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Our fastidious fridge testers review and compare the coolest freezer on the top, freezer on the bottom, French door and side-by-side fridges to help you find the best buy for your budget and the best fit for your family.
In our testing labs, we give every fridge a thorough workout to help find the models that:
We also give you good and bad points for each model, and the running cost of each fridge over ten years. And our Recommended list will help you see quickly which models come out on top.
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List of brands we tested in this review.
Recommended retail price as at October 2018 – but shop around for the best deal.
enter value/s in increments of 1 between 429 and 5499
We recommend currently available fridges which score at least 75% overall and at least 60% for all aspects of temperature performance except the recommended setting score. We exclude this because you can change the settings to get better performance.
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The claimed dimensions for the smallest box that will fit around the fridge, including hinges, door handles and any protrusions out the back.
enter value/s in increments of 1 between 139 and 186
enter value/s in increments of 1 between 52 and 100
enter value/s in increments of 1 between 56 and 97
Use this figure to calculate if a fridge is the right size for your household. As a rule of thumb we recommend: 250–380L for 1–2 people, 350–530L for 3–4 people, 440L + for 5 or more people.
Remember that icemakers take up around 30% of your freezer, and that gross volume includes all the nooks and crannies you can't fit food into.
If in doubt, get the bigger fridge.
enter value/s in increments of 1 between 203 and 886
If you need to store lots of fruit and vegetables then look for more than one crisper.
Important if you often store meat, fish and poultry (fresh or cooked), to keep it at close to zero degrees.
Convenient for keeping butter and hard cheeses slightly soft.
This rating tells you how well your fridge will keep your food fresh and safe to eat, based on our lab tests.
enter value/s in increments of 1 between 18 and 84
The amount of energy the manufacturer claims the fridge uses in one year.
enter value/s in increments of 1 between 190 and 847
Helps you compare energy efficiency between fridges. More stars means better efficiency.
enter value/s in increments of 0.5 between 1 and 5
A Similar model is identical in most aspects except for a few. This means that a majority of its test results are identical so you can reasonably expect to get the same results from the model we tested, but for those aspects which aren't identical, we'll note these as "Not Tested" in the Compare tables.
A Tested model refers to a model that is still current and available in the Australian market. You should be able to order this model through your local retailer, or find it online.
These models can't be found in retailers or online or are no longer manufactured. You may still find these models on second hand websites, or in second hand dealers. Test methods may change over time, so criteria which can't be directly compared will contain an N/A.
An Identical model is exactly that. Performance characteristics will be identical and the only difference will be something trivial such as colour, which won't have an impact on performance.
These are models we haven't yet tested but that are available.
How stable the fridge's temperature is. Higher scores mean a more stable temperature – i.e. your ice cream won't melt and refreeze.
How even the temperature is throughout the fridge – e.g. any warm spots?
9500 CHOICE members rate the reliability of their brand of fridge.
The higher the score the quieter the fridge.
