Review: LG Studio Smart 3-Door French Door Refrigerator

I have personally owned LG-brand refrigerators for the past 15 years. When I bought my first refrigerator from LG (an acronym for "Life's Good"), in 2011, the French door model was highly rated, and the combination of price and features was unmatched by other brands. In fact, I loved it so much I bought a second, identical one when I moved seven years later. Which is why I was dismayed when it suddenly stopped freezing earlier this year. “We get this call all the time,” the mechanic explained as he swapped out the apparently faulty compressor.

Sadly, he was not wrong. Even a cursory internet search brings up reams of damning evidence of LG’s history of faulty linear compressors. A class action lawsuit was settled in 2020 over the LG compressors in refrigerators manufactured between 2014 and 2017 (my second fridge was, unfortunately, within this range, and I was unaware of the lawsuit), but more were filed in subsequent years for fridges manufactured in 2018 and beyond, for both compressor issues and malfunctioning craft ice makers. It’s not a good look.

That said, LG sells hundreds of thousands of refrigerators a year—LG sales make up one-third of the appliance market, behind only Samsung, according to data platform OpenBrand—and other brands are on the hook for class action lawsuits as well. (In fact, Consumer Reports says that of all new refrigerators purchased since 2014, regardless of brand, 50 percent have experienced a problem.)

I decided to give LG another shot by testing one of its new Studio refrigerators, from the brand’s premium, designed-focused line that came out around 2015. Newer LG fridges have smart capabilities through LG’s ThinQ system, and, according to LG, a different linear compressor than my old model. The Studio Smart 3-Door French Door Refrigerator has been installed in my home kitchen for the past five months, where my family has been using it like any other fridge. There’s no denying it looks good both in person and on paper, but will it last?

Color Me Interested

Photograph: Kat Merck

I specifically settled on testing a Studio in LG's proprietary Essence White, as I’ve noticed stainless steel is appearing less in high-end home builds and remodels. (If you’ve had any kind of stainless steel appliance, you know it’s a magnet for fingerprints and stains.) Cabinet-fronted SubZeros have always been de rigeur in custom luxury homes, but until recently, there haven’t been a whole lot of non-stainless options for what appliance manufacturers call the “mass premium” market, aside from retro-inspired designs by brands like Smeg and Big Chill. And in fact, the trend toward lighter woods and colored cabinetry paves the way for a more contemporary version of white, softer than the institutional tone of the ’80s and ’90s.

“Essence White is not a traditional stark white,” explained Dean Brindle, LG’s head of product management. “It’s not a blue-white that you traditionally see in white appliances. It’s a warmer white, so a little bit of yellow.”

Indeed, I can see it—the Essence White Studio is matte, almost glowy, with sharp edges and squared, bronze hardware. It wouldn’t look out of place among luxury European appliances like La Cornue or Bertazzoni. I’m into it. I have read complaints that the hardware looks gold in online promotional photos but is actually rose gold-ish, and this is true—the color is not how it appears in photos. It definitely wouldn't be a direct match with gold hardware elsewhere in the kitchen. Brindle said the unusual hardware tone was deliberately matched to the fridge's hue.

Photograph: Kat Merck

“They took the accent handles into this bronze-rose-type color, because it’s in that same color space. That way it’s meant to be more of a designer-type look,” Brindle said. For what it’s worth, I love how the color looks in person, and I didn’t have any problem with it matching the existing brushed-nickel hardware in my kitchen. That said, none of my hardware is gold, so if yours is, you will want to bear this in mind.

Tucked Away

To maintain the appliance's clean lines, the water dispenser is inside the fridge, on the left inside wall, and the ice maker drops squareish, crescent-shaped cubes into a bin in the freezer. (I had to buy a scoop.) My family, who are used to the ice and water being in the door, hated this—it was a major complaint when I asked them for a test-end roundup of likes and dislikes. However, it was the only complaint.

Photograph: Kat Merck

The water filter is tall and slim and tucked far into the back corner, which enhances fridge capacity, but it will take a bit of work to install the filter correctly the first time. My advice: Turn it as hard as you possibly can, as far as you think it will go, and then turn it again. If it's not on all the way, which it probably isn't if you haven't really wrenched it, the water will taste terrible.

The lack of ice maker in the door allows for larger door bins, which you will need. To make full use of the fridge’s capacity (in my unit’s case, 17.8 cubic feet for the fridge, 8.7 for the freezer), the three shelves are only 7.5 inches tall—big enough for a jar of pasta sauce or can of soda, but too short for a carton of milk, bottle of sriracha or seltzer, salad dressing, and, well, a lot of things. If you don't want to remove one of the shelves, many of your groceries will be going into the door bins. But there is room, and this configuration is no different than many other brands' models. I also especially liked the look of the fridge's black interior, which Brindle mentioned is a signature feature in the Studio line.

