Bosch B36FD50SNS French-door Refrigerator Review

The Bosch B36FD50SNS has a minimalist, stainless steel facade with several large handles and a through-the-door water and ice dispenser.

Opening the top doors to the refrigerator compartment reveals a control strip along its top edge as well as its interior. Its doors feature a typical array of bins, its shelves feature a spill-capture lip on their front (but not along their sides or back), and lower down you’ll find the crispers and a full-width deli drawer.

Opening the freezer drawer shows off two levels separated by an internal drawer.

The Bosch B36FD50SNS is integrated with Bosch's smart system Home Connect. After downloading an app to your smart phone, you are able to remotely monitor and control things like the refrigerator's temperature as well as humidity and temperature in the crisper drawers. Should you accidentally leave the fridge door open, you'll be alerted with a notification through the app.

About the Bosch B36FD50SNS French-door refrigerator

• Dimensions: 70" x 35.63" x 32.13" (H x W x D)
• Depth: Standard depth
• Measured capacity: 12.71-cubic-foot refrigerator, 4.92-cubic-foot freezer
• Finishes: Stainless steel
• Dispensers: Through-the-door ice and water
• User manual: Bosch B36FD50SNS French-door refrigerator manual

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What we like

Its temperature control is near perfect

The most important job a fridge has to do is keep temperatures between 32°F and 40°F in the refrigerator compartment and close to 0°F in the freezer. If temperatures in the fridge fall below 32°F, some items will freeze; if they rise above 40°F, food will spoil much more quickly. In the freezer, temperature inconsistency leads to freezer burn.

These temperatures need to be maintained over time and also throughout each compartment, to prevent warm spots from causing accidental food waste. And, of course, people will be opening the doors throughout the day to get items, letting out all the cold air and forcing the fridge to work overtime to course correct.

Despite all these challenges, the Bosch B36FD50SNS absolutely aced our temperature tests. In the refrigerator compartment, temperatures targeted the ideal 37°F both over time and throughout the entire compartment. The bottom was slightly warmer than the top, where the cold air gets pumped in, but by less than 1°F.

As part of our testing, we open the fridge’s doors throughout the day. In the case of the B36FD50SNS, it managed to adapt quickly, avoiding any noticeable temperature spikes in the stored food.

Even amongst high-performance fridges, this Bosch fridge’s results stand out, proving itself to be one of the most consistent fridges we’ve ever tested.

The freezer’s temperature performance is also excellent. During testing, its temperature averaged 0.68°F and wobbled by less than 2°F over time. Usually we see at least one big spike due to defrost cycles, but the Bosch B36FD50SNS managed to handle that process without spiking the temperature.

If performance is one of the key factors you’re looking for, the Bosch B36FD50SNS is currently the best pick on the market.

It provides lots of storage space in both the fridge and freezer

One of the major reasons to get a French-door refrigerator is that they often provide more storage than other types of fridge styles, like top freezer or side-by-side. Even compared to other French doors, the Bosch B36FD50SNS is roomy. Where you might expect 11.19 cubic feet of storage in the fridge and 4.69 cubic feet in the freezer (average for French doors), this Bosch refrigerator delivers 12.71 cubic feet in its fridge and 4.92 in its freezer.

While these numbers seem to be close, keep in mind that a basketball takes up just 0.25 cubic feet of space. That means the B36FD50SNS is giving you about six extra basketballs worth of storage in its fridge and almost another in its freezer.

We recommend the B36FD50SNS to larger families, or anyone who wants to get the most storage out of their fridge.

It uses surprisingly little electricity

This result was a surprise. Typically fridges that are capable of adapting quickly to temperature changes have some kind of turbo mode to quickly get everything cooled down again, and that kind of technology almost always spikes power consumption.

While we expected the Bosch B36FD50SNS to have a higher-than-average yearly cost as a consequence of its stable temperatures, we actually found the opposite. The average fridge costs $39.98 to keep running per year, with prices going as low as $17.42 for basic top-freezers. Energy hogs can jump to over $70.

For context, the energy use of most French doors run towards the higher end of the spectrum, both because they’re more likely to have a turbo-cooling mode and because their double doors need to be fully open to access items—you can’t as easily just crack open a door to grab something quickly.

The B36FD50SNS’s yearly energy costs are $28.81, far lower than the average cost and much lower than most of its French-door peers.

