The Refrigerator Brand To Avoid At All Costs, According To Reddit

Gone are the days of the standard white refrigerator. Today, the options are endless. Not only do you have to choose between white, black, stainless steel, double doors, bottom freezers, top freezers, water dispensers, smart fridges, and more, but there are also tons of different brands in the fridge game — and some are better than others. 

More than anything, you need your refrigerator to reliably keep your food cold. Though, it'd be nice to get some cool fridgescaping done, too! But there's one brand that people all over Reddit overwhelmingly claim can't even keep your food at the right temperature. They may look pretty, and some models may have fancy features, but the consensus is that when fridge shopping, you should avoid Samsung refrigerators at all costs. 

"Doesn't Samsung make cell phones?" you may be asking. Maybe that's what the company should stick to because there is post after post on Reddit warning people to stay away from Samsung fridges. According to USA Today, hundreds of customers lodged complaints about Samsung fridges with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission between 2022 and 2023, much more than any other single brand. Let's get into what puts Samsung at the bottom of nearly everyone's list when it comes to refrigerators.

USA Today took a look at the Consumer Product Safety Commission complaints and found that most people said their Samsung fridge didn't keep their food, medication, or breast milk cold enough, and they subsequently got sick. Many also pointed to problems with the temperature sensors and blocks of ice building up in the back of the fridge. No matter what kind of fridge you have, an often overlooked refrigeration safety tip is to stick an external thermometer in there to check the actual interior temperature.

Lots of posts on Reddit bring up issues similar to the Safety Commission complaints. Reddit user VisiPunk titled their post "Never, EVER EVER Buy a Samsung refrigerator!" and wrote, "Freezer is good, fridge is barely cool. What is the problem? We also have issues with the ice maker freezing over and not making ice." In a comment on someone else's post lamenting their Samsung fridge problems, PickleManAtl wrote about experiencing issues that caused them to constantly chip away ice that froze over the ice maker. "Repair people told us it was a losing battle with Samsung. And then one day we hear water and something inside popped and the thing flooded the kitchen, causing a few thousand dollars of damage with the floor, etc. Never again," PickleManAtl added. 

Meanwhile, as of October 2024, Masterdivingnoob was embroiled in a months-long battle with Samsung over their faulty fridge. First, they noticed their food wasn't staying cold. A repairman concluded they had a faulty compressor but claimed it couldn't be fixed. That began a complex, exhausting, and ultimately unsuccessful process of trying to get a hold of an actual Samsung representative in order to replace the part. At the end of the ordeal, Masterdivingnoob was left with "37 pages of saved Samsung chat history, many many phone calls, and a broken $2,000 refrigerator," plus "Lost food, lost medication, 3 hungry kids, and a monster of a Doordash/carry out bill."

So, if Samsung fridges are out, which brands can you trust? In the Reddit threads we consulted, brands that were recommended over and over again included GE, Whirlpool, Bosch, and Sub-Zero. Funny enough, several of the top comments on threads looking for the best refrigerator brands say things like, "NOT Samsung!" and "For the love of god, DO NOT buy a Samsung." You know, just in case you needed any more convincing.

You can really lose your mind trying to search for a refrigerator brand that doesn't have a single bad review; it's likely not out there. No brand is totally perfect. But when you are shopping for a fridge, you're probably looking for something reliable that will last you a good amount of time. According to the Department of Energy, these days, your refrigerator should last you between 10 and 20 years, with the average being around 12 years (as long as you're not overlooking important refrigerator maintenance tasks, of course).

According to many Reddit users, Samsung fridges don't last nearly that long. "I am on my third Samsung refrigerator," wrote stickman07738. The user explained their "first one died, 72 hours after arrival ... second one died 2 weeks after receipt," then, after roughly 18 months, "the third one died." Coconut723 had a similarly tough situation: "Just replaced mine. ... Had to spend a ton to fix the ice Maker 2 years in...2 years later the fridge started freezing [everything] and the water dispenser broke. Ice maker broke again. GOOD RIDDANCE."