GE swings for the fences with its new French-door fridge

GE's latest line of French-door bottom-freezer refrigerators won't be available for weeks in most markets, but the Louisville-based manufacturer is already looking like Babe Ruth calling his home run shot in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series. First came Freshpedition, the slick reality-TV-inspired ad campaign that GE ran online earlier in the month. Then yesterday, GE announced its plan to add 380 second shift production employees to its Appliance Park plant in Louisville, Kentucky later in the summer "in anticipation of exceptional sales."

Give GE credit for believing in its product, not to mention creating new jobs in the USA. "Our customers are extremely excited about our industry-leading ice and water dispenser technology with features like Hands-free Autofill, which automatically fills almost any container with filtered water and a hot water dispenser, capable of serving up tea and oatmeal in minutes," said Paul Surowiec, refrigeration product general manager at GE Appliances, in the news release. "We are adding additional production capacity to ensure we can meet the demand."

Consumer Reports' product specialists have seen the new GE French-door refrigerator at press events, where they were impressed by the ice and water dispenser. But we won't be able say if GE really knocked it out of the park until we purchase a new unit and get it into our test labs.

GE doesn't make our current recommended list for bottom-freezer or top-freezer refrigerators because past models with icemakers have been repair-prone. GE says its latest icemakers benefit from an enhanced design. Besides testing the performance of the new French-door fridge, we will keep track of its repair rate.

Via: GE swings for the fences with its new French-door fridge