People ask our technicians the same question at almost every fridge call: “Which brand should I buy next time?” Rather than answer from memory, we went through our own job records. We looked at 7,027 fridge and freezer service jobs booked between May 2023 and October 2026 and sorted them by brand, fault, parts and how many visits each repair took.
This is not a lab test and it is not a failure rate. It is a record of what our technicians see in real kitchens. Below you will find the method, the numbers, and what they mean if you own one of these fridges or are shopping for a new one.
Key Takeaways
- Most fridge calls are not about dead compressors. “Not cooling” complaints showed up in 47.6% of the 5,483 jobs with fault notes, and sealed system or compressor work in only 7.2%.
- Among brands with 100 or more jobs, Whirlpool (3.2%), KitchenAid (3.8%), Samsung (3.8%) and GE (4.9%) had the lowest share of sealed system or compressor jobs.
- Fulgor Milano (17.0%) and Sub-Zero (12.1%) had the highest sealed system share in our records. Both are high end built-in brands, where owners are more likely to pay for compressor work.
- Across 3,193 completed jobs with full visit records, 57.8% were finished on the first visit and only 1.3% needed a callback.
- A brand with more jobs is not a worse brand. Popular brands and brands we service under manufacturer warranty contracts naturally show up more often.
Our method: how the 7,027 jobs were counted
We pulled every fridge, refrigerator and freezer job from our service records. Then we cleaned the list before counting anything.
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Jobs studied | 7,027 fridge and freezer jobs |
| Time period | May 2023 to October 2026 |
| Source | Our own job management records and parts orders |
| Jobs with a named brand | 6,317 |
| Jobs with fault notes | 5,483 |
| Completed jobs with full visit records | 3,193 |
| Excluded | Wine fridges, beverage centres, coolers, commercial and walk-in units, portable units, and jobs logged under the wrong appliance |
Brand. We took the brand from the appliance record. When that field was blank, we read it from the job title or the problem description. We normalized spelling and capitalization so each brand counts once. 710 jobs had no brand we could identify, and they appear in the totals but not in the brand comparisons.
Fault. We grouped each job into fault types using the customer’s description, the technician’s report and the parts ordered. A job can land in more than one group. A fridge that is warm because the evaporator fan failed counts as both “not cooling” and “fan or noise.”
Visits and callbacks. For jobs created in our current system, we counted completed visits. A job finished in one completed visit counts as a first visit fix. A job with a recall visit after the repair counts as a callback. Jobs imported from our older system do not carry visit history, so they are left out of these two measures.
Sample size. We only rank brands with at least 100 jobs. Visit based figures are shown only where we have at least 40 completed jobs for that brand.
What these numbers can and cannot tell you
Counts show what is common in the homes we visit. They do not show how often a given fridge breaks. For that, we would need to know how many of each brand are in use around the Lower Mainland, and we do not. In addition, our job mix includes warranty work for some manufacturers. Warranty calls made up 86% of our Frigidaire jobs and 78% of our Fulgor Milano jobs. They were about half of our Electrolux jobs and 27% of our Blomberg jobs. As a result, those brands rank high on job count no matter how reliable they are.
For that reason, the fairest comparison is the mix of faults within each brand. The most useful single figure is the share of jobs that needed sealed system or compressor work, because that repair most often decides whether a fridge is worth fixing.
What fridge owners call us about
The most common complaint by far is that the fridge or freezer is not cooling properly. That symptom showed up in 47.6% of jobs with fault notes. Fans and noise came next at 18.9%, then water leaks at 16.9%.
However, “not cooling” is a symptom, not a diagnosis. Common causes include a failed evaporator or condenser fan, a defrost fault that has iced over the coil, a faulty sensor or control board, or a door that is not sealing. A failed compressor or refrigerant leak, the expensive sealed system repair, was behind a much smaller share of calls.
A worn door gasket is one of the cheaper causes and easy to check yourself. Our guide to why a bad fridge door gasket drives up your energy bill shows how. If the issue is a new rattle or buzz, our post on which appliance noises are normal and which are warning signs will help you decide whether to book a visit.
What this means for you: a warm fridge is usually repairable. Before you shop for a replacement, get the cause diagnosed.
Which brands needed sealed system work least
Whirlpool had the lowest share of sealed system or compressor jobs at 3.2% among brands with 100 or more jobs. KitchenAid and Samsung followed at 3.8% each, then GE at 4.9%. Fulgor Milano (17.0%) and Sub-Zero (12.1%) had the highest. The chart shows the nine brands with 200 or more jobs; the table further down adds the rest.
The sealed system is the sealed loop of compressor, refrigerant lines, condenser and evaporator that moves heat out of the fridge. Sealed system work covers compressor replacement, refrigerant leaks and recharges. It is the repair that most often turns a fridge from “fix it” into “replace it.” As a result, a low share is a good sign for owners.
