12 best fridge freezers for your kitchen, tested by experts

Score: 90/100

Fridge freezers don’t come much more advanced than this one. There’s a big touch screen panel on the door (the Family Hub) where you can see your calendar, build shopping lists, meal plan, access recipes and even stream TV (although our testers found the sound a tad muffled). It’s even voice controlled, something that was very reactive on test.

Then there’s AI Vision. Internal cameras identify and record groceries as you pop them in for an automatic inventory. It can’t recognise everything yet, and our tester said it felt a bit slow, so they'd opt for recording shopping and expiry dates via the Family Hub when in a hurry. But they loved seeing the fridge contents in Samsung’s SmartThings app, which is handy if you’re in the shops and want to check if something is still fresh (or don’t want to leave your sofa, we’re not judging).

It's also spacious, well-lit and neatly designed. Our testers particularly liked the folded shelf for flexibility with taller items, and if you need extra fridge space, one of the lower zones can switch from freezer to fridge.

It maintained a generally consistent temperature, especially in the fridge, and its temperature recovery was relatively efficient. This should improve with use too as the AI monitors usage and adjusts the temperatures accordingly. For example, if you do your weekly shop at the same time every week, it could preemptively lower temperatures to minimise the impact of leaving the doors open to put away groceries.

It has a hefty price tag, but it’s at the cutting edge of smart home appliances with game-changing features.

Score: 86/100

Ideal for large households and kitchens, this premium fridge freezer has plenty of space for all your food, plus a wine rack and (self-cleaning) water dispenser. It connects to wifi so you can control settings from your phone (testers found the app very intuitive), and to see what’s inside without having to open it, you simply knock twice on the door.

You can’t reconfigure the shelving layout, but there’s still plenty of room for flexible storage and with four doors, you can just open the specific section you need. Its temperature fluctuated when we monitored it over an extended period, but testers noted that it stabilised quickly after the door had been left open for two minutes.

Score: 86/100

There's no need for a stash of magnets to zhuzh up this fridge freezer. Its front panels change colour to suit your decor, the time of day (they act as a nightlight), your mood or even in time with the music you can play through its speaker. There are literally thousands of colours and combinations available, so you can find your perfect match.

As well as bringing the fun, this intuitive fridge freezer is practical too; there's the same knock-to-view fridge door as the LG InstaView above, as well as separate controls for the fridge and freezer, and you can adjust settings via the intuitive LG ThinQ app. Testers liked how this would flag any issues (such as an open door or overfilled fridge) and keep an eye on maintenance too with its ‘Smart Diagnosis’ feature.

Importantly, the inside is well-designed to neatly accommodate ample groceries and testers were satisfied with how the fridge recovered when we left the door open. The temperature was evenly distributed throughout, too. Yes, it’s expensive, but it’s a refreshing alternative to your classic bland box.

Score: 85/100

Hisense’s KitchenFit range is a smart choice if you’re looking to make the most of your kitchen space. At 60cm deep, the fridge freezers are designed to sit flush with your cupboards, and instead of having vents at the back, they sit at the front near the floor, again taking up less space. This one still manages to boast an impressive 330L capacity, and (yes, we’re not done), you can combine different units from the range to create your perfect configuration – ideal if you’re looking for the sort of capacity you’d get with an American style.

This fridge is smart too, connecting to your phone via the intuitive ConnectLife App, so you can adjust the temperatures, be notified if the door has been left open, pop on a child lock or even turn on the ‘Super Cool’ or ‘Super Freeze’ functions, which will ramp up the settings for a limited time to speed the chilling or freezing process along.

As its high score shows, it’s also a reliable buy – the fridge scored full marks for maintaining an even temperature, and the freezer wasn’t far behind. It generally recovered well from the doors being left open, too.

In fact, our testers’ only niggles were that there’s no ice drawer in the freezer and they'd like to be able to customise the shelf positions more. Hardly dealbreakers though.

Score: 85/100

Smeg appliances always look the part and this one performed well on test, too. Built for large kitchens – it’s over two metres tall and has a huge capacity, just shy of 500 litres – its fridge has two roomy storage drawers (including one with adjustable vents), while its freezer has a clever ice cube system. You simply turn a dial and any ice cubes in the tray will be released into a drawer below, for you to either store or use.

If the door is left open for longer than two minutes, an alarm will sound and lights will flash, which will come in handy as we found that its recovery time varied; the freezer in particular took a while to return to temperature.