Photograph: Kat Merck

Other LG fridge staples carried over to the Studio line include counter depth (24 to 30 inches) for a built-in look and the signature massive Glide N Serve drawer, which is available as a separate door on some non-Studio models. It runs the length and width of the fridge but is only 4.5 inches tall, so I use it for larger, flatter items like charcuterie boards and family-sized trays of raw meat.

While it's not exclusive to the line, the Studio also has LG's proprietary linear cooling feature. “When you open the doors, there’s air that circulates down in front, almost like an air curtain, to keep the cold air in," Brindle explained. “Consumers don’t notice, but it does keep the temperature more effectively.” Indeed, I didn't notice, but I am convinced this fridge keeps my food cooler than my old LG model did at its peak. LG's ThinQ app, available for all LG appliances, lets you manage the fridge's settings (including Sabbath mode), track usage data, diagnose problems, and receive alerts for filter replacements. One new ThinQ feature is the ability of appliances to adapt to user behavior via AI.

“Let’s say that you have kids and they, you know, come in every afternoon and are grabbing snacks and everything else,” Brindle said. “We know that, based on the data from the machine, you’re opening the door between 3 and 6 pm multiple times. We can cycle the compressor more frequently during that time, and control the temperature more effectively.”

Sure enough, I could see this happening on the app—it tracked every single time the door was opened and when, and showed how it had adjusted the power accordingly. Do I need to know that my family opens the fridge door an average of 15 times a day? I certainly do not. But I am glad that the ThinQ noticed this was more frequent in the evening and adjusted the fridge's power consumption from 36 watt-hours to 75 watt-hours during that time to keep my food cool, and I appreciate the ability to receive phone alerts if something goes wrong.

The Long Game

Several refrigerator mechanics I spoke to, including Sean Murphy of Duncan Home Services in Greenwood, Indiana, were bearish when I asked whether they were still seeing issues with LG fridges.

“Most of the time, before we get out there, we already know it’s going to be a compressor issue with LG,” Murphy said. "Most of the time these compressors are covered by warranty from LG, but the problem is that LG has a huge backlog of warranty claims, and their service providers can take weeks to fix the issue.”

Indeed, when my second LG broke, it was under warranty, and repairs could only be performed by an LG-approved technician, of which there were only a few in my area. It was a massive pain and took way longer than I felt it should have.

“Now the consumer has to make the decision to either wait weeks without a fridge and hope LG fixes it, or pay the up-front cost and hire an independent repair company to come out and fix their issues,” Murphy said. “We never recommend LG appliances to our customers based on the amount of issues we’ve seen with them.”

I asked Dean Brindle what he would tell consumers who might be hesitant to pull the trigger on an LG refrigerator based on past issues.

“There was a slight period of time there where we had some questionable compressors. I know there’s been a lot of press on that in the past,” he said. “Today, several of our dealers will actually tell you from their own repair data that LG has one of the top three most reliable compressors on the market—the service repair rates are really low.

“Out of the millions of appliances we ship each year, refrigeration is actually one of our top categories for performance and reliability,” he continued. “LG as a brand has America’s most reliable line of appliances, but this compressor issue just lingers out there, just from the legacy of having those bad experiences some years ago.”

It’s true that we ask a lot of refrigerators—no other household appliance is expected to run 24 hours a day while maintaining consistent subzero temperatures. And no contemporary refrigerators seem up to the reliability bar set by our grandparents’—or great-grandparents’—no-frills top-freezer Whirlpools and Kenmores. (Though given their simplicity, top-freezer refrigerators are historically more reliable than French door and side-by-sides.) In fact, Consumer Reports found that nowadays, refrigerators in general are some of the least reliable products they analyze—33 percent of them will require some form of repair by the time they’re five years old.

With that in mind, I like the look, capacity, and diagnostic features of the LG Studio fridge so much I would still probably buy it myself. I’d just make sure to have an LG-approved mechanic’s number taped to the side, and warranty information at the ready (two years comprehensive, 10 years parts-only on the compressor, for the Studio French door model)—something everyone should do these days, regardless of brand. I have had more good luck than bad with LG, and I hope the brand is eventually able to recover some lost ground. Brindle, of course, agrees: “For us, a bigger opportunity going forward is continuing to build legacy history with consumers and building out that reliability story overall.”