The LG STUDIO SRFB27W3 is a high-end 36-inch French-door counter-depth refrigerator. It shares the same internals and layout as the LG LRFLC2706S, but rebranded under LG's more upmarket STUDIO lineup, which gives it a slightly more sophisticated look with an available white matte-finish exterior, brass touchpoints, and an interior finished in dark gray plastic. It features an inverter-controlled compressor and a single evaporator, and shares the LRFLC2706S' Counter-Depth MAX design, which gives it more interior capacity than most conventional counter-depth units.
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Our Verdict
The LG STUDIO SRFB27W3 is decent for everyday use. It offers more capacity than many comparable counter-depth French-door refrigerators, and its split shelving in the fridge cabinet makes the space easy to reconfigure to your needs as well. Temperature uniformity is also largely a plus point, though it's worth noting that only the right door receives an adequate amount of cool air for chilling temperature-sensitive foodstuffs. Unfortunately, its produce preservation performance falls well below average, and as a result, you can expect delicate greens to begin wilting in about a week or so.
Large overall fridge capacity for a counter-depth unit.
Temperatures are highly consistent inside main fridge cabinet.
Superb overall temperature consistency in freezer.
Deep lower storage bins inside freezer compartment.
Doesn't maintain a humid environment inside the fridge compartment, leading to mediocre produce preservation performance.
Only one fridge door receives adequate cooling from specialized vent.
The LG STUDIO SRFB27W3 delivers mediocre produce preservation performance. This is largely due to its single evaporator design, which results in a dry fridge cabinet and poorly-sealing crisper drawers. Delicate greens like lettuce or celery will lose their moisture quickly, and you'll begin seeing wilting in about a week or so.
Doesn't maintain a humid environment inside the fridge compartment, leading to mediocre produce preservation performance.
Poorly-sealing crisper drawers.
The LG STUDIO SRFB27W3 provides good refrigerator capacity. Both the fridge and freezer compartments are deeper than most counter-depth units, making it easier to fit longer items like family-sized casserole dishes. The space is also fairly reconfigurable, with four movable split shelves, a pair of produce drawers, and a full-width deli drawer. The door bins are also big enough to fit bulky items like gallon milk jugs, though only two of them can be moved up or down to make space for taller items.
Large overall fridge capacity for a counter-depth unit.
Split shelving provides additional flexibility in fridge compartment.
The LG STUDIO SRFB27W3 has good freezer capacity. Like the fridge cabinet, the freezer cabinet is very deep for a counter-depth model. It's also laid out in a pretty simple manner, essentially consisting of two pairs of pull-out bins. The upper one is really only suited for shorter items, but the lower one can fit bulky boxed items or family-sized pints of ice cream.
Deep lower storage bins inside freezer compartment.
The LG STUDIO SRFB27W3's temperature uniformity performance is excellent. Temperatures don't vary much from the top to the bottom shelf, so you don't have to be overly fussy when unpacking your groceries. That said, only the door bins on the right side of the fridge receive the benefit of the LG's Door Cooling+ vent, with the left side really only being suitable for chilling less perishable items. Things are uniformly positive in the freezer, where there's only a negligible difference in temperature from the top to bottom shelf.
Temperatures are highly consistent inside main fridge cabinet.
Superb overall temperature consistency in freezer.
Only one fridge door receives adequate cooling from specialized vent.
The LG STUDIO SRFB27W3 provides great ice-making performance. If you're starting from an empty tray, its daily ice production rate is a little on the slow side, and it'll likely run out if you're serving drinks for a small three or four-person get-together. That said, when filled, its ice tray can hold enough ice for considerably bigger events than that, though you still might want to invest in a bag of ice if you're needing to serve more than ten people or so.
Fairly large ice tray.
Ice production rate isn't sufficient for large gatherings.
Performance Usages
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
This refrigerator is available in two color variants: Essence White and Stainless Steel. We tested the Essence White model, and for those interested, here's the product label.
Let us know in the comments below if you come across another variant of this refrigerator so that we can update our review.
Popular Refrigerator Comparisons
The LG STUDIO SRFB27W3 is a high-end 36-inch counter-depth French-door refrigerator. It offers a noticeable amount of extra capacity in both its freezer and refrigerator cabinets versus comparable counter-depth units like the Fisher & Paykel Series 7 RF201AHJSX1. It also does a good job of maintaining consistent temperatures in both cabinets, admittedly with the asterisk of its Door Cooling+ vent only cooling the food in one of the refrigerator doors. Its single-evaporator design is unfortunately a bit of a weakness for a fridge at this high a price, which plays a part in its mediocre produce preservation performance; segment standouts like the Bosch 800 Series B36CT80SNS do a far better job in this regard. This isn't the SRFB27W3's biggest issue, however. That would be the LG LRFLC2706S, which is mechanically identical to the chic-looking STUDIO model and provides identical performance, all the while being available for substantially less.
