Café CWE23SP4MW2 French-door Refrigerator Review

If you're unfamiliar with the Café line of appliances, this series takes a more design-forward approach and has more aesthetic customizability than other GE products. Think of it as GE's version of Samsung's Bespoke line.

To customize your Café CWE23SP4MW2, you can choose from one of three finishes for the body of the fridge itself (matte white, matte black, or stainless steel), then choose one of six handle treatments to complete the look (brushed bronze, brushed copper, brushed black, brushed stainless, brushed brass, flat black). In total, this gives you 18 different combinations to choose from. While this isn't quite on the level of letting you print a custom photo onto your fridge, this level of customization simply isn't available at such a low price point outside of the Café or Bespoke lines.

The Café CWE23SP4MW2 keeps its exterior minimalist, where its flat, minimalist panels are only broken up by its three robust metal handles.

Opening up the heavy French doors reveals the fridge’s interior, which is thoroughly lit thanks to its internal LED arrays. The door bins and shelves are all standard and can be repositioned. The shelves have spill-capture edges to help stop leaks from getting out of hand.

Below the two crisper drawers is a full-width deli drawer with its own custom temperature setting.

Finally, opening up the freezer drawer reveals a somewhat small series of shelves, the topmost of which contains the ice maker’s reservoir.

About the Café CWE23SP4MW2 French-door refrigerator

• Dimensions: 70.5” x 35.75” x 31.25” (H x W x D)
• Depth: Counter-depth
• Measured capacity: 11.02-cubic-foot fridge, 3.46-cubic-foot freezer
• Finishes: Matte white, stainless steel, matte black
• Handle options: Brushed bronze, brushed copper, brushed black, brushed stainless, brushed brass, flat black
• Special features: Internal LED lighting, custom-temp drawer, TwinChill evaporators
• Dispensers: Internal water dispenser, internal ice maker
• User manual: Café CWE23SP4MW2 French-door refrigerator manual

What we like

It’s stunning, both inside and out

The Café CWE23SP4MW2 has some great design-forward features. To start, you can choose between three finishes and six different treatments for its metal handles, for 18 different combinations.

This is a lot of options for a fridge you can order from a big box store, eclipsed only by Samsung’s Bespoke lineup, and even then you're mostly just swapping around different-colored panels, not choosing the specific metal of your fixtures. Those trying to match their fridge's handles to the rest of their cabinetry will have a much easier time with the Café line.

The matte finishes seem especially resistant to visible fingerprint buildup, helping preserve the look of the fridge during normal use. The robust handles also just feel great to use. We've reviewed fridges that had fixtures so flimsy we were afraid we might break them by normal handling; that isn't the case with the Café's fixtures.

Most of the fixtures in this fridge just feel nice to use, from the heft and smooth swing of the door to the way the drawers glide. We also love the internal LED lighting, which provides even lighting throughout the entire interior.

The shelves all have spill-capture lips, which helps prevent liquids from leaking all over items stored underneath.

Below the crispers, you’ll find a full-width drawer that allows you to input a custom temperature that’s separate from the rest of the fridge and goes all the way down to 32°F. Custom-temperature drawers like this are great for increasing the flexibility of your fridge, letting you store an entire ice cream cake or platter of deli meat at the perfect temperature.

The Café CWE23SP4MW2 also lets you control the fridge via Wi-Fi and GE’s companion app, SmartHQ. This app provides the usual functionality for a smart fridge, allowing you to check temperatures at a glance and customize settings remotely.

Temperatures remain consistent over time and throughout each compartment

We test temperature consistency by placing sensors throughout the interior of both the fridge and freezer compartment. These sensors take readings every two minutes for 72 hours, which lets us check for any temperature spikes due to defrost cycles, lingering warmth from us opening the door to simulate regular use, and any inconsistencies or warm spots within the compartment.

Regardless of what we threw at the Café CWE23SP4MW2, it was able to keep any temperature changes in the refrigerator to under 2°F, which is remarkably steady. In the freezer, temperatures varied by even less.

Temperature consistency is one of the most important metrics when evaluating a fridge’s performance, both because it allows food to spoil quicker and because it’s difficult to catch, even for those who calibrate their fridge with a thermometer.

Fortunately, once you correctly calibrate the fridge—and we’ll get to that later—it will maximize the shelf life of your perishables.

The crispers are excellent at retaining humidity

Crispers might just look like basic plastic drawers, but there can be huge differences between a good crisper and a bad one. The main way crispers differ is in how much humidity they allow to escape over time. They do need to let out some humidity, or else the drawer will turn into a swamp and promote premature rotting, but on the other hand, the more humid air you let out the faster veggies will wilt.

The Café CWE23SP4MW2 hangs onto humidity extremely well, while still letting some escape. The average fridge’s crispers let humidity escape at a rate of 0.2 grams of water per hour, so the CWE23SP4MW2’s 0.08 grams per hour humidity loss is remarkable.

What does this mean for you? Leafy greens will stay crisper for longer in the CWE23SP4MW2, maximizing the lifespan of your fresh veggies.

What we don’t like

You may need to calibrate the temperature

While the Café CWE23SP4MW2’s temperatures are steady, getting them exactly where you want can require an extra step.

The main issue is that the fridge's internal thermometer seems off by about 2°F. That means you can set it for 37°F, and it will display its internal temperature to you as 37°F, but its actual temperature will be closer to 39°F.

The fix for this is simple: If you want your fridge to be 37°F, program it for 35°F.

We also saw a similar issue in the CWE23SP4MW2’s custom-temperature drawer. Even if you set the drawer to its lowest temperature, 32°F, it will only get down to about 34°F at its absolute coldest.

What owners are saying

Users generally like their CWE23SP4MW2, awarding it an average of 4.1 out of 5 stars across major retailers.

The overwhelming majority of these reviews are positive. Happy users tend to focus on the fridge’s aesthetics, internal lighting, and overall build quality.

That being said, there are also negative reviews that had critical issues with the fridge within the first year of ownership, which seem compounded by lackluster service. Some users complain that getting their fridge serviced was slower than expected, or that parts weren’t given an ETA for delivery and took several months to arrive. Several reviews mentioned needing to get the compressor fixed, only to have it break again shortly after it had been serviced.

Warranty

The Café CWE23SP4MW2 is covered for one year of parts and labor, with a five-year warranty covering the sealed refrigeration system. The industry standard is a single year, so we’re happy GE went above and beyond to provide additional coverage for the fridge’s most integral components.

Should you buy the Café CWE23SP4MW2?

Yes—If you love how it looks, it’s worth its purchase price

It can be difficult to evaluate a fridge where a significant portion of its purchase price is devoted to its design and aesthetics. Fortunately, in the case of the Café CWE23SP4MW2 there's also a solid fridge underneath.

If you do admire its aesthetics, the CWE23SP4MW2 will likely live up to your expectations. Its temperatures can be a little wonky to get right at first, but once you’re past that hurdle it provides consistent temperatures, great crispers, a well-lit interior, and some other nice features. While we didn’t have any issues with the unit we tested, based on the user reviews we would recommend keeping a close eye on the fridge for the first year or two you have it.

If you’re looking for another design-forward French-door that has many of the same features but is significantly cheaper, we recommend the Samsung Bespoke RF29BB8600AP. Not only does it have more finishes available, it also has better overall performance.

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Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.