Every Major Refrigerator Brand Ranked From Worst To Best

Shopping for a fridge these days is simultaneously easy and difficult. It's easy because there are tons of options available for a number of brands at virtually every big box store and online retailer. However, with that choice comes uncertainty. Refrigerators have an average lifespan of 10 to 20 years, so the decision you make today will have an impact on your kitchen for many years to come. Of course, the goal is to buy something reliable so that you have a decade or more of worry-free refrigeration. 

Today's refrigerators still work mostly like they have for decades but have a lot more tech packed in than they used to. Some of it is practically useless but sometimes nice to have. All the features in the world don't matter if the fridge doesn't run properly. Of all the various brands, there are giants in the refrigerator space. You no doubt know about LG, Samsung, Maytag, Whirlpool, GE, and the gang. These companies have been selling appliances for a long time and are often the first choice people have when choosing an appliance.

While all of those brands make reasonably good appliances, some do it better than others. So, if you're shopping for a fridge and are looking for something reliable, the below list should help.

Galanz is a fairly big manufacturer, but you likely won't see them in too many kitchens. The company makes tons of different fridges that range from compact to full-size but seem to be best known for its fancy looking compact fridges and garage-ready freezers. Those fridges come in a variety of colors and sizes, making them something of a novelty item. Their full-size fridges are competitive, if a little expensive. They feature bright LEDs, electronic temperature controls, and more. 

In terms of reliability, Galanz is tough to judge. It's not commonly featured on roundups or number crunching done on the subject. For the most part, the best evidence we have is user reviews and complaints, of which there are plenty. Most stories we read saw Galanz fridges lasting only a few years with some lasting as little as five months. In addition, we found several complaints online about finding service and parts for Galanz fridges. 

The brand has its fans as well and there are reports out there of Galanz fridges from happy customers who say the fridges work pretty well. In all, with a lack of empirical data, we're unsure of how reliable Galanz really is but we've seen enough stories from both sides to know they're likely not the most reliable.

Electrolux is better known for their above average lineup of washers and dryers, but they also make other appliances. For the most part, Electrolux keeps it mainstream with most of their refrigerators being of the French door variety. However, they also have wine coolers, beverage coolers, and the unusual single-door refrigerator that opens the fridge and freezer with one door. It's an unusual fridge to be sure but it looks quite nice in a kitchen and still comes with 19 cubic feet of storage. 

The brand's washers and dryers are excellent, there's no doubt about that. However, the fridges are a little bit more of a question mark. The fridges don't seem to have the reputation that the laundry appliances do. Some Electrolux refrigerators also review poorly with reviewers noting that they had to lower the temperature more as the fridges tend to run warm. In most cases when Electrolux is praised for its reliability, reviewers are often only talking about the laundry products and the fridges are conspicuously absent. 

We try not to lean too heavily on online opinion because angry people tend to post more often than happy people. However, we did find a notable lack of enthusiasm for Electrolux fridges in general with plenty of complaints about reliability and quality assurance issues. Thus, while the laundry options are a green light from us, we recommend possibly avoiding this brand for your next fridge. They don't seem to be quite as good at this juncture. 

Samsung is one of the most popular appliance brands in the U.S., ranking number one in overall market share in 2023. As such, there are a ton of stories from owners both good and bad. Samsung sells regular fridges along with its higher-end models, which it calls the Bespoke lineup. You can also find side-by-side, French door style, and old school top freezer style, and most of them are packed with all sorts of smart technology.

The thing is, Samsung has its ups and downs. As noted by Yale Appliances, which posts repair rates for many big consumer brands, Samsung's laundry appliances have recovered from the issues they had in the mid-2010s and have reasonably low repair rates. However, the repair network isn't great, and some years are better than others in terms of repair rates for Samsung. Of course, the higher quality Bespoke lineup that seems to perform better than their midrange or lower tier models. 

With so much conflicting information, it makes it difficult to recommend Samsung appliances. In general, they seem to be decent and plenty of people have perfectly functioning refrigerators from Samsung. However, there are enough question marks that it's not our first choice. 

Beko isn't as well-known as industry giants like Samsung, GE, Whirlpool, or LG but they are growing rapidly. The brand started slow but has been ramping up over the last few years. They have been in the business in the U.S. for a little over 30 years now. Beko has a decent lineup of fridges available, including French door, side-by-side, and a surprising number of bottom freezer style refrigerators. 

