The 5 Best Refrigerators to Buy in 2020 (& 1 That’s the Worst!)
Appliances keep getting better and better!
Your kitchen refrigerator has come a long way from just being a vessel to keep your food cold. Now with smart & innovative features like touch screens, door-in-door access, and even fun shaped ice cubes, there’s a lot more to consider in your fridge purchase!
We’ve rounded up some of the best options and brands out there, whether you’re looking for something budget-friendly or decked out with the latest tech… as well as one model to steer clear of in 2020!
1. Samsung makes the best “smart” refrigerator with an integrated family hub.
Samsung Brand Family Hub 4-Door French Door Smart Refrigerator $2,698
Here’s why we love it:
- It’s Wi-Fi and Bixby enabled so you can control settings remotely from your phone.
- Family Hub lets you listen to music to music, upload pictures, and connect to your TV.
- You can easily set reminders, create messages, and keep track of food expiration dates.
- It’s compatible with other Samsung appliances and can be integrated with doorbell alert systems, too.
- You can explore recipes and grocery deals from the shopping list feature.
- The FlexZone drawer offers 4 different temperature settings, plus an adjustable divider for organization.
“The Samsung Family Hub is a great looking addition to any kitchen! There are so many neat features on this model. My kids love the family hub screen from being able to leave whiteboard messages, play music, see inside without even opening the door(s).
My favorite features are being able to sync my google calendar to display right on the door as well as being able to pull up a recipe from Pinterest” – Home Depot reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
2. The best smart fridge for large families comes from LG.
LG Brand 29.7 Cu. Ft. Smart French Door Refrigerator $2,998
Here’s why we love it:
- The 29.7 cu. ft. capacity offers plenty of room for all of your family’s groceries.
- The dual ice maker is automatic and can make 3 different kinds of ice, including LG’s exclusive round craft ice (reviewers have all mentioned they love this feature!)
- The InstaView Door-in-Door design lets you peek inside without opening the doors and losing cold air.
- The print-proof finish fights smudges and keeps your fridge looking sleek with less cleaning.
- The water dispenser lets you fill precise amounts of filtered water in 4, 8, 16, and 32 oz.
“Great layout inside this refrigerator. I bought it for the size and for the ice maker/water in-door. Once installed it was quiet and quickly got to temperature. The next day we had our first party ice, which is a hit with my kids.
I didn’t think I’d use the ‘door-in-door’ much, but it is very handy in the morning when making coffee and breakfast. The freezer capacity is also much larger than it appears. It will take me some time to fill it.” – Home Depot reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
3. This budget-friendly fridge by Samsung comes with some sleek features.
Samsung Brand 25.5 Cu. Ft. French Door Refrigerator With Filtered Ice Maker $1,199.99
Hip Tip: If you’re purchasing your new refrigerator from Best Buy, don’t forget to take advantage of their best-price match guarantee. You can also have your old appliances hauled away for just $19.99!
Here’s why we love it:
- CoolSelect Pantry provides a variety of temperature modes including thaw, soft freeze, and quick cool.
- The efficient LED lights make it easy to find what you’re looking for.
- Without the ice dispenser, you actually get a lot more usable storage space in the freezer.
- The TwinCooling Plus feature keeps freezer air extra dry to prevent freezer burn.
“Great product! We moved to a new home and decided it was time for our tiny first fridge to be demoted to garage fridge. We couldn’t be happier with the product we picked, so much room we can’t even fill it. Love the temp controls and the many ways you can arrange it to fit what you need.
Freezer is HUGE, I’ve always worried the bottom drawer freezers didn’t hold enough and some I’ve seen really don’t BUT this one is so roomy, even with an ice maker in it. LOVE it!” – Best Buy reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
4. The best side-by-side fridge from LG has an innovative 3rd door.
LG Door-in-Door 26.0 Cu. Ft. Side-by-Side Refrigerator with Thru-the-Door Ice and Water $1,499.99
Here’s why we love it:
- The Smart cooling system maintains temperatures for maximum food freshness.
