4-door Kenmore refrigerator makes top picks list

The four-door French-door category in our refrigerator Ratings, just a handful deep a few years ago, has swelled to 15 models, a third of which make our recommended refrigerator list. The winner’s podium used to belong solely to Samsung, but Kenmore crashed through in our latest round of testing, making it the current brand to beat across all bottom-freezer categories.

The Kenmore Elite 72483, $3,600, combines superb temperature control, energy efficiency, and quietness to earn one of the highest overall scores in our refrigerator Ratings. Its counter-height middle drawer features multiple temperature settings and its slim in-door ice maker frees up the top shelf for storage. The new Kenmore shares the top spot among four-door refrigerators with the Samsung Chef Collection RF34H9960S4, $5,400, a true four-door refrigerator with a lower chamber that can convert from freezer to refrigerator.

Among traditional French-door bottom-freezers, the Kenmore Elite 74093, $3,400, leads the pack. In fact, it’s currently the highest-scoring model out of nearly 325 models in our Ratings—though that could change at any time, since our refrigerator test lab is always running. The three-door Kenmore has many of the same internal technologies as its four-door brand mate, including dual evaporators, which help keep food fresh by maintaining optimal levels of humidity.

The Kenmore Elite 79043 conventional bottom-freezer, $1,510, rounds out the French-door trifecta for Kenmore, though it’s officially tied for the top spot with the LG LDC24370ST, $1,650.

In addition to performance, we also assess refrigerator brand reliability by surveying tens of thousands of subscribers about their refrigerator purchases. Kenmore gets solid marks in the bottom-freezer category, as does Samung and LG. Electrolux and Frigidaire are two brands to avoid, though neither makes our current recommended list in the category, so that shouldn’t be hard to do.

—Daniel DiClerico (@dandiclerico on Twitter)



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