In terms of quality, Beko consistently draws comparisons to brands like Bosch and Miele and the prices reflect that. For reliability, Beko seems to have a good reputation but like Amana, there aren't a lot of stats for us to check. They are frequently credited for having good build quality and the fridges function as expected. With that said, they've drawn the ire of their customers and repair techs alike in the past. A few years ago, saw some pretty high repair rates but we're unsure if things have improved since then. 

This makes Beko hard to judge. On the one hand, there are plenty of positive reviews online but repair rates seem to be pretty high compared to most other brands. Given how expensive these fridges can be, we think a brand with a little more history might be the better move. 

Frigidaire is a huge name in refrigerators. Even the company's name is a portmanteau of frigid and air. As such, they have a wide number of refrigerators for sale, including French door, side-by-side, single door, top freezer, compact freezer, and even wine refrigerators. The company also runs the gamut on pricing with compact fridges under $300 and high-end fridges over $2,000. In short, Frigidaire has tons of options.

That is great for consumers, but the large product lineup means that it's also difficult to pinpoint which models cause problems. Comprehensive repair data isn't available for Frigidaire, but some estimates say that they need repair more often than some other brands. In addition, service technicians stated that Frigidaire fridges are common on their daily routes but admit that some of the products are decent. However, Life Story conducted a customer satisfaction survey and Frigidaire scored among the top 10 brands.

So, much like Samsung, we have a ton of conflicting data to work. So, here is our official recommendation — it is nearly impossible to determine which Frigidaire fridges are good and which ones are bad. If it's worth the risk, you may end up with a winner. 

Kenmore is one of the less expensive brands on the list. It takes a no-nonsense approach to its marketing and availability. You can routinely find these fridges for under $1,000 with some models ranging higher if you want something with more features. Kenmore also sells plenty of varieties of refrigerator from the old-school top freezer to French door, bottom freezer, and side-by-side.  They even sell mini fridges. That means you can find a Kenmore fridge for almost any situation, especially if you have a tighter space and need a more standard sized fridge to fit. 

So how good is Kenmore? Well, it's a mixed bag. There are plenty of negative user reviews out there, but you can find those for virtually every fridge brand on the market. For the most part, Kenmore seems to do pretty well. They are consistently suggested as a reliable budget brand. This is because Kenmore doesn't actually make its own fridges. In fact, the brand doesn't even have a factory. Most of their products are made by LG, Electrolux, and GE, among others. 

So, in short, Kenmore can be a reliable brand since it is made by other reliable brands. In general, you can likely buy one with confidence that it should be okay. With that said, since Kenmore does sell a lot of different types, you can still adhere to general advice here. For example, French door fridges tend to be less reliable than top freezer fridges. 

Amana is best known as a budget brand for appliances. It sells all kinds of stuff, from fridges to washing machines and everything between. You'll most likely run into its top freezer options in the less expensive corners of big box stores, but Amana does make some midrange French door-style and side-by-side fridges as well. The selection isn't amazing but the top freezer style refrigerator options are a boon for folks looking for something smaller. 

In terms of reliability, Amana is a question mark. There isn't much in the way of repair data available online. However, there are stories online from folks who have had their Amana fridge since the beginning of time and those who had one break down within months. This is fairly typical for all brands and tell us virtually nothing. However, customer satisfaction polls rank Amana pretty well, often placing them among the top 10 brands on the market. In short, in every metric we could find, most people like their Amana fridges. 

As such, we think Amana is the first brand on the list that gets a clear thumbs up. This, of course, doesn't mean the brand is infallible. However, Amana gets points for selling budget fridges that have decent odds of going the distance, which is something most other budget brands can't boast.

KitchenAid is in a weird space for its appliances. It markets itself as being a cut above the competition but isn't quite as fancy as a Bosch, Miele, or Beko. It's a part of Whirlpool's product portfolio as of 1986 and Whirlpool manufactures KitchenAid's appliances. KitchenAid sells a variety of fridges, and they come with some neat features like soft-close doors, a pizza pocket in the freezer, and plenty of space to store stuff.

In terms of quality, people tend to like their KitchenAid appliances. It scores well in consumer satisfaction surveys and it makes sense why — KitchenAid makes some good-looking products that seem to perform well. However, like all brands, there are reports of the occasional dud. We didn't find any recent repair frequencies, but it scored in the middle of the pack on ones from a few years ago with some spotty years here and there. In other words, it's a reasonably decent brand but it's not immune to needing repairs. 

As such, we'll place KitchenAid in the middle of the list. It's expensive, and it's not ideal when expensive fridges break down. However, when they do work properly, people seem to really like them. Fortunately, out of warranty repair rates are decently inexpensive and the repair network is above average in case a breakdown does happen.