If you're interested in an alternative, see our recommendations for the best French door refrigerators, the best counter-depth refrigerators, and our picks for the best refrigerators.
Test Results
The LG STUDIO SRFB27W3 offers good refrigerator storage capacity. Its layout and sizing are essentially identical to those of the LG LRFLC2706S, which is a good thing for the most part. Capacity is fairly impressive for a counter-depth unit, and the interior has a handful of thoughtful touches like a quartet of split shelves to more easily fit taller items, a pair of produce drawers, and a full-width deli drawer. Like the cheaper LRFLC2706S, the latter is quite deep, to the point where the lowest door bins are shortened to make space for it.
The door bins are also big enough to fit bulky items like gallon milk jugs, though you can only move two of them to make space for taller items like narrow-necked bottles.
The LG STUDIO SRFB27W3's freezer storage capacity is good. It's laid out in a simple fashion, consisting only of a pair of pull-out drawers and a movable divider partitioning the lower bin. Despite the fridge's counter-depth design, the space itself is impressively deep, effectively extending all the way to the back of the refrigerator, giving it similar overall capacity to a standard-depth unit. The lower bins are sufficiently deep to accommodate wide or bulky items like family-sized boxes of frozen meals, tubs of ice cream, or pizza boxes. The ice tray doesn't take up all that much space: removing it from the freezer only slightly increases its capacity to 5.0 cu. ft. (141.75 L).
This refrigerator's cooling system is fairly simple, especially considering this unit's high asking price. It has a single evaporator in the freezer and an inverter-controlled compressor. The single evaporator setup is somewhat unusual for a fridge at this high a price point, and results in a drier fridge cabinet (and consequently inferior produce preservation performance) than dual-evaporator alternatives like the Bosch 800 Series B36CT80SNS.
Like the LG LRFLC2706S, this unit has an inverter-controlled compressor, which confers slight benefits to temperature consistency and power efficiency versus simpler fixed-speed units that need to cycle on and off to preserve the setpoint. That said, the inverter control board does represent a potential point of failure versus a simpler fixed-speed component.
This refrigerator has a twist tray-style ice maker, which functions by way of a motor twisting a plastic mold to release ice cubes from within so they fall into a separate tray. Compared to an ejector-style ice maker, the other main type of ice maker found in household refrigerators, this design is more likely to fail prematurely, as the plastic mold can crack due to frequent thermal cycling and mechanical stress.
The LG STUDIO SRFB27W3 has a simple in-fridge water dispenser consisting of a low-profile button-activated nozzle that you can press with the lip of a glass. This method of operation can make it difficult to fill thick-walled glasses. You also need to be careful when storing items inside the fridge, not to leave anything too close to the button lest something fall against it and cause a minor flood inside your fridge.
Temperature uniformity is excellent overall, with a caveat or two. Temperatures remain remarkably consistent from the top to the bottom shelf, so there's no need to worry about items reaching near-freezing temperatures on one shelf or being left overly warm if positioned on another.
This fridge shares the Door Cooling+ vent with the cheaper LG LRFLC2706S, which is meant to blow a "curtain" of cold down the front of the refrigerator cabinet to cool the door bins. However, as we discovered on the LRFLC2706S, this vent doesn't actually extend all the way across the width of the fridge, with only the right door bins receiving the brunt of the cooled air. That makes them great for storing temperature-sensitive items like milk or cream, but you'll only want to use the considerably warmer left-hand bins as a chilling area for soda or juice.
Temperatures inside the freezer are incredibly consistent. There's little real-world difference between the top and bottom shelves here, so you can store groceries wherever it's convenient rather than having to move temperature-sensitive items like ice cream to a specific spot. The SRFB27W3's inverter-controlled compressor also minimizes temperature swings while it's maintaining the setpoint.
Produce preservation performance is mediocre. As is typical for a single evaporator fridge, humidity inside the fridge compartment is quite low, and produce will lose moisture quickly if it's stored in that space.
Even inside the crisper drawers, produce isn't likely to last that much longer, as they do a poor job of sealing in moisture.
