Hi.
I'm CNET's Ry Crist on the testing floor here in Sunny Louisville, Kentucky and this is our Refrigerator Buying Guide video.
I'm standing right next to the LG Smart ThinQ refrigerator and this is an example of a French Door model and also a smart refrigerator.
It's a very nice high-end unit.
And that's pretty typical for French Door refrigerators.
They tend to be bigger, they tend to have a lot more features,
they tend to be the nicest and most expensive refrigerators you can buy.
For your budget, though, you might be looking for something a little simpler and don't worry, there are plenty of types available and plenty of variety to choose from.
Now, this fridge has a capacity of 31 cubic feet and that's quite a lot.
The average adult needs only 4 to 6 cubic feet.
That's about 2 mini refrigerators.
And if you have a big family this might be great, but if you are just looking for a fridge for your apartment or wanna share with a roommate or two.
This is probably too big and you'd want something a little smaller and
simpler.
And so for that, you might wanna start by looking at a top freezer unit and these are the simple basic, old-fashioned refrigerators that we all remember from childhood, freezer on top, refrigerator on the bottom.
If you go to the top freezer unit, you're gonna have a lot of variety to choose from and they're gonna be at a bargain.
They're very cheap compared to one like this.
So, you can find a very nice unit, that's top freezer but has some nice features not as much as this, no smart screen or anything like that, but we'll still do the job.
For a budget fridge, you might also wanna look at a bottom
freezer unit and that's exactly what it sounds like.
It's a top freezer upside down.
You've got the freezer on the bottom and the fridge on the top.
So, if you want close easy access to your refrigerator ingredients, don't care too much about bending over to get to the freezer, then a bottom freezer might be for you.
If you want something that's a little more feature rich than the standard top freezer or bottom freezer, but maybe not quite as expensive as a unit like this, then maybe check out a side by side.
These tend to have more bells and whistles built into them.
Not quite so much as one like this but some do and they tend to be
a little less expensive than French Doors.
Once you rock down exactly what type of fridge you want and how much space you need inside of it, you'll probably wanna turn your attention to the style and features that are right for you.
One style that's particularly trendy right now is to go the cabinet depth model.
And these are refrigerators that are built wide, perfectly flushed with your cabinets and that gives it sort of a look of a built-in custom fridge without actually having to build anything in.
As far as features go, I recommend you take a look at what foods and ingredients you buy a lot or eat a lot and love to have.
And think about the features in your fridge than can take good care of those things.
If you eat a lot of frozen dinners or you like to buy food in bulk and then freeze it to save money, you might wanna look for a unit that can protect against freezer burn.
If you like frozen pizza, you might wanna look for a unit like the Samsung that has a special pizza drawer that can make storing them really easy.
Are you a wine enthusiast?
There are fridges that have built-in wine racks.
Maybe like to throw a lot of parties.
In that case, look for units to have flexible shelving and storage options you can fit party trays and giant casts of
soda.
And of course, there are an increasing number of smart refrigerators like the LG right here on the market today.
So, if you want a smart fridge, take a look at it.
They've got some cool features.
This one's got a touch screen, there are some you can control by your smartphone, there are others that have smart energy efficiency settings and those were kind of valuable because in most houses, the refrigerator is the biggest power hog.
For more helpful buying info, check out the rest of our Buying Guide and also check out our review section to see which refrigerators we like the most.
For CNET, I'm Ry Crist.
