The Frigidaire FRFN2813AF is a mid-range 36" standard-depth French door refrigerator. It sits squarely in the manufacturer's mainstream range, below units from the higher-end Frigidaire Gallery and Frigidaire Professional model lines. It boasts a high-capacity interior, an internal water dispenser, and a twist-tray in-freezer ice maker, ideal placement as far as ice makers go. Its cooling system is fairly standard overall, with a single evaporator and an inverter-controlled compressor.
We've recently started testing refrigerators. We purchase each unit independently from major retailers, just like you, to keep our reviews free of manufacturer influence. Each refrigerator undergoes the same tests to measure objective metrics such as temperature uniformity, produce preservation, and actual storage capacity, so you can easily compare results.
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Our Verdict
The Frigidaire FRFN2813AF is a decent option for everyday use. It has plenty of storage space inside its fridge cabinet, making it a solid option for larger families that require big grocery runs. Its freezer is a little small for a unit of this size, however, with an almost vestigial upper shelf. Refrigeration performance is, unfortunately, a bit of a mixed bag. It doesn't do the best job of keeping fresh produce crisp, and there's a significant degree of variation in temperature inside the fridge cabinet and fridge doors, to the point where we'd only recommend keeping shelf-stable items in the doors.
High-capacity fridge cabinet.
Generously sized lower bins in freezer.
Freezer temperatures are extremely uniform.
Dry fridge environment leads to premature wilting of fresh produce.
Inconsistent temperatures within fridge cabinet, especially the door bins.
Upper freezer shelf isn't particularly spacious.
The Frigidaire FRFN2813AF's produce preservation performance is only fair. This is a single-evaporator unit that's unable to maintain a high-moisture environment in the fridge cabinet. Its crisper drawers also don't seal all that tightly, resulting in a relatively high degree of moisture loss from produce stored inside. Expect items like lettuce or spinach to begin wilting within the span of a week, even from within the produce drawers.
Dry fridge environment leads to premature wilting of fresh produce.
The Frigidaire FRFN2813AF has excellent capacity in its refrigerator. The cabinet is deep and wide, offering plenty of alternative configurations, thanks to its four movable shelves. The crisper drawers can also accommodate large amounts of fruit and vegetables, and the full-width deli drawer offers enough room to keep cheese wedges or even meal prep containers out of the way. The door bins are also roomy enough to fit jugs of juice or liter bottles of soda.
High-capacity fridge cabinet.
The Frigidaire FRFN2813AF's freezer capacity is decent. The upper shelf isn't particularly useful, especially with its enormous ice tray in place, and can really only be used for smaller boxed items or bags of frozen fruit or vegetables. The lower bins are thankfully rather deep and can be used for bulkier frozen goods.
Generously sized lower bins in freezer.
Upper freezer shelf isn't particularly spacious.
The Frigidaire FRFN2813AF's temperature uniformity performance is a mixed bag. Freezer temperatures are amazingly consistent, with minimal difference between the upper shelf and lower bin, so you don't have to worry about items like ice cream being soft if stored on one shelf and frozen rock-solid if left on another. Unfortunately, there's a noticeable degree of temperature variance across the refrigerator cabinet. The top shelf is a few degrees warmer than the bottom, but the coolest door bins are a few degrees beyond that, making them unsuitable for long-term storage of temperature-sensitive goods like milk or cream.
Freezer temperatures are extremely uniform.
Inconsistent temperatures within fridge cabinet, especially the door bins.
The Frigidaire FRFN2813AF is a good option for making ice, as long as you aren't in a hurry. Its ice production rate is among the slowest we've tested. If you've invited friends over and plan to serve drinks, and haven't had a chance to start filling the ice tray, we'd advise running to the grocery store and grabbing a bag of ice. However, if you've had upwards of a week to plan and start filling the tray, you'll be pleased to note that its ice tray can hold almost 15 pounds worth of ice, enough for some fairly large parties.
Very large ice tray.
Incredibly slow ice making rate.
Performance Usages
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
This fridge is only available as a single variant: FRFN2813AF, with a stainless steel finish. For those interested, here's the product label for the model we bought and tested.
If you come across another variant of this fridge, let us know in the comments below so that we can update our review.
Popular Refrigerator Comparisons
The Frigidaire FRFN2813AF is a relatively basic mid-range French door fridge. Its defining characteristic is its massive refrigerator cabinet, which can handle large grocery runs without too much hassle, with more overall capacity than alternatives like the Maytag MRFF4236RZ or the GE GNE27JYMFS. That said, it lags behind those models in terms of general refrigeration performance, with inferior produce preservation performance and less consistent fridge temperatures. While the placement of its ice maker in the freezer reduces overall complexity, its twist-tray design is more likely to fail than a comparable unit with an ejector-style unit.
If you're shopping for an alternative, see our recommendations for the best French door refrigerators, the best refrigerator brands, and the best refrigerators overall.
The Samsung Bespoke RF30BB6200QL is a higher-performing fridge than the Frigidaire FRFN2813AF. The Samsung provides more consistent fridge temperatures and has a dual-evaporator design that results in a more humid fridge cabinet, helping to keep fresh produce crisp for longer. That being said, as far as serviceability is concerned, Samsung's service network is less robust than Frigidaire's, and you'll have an easier time finding replacement parts for the latter, too.
