Best Top-Freezer Refrigerators of 2025
Top-freezer refrigerators often last longer than other, more complex refrigerator configurations—and they're space-efficient, too. Here are CR's highest-rated models.
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When you’re replacing a dead refrigerator, the lifespan of your next fridge may be top of mind. And if you’re serious about buying a refrigerator that’ll last for the long haul, consider a top-freezer model. These refrigerators consistently earn some of the highest predicted reliability ratings in our member surveys.
Because they’re simply designed, many top-freezers lack the components that seem to break most frequently—an icemaker and dispenser, for instance. “Top-freezers are usually bare-bones models,” says Breann Chai, CR’s test engineer for refrigerators. “The more complicated refrigerators become, the more prone they are to breaking.”
- Best Top-Freezer Refrigerators: 28-inches Wide 30-Inches Wide 33-Inches Wide
- How CR Tests Refrigerators
Best 28-Inch-Wide Top-Freezer Refrigerators
Our fridge recommendations are organized by width. We recommend measuring the space where you plan to put your refrigerator before you begin shopping. Narrow top-freezers (28 inches wide or less) can work well in a small kitchen.
Best 30-Inch-Wide Top-Freezers
If you have more room in your kitchen for the refrigerator, these 30-inch wide options are worth a closer look.
Best 33-Inch-Wide Top-Freezers
These are two of the widest top-freezers we recommend, at 33 inches.
How CR Tests Refrigerators
During testing, we outfit each refrigerator with thermocouples in a climate-controlled chamber and monitor it for more than 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 longest.
Our process includes tests for icemaker performance based on how much ice a refrigerator produces per day and how much it can hold in its reservoirs. We also evaluate crisper performance to judge how well the crisper drawers retain moisture to keep your food fresh for longer periods of time.
Then we factor in survey data from thousands of CR members to judge brand reliability and satisfaction. All of that—and then some—informs CR’s refrigerator ratings and each model’s Overall Score.
Get more information on CR’s refrigerator tests.
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