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DEAL WATCH: Keurig K-Express | 22% off $69.99

Keurig has changed the face of coffee, and snagging one of these for less than $70 is a solid deal. Read Review

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  • Design and Features

  • Performance

  • Related content

  • Warranty

  • What the owners say

  • The Bottom Line

  • Design and Features
  • Performance
  • Related content
  • Warranty
  • What the owners say
  • The Bottom Line

And this refrigerator also has two features meant to impress: A built-in water pitcher that refills automatically, and the FlexZone cold drawer, accessible from the outside, that adjusts to different temperatures for meat, soft drinks, deli/snacks, and wine.

The self-filling pitcher is a unique attribute
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

The Samsung RF23M8070's built-in, self-refilling pitcher is uniquely convenient. It takes up some room in the left-hand door, but it's a great feature, so it's worth it.

We brought this counter depth French-door fridge into our labs, and spent a week testing it to see if it works as great as it looks. The answer is, not quite.

Design and Features

Samsung really upped its design game with this streamlined refrigerator. The smooth, four door looks of the black stainless steel exterior (also available in regular stainless), space-saving counter depth profile, and unique built-in automatic water pitcher are standouts. The control panel is a pleasure to use.

You can choose a temperature setting for the cold drawer to match the types of foods in the drawer
Credit: Reviewed.com / Jackson Ruckar

The control panel makes it easy to set temperatures in each compartment. You can customize the cold drawer to match different types of food.

Not only does this model’s cold drawer have four temperature settings, which you can set for whatever you’re storing there—it could save you money, too. Kids can grab a snack without letting cold air out of the main fridge compartment.

On opening the main doors, the LED lighting scheme is brilliant, bright without glaring. The door bins are spacious, though the pitcher takes up storage space on the left. Shelves are very stable, though they are difficult to remove for cleaning. Crispers are built to hold in humidity.

The lighting scheme is bright, but not uncomfortably bright
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

The refrigerator's lighting scheme is excellent—bright, but not blindingly bright. It makes it easy to see whatever you're storing in there.

In the freezer, the top drawer one doesn’t open smoothly, and it's a challenge to open the drawers individually.

The top freezer drawer wobbles when you open it
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

The refrigerator's top freezer drawer doesn't open smoothly when it's full. Since it will usually be full once you bring it home, you'll need to open it carefully.

Performance

Beauty isn’t enough. For freshness and safety, a refrigerator needs to keep your food consistently cold.

When we measured, the refrigerator temperature averaged near 40°. That’s a little too warm—your food keeps better when the temperature averages 37°. If this were your fridge, you would want to adjust the temperature down, regardless of what it said on the control panel. If you keep the fresh food compartment cooler, that gallon of milk won’t start to stink so quickly, especially since you're probably storing it in the door.

There's room for gallon jugs in the door bins
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

Although the door always stays at a higher temperature than the interior of any refrigerator, people love the convenience of storing gallon containers of beverages in the door bins.

The freezer compartment did better. Its temperature fluctuated a small amount over the course of our tests, but it averaged 0°, and that’s exactly what we look for. Freezer burn shouldn't be much of a problem there. However, don’t think you can turn on the freezer and pack it with frozen fries and popsicles right away. In our tests, the freezer took 134 minutes to cross the freezing point, and that’s slow.

When crispers retain humidity, they can be your produce’s best friends, keeping it fresh and crunchy. The drawers in this fridge do an admirable job of that.

The crisper drawers do a good job holding in moisture
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruck

The crisper drawers do an excellent job holding in humidity, which helps fruits and vegetables stay crisp and fresh.

We project that this refrigerator will cost you $42 a year to run.

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Warranty

Samsung's warranty on this refrigerator covers one year parts and labor, five years parts and labor on the sealed refrigeration system only, and 10 years parts and five years labor on the digital inverter compressor.

What the owners say

Most owner reviews are positive, praising the refrigerator’s sleek looks, internal water pitcher, and adjustable cold drawer. Is this refrigerator reliable enough to store your family's groceries? The main fridge compartment seems fine.

Complaints we saw point to problems with the icemaker. Some say it's so small, it can barely keep up with their ice needs. The icemaker stopped working shortly after purchase for a few owners, and those people say that they found Samsung’s customer service to be less than helpful.

The icemaker caused problems for some owners
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

Some owners reported issues with the icemaker. This is not too unusual—it's often the first thing that causes problems for any refrigerator. We'd advise you to keep an eye on that, if you buy this refrigerator. And to contact your retailer immediately, if your icemaker quits.

The Bottom Line

If it’s so well designed, why aren’t we giving this gorgeous refrigerator our wholehearted recommendation? We discovered some quirks.

  • The locks on the shelves are very hard to open. Moving a shelf should be easier than this.
  • On the factory settings, the refrigerator temperature was high. It's easy to adjust, though.
  • The freezer temperature is fine, but the upper freezer drawer is wobbly and hard to open when fully loaded. That’s not what we expect from a refrigerator at this price point.

If you're not deterred by the price, and your top priority is elevating your kitchen's style with this awesome-looking fridge, you should purchase it from a retailer that offers excellent customer service, just in case you need it.

Or, you could look at a different refrigerator. The GE Cafe Series CYE22UELDS Counter Depth Refrigerator is one of our highest rated French-door counter depth models. It lacks the fourth door and the water pitcher—but it will brew coffee for you with a built-in Keurig.

Meet the testers

Cindy Bailen

Cindy Bailen

Editor

@orangesandlemon

Cindy Bailen loves writing about major appliances and home design and has spent over 15 years immersed in that. In her spare time, Cindy hosts pledge programs for WGBH-TV in Boston and other public television stations.

See all of Cindy Bailen's reviews
Kyle Hamilton

Kyle Hamilton

Product Tester

Kyle Hamilton is a product tester at Reviewed, specializing in home appliances and technology.

See all of Kyle Hamilton's reviews

Checking our work.

Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.

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