A few points keep this in proportion:
- Built-in and luxury fridges are usually repaired even when the compressor fails, because replacing a built-in unit costs far more. A higher sealed system share for those brands partly reflects owners who chose to fix, not just how often the part failed.
- Fulgor Milano numbers are mostly warranty work, where the manufacturer pays for the diagnosis and owners call early.
- LG sat in the middle at 8.5%, and Bosch at 8.0%.
Which brands we fix in one visit
Across 3,193 completed jobs with full visit records, 57.8% were finished on the first visit. Callbacks were rare at 1.3%. LG (85.7% of 49 jobs), Whirlpool (75.0% of 44) and KitchenAid (71.4% of 56) had the highest first visit share among brands with enough records.
The lowest first visit shares belong to brands where we do the most warranty work. Fulgor Milano came in at 43.0% of 407 jobs, Electrolux at 52.9% of 102 and Frigidaire at 56.6% of 1,686. Warranty repairs often need a part ordered through the manufacturer after diagnosis. That adds a second visit. That is a parts supply pattern, not proof that those fridges are harder to fix.
Bosch had the highest callback share among brands we could measure, 7.3%, but that is 3 jobs out of 41, too few to read much into.
If you want to know what a visit costs before booking, our service rates page lists them.
Brand by brand field data
The table below covers every brand with at least 100 jobs. Fault shares are a percentage of that brand’s jobs with fault notes.
| Brand | Jobs | Top fault types | Sealed system share | First visit fix (completed jobs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frigidaire | 2,249 | Not cooling 48%, fan or noise 22%, ice maker 16% | 5.7% | 56.6% (1,686) |
| Fulgor Milano | 505 | Not cooling 67%, control board or sensor 24%, sealed system 17% | 17.0% | 43.0% (407) |
| Blomberg | 500 | Not cooling 40%, fan or noise 22%, defrost 20% | 7.9% | 63.4% (279) |
| Samsung | 379 | Not cooling 34%, water leak 27%, defrost 23% | 3.8% | 64.2% (67) |
| LG | 344 | Not cooling 61%, fan or noise 26%, water leak 14% | 8.5% | 85.7% (49) |
| KitchenAid | 319 | Not cooling 39%, water leak 25%, fan or noise 18% | 3.8% | 71.4% (56) |
| Whirlpool | 281 | Not cooling 47%, water leak 30%, defrost 16% | 3.2% | 75.0% (44) |
| GE | 225 | Not cooling 49%, fan or noise 31%, water leak 21% | 4.9% | 67.5% (40) |
| Sub-Zero | 208 | Not cooling 36%, water leak 24%, fan or noise 20% | 12.1% | Too few records |
| Electrolux | 178 | Not cooling 48%, ice maker 19%, water leak 17% | 9.7% | 52.9% (102) |
| Bosch | 144 | Not cooling 39%, ice maker 31%, defrost 20% | 8.0% | 51.2% (41) |
| Kenmore | 141 | Not cooling 53%, defrost 18%, ice maker 16% | 6.8% | Too few records |
| Fisher & Paykel | 111 | Not cooling 31%, water leak 24%, ice maker 22% | 5.7% | Too few records |
| Maytag | 100 | Not cooling 50%, water leak 25%, defrost 23% | 7.5% | Too few records |
Some patterns stand out:
- Samsung, Whirlpool, KitchenAid and Maytag owners called us about water leaks more often than average. Common causes of leaks include a blocked defrost drain, a cracked water line or an ice maker fill problem.
- Bosch had the highest ice maker and dispenser share of any large brand at 31%.
- GE and LG had more fan and noise calls than most, at 31% and 26%.
- Frigidaire dominates the count because we handle a large volume of manufacturer warranty repairs for it. Its sealed system share, 5.7%, sits below the all brand average.
We also service Miele, Fhiaba, Liebherr, JennAir, Danby, Gaggenau, Thermador and others, but with fewer than 100 jobs each we do not rank them here.
How our data compares with national reliability studies
Our findings line up with the large US studies on one point: ice makers and dispensers cause a lot of trouble. Consumer Reports bases its brand ratings on owner survey data covering 85,290 refrigerators with ice makers bought between 2016 and 2026. It reports that about 30% of fridges with ice makers will have a problem by the end of year five. It also names ice makers and dispensers as the most common issue (Consumer Reports, retrieved 2026-11-01). In our records, ice maker or dispenser faults appeared in 14.3% of jobs overall and 31% of Bosch jobs.
Yale Appliance, a US appliance retailer that also runs its own service team, publishes first year service rates from its own service calls. For counter depth French door fridges it reports LG at 10.1%, GE at 12.1% and Bosch at 12.7%, against a category average of 12% (Yale Appliance, retrieved 2026-11-01). Yale also notes that most counter depth fridges last 7 to 12 years.
