Among refrigerators from the five major brands, LG fridges seem to make their owners the happiest. In a Wirecutter reader survey, far more real-life LG owners said they were satisfied with their fridges than owners of other brands did, and fewer said they hated their fridges.
On the downside, LG’s customer service is bad (though its fridge reliability is above average, so you have a lower chance of needing to interact with customer service). A handful of specific models (all side-by-sides) have major reliability problems.
But on balance, LG as a brand stands out a bit from the other major manufacturers.
Our pick
This handsome, quiet refrigerator is spacious considering its shallower-than-average footprint. In our surveys, LG consistently ranks at the top for customer satisfaction.
Upgrade pick
This streamlined fridge has plenty of capacity and such extras as a door-in-door compartment and a touch-activated translucent panel. It also makes lots of deluxe ice.
Reader survey: Overall satisfaction by brand
| Frigidaire (380 owners) |
GE (584 owners) |
LG (757 owners) |
Samsung (649 owners) |
Whirlpool (653 owners) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Very satisfied | 27.1% | 37.0% | 57.9% | 40.8% | 40.6% |
| Somewhat satisfied | 38.7% | 34.8% | 28.8% | 35.6% | 35.2% |
| Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied | 10.3% | 9.4% | 3.3% | 3.1% | 7.5% |
| Somewhat dissatisfied | 17.1% | 13.4% | 6.7% | 10.9% | 13.0% |
| Very dissatisfied | 6.8% | 5.5% | 3.0% | 9.6% | 3.7% |
LG’s customer ratings on big retailers’ websites tend to be slightly better than other brands’ too, and other major appliance reviewers generally rate LG fridges at or near the top of the pack.
The shelving and organization in LG fridges earned especially high ratings in our reader survey, as LG beat the other major brands in satisfaction with perceived capacity, storage ability, and accessibility of contents.
LG is also a front-runner in quietness and ice-maker quality, and owners are also very satisfied with the temperature accuracy and consistency—a finding backed up by Consumer Reports’s laboratory testing (“Refrigerators,” Consumer Reports Buying Guide 2021, pages 54–61).
Reader survey: Satisfaction with performance and features by brand
Shelves (storage ability and organization)
| Frigidaire | GE | LG | Samsung | Whirlpool | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | 28.7% | 33.0% | 41.2% | 44.4% | 33.4% |
| Bad | 21.1% | 17.0% | 10.3% | 10.0% | 14.7% |
| Frigidaire | GE | LG | Samsung | Whirlpool | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | 27.4% | 36.0% | 60.6% | 55.6% | 40.7% |
| Bad | 15.5% | 14.7% | 4.5% | 5.4% | 11.0% |
Accessibility of contents (in terms of height and depth)
| Frigidaire | GE | LG | Samsung | Whirlpool | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | 31.8% | 39.4% | 58.8% | 54.5% | 41.5% |
| Bad | 20.5% | 16.8% | 5.0% | 6.5% | 11.5% |
| Frigidaire | GE | LG | Samsung | Whirlpool | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | 31.8% | 38.5% | 61.2% | 55.8% | 42.3% |
| Bad | 17.1% | 15.2% | 6.2% | 6.8% | 10.6% |
| Frigidaire | GE | LG | Samsung | Whirlpool | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | 35.0% | 45.2% | 57.6% | 41.6% | 46.2% |
| Bad | 16.6% | 11.1% | 5.8% | 19.3% | 6.9% |
LG doesn’t sell as many cheap refrigerators as some of the other brands, particularly Frigidaire, GE, and Whirlpool, so maybe it’s more accurate to compare the satisfaction with its higher-end French-door and side-by-side models against those of other brands. But even then, LG’s fridges make their owners happier than the other major brands’ fridges do.
