Among the standouts in Consumer Reports current refrigerator Ratings is an LG bottom-freezer whose overall score of 81 is one point shy of the lead. The $1,350 CR Best Buy features French-door styling with contoured doors and hidden hinges; LED lighting; a spacious 18-cubic-feet of usable capacity; and a temperature-controlled meat/deli bin. But where the LG excels the most is with its efficiency. Its average annual energy cost of $49 is lower than all but two models from the 180 we've reviewed.

To be fair, the LG doesn't have built-in ice and water dispensers, features that increase a refrigerator's energy consumption. But there are plenty of refrigerators that earned excellent energy-efficiency scores in our tests even with ice and water dispensers. For example, the very highest-scoring model in the current Ratings, a Whirlpool Gold French-door bottom-freezer , features both dispensers and costs just $58 per year to operate on average.