5 Best Ice Dispenser Fridges for All Kitchens

Food storage has come a long way nowadays. With refrigerators getting much more advanced, not only can you preserve many different foods and beverages, but also you can enjoy many different features. You can have a fridge with a built-in water dispenser for an instant cold glass of water.

There’s even a refrigerator with ice maker that can help you with any of your fave drinks on the rocks. And this one has been pretty popular for quite some time. Well, refrigerators nowadays have ice makers one way or another. So, they’re not really that difficult to find anymore. But if you are looking for the best refrigerator with ice maker, we can help you with that.

In this article, we are going to give you a guide on purchasing refrigerators with ice makers, and we’ve also prepared a brief review of the best ones we can recommend. Dig in!

FYI: Things to Consider When Buying A Refrigerator with Ice Maker

There are a few things you should know before you purchase a refrigerator with an ice maker. These are particularly important when it’s your first time buying a fridge.

Price

We all know that appliances like refrigerators are expensive, especially if they have added features like dedicated ice makers and chilled water dispensers. When buying one, we urge customers to always keep in mind their budget. The price is right when you can afford it and you’re comfortable buying the appliance.

Type

Refrigerators with ice makers come in different types and styles. Each can contribute to the overall plastic of your kitchen.

Bottom-Freezer

This type is for those who want their fresh food at eye level. We recommend this for those who don’t open the freezer often. Bottom freezers are usually smaller in size compared to their counterparts, but they are more expensive.

Top-Freezer

Traditional refrigerators belong to the top-freezer style. Nowadays, this type is good for those who always store frozen food as the freezer is at eye level. And unlike the previous one, you may need to crouch down when storing or getting fresh food.

French-Door

Now, if you have a huge kitchen and you want to make it look fancy, French-door refrigerators are for you. It has two doors on top like cabinets, and on the bottom is a separate door for the freezer. This kind of fridge is larger than the previous two.

Side-By-Side

This one has two doors side by side. Usually, the door on the left is smaller than the one on the right. Typically, the fridge for fresh food is on one side of the door while the freezer sits on the other side. Side-by-side types are also bigger and much more power-hungry than the others. Nevertheless, they look really elegant.

Built-in

If you want to make your kitchen seamless with your new fridge, having it built-in is the way to go. The most common refrigerators used for built-in style are French-door, side-by-side, and bottom-freezer types. However, doing this can be pretty expensive, but it’s up to you.

Size and Capacity

Aside from the type and style, you also need to consider the size of your kitchen and the size of your target refrigerator. The fridge should fit and not cause traffic in the kitchen. You should also take into account how much food you store in your fridge. You have to check how many cubic feet. Well, typically, the bigger the refrigerator the larger the total capacity.

Features

Almost all refrigerators offer the same features, but high-end ones have extra features that you may want to consider. These extras could be a water dispenser that you can use without opening the fridge, an energy-saving mode or similar function, or a built-in ice maker. Check such features before buying and see if you need them.

Nevertheless, the refrigerators we’ve picked for this review are mostly from popular appliance brands such as Samsung, GE, and LG. This way, we can ensure that the durability and quality of the product are reliable.

1. Best French Door – Samsung 27 Cu. Ft. Fingerprint Resistant Stainless Steel

• Price: 2099 USD
• Store: Best Buy
• Type: French-door
• Size: 35-3/4 x 70 x 35-3/8 inches
• Total Capacity: 27 cubic feet
• Other Features: High-Efficiency LED Lights, adjustable shelves and drawers, ENERGY STAR® Certified

Of all the french-door style refrigerators with ice makers we’ve tested, this Samsung fridge is the best so far. It has a dispenser for both cold water and ice cubes or crushed ice. This feature makes it easier for you to get either without opening the fridge.

In addition, this fridge can make up to 4.2 lbs of ice in one day. That’s a lot of ice. And since the ice-making process is automatic, you just need a stable water supply nearby connected to the refrigerator. Yes! You no longer have to add the water manually. After installing, you can expect to start getting ice cubes/crushed ice within 6 to 12 hours.