Reader survey: Satisfaction among French-door refrigerator owners by brand
| Frigidaire (116 owners) |
GE (289 owners) |
LG (688 owners) |
Samsung (615 owners) |
Whirlpool (351 owners) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Very satisfied | 32.8% | 50.5% | 58.1% | 38.5% | 46.4% |
| Somewhat satisfied | 42.2% | 35.3% | 29.8% | 36.3% | 37.3% |
| Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied | 6.0% | 4.2% | 2.8% | 3.9% | 5.7% |
| Somewhat dissatisfied | 12.9% | 8.3% | 6.5% | 11.2% | 7.1% |
| Very dissatisfied | 6.0% | 1.7% | 2.8% | 10.1% | 3.4% |
The premium features on some of LG’s higher-end models are especially popular among owners. The Craft Ice feature on the LG LRFVC2406S, for example, earned high praise from nearly 40% of owners according to our customer-review analysis, and only a few instances of criticism. The door-in-door feature (also available from a couple of other brands) was widely liked, as well. (Reviewers didn’t remark on the InstaView translucent door nearly as often.)
We don’t have great data on LG’s reputation for top-freezer models—we got too few survey responses regarding such models to reach statistical significance. And LG doesn’t sell as wide a variety of that type of fridge as other brands do. But judging from the little info we do have, those models seem to be solid, too. LG’s bottom-freezer models also earned high marks in our reader survey.
LG models you may want to consider
The following models may be a good place to start in your search:
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The big caveat with LG refrigerators is that some of its larger fridges are more likely than those of other brands to stop cooling, especially older models. It has been a big problem over the past decade, and although the company seems to have corrected the issue with most of its current models, there are still some side-by-side models with a really poor track record.
We found some evidence of this compressor problem in our reader survey: More LG owners (3.8%) than average (2.5%) said that their fridge or freezer had stopped cooling. (Samsung was the only major brand with a worse track record for cooling failures, at 4.6%.)
When we analyzed customer reviews in 2021 for nine then-available LG models, we saw clear evidence that two of them seem to have this same compressor-related no-cooling problem: the LSXS26326S and LSXS26366S, both of which are side-by-sides with the older bar-style handles (rather than pocket-style handles like those of the now-discontinued LRSES2706V). More than 15% of the reviews for those bar-handle side-by-sides cited compressor problems or cooling failures, which is a ton. When we asked LG for comment on this finding, representatives replied: “In this industry as a whole, refrigerator service issues often relate to cooling performance. When, on occasion, any such issue arises, LG is committed to taking care of its customers.” The reps also referenced LG’s warranty coverage. (For what it’s worth, as of February 2022, none of these three models appears to be available for sale anywhere but on LG’s own site.)
For other current LG fridges (including the French-door models we analyzed) and other major brands, we saw those kinds of problems cited in only about 3% of reviews, give or take. So we’d guess (hope?) that as long as you avoid the older side-by-sides, the chance of a cooling problem with an LG is about the same as with refrigerators from other brands.
LG customer service is worse than average, with one quarter of all owners who reported interacting with the company in our survey citing a negative experience. Not great! That’s about twice the rate of bad service compared with the results for Whirlpool or GE. One Wirecutter reader’s experience is representative of many complaints we read: “It took almost 2 months for a warranty repair, many service companies no longer handle LG, and we almost lost the one repair person due to LG’s poor response. LG was very bureaucratic and we spent at least 8 hours on phone calls and emails. Unresponsive.” LG told Wirecutter in a statement that the company was “surprised to hear this.”
LG’s warranty coverage is pretty typical for the industry now, with one year comprehensive parts and labor, and five years parts and labor for the compressor and cooling system. The company will also provide a replacement compressor for up to 10 years (as a couple of other brands will), though you’ll have to cover the cost of labor, which will be high. And again, if you ever need to make a claim under the warranty, you’ll be dealing with LG’s below-average customer service.
We did find that LG fridges were slightly less likely to break in minor ways that are annoying (though often tolerable). So with an LG refrigerator, you might be less likely to deal with nuisances like broken shelves, handles, doors, lights, ice makers, or water dispensers. Owners also cited temperature inconsistencies less often and were notably less likely to say that organizing the fridge and keeping track of items was difficult. Consumer Reports puts LG near the front of the pack for reliability, too.
