Refrigerator Buying Guide: How to Choose the Right Refrigerator

If you’re shopping for a new appliance, especially a purchase as big as a refrigerator, you should go in with a plan. There’s more to consider when buying than just price tag and appearance, and today we’re walking you through exactly what you need to know.

Check out our guide to choosing the best refrigerator for your family’s needs below.

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Choosing the best refrigerator for your kitchen

When you’re in the market for a new appliance, it’s tempting to head out to your closest appliance store and get right to browsing. Before you make any serious purchasing decisions, though, you’re going to want to figure a few things out – more than just your budget. Know what you want, what you need, and what you accommodate, and your appliance buying experience will be a whole lot faster.

Ask yourself these questions before you get to shopping:

How much space do I have in my kitchen?

Refrigerators come in a few standard sizes depending on the style and do need an additional inch or two on all sides, including the back, for proper air circulation.

• Side-by-side refrigerators, where the freezer and fresh food compartments are next to each other, tend to be the largest. The biggest models can be 71 x 39 x 31 inches.
• The smallest options available are Narrow models – sometimes called Slim, Skinny, or Apartment-size. These tend to be very small – 2 ft wide and 2 ft deep, making them ideal for tight spaces, but severely limiting available storage space.
• Top-mounted freezers tend to be the smallest of the standard size refrigerator options.
• Depth isn’t necessarily a number you’ll need to worry too much about. Most refrigerators come in one of two depths: flush with the edge of your countertops or six inches past them.

So, start out by measuring your available kitchen space – we’ve got a guide that’ll walk you through it – and remember to account for that extra space necessary to keep your refrigerator running efficiently. You’ll also want to account for how much space you need to be able to open the appliance’s doors without banging them into cabinets or other nearby appliances.

Once you’ve measured your kitchen, keep that tape measure handy. You should measure any hallways, doorways, or windows you will need to use to get the refrigerator into your kitchen, too. Just because a fridge fits in a cubby hole between your cabinets doesn’t mean it’ll make it down the hall to get there!

How much space do I need in my fridge?

Figure out the minimum space required to meet your family’s food storage needs. That way, when you’re browsing, you can go right to a refrigerator’s capacity information to know if it’ll be enough or way too much.

Capacity should be listed on the packaging, label, or in the product details if you’re browsing online. If you can’t track it down, this part may require a bit of math. Most refrigerators list their capacity in cubic feet (cu. ft.), so get that calculator ready! You can calculate a refrigerator’s capacity by first multiplying the length, width, and height of the refrigerator’s total available interior, and then dividing that number by 1,728.

How do you know how much space you’ll need? Start with a minimum of 4 to 6 cu. ft. per adult person in your home, then tack on a couple more cubic feet of space to account for any extra large grocery trips – especially if your family is big on hosting dinner guests and serving up feasts.

For a family of four, you’ll probably come out to around 20 cu. ft., which is easily accommodated by most standard refrigerator styles.

What style of refrigerator do you want?

This is the fun part, right? Refrigerators come in a few different specific styles, each with its own range of sizes, average price tag, and benefits. Let’s review each one.

Top-Mount Freezer Refrigerators

The freezer-on-the-top is the classic refrigerator model and, generally speaking, is both the most affordable and the most energy efficiency of all the standard refrigerator styles, which means it’ll impact your utility bill less than other, bigger refrigerators allowing you to save money.

Top-mounted refrigerators usually don’t come with a lot of bells and whistles, so if you’re hoping for ice and water dispensers or smart home options, consider a different style. They are also the smallest of the standard-size models, with the least storage space. They’ll fit in smaller spaces more easily, but you also won’t have as much storage space to work with – ranging from 14.5 to 24 cubic feet.

Bottom-Mounted Freezer Refrigerators

If you spend more time in your fresh food compartment than your freezer, you may want to look into bottom-mount models, which turn the freezer into an easy-to-organize bottom drawer with plenty of sliding storage bins and adjustable shelving.

You’ll love having all your fresh food and snacks right in front of you, but you may want to skip this model if you loathe the thought of having to bend over to get at your ice cream. Bottom-mounted freezers are also usually only slightly larger than top-mounted models – averaging between 19 and 25 cubic feet of capacity – and include few extra features.

Side-by-Side Refrigerators

If you’re seeking a lot of storage space, sleek side-by-side models are a great option, because even the smallest models are usually larger than all the other styles. On these refrigerators, the fresh food and freezer compartments are right next to each other, rather than one on top of the other.

Side-by-side models usually come with plenty of features and often have ice and water dispensers on the door. Size, however, may be an issue – that increased internal capacity translates to a much wider fridge overall.

French Door Refrigerators

Stylish French door refrigerators come with a bottom freezer and fresh food compartment protected by a set of doors, rather than a single door. This also allows both refrigerated and frozen items to be viewed at eye-level. While this style of refrigerator tends to be a pretty wide 29.5 to 36 inches, the smaller doors mean you’ll need less clearance when opening the appliance to grab a snack.

If you want a sleek French door fridge, you’ll definitely be paying for style. French door refrigerators are usually significantly more expensive than other models, even if they are smaller. At the same time, they often come with a ton of extra features, like door-in-door access, air purifiers, and internal cameras.

Narrow Refrigerators

Really pressed for space? Narrow appliances may be the answer. Slim models are small but stylish, often coming with poppy colors or retro designs. They’re perfect if you’re into tiny living and aren’t storing food for a lot of people, but they’re pricier than their top-mounted freezer cousins, which usually manage to store more without being too much larger.

Built-in and Counter-Depth Models

As we mentioned earlier, most refrigerators come in one of two depths: flush with your cabinets or about 6 inches past them. Counter depth and built-in refrigerator models offer a sleeker profile for your kitchen, but with a smaller storage capacity and usually significantly higher price tag.

What features are must haves and what can you do without?

Certain features can drive up or bring down the price of the appliance significantly. Decide ahead of time what refrigerator features you can and can’t live without.

• Energy efficient are cheaper to run and better for your carbon footprint. Check for an Energy Star certification on any unit you’re thinking of buying, it should be prominently advertised! In general, Top-Mounted Freezer models are more energy efficient than other models. However, you won’t have as much space.
• Filtered water and ice on demand is great, but there are a few drawbacks to that dispenser that could be a dealbreaker: It might subtract from your available freezer storage space. Dispensers, ice makers, and ice buckets take up a lot of space.  Ice makers and dispensers are going to up the amount of electricity your refrigerator uses, adding to that utility bill. Dispenser assemblies are made up of a lot of small components, and as such are more prone to malfunction. You may wind up dealing with water leaks, frozen-over freezers, and other problems more often than you might have otherwise.
• Are you big on DIY? “Smart” appliances can be less home repair friendly as their onboard computers may require additional service whenever repairs are made.
• Do you want to avoid maintenance? The more small components something has, the more likely you are to run into a piece breaking and needing to be replaced. If you’re very repair averse, you may want to skip out on features like door-in-door storage access.

Wrapping Up

Now that you know which questions to ask yourself and what prep work needs to be done, you can shop for a new appliance with confidence. Once you’ve got your new fridge delivered, if you need any help with hooking it up yourself, why not head back our way? At AppliancePartsPros.com, we’ve got tips, tutorials, and genuine OEM replacement parts that’ll help you to keep your appliances in great shape.