Miele is a high-end brand that sells some of the most expensive refrigerators of any brand on the list. Fridges can get up over $10,000. These are not the fridges you buy if you're on a budget. Miele is often compared to brands like Bosch and Beko, and even more expensive brands. There are some fridges that reach down into the realm of affordability but it's not a common occurrence in Miele's portfolio. 

Since the brand's reputation is bigger than its actual sales, finding things like repair data is quite difficult for Miele. We do know the brand tests its products for 20 years of use but does only have a two-year warranty. The company officially lists its own fridge life expectancy at 14 years, and it could go longer with proper maintenance. Miele also manufacturers all of the core components for their appliances, which puts it at least a step ahead of most of its competitors. 

For the most part, it seems like Miele is a very reliable choice if you can afford one. However, we don't have any hard data to correlate our suspicions, which puts Miele a little further down on the list than it might be if repair data were more readily available. Miele is a fairly safe bet.

Bosch is a heavy hitter in the kitchen appliance space. It has a reputation as being a cut above the other mainstream brands and its prices reflect that. Plus, their fridges have some unique features, like a second compressor to help keep the fridge and freezer cool enough. They have a healthy selection of them in a few different styles, and they are all quite expensive. Fortunately, for the most part, those prices are generally warranted. 

Bosch is considered among the more reliable brands in kitchen appliances. They don't need repaired too often, although their dishwashers tend to do better their fridges do. More importantly, Bosch seems to be pretty consistent year-to-year, which is a solid sign that most issues are likely run-of-the-mill rather than caused by a defect. Many customer surveys put Bosch at or near the top of the lists. There's no two ways around it, the company knows how to make kitchen appliances. You can find stories online of Bosch fridges going down, but you can find those for all the brands on the list. 

That means that Bosch is a big, fat yes from us. If you're looking for something a little pricier but with some generally good reliability, Bosch is a good choice.

Whirlpool is one of the largest appliance brands in the world. Not only does it have its own brand, but it also owns KitchenAid, Maytag, Amana, Jenn-Air, Roper, and several others. Given that all of Whirlpool's other brands make this list, it's no surprise that Whirlpool itself is also here. Much like Maytag further down the list, Whirlpool sells both budget fridges and midrange stuff. We're guessing that KitchenAid acts as the luxury-oriented brand for Whirlpool. 

Whirlpool and Maytag down the list could be swapped and we wouldn't bat an eye. Whirlpool has some of the best numbers for kitchen appliances. Repair rates are fairly low, it gets the seal of approval of many appliance techs, and it actually scores slightly better in customer satisfaction surveys than Maytag. There are some detractors out there. For example, some estimates say that Whirlpool fridges in particular need repaired more often even if the brand as a whole is good. However, those sources don't have a ton of data and seem to contradict what data we could find.

Thus, Whirlpool gets a thumbs up from us. As per the norm, all brands sell duds on occasion, but Whirlpool's metrics seem to show that it sells fewer duds than some other competitors. 

Maytag is another large appliance company with a long history of making refrigerators. Like the other huge brands, you can find fridges both inexpensive and reasonably expensive. However, unlike most, Maytag sells all of its products under its main banner and doesn't have a luxury brand like GE, Samsung, or LG. It's also owned by Whirlpool and since Whirlpool makes all of Maytag's stuff, it makes sense that both are listed so close together. 

Maytag has decent overall reliability. It gets thumbs up from at least some appliance repair techs, with a decent track record that spans back years. In fact, in 2020, it was listed as the second most reliable appliance brand. It's also competitive with GE and LG in terms of customer satisfaction. In fact, looking around, we were unable to find any sources that detracts from the notion that Maytag makes good products. That's quite the rarity. Yes, you can find the stories on Reddit of Maytag products not doing so hot but you can find those for every brand. In truth, Maytag seems to get it done. 

In reality, the final three or four appliance makers on this list could be reshuffled and the list wouldn't be any less accurate. Maytag makes solid products that are backed up by all the metrics were able to find. 

Café is one of the more boutique brands on the list. You'll rarely find one for under $4,000 and they can range upwards to over $10,000. This is a brand that knows what they're all about and the overwhelming majority of their products are French door fridges with the occasional bottom-freezer variant available for certified French door skeptics. The models available in box stores are substantially less expensive than the ones on the website but they are also lower-tier models. 

Given that Café is owned by GE, it's automatically given some of the affected glory of GE appliances. The brand always ranks highly on customer satisfaction surveys, and its products are considered quite reliable. However, Café is often judged separately from the rest of GE's product lineup. Its products are still quite reliable but don't measure quite as well as its mainstream stablemates. Per Yale Appliances, it ranks just outside of the top 10 but their rating system also takes other appliances into consideration. So, we're comfortable saying that it's a perfectly reliable brand in the top half of our rankings. 