Our data measures something different, though. Yale counts first year service calls on fridges it sold, and Consumer Reports surveys owners. We count every repair call across all ages, so our numbers lean toward what fails later in a fridge’s life and toward the brands common in the homes we serve. Our guide to which appliance brands break down most applies the same method to washers, dryers, dishwashers and ranges. The job counts here add what our own technicians record, so read the two together.
Surprises and outliers
Compressors are less of a story than people expect. Many customers assume a warm fridge means a dead compressor. In our records, only 7.2% of jobs with fault notes involved sealed system work, while fans, defrost faults and leaks together came up far more often.
Premium brands did not have a lower sealed system share. Sub-Zero, Fulgor Milano and Fhiaba (10.0%, on 70 jobs with fault notes) sat at or above average. We think owner behaviour explains much of this: a built-in unit is worth fixing, so those owners call us for compressor work that a basic fridge owner might skip. That is our reading, not something the data proves.
Hardly anyone was told the fridge was not worth fixing. Only 0.7% of closed jobs ended with a “replace, do not repair” note or a replacement quote. That figure is low because most owners who decide to replace never book a visit, so treat it as a floor.
Limitations
- Counts are not failure rates. We do not know how many fridges of each brand are in use locally.
- Warranty work skews the counts for Frigidaire, Fulgor Milano, Electrolux and Blomberg.
- Fault notes are short. 1,544 jobs had no usable fault detail, and keyword grouping can miss or mislabel some jobs.
- Fridge age was not recorded consistently. For this reason, we cannot compare brands at the same age.
- Visit data covers only part of the sample. Jobs imported from our older system have no visit history.
- The area is wider than Surrey. The data covers all of our service teams, not just Surrey households.
What this means if you are buying or repairing
If your fridge stops cooling, do not assume the worst. Only 7.2% of jobs with fault notes in our records needed sealed system work, and 57.8% of completed jobs were finished on the first visit. Book a diagnosis before you shop.
If you are buying a new fridge, think about features as much as brand. Units with through the door ice and water add the parts that fail most often in both our data and the Consumer Reports survey. A model without a dispenser removes that risk.
If you own a built-in or luxury fridge, budget for repairs over its life. These units are built to be repaired, and our records show owners do repair them, including compressor work.
If you have a Samsung, Whirlpool, KitchenAid or Maytag with a leak, check the defrost drain and water line first. Our article on how Vancouver water quality affects your appliances covers filters and water lines.
Frequently asked questions
How was this data collected?
We used our own service records for 7,027 fridge and freezer jobs from May 2023 to October 2026, including fault notes, parts orders and visit records. See the method section above for exclusions and sample rules.
Which refrigerator brand is the most reliable?
Our data cannot name one most reliable brand, because job counts are not failure rates. What it does show is that Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Samsung and GE had the lowest share of sealed system jobs among brands with 100 or more jobs in our records.
Is it worth repairing my fridge?
In most cases we see, yes. Only 7.2% of jobs with fault notes involved the sealed system, which is the repair most likely to make replacement the better choice. A technician can tell you which case you are in after a diagnosis.
Does this apply to my fridge in Surrey?
It reflects the brands and problems our technicians see in the homes we serve. The data covers all of our service teams, not only Surrey, and it is not a survey of every fridge in the region.
Can I cite this research?
Yes. Please cite it as: Surrey Appliance Service Pros, “Most Reliable Refrigerator Brands: What 7,027 Repairs Show,” November 2026, with a link to this page.
Sources
- Our fridge and freezer job records, 7,027 jobs (Surrey Appliance Service Pros, May 2023 to October 2026)
- Consumer Reports: Most and Least Reliable Refrigerator Brands (retrieved 2026-11-01)
- Yale Appliance: The Most Reliable Counter Depth Refrigerators for 2026 (updated October 21, 2026; retrieved 2026-11-01)
Data appendix
All figures come from our job records as of November 1, 2026. Brand rows above use the same data. We will refresh this study as new jobs come in.
Citation format: Surrey Appliance Service Pros. “Most Reliable Refrigerator Brands: What 7,027 Repairs Show.” November 2026. https://surreyappliancerepairpros.ca/most-reliable-refrigerator-brands/
About the authors
This study was compiled by the Surrey Appliance Service Pros team from our own service records, and the brand figures were checked against the raw job data before publication. Our technicians repair refrigerators, freezers and other home appliances in Surrey. If you spot an error or want a figure explained, contact us.
Need a fridge repair in Surrey?
We service every brand in this study, from Frigidaire, Samsung, LG and Whirlpool to Sub-Zero, Fulgor Milano and Miele. If your fridge is warm, leaking or noisy, see our refrigerator repair service in Surrey or book a visit online.
