Fridges have come far in just a century. Once literally big boxes filled with ice, refrigerators are now available with flat screens, Wi-Fi connectivity, wine drawers, and water pitchers that automatically refill themselves. (And, yes, they keep your food from spoiling, too.)
No matter what kind of refrigerator you want or need, freestanding models today come in myriad sizes, multiple styles, and a blizzard of budget options.
To help you find the right fridge for you and your kitchen, we’ve assembled the best—from feature-laden French-door fridges to sleek side-by-side models and counter-depth options to budget-friendly top-freezer and bottom-freezer models. We offer some buying advice, too.
A French-door fridge is the most expensive (and fashionable) type of large freestanding refrigerator. A variation of a bottom-freezer fridge, in this type of fridge, all fresh food is located above knee level, accessible via half-width double doors that open up to a user-friendly interior. French-door fridges tend to look and feel a little more luxurious than traditional, single-door, bottom-freezer fridges, and they accommodate a lot of organization. You can also open just one side of the fresh-food compartment at a time, potentially keeping more cold air in.
Most French-door refrigerators are 36 inches wide, but 33-inch and even a few 30-inch models exist. Nearly all French-door models have a capacity of at least 20 cubic feet, which our research shows is plenty for most households. Read more about the best French-door fridges and the best counter-depth French-door fridges, which have a shallower profile and a bit less capacity than standard-depth models.
