Best Energy-Efficient Refrigerators
These top-rated refrigerator models from LG, Samsung, and Sub-Zero are good for your wallet and the planet
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The appliances you buy have a big impact on your energy bill. They run so frequently (or in the case of refrigerators, 24/7/365) that their energy costs get baked into your fixed expenses for years to come. The good news is that home appliances, and refrigerators in particular, have become much more efficient over the years, costing people less and less.
“Newer refrigerators use much less energy than their predecessors,” says Larry Ciufo, CR’s test engineer for refrigerators. “Federal standards are constantly updated to ensure that refrigerators of certain sizes use ever-lower amounts of energy, and manufacturers introduce new technologies to meet those standards.”
But which are the most energy-efficient? Our tests show that top-freezer and bottom-freezer refrigerators usually cost less to run than side-by-side and French-door models.
“Side-by-side models have a tall, thin freezer with a lot of external surface area that gets warm, and French-door bottom-freezers usually have energy-hungry add-ons, like an in-the-fridge icemaker and an anti-sweat heater,” Ciufo says.
Best Energy-Efficient Refrigerators
Correction: On May 31, 2022, this article was updated to reflect the correct Overall Scores for the products listed. A prior version included Overall Scores that inadvertently drew on older predicted reliability and owner satisfaction data.
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