Well, this Samsung French door is not only making ice, but It’s also really a beast when it comes to storing fresh and frozen food, too. It has a relatively big capacity. The fridge has can hold up to 18. 4 cubic feet, enough to stock most of your groceries and fresh food. As for the freezer, you’re getting an 8.6 cubic feet capacity– that’s a lot of frozen food and meat.

And one thing that we like about this fridge is that the freezer at the bottom is easy to open. You don’t need to exert too much force. Thanks to the EZ-Open handle, the drawer opens automatically. No pun intended, but how cool is that?

The design of the refrigerator looks seamless and elegant, too. It’s even better, thanks to the fingerprint resistance; you don’t have to wipe or clean the surfaces of the fridge from time to time. As for the ice maker,  it’s also easy to clean. You just need to stop the ice-making process and remove the tub. From there, you can use a clean, dry washcloth, and wipe the inside clean from any ice debris.

2. Best for Energy Saving – LG 29.7 Cu. Ft. PrintProof™

• Price: 3699 USD
• Store: Best Buy
• Type: French-door Refrigerator
• Size: 40 x 68-7/8 x 29-7/8 inches
• Total Capacity: 29.7 cubic feet
• Other Features: Dual ice maker, smart cooling, CoolGuard™

Well. If the first french-door style fridge isn’t for you, and you want the one with the most features in this review, this LG one is the best choice. First and foremost, it has a dual ice maker with Craft Ice™ feature. This allows for making ice cubes and crushed ice that are slower to melt.

And the best part is that it doesn’t cost much energy, thanks to ENERGY STAR® certification. Yes! Despite the high capacity and many features, it can save energy compared to other big refrigerators.

Like the first on this list, this LG fridge can also make ice automatically. Thus, it needs a consistent water supply. With that, it can make and store up to 6.3 lbs of ice. That’s even greater than most french-door refrigerators, considering it’s also saving some energy. In addition, the fridge could start making ice 12 or 24 hours after installation. After that, it will consistently make ice for a shorter time.

One thing that sets this one apart is that its ice maker can create batches that contain three spheres of ice every day. And if you turn on the Craft Ice+ feature using the ThinQ® App, you can make the process of making the ice faster. These ice spheres are perfect for serving alcoholic beverages like whiskey or even non-alcoholic ones such as coffee, tea, carbonated drinks, etc.

As for cleaning, you can just take out the ice bin and let the excess ice melt, and throw the water down the drain. Then, wipe it with a dry washcloth. You may also use an ice maker cleaner if need to.

Besides that, this fridge has the largest capacity on this list. At almost 30 cubic feet, you can surely stock up on your favorite food and ingredients. You don’t need to worry about the lack of space. You don’t need to go to the grocery more often as you can just store all your family needs for weeks or a month. And since the bins are adjustable, you can fit food and drinks regardless of size.

Surprisingly, this goes the same for the freezer as well. This LG fridge has a 3-Tier Organization freezer, making sure that you can segregate all your frozen food according to your preference.

3. Best Budget Ice Maker – Samsung 21 Cu. Ft. Top Freezer Refrigerator

• Price: 799 USD
• Store: Samsung
• Type: Top-Freezer Refrigerators
• Size: 32-7/8 x 66-3/4 x 28-1/2 inches
• Total Capacity: 21.1 cubic feet
• Other Features: Slide & Reach pantry, High-efficiency LED lights, ENERGY STAR®

Most of the best refrigerators with excellent ice makers are expensive, like the first two, but it should not always be the case. There are cheaper options that still offer an efficient way to make ice. With this Samsung 21 Cu. FT Top Freezer fridge, you can get a dedicated partition in its freezer that can make ice efficiently.

Unlike the previous models, this one doesn’t come with a dispenser for chilled water and cubed ice. However, you’d be surprised that it has an automatic ice maker. It can make up to 3.6 lbs of ice every day (it can start making ice in 6-12 hours), which is more than most freezers of this size. It has a 5.7 cubic feet freezer capacity and the ice maker is in a dedicated compartment. This means that you can still stock more frozen food.

Even though it looks like a regular refrigerator, you’d be delighted to know that the ice maker is automatic. All you need to do is find a spot in the kitchen where you can attach a stable water supply to the fridge. Like the others in this list, the ice maker in this refrigerator is easy to maintain. It has an ice tub that you can take out and clean. And in case there’s a build-up of thick ice, you can just defrost and then dislodge the remaining ones.