The reason for this is because fridges tend to break down more often than other appliances, so a fridge-only brand like Café will be notably dinged on lists that contain more than one type of appliance. In short, you can expect the same amount of reliability from Café as you do from GE's other fridges, and since GE is pretty good overall, that means Café is too. 

GE is one of the largest and most popular appliance brands in the U.S. and has maintained that distinction for a century. Everybody knows GE. The brand has no intention of letting up on the gas either. It has a huge range of products from its high-end GE Profile lineup to its more economical standard fridges. GE truly goes all the way down to $700 fridges and up to $10,000 units. The brand sells everything. 

So, in terms of reliability, GE's stats were pretty easy to find. Yale Appliances notes that GE appliances have a fairly low repair rate, which is impressive considering how many of these that GE sells. Refrigerators tend to break down slightly more often than GE's other appliances, but that's true of virtually every brand. Most authorities on the matter recommend regular maintenance, which can wildly cut back on the number of times a GE appliance needs repaired. 

In terms of refrigerators, GE ranks higher than most but not that much higher. The brand also benefits from having a good repair network across most of the U.S., so you can pretty easily find an appliance tech if something goes wrong. So, with all of that said, it's a solid overall brand to buy from and it gets a thumbs up from us.

LG is a huge company and the second largest seller of appliances in the U.S. It's had ups and downs in the appliance market but seems to be on a high note at the moment. LG always seems to be trying something new as well, such as potentially upgradeable appliances at some point in the future. As such, they have tons of products in their portfolio from expensive French-style fridges with the fancy InstaView windows to more economical top freezer refrigerators for the budget conscious shopper.

Its wide product lineup seems to have struck a positive chord with consumers. Yes, you can find reports of LG fridges not doing so well but the stats don't lie here. LG has some of the lowest repair rates of any appliance brand on the market as of 2024. It's up a bit from a couple of years ago but still much lower than most of the competition. Data from Yale Appliances indicates its fridges need repair a little more often than its other appliances, but the rates are still favorable. LG also scores well in consumer satisfaction surveys, although not quite as well as the more luxury-oriented brands. 

Overall, LG is a pretty solid bet. Even its upscale LG Studio models perform well so it doesn't matter which one you go with. LG just seems to do it right.

Sub-Zero is a high-end brand and sells some of the most expensive refrigerators on the entire list. They are a specialty brand so you won't find them at big box stores. They also don't sell your typical fridges. For the most part, Sub-Zero sells massive side-by-side fridges with built-in and under-counter options as well. Technically, Sub-Zero does sell French door and bottom freezer fridges but the brand's designs are unlike anything else on the market today. Unless you get lucky in the used market, you won't find one of these for under $10,000 and rarely south of $15,000. 

With such a big price tag, you would expect these things to be pretty good. Fortunately, they are. These are essentially commercial-grade fridges that are retrofitted for use in consumer homes. There are tons of stories online of people having these things for 20 or 30 years without any significant problems. One of the brand's selling points is its longevity, which isn't something you see much in today's consumer fridge market. In short, buy with confidence, dear reader — these are top of the line. 

With that said, the odd designs and unusual dimensions mean that you'll have to do some work to your kitchen to get one to fit properly. Plus, we've read many reports online that they do tend to be louder and generate some extra heat from a standard fridge. However, we haven't seen a person yet who believes these to be dealbreakers. There simply doesn't appear to be anything wrong with Sub-Zero fridges outside of costing as much as a used car and being a little louder than normal.  

To make the list above, we employed several different metrics. To start, we looked at stories on social media and Reddit, but soon found that every brand that we looked at had a nearly identical split of people saying that a brand is awesome as well as people who swear they'll never buy that same brand again. Thus, while we did take it into consideration on brands that didn't have a ton of data, we didn't lean on them heavily for most of the article.

For the most part, we looked at Yale Appliance's yearly service rates where brands are ranked based on how many service calls they generate. Other brands, like Puls, have similar metrics. Meanwhile, other companies conducted myriad customer satisfaction surveys and the logic there is that if people hated a brand due to a lack of reliability, they likely wouldn't score well in such surveys. 

Thus, the above list is sorted based on repair rates, customer satisfaction surveys, and the eye test based on the stories we read on Reddit and how each company appears when others talk about them. For some, we also considered appliance repair availability, especially since smaller companies get a little sparse, especially in rural America.