Best Refrigerators of 2022
CR's experts round up the top performers from our tests, including French-door models and stylish side-by-sides, from Dacor, GE, LG, Samsung, Sub-Zero, and Whirlpool
An engineer evaluates the interior of a refrigerator in a CR test lab.
By Daniel Wroclawski
Shopping for a new refrigerator? You’ve come to the right place.
The refrigerator lab at Consumer Reports is a busy place. Our testers are constantly evaluating new models and adding them to our refrigerator ratings, which include models of all configurations: bottom-freezer, built-in, counter-depth, French-door, side-by-side, and top-freezer.
The lines between these categories, though, are blurring. Today’s refrigerators have more doors, and once exclusive features have trickled down to more affordable styles, such as top-freezers and side-by-sides. “We’ve even seen models that give you the capability to convert some compartments from freezer to fridge and vice versa,” says Larry Ciufo, who oversees CR’s refrigerator testing.
During testing, we outfit each refrigerator 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—and then some—informs CR’s refrigerator ratings and each model’s Overall Score.
To help you find the ideal refrigerator, we organize our ratings by the width of the appliance. After all, the best refrigerator in the world is useless if it doesn’t fit the slot in your kitchen. You can see the top models by width in our comprehensive refrigerator ratings.
Below, CR members can read ratings and reviews of the best refrigerator for each type we test. They include models of several widths from Dacor, GE, LG, Samsung, Sub-Zero, and Whirlpool.
Best French-Door Refrigerators
Best Side-by-Side Refrigerators
Best Top-Freezer Refrigerators
Best Bottom-Freezer Refrigerators
Best Built-In Refrigerators
How We Test Refrigerators
Below, you can take a peek into our refrigerator labs to see how we evaluate these essential appliances. For more information on CR’s refrigerator tests, see our refrigerator buying guide.
Correction: On May 31, 2022, this article was updated to reflect the correct Overall Score for the products listed. A prior version included Overall Scores that inadvertently drew on older predicted reliability and owner satisfaction data.
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