LG LBC24360ST Refrigerator Review

Performance-wise, the LBC24360 will be perfectly fine for most situations, but we uncovered a few specific weaknesses in testing. First, the crisper drawers really have trouble keeping vegetables sufficiently moist, which will hasten spoilage. Second, the freezer can't bring down the temperatures of food fast enough, which will impact the flavor and texture of food you freeze yourself. If vegetable crispness and flash freezing aren't priorities for you, this fridge is an attractive—albeit expensive—option.

Otherwise, check out the myriad of Amana/Maytag/Whirlpool/KitchenAid bottom freezers that this LG competes against.

Design & Usability

Attractive and innovative

LG fridges frequently have beautiful interiors, and this is one such example. The spacious fridge compartment is brightly lit by white LEDs, and although most of the trim is white—not silver—we do get the classy diamond embellishments on the bottom of the crispers. In the fridge, shelves and drawers slide with ease, Down in the freezer, however, we found that both pull out drawers become wiggly and hard to move when laden with frozen food. On the fridge door we get two shelves with customizable, clip-on partitions, as well as a butter tray and a flip-up adjustable shelf that folds out of the way of tall items like wine bottles.

Unlike other bottom freezers, the freezer door isn't a drawer. It swings open, and features indentations so you can slide out freezer shelves even when the door isn't fully open. The freezer door has recessed handles, while the fridge door has a traditional handle. Temperature controls are at the top of the fridge, and use numeric temperature readouts instead of an arbitrary "cold to colder" scale. Here you'll also find buttons for Ice Plus (which, according to LG, increases ice production by 20%) and and alarm that beeps if you leave the door open.

Performance & Features

Strong test results, but two quirks

Solid temperature consistency throughout the fridge and freezer compartments lead to generally excellent scores for the LBC24360. We think the vast majority of users will be satisfied by this model's performance, but two key tests drag down the overall package.

In the crisper drawers, we measured rapid moisture loss. Our tests showed that your produce may dry out at almost twice the speed of fruits and veggies in the average fridge. If you're having trouble getting the kids to eat their celery, this appliance won't help.

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The LBC24360's freezer also takes its sweet time bringing room-temperature food down to 32°F, taking about two hours when other freezers can do it in close to half that time. This will have an adverse effect on the taste and texture of frozen meats. If you buy in bulk and freeze what you can't use, watch out.

For in-depth performance information, please visit the Science Page.

Conclusion

A fridge with wide appeal

If you're looking for a generally competent refrigerator with an attractive design, the LBC24360 is a fine choice. We love the bright, customizable interior, with digital controls and innovative storage. Rock-steady consistency inside both the fridge and freezer will delay spoilage and sidestep freezer burn, and sufficient insulation will keep your frozen foods frozen during a power outage.

But if you're a very serious home chef, the sort who worries about subtle flavors and variances in texture, you should consider buying a different refrigerator. This LG's crispers can't retain moisture, and its slow freezing times might lead to tough meat and rubbery veggies.

While the expensive, attractive LG LBC24360 is wrong for some, it's great for most. Just make sure you wait for a sale.

The Cold Hard Facts

The LG LBC24360 returned great scores across the board, minus two test results that were way below average: crisper drawer humidity and freezing time. Other than these tests, performance was excellent.

Temperature Performance

Despite setting the temperature of the fridge compartment for 37°F, actual temperatures averaged 40.98°F, too hot for ideal food storage. Still, at least temperatures were consistently off by this much, drifting only as low as 39.76°F and as high as 42.04°F. Since bacterial growth can accelerate in foods stored above 41ºF, we recommend you turn the temperature down if you buy this fridge.

The freezer, on the other hand, was perfect, averaging -2°F. It was also consistent within about 3°F, and such consistency should help prevent freezer burn.

Moisture Retention

Here's where things start to go wrong. We put a standard vegetable substitute in a fridge's crisper drawers and weigh it daily to see how moisture it loses. Over the course of three days, test materials inside this LG's crispers lost an average of 0.33 grams of water per hour, or roughly twice as much as we'd see from the average refrigerator at this price range. Veggies stored in this fridge will dry out and lose their flavor and texture much faster than they would inside a better performing model.

Freezing & Thawing

Thawing—or rather, the absence of thawing—was fine for this well-insulated freezer. We simulated a 36-hour power outage by unplugging the fridge, and measured the temperature of the food substitute we stored in the freezer. It never came close to 30°F. In fact, after 36 hours, test materials in this freezer only reached 21.70°F.

It is with freezing in the first place where this model has trouble. The freezer took a whopping 1 hour 56 minutes to bring room-temperature test materials down to 32°F, and that will mean more damage to the taste and texture of frozen meats. Other freezers in this price range are more than 40 minutes faster.

Storage Space & Energy Efficiency

LG lists the LBC24360 at 22.4 cu. ft. of internal storage space, and that's pretty close to our actual usable storage space measurement of 16.87 cu. ft. (that's 12.24 cu. ft. in the fridge, and 4.63 in the freezer, after deducting obstructions). Since we've also calculated the LBC24360 will cost average families about $35.60 to operate each year, that works out to a running cost of 0.06 KW/h per cubic foot, which is quite efficient.