Best Bottom-Freezer Refrigerators of 2019
Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site.
Bottom-freezers aren’t the most popular refrigerator configuration—that honor goes to French-door models—but there are still some compelling reasons to consider a bottom-freezer fridge.
For one thing, they have their priorities straight, keeping fresh food at eye level and frozen stuff down below, where it occupies less valuable real estate.
“They’re also often more affordable than French-door refrigerators and can cost less to run,” says Joe Pacella, the CR test engineer who runs the refrigerator lab.
According to a 2017 survey of CR members, bottom-freezers have the best professional-repair success rate of any refrigerator configuration. Of the first attempt by a pro to make a repair, 81 percent are successful. Bottom-freezers also offer marginally better reliability than French-door models as a group. (Find out who makes the most reliable appliances.)
To test each refrigerator that enters our labs, we outfit it with thermocouples in a climate-controlled chamber and monitor it for a month, collecting more than 5.4 million temperature readings that identify warm and cold spots, to determine which models will keep your food fresh longer. We also factor in survey data from thousands of CR members to judge brand reliability and satisfaction. All of that data—and then some—informs CR’s refrigerator ratings charts and each model's Overall Score.
Below, CR members will find ratings and reviews of the six best bottom-freezer refrigerators from our tests. Our list includes models from Amana, Kenmore, KitchenAid, and LG in both 30-inch and 33-inch widths. To see more high-rated bottom-freezers, go to our complete bottom-freezer refrigerator ratings.
More from Consumer Reports:
Top pick tires for 2016
Best used cars for $25,000 and less
7 best mattresses for couples
Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright © 2019, Consumer Reports, Inc.
