Few appliances in your kitchen get as much use as your refrigerator, so reliability is important. Fortunately, most refrigerators are built to last. In a survey encompassing nearly 2,000 participants, we discovered that over 20 percent of respondents had owned their refrigerators for over a decade, with Whirlpool, GE and Kenmore emerging as the most reliable refrigerator brands.
In the Good Housekeeping Institute, we test all types of kitchen appliances, from ranges and dishwashers to air fryers and coffee makers. When we test refrigerators, we assess them on performance and ease of use and continue using them in our Lab and Test Kitchen for months and sometimes years. We also send fridges home with consumers to learn even more about a model’s ins and outs and gauge reliability over time. Over the past 10 years, we’ve evaluated more than 50 refrigerators and our survey findings have validated many of our own insights.