The appliance also ran slightly warm over the course of 24 hours, averaging 0.4 degrees above the recommended temperature for a fridge and 1.9 degrees above that of a freezer. Note, for perishable food, the fridge’s lower shelves proved the coolest place to store things.

With no obvious dirt traps, smooth-running drawers and accessible controls, it scored the highest for its ease of use, making it the ideal choice for busy kitchens.

Score: 84/100

ASKO is known for its high-end appliances, and this integrated fridge freezer is no exception. Testers found it easy to use and set up, with drawers that moved smoothly, adjustable shelves and ample compartments for keeping groceries neatly organised. It also comes with some nice extra touches including an egg tray, a small ice cube holder and a quick-reacting audio alarm that will notify you if a door is left open after a minute and a half.

You can only adjust the fridge temperature (the freezer is set automatically in relation to this), but the thermostat is simple to use. It maintained good temperatures and the fridge stayed cool when our experts left the door open. The freezer took longer to recover, and its temperature did rise, but given the fast-reacting alert, the door will never really be open for the two minutes we leave it on test.

Score: 82/100

If you like the sound of water features but your kitchen isn’t configured to plumb your fridge freezer in, then this Hisense would make a great alternative. It still has a water and ice dispenser; you’ll just need to keep liquid levels topped up yourself.

Testers liked its intuitive digital display, simple child-lock and smooth-to-remove drawers. Shelving is fixed though, so you can’t reconfigure them. There was some temperature fluctuation on test, particularly in the fridge, and, as is the way with bigger fridge freezers, it used more energy than most. It’s still expensive, but as American-style fridge freezers go, this is a more affordable option.

Score: 81/100

If you’re looking for a fridge freezer that will fit in with your kitchen aesthetic, this integrated model is a smart choice. It keeps food fresh, as you can adjust the salad drawer’s humidity, and it comes with Beko’s HarvestFresh technology, which uses lights to prolong the shelf life of fruit and veg.

Over the course of 24 hours, we found both the fridge and freezer stayed cool in general, although the top shelf in the fridge was a bit warmer than we’d have liked. That shelf also took a while to recover when we left the fridge door open, but the freezer readjusted quickly.

While its freezer drawers are fairly small, the fridge shelves are adjustable, its controls are intuitive and easy to read, and it’s easy to clean. Its holiday mode is simple to activate, too.

Score: 81/100

This American-style design has French doors, which is different to the others on our list – whereas many are set up with the fridge on one side and the freezer on the other, this one is divided horizontally, meaning all your fresh goods are in the top, and frozen below, ultimately giving you more freezer space.

Testers found the controls easy to use, and the internal light well-positioned to avoid shadows. You can adjust the height of the shelves, but they were stiff to remove at first. It achieved a perfect score for its steady optimum temperatures and used less electricity (just over one kilowatt for 24 hours) than many of the other American-style models we tested.

Score: 80/100

If you like your fridge freezer to have lots of cool features, stop scrolling. This freestanding model is frost-free, with a rapid freezing function, a holiday mode and external controls for easy temperature adjustment and monitoring. Not to mention, it’s spacious inside the fridge with five easily adjustable shelves for your food and drink. There’s even a wine rack, although our experts noted this was fiddly to remove.

The fridge scored full marks for its steady temperature over 24 hours, and while the freezer didn’t score quite as highly, it still proved reliable. That said, both compartments produced mixed results in our open-door tests, so it’s worth being vigilant and ensuring you close the door quickly. It’s a great design if you’re after maximum flexibility with your food storage but can’t accommodate an American fridge freezer.

Score: 80/100

Enjoy chilled water on tap with this fridge freezer’s simply designed dispenser – you can either remove it fully and fill it at the tap or use a jug to top it up. It also has adjustable shelves, so you can configure the layout to suit your shopping, and testers found all its zones remained at steady, desirable temperatures.

Our experts noted that it wasn’t very energy efficient in comparison to others tested. There isn’t a way to lock the temperature settings either and it didn’t have any alerts if temperatures were to suddenly rise. But it’s reliable and well-priced with a sleek look.

Score: 79/100

This compact fridge freezer has easily adjustable shelves, bringing welcome flexibility to the kitchen. The door is reversible too, so you’re not restricted on where you place it in the kitchen, and testers liked its loud open-door alert and the simple, frost-free design, declaring it a great buy if you’re after something straightforward to use.

It kept an even and cool temperature in both the fridge and the freezer, earning full marks over the course our day-long test. The fridge didn’t heat up when we left the door open either. The freezer warmed a tad, but nothing that would impact your food. It was one of the less energy efficient models we tested, though.