While saving $11 per year doesn’t seem like much in terms of raw savings, considering how well this fridge performs its legitimately impressive. Those looking to keep their carbon footprint low will find this Bosch fridge is one of the better compromises between performance and keeping a household’s energy needs low.

The crispers really hang on to humidity

The B36FD50SNS’s crispers retain humidity better than most other fridges we’ve tested.

Crispers aren’t usually something we call out, but the Bosch B36FD50SNS’s crispers really hang on to humidity in a way that should keep your leafy greens crisp for longer.

On average, a French-door’s crispers let out 0.2 grams of water per hour—the B36FD50SNS’s rate of humidity loss is just 0.06 grams/hour. This lets out enough water vapor to prevent your crisper drawer from turning into a swamp, but the humidity it does retain should keep your produce perky much longer than they’d be in another fridge.

And, depending what you're storing in your crispers—leafy greens or plump strawberries—the fridge's smart system, Home Connect, lets you adjust the crisper's temperature and humidity. (More on Home Connect right now.)

It works with Bosch's proprietary Home Connect smart features

The B36FD50SNS is a smart fridge that works with Bosch's Home Connect platform. Booting up the app on your phone will give you access to remote monitoring and control, smart assistant integration, IFTTT, and a whole host of other third party services.

We like smart features in general, as the remote control functionality is often much more easily accessible than the fridge's physical controls—although this fridge's control panel is front and center. What we really like about Home Connect is the intent—many of its functions are meant to keep food fresher for longer. For example, the crisper humidity remote adjustments we explain above and that Home Connect will send a notification if you've left the fridge door open by mistake.

What we don’t like

Its shelves only have a spill-capture lip on their front

This is a minor complaint, yes, but also a strange one to have when so many other details of the Bosch B36FD50SNS are impeccable. Basically, a spill-capture shelf has a raised lip around its outside, to help corral in spills and prevent them from leaking around the edge of the shelf and onto items stored below, creating an even larger mess.

While the shelves in the B36FD50SNS do have a lip on their front, they don’t have one on their sides or back, which kind of defeats the purpose of spill capture: Liquids can still drip down the sides or back.

What owners are saying

The Bosch B36FD50SNS is still relatively new and therefore doesn’t have a ton of user reviews online, but we can still draw some conclusions from what’s available. Overall, users give the B36FD50SNS 4.1 out of 5 stars across major retailers.

Those who are happy with their purchase love its ample storage space, through-the-door dispenser, crispers, and the ease with which they can wipe down the exterior.

A few pointed out details that we didn’t necessarily see an issue with in the unit we tested. One user points out that the shelves have sharp metal edges. We didn’t see this in our test version, but metal machining isn’t always consistent, so we can see how that could be the case for some units.

Warranty

The industry-standard warranty is one year for parts and services. Bosch’s refrigerator warranty offers extended coverage for certain parts.

You can get replacements for non-electronic components for up to two years, electronics are covered up to five years, and stainless steel parts have lifetime coverage for rust-through damage.

This warranty program is much better than the industry standard (and most other companies’ programs), though it doesn’t quite reach what’s offered by Samsung and LG, which will replace the sealed refrigeration system for up to 10 years. Still, this program goes a long way towards helping the purchase feel more like a long-term investment in your kitchen.

Should you buy the Bosch B36FD50SNS?

Yes—It’s one of the best fridges we’ve ever tested

If you just want a well-built, high-performance fridge, there are fewer options better than the Bosch B36FD50SNS.

For starters, its temperature performance is impeccable. You’ll get the maximum shelf life out of items stored in either the fridge or the freezer. Its crispers, an oft-overlooked feature, are also excellent, and will help keep your produce healthier for longer.

While the Bosch B36FD50SNS doesn’t have some of the features you might find on higher-end fridges, like a flex drawer, the omission has undoubtedly kept this price from ballooning higher. That being said, the B36FD50SNS does come outfitted with a through-the-door water and ice dispenser, which is one of the better value-per-cost features a fridge can have, and smart features.

While the fridge is still on the more expensive side, we believe its performance, aesthetics, and robust warranty make the Bosch B36FD50SNS worth its purchase price.

If you’re interested in a fridge that does have a flex drawer, the Frigidaire Gallery FG4H2272UF also has excellent performance, but it does cost more.