As for the refrigerator below the freezer, you can still stock enough fresh food without much trouble in organizing them. The divisions are pretty well thought out; you can separate the veggies, fruits, and other food products. Also, thanks to Twin Cooling Plus technology, we’ve found that the food and produce stay fresh much longer than those in regular refrigerators.

4. Best Bottom-Freezer – GE® Series 20.9 Cu. Ft.

• Price: 986 USD
• Store: GE Appliances
• Type: Bottom-freezer Refrigerator
• Size: 29-3/4 x 69-7/8 x 36-5/8 inches
• Total Capacity: 20.9 cubic feet
• Other Features: digital temperature display, ENERGY STAR®, sliding snack drawer

If you are looking for a bottom-freezer fridge with an ice maker, the best one we’ve tested is GE® Series 20.9 Cu. Ft. Unlike the top freezer above, this one has a larger freezer capacity of 6 cubic feet. This means that there’s a lot of room for ice-making. There’s even a storage space on the back of the door of the freezer to maximize capacity.

With that in mind, this refrigerator can make approximately 4.5 lbs of ice every day. To be precise, it can produce 130 ice cubes daily. That’s like 5 ice cubes in under 60 minutes. So, in an average family setting, you wouldn’t really run out of ice.

Moreover, the ice maker on this one is factory-installed, which means that it can automatically create ice like the others on this list. Just make sure that you place the fridge near a reliable water supply or you can create a dedicated one for it. That way, the ice maker can continuously create cubes when needed.

As for maintenance. The exterior of the fridge is visually fingerprint resistant. If there are any smudges, you can easily wipe them clean with a washcloth or microfiber cloth. Inside, the refrigerator only needs occasional wiping especially if you store food that leaves marks from time to time. And for the ice maker, you just need to detach the ice tray whenever you want to clean it.

Other freezer features include an ice bucket, freezer drawer, and LED lighting. After that, it’s just any other regular refrigerator. It has storage for fresh as well at 14.9 cubic feet. That’s enough for a small family.

5. Best Side-by-Side – GE® 25.4 Cu. Ft.

• Price: 1699 USD
• Store: Stewart-Molander
• Type: Side-by-side Refrigerator
• Size: 35-3/4 x 69 x 32-3/4 inches
• Total Capacity: 25.4 cubic feet
• Other Features: adjustable shelves, Arctica ice maker, ENERGY STAR®

Well, if you have a large kitchen, one way to make use of the space is to get a side-by-side refrigerator. This one can serve you ice, either crushed or cubed, which is good depending on what you need. On paper, this refrigerator can make up to 4.5 lbs of ice per day, and you can make it faster by bringing down the temperature to -2 degrees Fahrenheit.

And like the previous GE model, this one has automatic ice-making features, too. You need not bother loading it. And if you need extra ice, there’s an Arctica ice maker you can rely on in the freezer. Yes! There’s a dedicated ice storage bin that can hold up to 10 lbs of ice. Besides, you can really store a lot of stuff in the freezer as it has a 9.7 cubic feet capacity.

Cleaning the ice maker is not a challenge at all. You just have to remove the ice bins and clean them by wiping them using a dry washcloth. Also, you don’t need to worry about a build-up since the ice is cubed or crushed when made.

Furthermore, it has a water dispenser that you can use if you want chilled water. And the best thing about the dispenser is that it has the GE Water Filtration (XWFE Filter) feature to make sure that the water is clean.

You also get an actual display of the temperature. That way, you can always check whether you’ve set it right. There’s also a temperature control panel upfront that can be navigated through soft touches. How convenient.

Conclusion

Getting the best refrigerator with ice maker can be quite tricky, especially since there are lots of options out there. We even had a hard time picking the best ones, but we’re able to get 5 of the best fridges that have ice-making features for you. Check them and see which one is fit for what you need in the kitchen.

However, if you are unable to pick one, you can refer to the things to consider when buying a fridge. That way, you can be guided with your purchase to get the best value out of your hard-earned money.