- You can easily find and grab items with a convenient door-in-door design.
- The cleverly designed ice system is slim and helps save shelf space.
- With a 26 Cu. Ft. capacity, you can easily store a large amount of food.
- The humidity control crispers are ideal for keeping fruits and veggies fresh.
“We love this refrigerator! The door-in-door feature is practical and convenient; we use it all the time! Also, the black stainless steel finish leaves no fingerprints and looks great in our kitchen! The water and ice dispensers work extremely well and are very quiet compared to our last refrigerator.
The shelving and compartments are adjustable and roomy- seems like much more room than our previous frig of the same size. We are very happy with this purchase!” – Best Buy reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5. GE makes the list with the best classic french door fridge.
GE Brand 27.8 Cu. Ft. Fingerprint-Resistant French Door Refrigerator with Ice Maker $1,899
Here’s why we love it:
- You’ll never run out of ice with the optional second ice maker in the freezer (additional kit required)
- The advanced water filtration system reduces the chance of pharmaceutical chemical intrusion.
- It’s easy to search for things with showcase LED lighting throughout the fridge and freezer.
- The exterior is fingerprint-resistant and super easy to clean.
- Shelves can be easily adjusted to accommodate larger and smaller items.
- Foods stay fresh longer with turbo cool and turbo freeze settings.
- The ice maker is strategically located on the door to save storage space.
“I was so surprised to see how big this fridge is! We replaced my old fridge that was the same size (height and width), but was counter depth. This fridge held all the food my fridge held and looked like it could hold more!
I have a family of 6 and this fridge is plenty big to hold everything we need! I love the adjustable shelves and the storage on both of the doors. The deep freezer is huge also!” – Lowe’s reviewer⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
But whatever you do, don’t buy this overpriced faulty Whirlpool fridge!
If you happen to spot this Whirlpool Brand 23.8 Cu. Ft. French Door Counter-Depth Fingerprint Resistant Refrigerator at the store, just keep on walking! Not only does this fridge rank low on Consumer Reports, but it’s also got enough poor user feedback to send you running in the other direction.
For $3,505, we think this fridge is definitely not worth the hassle or the price. It looks nice, but if it doesn’t work properly, what’s the point? According to numerous users, this fridge makes a loud noise when running, has a very poor cooling capability, and a faulty ice maker. YIKES!
If you need more persuasion, see what these Best Buy reviewers had to say about this fridge…
“I never write reviews, but this is so bad. When the refrigerator was about 1.5 years old, our ice maker stopped working then the hinge broke. Next, it stopped cooling and we have been living out of a mini-refrigerator during the coronavirus.
We have had 5 technicians come to repair under the Best Buy warranty and no one has yet to fix the issue with it not cooling. Now our water dispenser has stopped working. The refrigerator is now approximately 2 years old and still under warranty. It is a piece of junk and the worst refrigerator we have ever had.”
“The left door will not close properly and must be pushed forcefully to close. The freezer design is terrible, and the top slider constantly gets stuck. The upper lip of the freezer looks terrible with weird dent marks… I cannot believe how many issues it has. I would not recommend this refrigerator to anyone.”
Got a fridge at home you love? Let us know about it in the comments!
I’m in the market for a new frig. Have spent countless hours doing research possibly settling on a Kitchen Aid or whirlpool french door counter depth (concerned about all brands). Does anyone have a recommendation? Is Costco good to purchase from, or stay with home depot, lowes or smaller more personal store?
Not a Whirlpool. Before the warranty was out, the ice maker had issues. Here we are 2 years later and it’s not making ice. Replaced iceman and still having issues. The ice maker will not work for three days then work for a day. It’s an endless cycle. The ice dispenser sends ice all over the place! The ice maker was replaced. And still issues
Me too. 18 months old and the coils started leaking. Whirlpool will replace the part but I have to pay labor—estimated to be about $400. Called Nebraska Furniture Mart where I bought it and they were real sorry that I hadn’t bought the extended warranty but wouldn’t stand behind the 18 month old refrigerator. Trying to decide what I should do now.
