Hands On: GE Cafe Series Refrigerator With Keurig K-Cup Brewer

The GE Café Series refrigerator keeps food cold and coffee hot. A built-in Keurig K-Cup brewer heats up filtered water in order to brew coffee, tea, or any other single-serve beverage pods from Keurig. It heats up water quickly—in under a minute during my time with it—and efficiently. GE says the new fridge uses less energy than a smartphone charging overnight, but speaking of your phone, you can also use an app to schedule brews.

How to Brew
Brewing coffee with GE Café is very easy. I approached the fridge and pulled out the brewer, which is about the size of a small water bottle, and opened its top by pressing a button on the back. I then placed a plastic Keurig K-cup pod full of Green Mountain Coffee Breakfast Blend inside and pushed it in a little further until it clicked. Then I replaced the brewer in the door—it slides right in—and selected my beverage size on the GE Café’s touch-screen display. You can brew 6-, 8-, or 10-ounce cups. Finally, a dial to the touch screen’s right glowed red, indicating everything was in place to brew a piping hot cup a’joe; I twisted it counter-clockwise.

Child Proof
My initial impulse was to turn it clockwise, to the right, but GE made it purposefully counter-intuitive in the hopes of preventing children from activating the hot water. There are also multiple warning and red danger symbols on the touch screen throughout the short process to hammer the fact home that, yes, this water is scalding. You can adjust the temperature yourself, from 90 degrees to 190 degrees, or select pre-set temperatures that can heat the water to make coffee—or hot cocoa, oatmeal, ramen, soup, or whatever else needs hot water.

Wait a Minute, Wait a Minute
Back to the coffee brewing: it took about a minute for the water to heat up. Then the hot coffee poured into the mug at a gentle speed. GE made sure the brew would come out at a rate that would prevent splashing. It also made sure the filtering system would isolate pharmaceuticals (like atenolol and ibuprofen) and other substances to ensure the smoothest possible texture and taste. I took a sip and it was indeed smooth; I couldn’t detect any traces of birth control pills or painkillers.  

Use the GE Kitchen App to schedule the water to heat up. You can leave a mug beneath the brewer overnight and have the coffee ready at a specific time in the morning, or any time of the day. That ought to help coffee lovers get out of bed. The brewer is also dishwasher safe.

The GE Café Series Refrigerator with Keurig K-Cup Brewer is available now from Lowe’s(Opens in a new window). It’s $3,300, though Lowe’s has it for $2,969 through Dec. 1.