GE and Keurig give new meaning to instant coffee

Single-serve coffee just got easier with GE's coffee-dispensing fridge

Published: January 21, 2015 03:45 PM

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Nearly one out of three coffee drinkers get their brew from a single-serve coffeemaker. It's mostly no fuss, no muss except when you need to pour water into the reservoir. Now that step has been eliminated by a new GE refrigerator that incorporates a Keurig pod coffeemaker next to the refrigerator's usual water dispenser. Presto, the water is there on demand. Pop in a K-cup and your cup of Joe is ready to go.

GE refrigerator with Keurig coffeemaker

The eye-opening refrigerator is on display at the big Design & Construction show in Las Vegas. Production begins this summer and the coffee-dispensing refrigerator should be available this fall for $3,300. GE is touting such features as fresh, filtered water; regaining the counter space you lost to your coffeemaker, and the ability to program the Keurig from your smart phone if you want to preheat the water before inserting a K-cup. The Keurig will be available on GE Cafe Series French-door bottom-freezer models, GE CFE28USHSS and GE CYE22USHSS.

While pod coffeemakers are the fastest growing segment of the coffeemaker market, in Consumer Reports' coffeemaker taste tests, coffee made in single-serve machines was not as robust as that made in drip machines. Still, if tastes vary in your household, a single-serve machine may be a good choice.

Spending $3,300 for a refrigerator that makes coffee may seem a bit much—and we won't know how it performs until we buy it for testing this fall. For less, you can get our top-rated French door bottom-freezer, the GE Profile PWE23KMDES, $2,600. The top-rated Keurig in our tests is the Keurig K75 Platinum Brewing System, $180, but it didn't make our list of top pod coffeemaker picks. The top spot is held by the DeLonghi Nescafé Dolce Gusto Genio EDG455T, $130. That means you can get two top performing appliances for $2,730, although you'll lose that counter real estate again.

—Mary H.J. Farrell (@mhjfarrell on Twitter)