We purchased all new Samsung appliances in November of 2016. Within months, the ice maker froze up on our four door refrigerator; then we replaced the motor and it froze up within a few weeks again. Large over the stove mIcrowave went out after 18 months. They replaced the motor and went out in few months after that. The clock burnt out on the double oven stove and now problems with the dishwasher. Super disappointed and will never buy Samsung again.
ANYTHING BUT SAMSUNG … we would honestly rather use 10 igloo coolers. Same problems as everyone and no resolution … the ice machine freezes, is not sealed properly and stops working all together after a few months. Heating unit to defrost is misplaced and undersized causing constant noise and virtually no defrost. Within 18 months the compressor fails and the entire unit need to be trashed and no help from Samsung to cover any costs.
Tomorrow we are replacing our 5 year Samsung French Door fridge with a new Whirlpool. Since we had the Samsung we had the ice maker serviced many times but within a month it would freeze up and not make ice. I quit melting the ice compartment with a hair dryer. It was easier to let it stay frozen and buy a bag of ice. After some web searching, I found dozens (if not more) people having the same issue. No more!
I have had two Samsung fridges and never again. They make great t.v.’s and phones, but their refrigerators just seem to have too many issues. The first one had the ice machine go out after a few months. The other one, the one w/ the screen had a great t.v. but the fridge was horrible. The ice maker, total worthless. And only after a year the compressor gave out. The draws on the freezer constantly off the rails, just a mess. Samsung, maybe in Korea makes great units since there the units are very small like in Japan, but the American ones though stylish, just don’t seem to work right. No more Samsung for me.
I would never purchase Samsung appliances either. There is a class action law suit against them because there are so many faulty refrigerators out there and nothing is being done for us as a consumer. They send out the technicians to try and fix the problem and the issues are still there and Samsung doesn’t care to refund or replace the unit that we purchased at full cost. I can’t put my faith into someone/something whose going to not do anything but take thousands of dollars from me and won’t help me out. They have a contract with all the big name stores like Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy etc, to keep all these worthless pieces of junk on their floor to sell to you at a discounted price so they don’t have to deal with their mess. You pay and you’re stuck with this unit until you you can’t handle it anymore and spend another few thousand dollars on another fridge, I love the design of the French 4 door fridge but the twin fans at the back freezes up, not allowing the fan to work. You can hear the fan hitting the ice, as it tries to turn, that’s built up inside the back of the fridge not to mention the ice maker freezing up and not allowing the ice to be made. The technicians came and had to break up the ice after they finally pulled the ice bucket out. They couldn’t believe it. And after having emptied my fridge and freezer, thawing it out for 24 hours for the technicians to be able to fix it, there was still ice built up behind the twin fan panel that they had to break up to remove. I have a 21 year old fridge that we moved to the garage just because it looks outdated 6 years ago and never did it give us an ounce of trouble. Why can’t they make products that will last like they used to rather than ending up in the landfills.
We also made the mistake of buying a Samsung French door refrigerator. We did not have the ice maker hooked up (not sure if this was part of the problem). Right away the crisper drawers started filling with water. After having several repair people in, no solution was found. Our only choice was to get closet shelving cut to fit put in the drawers to hold food out of the water, and dump the water frequently. Now, the freezer is frosting over making it hard to open, and water is running under the freezer making an ice slick and water runs on the floor. Currently in the process of replacing it.
I have the same problem with my Samsung. The fan freezes up and makes a racket. Then stops cooling the fridge. Had repairmen came out twice, spent over $500, only to be told there was nothing I could do other than defrost my fridge every couple weeks. I did that for a couple months but now that’s not even helping. So frustrating. Looking for a new fridge now. Definitely will NOT be a Samsung! Stay away!
