Best Refrigerators of 2025 – CNET

So choosing a refrigerator is a question of how well it fits your space, budget, and aesthetics and how it works in your life. There are top or bottom freezers, side-by-side doors, and French door models available from almost all major brands in various sizes. Ice and water dispensers have become common. Nowadays, there are more bells and whistles that allow you to see inside the fridge without opening the door, including Wi-Fi connectivity, smart features, and technology.

size: Nailing a properly sized refrigerator is the most important decision you will make. There’s nothing worse than consistently running out of refrigerated fresh and frozen foods, but sometimes there’s only room to work. The capacity of a refrigerator is inevitably limited by the boundaries of the space. You can always get less fridges for the space you have, but you won’t learn the hard way that a sturdy, boxy appliance like a fridge can’t even magically squeeze it out more than you need, even if it’s just a quarter inch. Fridges range in widths from 24 inches to 36 inches or more, with 30 inches and 36 inches models being the most popular and most popular.

Once you know the maximum measurements, considerations and rebellious things like layout and standards will affect the overall capacity of your fridge. Usually you’ll end up paying more for the deep fridge at the counter. This creates a streamlined aesthetic in the kitchen, but with less storage space.

style: Fridge style and layout are also a major consideration.

• French door Currently, the model is the most popular refrigerator, with a clean appearance and tends to maintain better temperatures. This is because it doesn’t necessarily open the entire fridge when you want to grab something.
• Freezer below It tends to provide a bit more freezer storage than a top freezer. This can be considered if your lifestyle leans against a convenient frozen meal. If you reach for the fridge rather than the freezer, there is something like the freezer at the bottom. The top freezer model still exists, but most have been discontinued.
• Line up The refrigerator offers sophisticated choices for smaller spaces and offers more freezer space than the top/bottom model. It also means that they tend to have less room for unfrozen foods, and can result in reduced temperature consistency and energy efficiency due to the length required to maintain two different temperature zones.
• Rebellious refrigerator Not deeper than a standard fridge, so they don’t stick out much and can give your kitchen a more custom feel. So they are often a little wider or taller to compensate for the lost capacity of depth. The standard countertop is about 24 inches, while the deep fridge on the counter is 31-33 inches deep.

Special features: These little extras, like automatic ice makers, water filters, touch view doors, and more, are all great, but at an extra cost. If you’re an ice devil, you might want to bounce for a fridge that makes custom ice cream, for example. If not, choose a more basic fridge with fewer special features and spend your kitchen money elsewhere.

price: A full-size fridge starts at about $600 and goes up from there – it rises. There are smart fridges with lighting schemes, clear doors and built-in cameras, but these cost thousands of dollars. Most high quality fridges land between $800 and $2,500, so be prepared to fire something within its range for a reliable model with excellent design and ample capacity.