The Maytag MRFF4236RZ is a better overall fridge than the Frigidaire FRFN2813AF. The Maytag provides a more humid in-fridge environment to extend the lifespan of fresh produce stored inside, and temperatures inside the fridge cabinet are more consistent to boot. While its ice tray is considerably smaller than that of the Frigidaire, its ice maker is of the more robust ejector-style type, rather than the latter's twist-tray style unit. With all that being said, the Frigidaire does provide a considerable amount of extra room inside its fridge cabinet.
Test Results
The Frigidaire FRFN2813AF has an amazing amount of interior space in its refrigerator cabinet. The space is deep and wide, making it a relative cinch to fit larger casserole dishes or bulky items like an entire turkey. The split shelving setup also makes for a highly flexible interior space with room for taller items. There's a full-width deli drawer for keeping meats and bulky wedges of cheese out of the way, as well as a pair of high-capacity crisper drawers that can fit a fair amount of fruits and vegetables.
The door bins are all of a similar depth and can be used to hold larger beverage containers or canned drinks stacked back to back. That being said, the in-door water dispenser does take up a small chunk of real estate along the left door. Unlike the Samsung RF32CG5400SR, there are no additional recessed shelves along the bottom of the doors for fitting smaller items.
Freezer storage space is decent. Compared to the similarly sized Samsung RF32CG5400SR, the FRFN2813AF's upper drawer is shallow, and while the semi-open design allows you to slot in longer objects, you also run the risk of things tumbling outward as you open it. Quite a bit of that space is monopolized by the ice maker, too: removing it increases storage volume to 4.16 cu ft (117.75 L), which is still less than some other alternatives. On the upside, the lower bins are quite generously sized.
The Frigidaire FRFN2813AF's cooling system is pretty conventional for an appliance in this price range. It uses an inverter-controlled compressor and a single evaporator in the freezer.
Generally speaking, from a performance perspective, a dual evaporator cooling system would be preferable to a single one such as this. Dual-evaporator designs can help make for a more humid environment inside the fridge cabinet, extending the lifespan of fresh produce, and a lower-humidity environment in the freezer to cut down on frost buildup. That said, single-evaporator designs are less mechanically complex and do present fewer points of failure.
This Frigidaire's inverter-controlled compressor makes for more precise temperature regulation and more efficient operation versus a simpler fixed-speed compressor: the latter needs to cycle on and off to maintain a temperature setpoint, whereas an inverter model can simply run at a slower speed continuously.
This refrigerator has a twist-tray ice maker in the freezer. As far as placement goes, this is ideal: freezer ice makers don't require additional cooling gaskets or insulation like in-fridge ice makers do for proper ice formation, reducing potential failure points.
Unfortunately, twist-tray style ice makers tend to be more failure-prone than ejector-style units, the other type of ice maker you'll run into in household applications. Twist-tray ice makers use a flexible plastic mold, which can become brittle and crack over time in the sub-zero temperatures.
This fridge has a simple in-door water dispenser, triggered by a large fill button.
Part availability for this specific model is strong. Most parts that see a lot of wear and tear are consistently available from several major US parts suppliers at any given time. Parts that are critical to the functionality of the fridge, like the main PCB or evaporator coil, can be a little more sparse in terms of supply, though they're consistently available from at least one major supplier at any given time.
Frigidaire has a far-reaching network of authorized service providers. With the exception of more rural states along the US-Canada border, you shouldn't have to search very hard to get in touch with a reputable technician to execute in-warranty repairs.
The refrigerator temperature uniformity is mediocre. The upper shelf is notably warmer than the lower and middle shelves, so you're better off keeping things like milk and yogurt lower in the cabinet. The door bins show an even higher temperature offset than that, and we'd recommend them mainly for chilling shelf-stable items, like condiments, pickles, and unopened drinks.
Unlike its fridge cabinet, temperatures inside this unit's freezer cabinet are incredibly uniform. There's hardly any difference in temperature from the bottom bin to the top shelf, so you don't have to be too tactical when it comes to unpacking your groceries.
To note, the spikes in temperature are due to this unit's evaporator defrost cycle. They're quite brief and are unlikely to have an impact on food preservation in the short to medium-term, though it's something to be wary of if you regularly keep items in your freezer for years at a time. If that's part of your specific use case, we'd recommend that you look towards a unit with a manual defrost system instead.
The produce preservation performance is only fair. This refrigerator's single-evaporator design results in a fairly dry environment inside the fridge. You can expect produce with a high water content, like lettuce, spinach, or celery, to begin wilting in under a week when stored in the main cabinet. The crisper drawers don't seal as tightly as they do in some other alternatives, like the Maytag MRFF4236RZ.
The Frigidaire FRFN2813AF's ice production rate is sub-par, falling well short of other fridges like the Samsung RF32CG5400SR. In testing, its ice tray took 10 days to fill, well beyond the average, with most units we've tested accomplishing the same task in six days or so. Inspection of the water line and freezer temperature didn't reveal any obvious culprits either.
This issue doesn't seem to be isolated to our test unit, with users on social media reporting a similar problem. If you own this fridge and have noticed a slow ice production rate, let us know in the comments below.
While it takes quite a while to fill, the Frigidaire FRFN2813AF's ice tray is massive and can hold enough ice to cool drinks for larger gatherings.
The Frigidaire FRFN2813AF is on the louder end of the scale for a fridge with an inverter compressor, which are typically quieter than their fixed-speed counterparts. It isn't loud enough to keep you up at night, but its background hum might be a tad distracting if your kitchen is near your living room, office, or bedroom.