We are searching to replace our 21 year old Kitchen Aid that has never had a problem. We’re afraid we’re living on borrowed time. The space in our custom kitchen has held two Kitchen Aid refrigerators. Now it seems Kitchen Aid felt the need to increase the height of their counter depth fridges by 1″. SO— a Kitchen Aid won’t fit.
Samsung makes several beautiful models that would fit but the reviews I’m reading are scary. Our local appliance store, which has an excellent reputation, does not sell Samsung. The salesperson said there were too many problems and it could take months to get parts. SO our search continues.
yes the the time when appliances would lasr 20 years or more are long gone 50s 60s 70s ect and yet there are still websites out there saying that these products getting better and more reliable. i wonder how they came to that conclusion.
Our 3 year old LG-made Kenmore Elite fridge just stopped cooling. There’s class action lawsuits because the compressors rust and push that contamination through the whole system. So even if you pay the $1,000 to repair, the new compressor soon fails from the existing corrosion on the system.
Also, multiple repair techs told us the only thing worse than LG in terms of build quality is Samsung. The least problematic refrigerators come off the Whirlpool/Maytag/Amana/KitchenAid/Jenn-Air assembly line (they’re all made by the same manufacturer). And whatever you do, only get the in-door ice and water on side by side fridges where it’s on the freezer door. The variable temperature zones of ice in the refrigerator compartment causes condensation that leads to all kinds of failures potentially.
I do not trust any review site which recommends LG/Kenmore Elite or Samsung refrigerators, and that includes Consumer Reports whose ratings somehow do not reflect reality
I agree 100% ! I am now shopping for a fridge again in the last 3 years.. The first fridge 3 years ago was a Samsung fridge with freezer on bottom around $2600. The ice machine worked once.. The repair guys came for a year straight replacing every part twice.. I pulled the Lemon law card on Sears. They finally gave me a 2400 Credit to by a new one.. I brought a Kenmore for $2400. It work great for 2 years. It stopped cooling. Sears came out and said it is the Compressor It is not covered and will be $1200.. After a lot of fighting and investigating I know now that the Kenmore has the LG compressor that was part of the law suit.. I called LG I called Kenmore direct ,everyone said sorry but can not help you…I said every Kenmore has a 10 Year on a compressor.. They said sorry your fridge only has 1 year… Also be aware that every different Model from the same manufacture can have a different warranty policy. Regardless I will never ever buy a LG product or anything of Kenmore or step foot in any of the 2 Sears stores that are left.. Listen to Adam he is 100% right.. !!!
We need more articles like these! It is so hard to find appliance deals! I need a new stove, fridge, and microwave. Help!!
I’m glad you liked this! I’ll make sure to pass along your feedback.
Do not buy Samsung. My Samsung interior shelf’s starting breaking within first year. Bought a 5 year warranty but doesn’t include shelving. They are all cracked, broken. All the side shelves too! Cheap cheap plastic!
I’m honestly so surprised that every article I read puts Samsung refrigerators on the “recommended” list. The house I moved into 3 years had a Samsung 4 door style fridge and it has been faulty since day 1. The ice machine constantly freezes up and stops working. The fridge has diminished cooling capacity because of ice buildup in the back panel which clogs up the air vents. And now most recently the freezer and middle compartment have completely stopped working. I got an estimate to repair and the technician quoted me $875 minimum to fix (also cost me $129 just to have a tech come by to inspect it). The fridge is only 6 years old and is now 1 year past the 5 year warranty.
One of thing I am certain of from my own experience and from other customer comments, Samsung refrigerators are GARBAGE and I will NEVER buy another one ever again!
Also keep in mind, the vast majority of technicians will not service Samsung refrigerators. You must get them looked at by Samsung directly or some Samsung certified company.
Totally agree that Samsung refrigerators should be avoided