In-home review: LG LDNS-22220S fridge with bottom freezer

For many, buying large appliances is right behind public speaking on the list of biggest fears: It’s daunting for a lot of people. It’s likely because you so rarely need to do it that the specs, features, and costs are a total mystery. Add to that the changing model numbers, the difficulty of side-to-side comparisons, and the fear that you might have to go to a store where a sales associate will endlessly badger you while you’re looking, and it’s not anyone’s idea of a good time. Even after you’ve made a choice, you can’t exactly take it home for a test run, and return it if you’re unhappy.

So the best plan is to do precisely what you’re doing right now: Research. Check out lots of reviews. I did weeks of research before choosing my new fridge: I opted for the LG LDNS-2222-0S 30” Bottom Drawer Freezer Refrigerator. I’ll share what it’s like to use, how organized it is or isn’t, plus what I think of it now that I’ve had it for a about a year and a half.

Review: LG LDNS-2222-0S fridge with bottom freezer

Let’s start outside; the fridge is streamlined in its stainless skin, and it blends right into my low key space. No big logos or weird lights. The freezer on this model is in the bottom, in a large pull-out drawer, while the top section is all fridge.

Let’s go inside and we’ll start with the fridge.

The fridge has 22 cubic feet of space and measures 29 ¾ x 68 ½ x 34 ⅞ inches. The size of your fridge is pretty important, as you need to find something that will fit the space you have without sticking out or requiring a lot of cabinetry work. But at the same time, it’s got to hold all your food, and make it easy to access.

Fridge: Layout/compartments

The LDNS22220S has two adjustable shelves made of tempered glass with plastic frames that span the entire unit. The top of the two fruit and vegetable drawers below form a third shelf that it fixed in place.

Shelving isn’t optimal

Having just two shelves is a bit limiting, and you can see I’ve tried to adjust it as best I can with taller shelves created on the bottom and top and a narrow one in the middle. That’s actually one of the big downsides with this fridge—there’s not a lot of places to store tall items like milk cartons, wine or tall condiments.

I think I’m making the best use of space with this configuration, but it’s not ideal, in my opinion. I’d love to have a flip-up shelf or removable panel so I could convert some of this area to taller storage, but these shelves are all glass and have no special options.

Fruit & Veg drawers

The fruit and veg drawers are a bit on the shallower side from what I’ve been used to but they seem to hold a lot. They’re clear, but the handles do block some of your view to the inside. I should also note that the crosspiece cracked in two just a few weeks after we got the fridge. Since it was under warranty, LG sent a service tech out and the piece was replaced right away, but it does feel pretty flimsy and brittle. Even so, we’ve not had any issues since.

Vents let you adjust humidity and airflow, but I rarely notice a difference when I do this so I largely leave these alone.

Wide deli drawer

Below the crispers is the much deeper Glide and Serve meat and cheese drawer. This is probably my favourite feature of this fridge. The drawer has a lid of sorts that lifts and lets you pull the drawer out so you can slip in wider, flatter things like cheese trays and pies. Day-to-day at my home we use it for deli items and the occasional bottle of wine on its side. The clever clear lid means you can always see what’s in there.

In-door storage

Moving over to the door, there are several storage options here:

The door has two deeper shelves with clear sides, for things like condiments, plus a very narrow shelf along the bottom. This little shelf is surprisingly versatile and is a great place to stash tiny bottles to keep them from getting lost. The only downside is you can’t really see them unless you crouch.

Butter tray, flex storage, nothing for eggs

Above the bigger door shelves is a butter tray at the top. Plus a semi-handy flip down shelf with a big lip. Great for storing odds and ends so they won’t fall out, but when it’s flipped down it does again severely limit taller items.

I should also note this fridge has no specific egg storage: we keep our eggs in cartons on a shelf.

There’s plenty of LED lighting inside, though it’s limited to the top, it is nice and bright and a change from my old single bulb refrigerator.

Benefits of Single Door over Double Door

I’m a major devotee of a single door refrigerator. They are just so much easier to manage. You can use them one-handed, and you don’t need to put things down to pry open two doors to get things in and out.

The most significant difference you’ll see between single and double-door refrigerators is on your electricity bill. Single door models tend to use between 30-40% less electricity. This has a lot to do with the fact that double-door models tend to be larger, thus needing more power to keep everything cool. Double-door models also tend to be more expensive, and the door storage is often compromised, as the doors tend to be narrower and you lose space to the seam.

With this door, it moves smoothly, though the magnets are pretty strong, and sometimes the door can stick if you don’t pull from the right angle. But that’s not a big deal.

Benefits of Bottom Freezer

The freezer in this model is in the bottom.

The refrigerators of yesteryear always had the freezer at the top of the unit, at eye level. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it also doesn’t make much sense. Ask yourself how often you open your fridge door versus how often you need something from the freezer—it makes way more sense to have your most used items at eye level, and I love this configuration.

Freezer layout: LG LDNS-2222-0S

In the LG LDNS-2222-0S there is one big drawer, but divided up into a couple of ways. There’s a shallow drawer on the top and a bigger deeper divided drawer below it. The biggest downside to this freezer is that the top drawer doesn’t slide out very far, meaning I’m constantly reaching back in for things. The top also has no compartmentalization whatsoever, so it was up to me to add in some containers to keep things organized.

In the bottom the divider definitely helps keep it from becoming a lost pit of frozen foods, but because the drawer is so very deep, things do tend to get piled on one another.

Motor & Guts

The LDNS22220S contains LG’s Linear Compressor, which is a fancy way of saying that the part that makes your food stay cold is spread out along the back of the fridge and has vents in many places around the inside to ensure everything is evenly cool. The motor for the Linear Compressor has a 10-year warranty.

Overall review: LG LDNS22220S fridge with bottom freezer

Overall, I think this is the best fridge I could get for my budget and space available. I like the minimalist design and exterior, and I love the bottom freezer configuration. The LED lighting is bright and the Glide and Serve drawer is versatile, roomy and helpful. When it comes to what doesn’t work well, this fridge it severely lacking space for taller items like milk, juice and bottle storage. The dual glass shelves also don’t have a lot of reconfiguration options that make sense. The freezer top drawer is also rather limited in its reach and accessibility, though it does hold a lot.

Even so, I think this is a good fridge that will work for us for a long time. I would like to experiment one day with a slightly larger fridge and a new design, so if you have any recommendations for me, post them in comments.