Most and Least Reliable Refrigerator Brands

The data also reveal that LG French-doors, side-by-sides, and built-ins were more prone to having compressors that break or are faulty than competing models made by other brands. The same went for Kenmore French-doors, which have compressors manufactured by LG. In 2020 LG settled a class-action lawsuit over its refrigerator compressors, but the settlement didn’t cover Kenmore models manufactured by LG.

CR evaluates refrigerators in our temperature-controlled test chambers for four weeks before scoring them in our detailed refrigerator ratings, but we know one month is a far cry from the 10 years people expect a fridge to last. If you’re in the market for a new refrigerator, you should be able to find one you can rely on—and you want to be happy with your purchase.

“These are the reasons we incorporate reliability and satisfaction data from our annual surveys directly into our Overall Scores for refrigerators,” says David Gopoian, CR’s survey research program leader.

As part of our annual member surveys, we asked CR members about more than 108,000 refrigerators (all with icemakers) that they had purchased new between 2012 and 2022. The results are the basis for CR’s predicted reliability and owner satisfaction ratings in our refrigerator ratings charts. They’re grouped by refrigerator type—top-freezers, bottom-freezers, French-doors, side-by-sides, and built-ins. The refrigerator brands in the survey are Frigidaire, GE, Kenmore, KitchenAid, LG, Maytag, Samsung, Whirlpool, and others.

Below is a detailed breakdown of the winning and losing brands across the major refrigerator categories, along with some standouts in the areas of reliability and owner satisfaction. For other highly rated fridges, see our comprehensive refrigerator ratings. And give our soup-to-nuts refrigerator buying guide a read to learn about the different types of refrigerators.