Category
Refrigerators running costs
1,000 ENERGY STAR certified models, ranked cheapest to run.
How much does it cost to run a refrigerator?
Running cost for 1,000 ENERGY STAR certified refrigerator models we track ranges from $8 to $149 a year, with a class median of $64/yr at the US average rate of $0.1856/kWh. For this class, running cost is driven mostly by compressor technology, insulation, and interior volume. Read the full running-cost guide
Cheapest refrigerator to run.
Top 25 of 1,000, ranked by estimated dollars per year.
Full cheapest ranking| # | Model | $ / year | Standing, % of class best |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fisher & Paykel RS2435V2* 4.3 cu ft |
$8 | |
| 2 | Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet UKS15W*1-5-**** 2.8 cu ft |
$18 | |
| 3 | Perlick URD24W*1-5-**** 3.1 cu ft |
$18 | |
| 4 | Liebherr UW3720 3.6 cu ft |
$19 | |
| 5 | Liebherr HWgb 1803 1.6 cu ft |
$19 | |
| 6 | Liebherr W5250 13.1 cu ft |
$21 | |
| 7 | Monogram ZIW241NBW**** 13.4 cu ft |
$22 | |
| 8 | Midea MRW14B2ABB 1.5 cu ft |
$22 | |
| 9 | Dometic C60SBI CARE 1.7 cu ft |
$23 | |
| 10 | Marvel MP*D#24-*G#1A 4.9 cu ft |
$24 | |
| 11 | Marathon M4-100BLS 5.3 cu ft |
$25 | |
| 12 | Marathon M4-150SS 5.3 cu ft |
$25 | |
| 13 | Marathon M4-D250BLS 5.1 cu ft |
$25 | |
| 14 | Stirling S4-100SS 5.3 cu ft |
$25 | |
| 15 | Stirling S4-D200SS 5.1 cu ft |
$25 | |
| 16 | Stirling S4-D250SS 5.1 cu ft |
$25 | |
| 17 | Fisher & Paykel RS2435SB*T* 4.6 cu ft |
$25 | |
| 18 | Avallon AWC152DPRGLH 3.1 cu ft |
$27 | |
| 19 | Midea MRW34B4A** 3.3 cu ft |
$27 | |
| 20 | Xo XOU15WGSL 3.3 cu ft |
$27 | |
| 21 | Avallon AWC152SPRGLH 3.4 cu ft |
$27 | |
| 22 | Fisher & Paykel RB36S 3.7 cu ft |
$28 | |
| 23 | Fisher & Paykel RS2474S3**# 10.8 cu ft |
$28 | |
| 24 | Jennair JBWFNR18RX 8 cu ft |
$28 | |
| 25 | Liebherr HW 8000 9 cu ft |
$29 |
Reading the refrigerator ranking
Refrigerators are the one category here that never really turns off. A dishwasher or dryer costs money only while it runs a cycle; a refrigerator draws power every hour of every day, all year, so a small difference in compressor design compounds in a way it never gets the chance to for an appliance you switch on a few times a week. That is why interior volume and compressor technology dominate this leaderboard more than almost any single spec in any other class we track.
The cheapest-to-run ranking above is raw dollars a year, which means it naturally rewards smaller refrigerators, a compact unit will almost always beat a large one on that list regardless of how efficient either compressor is. The most-efficient ranking corrects for that by normalizing energy use per cubic foot, so a large model that is still efficient for its size can show up well there even if it never cracks the raw-cost top 25.
Running cost across the 1,000 certified refrigerators we track spans $8 to $149 a year, with a median of $64/yr; most of the 1,000 models we track cluster toward the cheap end of that range, with a smaller group of pricier models stretching the top up to $149/yr. Some models in this class are also flagged counter-depth, built shallower to sit flush with kitchen cabinets; that shallower body typically trades away some interior volume for the built-in look, which can nudge the per-cubic-foot math either way even at the same running cost.
What to weigh when comparing models
If you already know roughly what capacity you need, sort by the efficiency ranking rather than raw cost, it is the fairer comparison between models of similar size. If you have flexibility on capacity, remember that dropping a few cubic feet is often the single biggest lever on the running-cost number, bigger than any compressor upgrade. We do not have reliability, warranty, or repair-frequency data for any model here, so this ranking should inform the electricity-cost side of a purchase decision, not the whole decision.
How we score this class
Every figure on this page follows the same formula: each model's published annual kWh from ENERGY STAR, multiplied by the US average residential rate of $0.1856/kWh. See how we score for the full methodology, or use the calculator to swap in your own local electricity rate.
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