The LG LTCS20020S is a budget 30-inch standard-depth top freezer refrigerator. You can purchase an optional ice maker and install it in the freezer. There are three shelves in the fridge, two of which are height-adjustable, and two fixed-position door bins. There's a shelf in the freezer and two fixed door bins. This fridge uses a single evaporator and a single compressor; the compressor is a variable-speed inverter-type, an upgrade in efficiency over older fixed-speed compressors common in budget models.
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Our Verdict
The LG LTCS20020S is a decent option for everyday use. Its produce preservation performance outperforms other budget fridges, so it'll keep leafy greens wilt-free for longer than most refrigerators. It offers decent capacity in the fridge and freezer; though the storage arrangement is very simple, you'll have space to store large, wide, or tall items like bottles or pizza boxes. The temperature uniformity in the fridge and freezer is satisfactory, but the door bins are fairly warm, so you should only use these as a chiller to store canned beverages, condiments, and shelf-stable sauces.
Compartments are wide enough to be useful.
Produce bins retain humidity very well, slowing produce drying out and wilting.
Door bins are quite warm.
The LG LTCS20020S delivers satisfactory produce preservation performance. It retains moisture in its produce bins quite well despite the low humidity in the fridge, typical of a single evaporator design. Produce will dry out more slowly than average, preventing lettuce from wilting and celery from going soft for longer than other fridges.
Produce bins retain humidity very well, slowing produce drying out and wilting.
Dry fridge environment caused by a single evaporator.
The LG LTCS20020S offers decent refrigerator capacity. It's a little narrow, a natural consequence of its 30-inch width, and there aren't many storage options. Despite this, it's wide and tall enough for casserole dishes and bottles, and you can move the shelves to any of five positions to accommodate taller items. It has wide, deep door bins and two tall produce bins, though they're somewhat narrow.
Compartments are wide enough to be useful.
Few storage options, limiting flexibility for storing large or tall items.
The LG LTCS20020S delivers satisfactory freezer capacity. There's a single shelf that's high enough to provide useful storage for wide items like pizza boxes underneath. You can move the shelf upward and gain more space if you omit the optional ice maker. The door bins are deep and widely spaced enough to accommodate bags of frozen fruit or even small ice cream tubs.
Compartments are wide enough to be useful.
Ice maker takes up a lot of space in the freezer.
The LG LTCS20020S offers decent temperature uniformity. The difference in temperature between fridge shelves isn't too bad, but the door bins are considerably warmer than the rest of the fridge. You shouldn't store sensitive items like milk in the door bins, though they'd be fine for chilling condiments or beverages. The situation's a bit better in the freezer, but the bottom of the freezer is warmer than the top. It should still keep items well frozen, and you might want to keep ice cream lower in the freezer if you want it a little softer.
Freezer stays quite cold, items will remain well-frozen.
Door bins are quite warm.
Lower part of the freezer is warmer.
The LG LTCS20020S delivers excellent ice-making performance. Its ice production rate is remarkable, making plenty of ice daily for even large families. The ice tray can store an impressive amount of ice, enough for a large party.
Outstanding ice production rate.
Impressive ice tray capacity.
Performance Usages
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
There are several variants of the LG LTCS20020. They only differ by color or surface finish. We tested the stainless steel LTCS20020S; here's its product label.
| Model | Color or Surface Finish |
|---|---|
| LTCS20020S | Stainless Steel |
| LTCS20020W | White |
| LTCS20020V | Stainless Look |
| LTCS20020B | Black |
If you find another variant, please let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Popular Refrigerator Comparisons
The LG LTCS20020S stands out from other budget top freezer refrigerators for its surprisingly well-sealing produce drawers and its excellent ice-making abilities. It retains moisture in its produce bins extremely well, better than most single evaporator refrigerators and even some high-end dual evaporator refrigerators. It outperforms the similar Frigidaire FFTR1835VW for produce preservation, though it falls a bit short of the standard set by the GE GTS22KGNRWW. LG's optional ice maker is excellent, providing more ice than almost all top freezer fridges, and it has greater ice storage capacity than the Whirlpool WRT311FZDW. The LG's biggest issue is the poor temperature uniformity of its door bins, as they're much warmer than the rest of the fridge. Despite this issue, the LG is a solid all-around performer for anyone short on space.
Test Results
The LG LTCS20020S has decent refrigerator storage capacity. It has a simple interior storage arrangement, with three shelves, two produce bins, two door bins, and a covered dairy bin. While many budget top freezer fridges have a deli drawer, there's no deli drawer in this LG. On the bright side, you can move two of the shelves to any of five height positions, providing flexibility for storing taller items like bottles or containers of fresh herbs stored in water. The produce drawers are tall but fairly narrow.
The door bins are at fixed heights, but the bottom bin is spaced far enough from the middle bin to store tall items like wine or champagne bottles. These bins are also fairly deep, although only the bottom one provides adequate vertical space over its entire width.
This refrigerator offers satisfactory storage capacity in the freezer. There's only a shelf and two door bins. The door bins are deep and wide enough to accommodate bags of frozen vegetables, and the shelf is high enough to allow space for a fair number of wide items underneath, like pizza boxes, a family-sized lasagna tray, or value-pack boxes of chicken cutlets. You can raise the shelf if you don't install the ice maker. The ice maker takes up an enormous amount of space, particularly with its gigantic ice tray. If you opt to use the freezer without it, the usable space in the freezer increases to 4.5 cu ft (128.6 L).
The cooling system in this refrigerator consists of a single evaporator and a single inverter compressor. Single evaporators and single compressors are the norm for budget units like this fridge, but an inverter compressor is an upgrade from older fixed-speed compressors. An inverter-powered compressor can vary its speed based on load. It saves power and can lead to better temperature control. Unfortunately, this scheme adds an inverter controller board loaded with electronic components, creating an additional failure point.
This refrigerator comes without an ice maker, but you can purchase LG part LK65C and install it yourself. This ice maker sits in the freezer, which is a better location from a reliability perspective than one in the fridge cabinet, common with French door refrigerators. It's also an ejector-style ice maker. It makes the ice in a metal mold, heats the mold to detach the ice, and uses a motor to turn a plastic rake to eject the ice into the tray below. The ejector-style is more reliable than the twist-type ice maker, which twists a plastic ice tray to remove the ice. The plastic ice tray can get brittle over time and crack.
The LG LTCS20020S provides decent temperature uniformity in the refrigerator. The upper shelf trends warmer than the middle and lower shelves by a few degrees, though this difference isn't enough to affect food items.
The door bins are considerably warmer than the rest of the fridge. You should only use these bins as a chiller for condiments, sauces, or beverages, and not temperature-sensitive items like milk or sour cream.
The freezer delivers decent temperature uniformity. Some differences exist between the freezer areas; the freezer gets warmer the further away you place items from the evaporator vent at the top. You shouldn't notice much difference in your frozen food, but you might want to put ice cream at the bottom of the freezer if you like it a little softer.
The temperatures swing a bit as the compressor cycles. It's not enough to affect frozen food, but it's a bit more pronounced than other fridges with inverter compressors.
This refrigerator's produce preservation performance is decent. Though the fridge's humidity drops very low due to the single evaporator, the produce drawer's humidity remains quite high since the produce bins seal well. Its great moisture retention prevents produce from drying out too quickly and will allow you to keep leafy greens like lettuce wilt-free and celery firm and crunchy for a fairly long time.
If you store produce outside the crisper drawers, it won't fare well for very long because the fridge compartment's humidity is very low.
