of the fridge is keeping items in the crisper drawer crisp, or preventing humidity from escaping so your fresh veggies don’t lose moisture and wilt.

Typically fridges don’t do a great job at this, which is why the GE Profile PVD28BYNFS’s performance is so notable. The average refrigerator loses 0.2 grams of water per hour. The PVD28BYNFS managed to keep that loss down to 0.07 grams per hour, retaining humidity over twice as well as a typical refrigerator.

What we don’t like

It has slightly less capacity than other French door fridges

French door refrigerators typically have more drawers than other types of fridges, which aren't as space-efficient as shelves. Likewise, through-the-door dispensers typically make the doors themselves much thicker than they would be otherwise, which also eats into the overall storage capacity.

As a French door fridge with a through-the-door dispenser, the PVD28BYNFS will have less raw storage capacity than, say, a top freezer without a dispenser, even if those two fridges have the same external dimensions. But compared to other French door fridges, it's only slightly less spacious than average—about one cubic foot shy in the fridge and half a cubic foot smaller in the freezer.

Energy costs are slightly higher than average

The downside of having relatively consistent temperatures is needing to use a lot of energy to remove heat as soon as it’s introduced. Every time you open the door, the GE Profile PVD28BYNFS needs to work hard to remove all the warm air you've introduced. However, this is relatively minor all things considered: Operating the PVD28BYNFS will cost about $20 more over the course of a year.

Compared to some of the other high-end fridges we've tested, this is peanuts—especially compared to the initial purchase price. It's something to keep in mind if you're trying to keep your home's carbon footprint as low as possible, but we don't see this realistically factoring much into a purchasing decision.

What owners are saying

Users seem to be fairly enamored with their GE Profile PVD28BYNFS, rewarding it with an average of 4.8 out of 5 stars across major retailers. Users praise its clean aesthetic, functional storage options, rotating door-in-door design, backlight, dispenser—just about everything, really. We didn't see any real complaints about its durability, though it's still a bit too soon for that.

Warranty

The GE Profile PVD28BYNFS has a limited one-year warranty for the entire appliance, which covers parts and labor. Additionally, the refrigerating system itself is ensured for up to five years. Typically, manufacturers only guarantee one year for parts and labor—given the PVD28BYNFS’s premium price, we’re happy to see it falls under a longer warranty, to help owners feel more secure in their purchase.

Should you buy the GE Profile PVD28BYNFS?

If you can afford it, the GE Profile PVD28BYNFS is a really great fridge. It has a clean, classy aesthetic, maintains temperatures reasonably well, and is packed with great storage options and extra features—including some that you really can't find elsewhere, like the LED backlight.

It's difficult to whole-heartedly recommend a fridge at this price point for the average consumer, because there are lots of great fridges out there for much, much less, but outside of the equally excellent Café CVE28DM5NS5, it's hard to find a model with the same perks. (And the PVD28BYNFS costs much less than the Café.) Overall, the PVD28BYNFS is a wonderful high-end fridge with some truly unique features, and would be be right at home in any upscale kitchen.