The Best Refrigerator Brands To Consider For An Appliance That You Can Rely On

Maybe it's nice to be able to see inside your fridge without opening a single door, or to have it so well-integrated into your cabinets that guests aren't even sure where to get a glass of water. But what most people are concerned about when it comes to refrigerators is reliability ... that is, the likelihood that the thing will keep your food cold. What's startling is that you can pay $430 for a Hotpoint fridge or $16,000 for a luxe Thermador réfrigérateur to get that cold, and the price mostly depends on things you value less than reliability.

The appliance landscape is a minefield of brand ownership, trademark licenses, and wildly varying quality, even within a single conglomerate's brands. Take GE, for example. You might think of it as an all-American brand, but it has been majority-owned by Chinese multinational Haier since 2016. Haier also owns Fisher & Paykel, another reputable manufacturer of refrigerators. GE, meanwhile, manufactures products under Haier, Hotpoint, and several GE brands. But you can't necessarily conclude anything, positive or negative, about one brand's quality based on who owns it.

Evaluating refrigerator brands is challenging. If reliability is truly your key concern, you should factor in not only the brand's rankings from various sources, but also the average reliability of the type of refrigerator you're considering. Top-freezer models are consistently more reliable than French-door models, for example. Consumer Reports statistics show that different brands perform better in different fridge categories, so you'll have to do some homework based on your own needs.

Thermador consistently manufactures the most reliable refrigerators and some of the most reliable kitchen appliances made today. And they darn well should. The price range for a Thermador fridge is about $5,000 to $16,000, so if you're in the market for a refrigerator that costs almost as much as a Nissan Versa, you probably won't have many dependability complaints. Designed to last 20 years or more, Thermador refrigerators are made with the high-quality materials and construction standards you'd expect. Thermador, owned by Bosch, makes appliances on par with Sub-Zero and superior (at least in terms of durability) to luxury brands Miele and VIking. Of course, price drives expectations, which in turn drive reviews, and most complaints target Thermador's service, not its reliability or build quality.

Being on par with Sub-Zero is no small thing, Steve Sheinkopf, CEO of Yale Appliance, says he can't recall a single instance in his 32-year career of a Sub-Zero refrigerator failing to work at time of installation. He also notes that most of his company's service calls for Sub-Zero refrigerators are for installation issues. Sub-Zero is the most reliable refrigerator in its class ... but what a class that is. What it comes down to, as Sheinkopf says, is a simple question: "Do you need a $12,000+ refrigerator in your kitchen?" Sub-Zero says their refrigerators, like Thermador's, are designed to last 20 years or more. Most Sub-Zero products are made in the USA. While this is not necessarily a guarantee of quality — witness the made-in-America brand Viking has reliability issues – made-in-the-U.S. brands are over-represented in our list of the most reliable refrigerator brands.

Consumer Reports has listed LG as the most reliable appliance manufacturer for years, but it's had less success when it comes to refrigerators. Its luxury brand, Signature Kitchen Suite (SKS), is another story altogether. SKS has been performing consistently in terms of reliability, and its refrigerators have been gaining in reputation for the past few years. Their refrigerators' reputations are tarnished by a linear compressor problem that plagued LG's French-door, side-by-side, and built-in models, culminating in a class action lawsuit.

As a luxury brand, Signature Kitchen Suite commands high prices for its refrigerators. A set of doors for an SKS French-door fridge costs more than some of the less expensive refrigerators made by companies on our list. The refrigerators themselves can cost as much as $12,000 or as little as the bargain-basement price of $3,000. But LG is confident you'll be happy with your choice, so SKS fridges are backed by a three-year full parts and labor warranty, the best in the industry.

Perhaps that warranty is partly a PR effort motivated by LG's compressor difficulties as a way of distancing the luxury brand from the merely great LG brand. LG has mounted a marketing effort based on its overall reputation as an appliance maker. But without any such effort, Kenmore — whose French-door models used the problematic  compressors manufactured by LG — seems to manage its reputation just fine, and it is next on our list.

Less expensive refrigerators do surprisingly well in terms of reliability. One might think that the "smart" features of more expensive models are more complex and therefore more prone to failure, but Consumer Reports' data shows that recent models with more connected features are about as reliable as simpler fridges. So perhaps brands like Hotpoint, Kenmore, and Maytag actually make good refrigerators in spite of their lower price tags. In fact, the less expensive brands have outperformed luxury brands for year-over-year improvement in dependability.

Hotpoint, in particular, seems to be faring well with its appliances. The brand, whose U.S. models are made by GE, only makes top-freezer models and, consequently, doesn't have a lot of models on the lists of best refrigerators. But top-freezer models are very reliable and typically inexpensive (their prices range from around $600 to $750) making Hotpoint a good choice for anyone who's on a budget but still looking for long service. Kenmore's refrigerator line is a bit more diverse, though still heavy on top-freezer models. But since the brand is exposing itself to the lower reliability of French-door and side-by-side models, the brand arguably has stronger reliability than Hotpoint. A well-maintained Kenmore refrigerator might last two decades or more. The price range is typically around $950 to $2,000.

Maytag is a different animal altogether. More heavily focused on French-door refrigerators, Maytag is clearly aiming for a slightly more affluent owner than Hotpoint of Kenmore. With its 10-year limited parts warranty, you can have some confidence in the 10-to-14-year average lifespan for a Maytag fridge. Maytag and its parent company, Whirlpool, make reliable appliances, including refrigerators — with prices ranging from around $600 to $3,800.