Best Large Refrigerators for Big Families

Top-performing models from CR’s tests with plenty of storage space

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Family in large kitchen Photo: Troy House/Getty Images

If you’re looking for a spacious refrigerator to store a full week’s worth of groceries for a big family—or drinks and snacks for your child’s soccer team—you’ll find plenty of supersized options for sale.

“There’s a trend of making refrigerators taller and deeper, to increase capacity while still maintaining a common width,” says Larry Ciufo, CR’s test engineer for refrigerators.

But most refrigerators fall short of their capacity claims, according to CR’s measurements of usable capacity for the hundreds of refrigerators in our tests. (We measure the actual storage space in a fridge—shelves and all—while manufacturers treat the refrigerators like an empty box.)

You can find the total usable capacity for each model in our refrigerator ratings by scrolling down to the Features & Specs section of the model’s product page. And keep in mind that you don’t want to get stuck with a supersized electricity bill, so you’ll want to pay attention to the energy-efficiency score as well.

More on Refrigerators
CR's Refrigerator Ratings & Buying Guide
Most and Least Reliable Refrigerator Brands
Best Counter-Depth Refrigerators
Best French-Door Refrigerators From CR's Tests
How to Make Your Refrigerator Last Longer

Most importantly, there’s performance. During testing, we outfit each refrigerator with thermocouples in a climate-controlled chamber and monitor it for a month, collecting more than 5.4 million temperature readings that identify warm and cold spots, to determine which models will keep your food fresh longer. We also factor in survey data from thousands of CR members to judge brand reliability and satisfaction.

All that data—and then some—informs CR’s refrigerator ratings charts and each model’s Overall Score. Our ratings are sorted by width, so you can easily find the best fridge that will fit in your kitchen. The most common widths are 30, 33, and 36 inches. One of the best large refrigerators we’ve tested, a built-in model, is an outlier at 42 inches wide.

Below, CR members can read ratings and reviews of the five best large refrigerators from our tests, ranked by Overall Score, with one pick for each fridge configuration (top-freezer, bottom-freezer, French-door, side-by-side, and built-in). The models are from Café, GE, Kenmore, LG, and Samsung. For other high-capacity options, check CR’s complete refrigerator ratings and sort by total usable capacity.

5 Supersized Refrigerators

Home Content Creator Daniel Wroclawski

Daniel Wroclawski

I'm obsessed with smart home tech and channel my obsession into new stories for Consumer Reports. When I'm not writing about products, I spend time either outside hiking and skiing or up in the air in small airplanes. For my latest obsessions, follow me on Facebook and Twitter (@danwroc).
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