14 best fridge freezers for your kitchen, tested by experts

Score: 89/100

This might look like a standard fridge freezer but Hoover packs in some great features while still keeping it at an affordable price. The Fresh 0°C Area (a drawer at the bottom) can be set at a different temperature to the rest of the fridge, making it perfect for storing fresh fish. In testing, this function worked brilliantly, keeping the temperature below 1°C while the rest of the fridge stayed around 3.7°C.

The freezer also shone when it came to maintaining an even temperature, remaining under -18°C even when the door was open. Speaking of which, our experts appreciated the handy alarm that lets you know if the doors have been open for more than three minutes.

The shelves are adjustable and spacious, but we’d have liked an internal bottle rack and a shallow freezer drawer for ice cubes. Those are things we can live without though.

Score: 88/100

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: 87/100

This Bosch offers versatility thanks to its adjustable shelves, including one that folds in half should you need even more height. It also has a wine rack that can house five bottles, and its internal lights make it easy to see all your food. Testers would have liked more spacious freezer drawers, though.

With an A rating, it’s no surprise it achieved a perfect score for energy efficiency, using 0.5 kilowatts over 24 hours (costing 13p). The fridge was also excellent at maintaining the desired temperature even after we left the door open to test its recovery skills. However, the freezer fluctuated somewhat, creeping over the maximum desired temperature at times and taking half an hour to recover from our open-door test, so be sure to close it quickly after retrieving food.

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 – the fridge has two roomy storage drawers (including one with adjustable vents), while the freezer has a clever ice 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 items.

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

Score: 85/100

This tall unit offers a total of 367 litres across its fridge and freezer compartments. The fridge has three adjustable shelves, a bottle rack and a fresh zone for keeping fruits and vegetables in top condition.

Over 24 hours, the fridge maintained its temperature at 4.8 degrees, with only the top shelf and the fridge door rising above six degrees. When we left the freezer door open for two minutes, the temperature took over 40 minutes to recover; however, the fridge freezer is equipped with an audio and visual alarm when the door is left open so it shouldn’t affect your food if you act quickly.

The temperature recovery was better when both the fridge and freezer doors were opened at the same time though, with the temperature dropping only slightly and returning to normal almost immediately. It used just 0.29kWh (~7 pence) in 24-hours too.

Score: 84/100

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 of 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.

Score: 81/100

Enjoy chilled water on tap with this fridge freezer’s simple 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.

It wasn’t very energy efficient in comparison to others tested, there isn’t a way to lock the temperature settings, 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: 77/100

As one of the more affordable models we’ve tested, this fridge freezer skips on some of the more premium features of other models. However, sometimes simpler is better, and our testers loved almost every aspect of its design. The shelving configuration is adjustable, there’s a large drawer for keeping fruit and veg separate, and the freezer drawer handles provide easy access. An audible beep also alerts you to an open door after a minute and five seconds.

The internal fridge light sits at the back of the top shelf, which means food can obstruct it, and it’s not a frost-free model, so regular maintenance is required to keep it operating at its best. But testers found its temperature stable throughout testing and the fridge recovered quickly when we left the door open, making it a good value buy.

Score: 89/100

Fridge freezers don’t come much more advanced than this one. There’s a big touch screen panel on the door (called 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 little 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 pre-emptively 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: 89/100

There’s a lot to love about this premium fridge freezer so it’s no surprise it’s the joint winner in American-style designs. It’s part of Samsung’s Bespoke AI range, allowing to take control from your phone, via the LCD touchscreen display or by your voice. Your fridge will no longer just keep your food fresh; it can now provide recipe suggestions, remind you of appointments, and tell you the weather. You can also open the doors by simply touching the sensor – no pulling required.

In testing, the freezer performed better than the fridge, maintaining a more even temperature over 24 hours and recovering quicker when we left the door open for two minutes. However, the fridge only remained above five degrees for 12 minutes after closing the door.

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; it has a knock-to-view fridge door, 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: 83/100

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: 82/100

Offering excellent value for money, this Samsung fridge freezer claims its technology means you get a larger capacity than many designs on the market, without compromising on energy efficiency and performance. It uses AI to analyse your usage patterns and predict energy consumption, and then advises you to switch to eco mode if you’re using too much electricity. And it was certainly helpful in test, scoring full marks and using just 0.82kWh (21 pence) over 24 hours.

Temperatures remained stable throughout testing but the fridge and freezer struggled to recover after we left it open for two minutes, taking 33 minutes for the fridge and 35 minutes for the freezer to return back to a food-safe temperature. However, if you’re planning a busy evening in the kitchen, switch on Samsung’s handy Power Freeze and Power Cool modes and it will keep temperatures stable. We left the door open for another two minutes to test these functions, and neither got any warmer than the desired temperatures. Very impressive.