If you need a second fridge to stash your grocery overflow or the extra zucchini from your garden, a garage-ready refrigerator is worth considering. Designed to function within a broad range of ambient temperatures, this type of fridge can be kept in a garage, basement, guest house, vacation home, or even your primary kitchen.
Garage-ready models are also ideal starter fridges, since they’re priced about the same as traditional top-freezer models. So this is a nice yet affordable appliance that you can relocate when you renovate or move—or when you spring for the fancy fridge of your dreams.
We recommend the efficient LG LHTNS2403S. It has a large capacity, and it’s made by the company ranked highest for fridge satisfaction in our reader surveys.
Our pick
Designed to work in temperatures as low as 38 °F, this top-freezer fridge has loads of capacity and is sleek-looking enough to use indoors. But it’s sold only at Home Depot.
The LG LHTNS2403S is a 33-inch top-freezer fridge with 23.8 cubic feet of capacity—the most of any garage-ready fridge we considered. The LHTNS2403S is designed to work in spaces between 38 °F and 110 °F, with features like digital temperature sensors and controls for adjusting the fridge and freezer compartments separately. It’s certified by Energy Star as one of the most efficient refrigerators available.
This fridge looks great, thanks to a sleek, handle-free design, but it is tall. It does not come with an ice maker, but you can purchase one separately.
LG fridges rank at the top of our owner surveys for customer satisfaction. The company’s warranty covers the LHTNS2403S (sold at only Home Depot) for one year and the compressor and cooling system for five years. The warranty also covers parts (but not labor) for the compressor and cooling system for an additional 10 years.
The LHTNS2403S comes in one finish.
Runner-up
This garage-ready fridge functions the same as our top pick, and it comes in five finishes. But it’s not quite as big, efficient, or attractive.
The GE GTS22K is a 33-inch-wide top-freezer fridge that has stood out in our surveys since 2021. Its nearly 22 cubic feet of capacity is less than that of our pick, but this model has a slightly bigger freezer. Compared with our top pick’s fridge compartment, the GTS22K’s fridge compartment has less space for fresh-food storage, but it’s better organized, with an adjustable hanging deli drawer and a third full shelf on the bottom of the door (our pick has two). The GTS22K does not come with an ice maker, but you can buy one separately.
Like our top pick, the GTS22K is designed to work in temperatures between 38 °F and 110 °F, with features like digital temperature sensors and controls for adjusting the fridge and freezer compartments separately. It is not Energy Star–certified, though it’s still fairly efficient compared with larger fridge styles.
GE Appliances has the best reputation for customer service and repair, and it ranks second in our surveys (after LG) for overall owner satisfaction. The GTS22K has a standard one-year parts-and-labor warranty. (GE Appliances sells a slightly smaller, 30-inch-wide version.)
This model is available in five finishes.
