Fridge repair statistics
The fridge is the third most repaired appliance: 171,499 interventions recorded in the Archimede management system from July 2019 to March 2026, accounting for 18.9% of all interventions (906,994 total). Roughly one in five.
The fridge has a distinctly different fault profile from the washing machine and the dishwasher: a single fault dominates nearly half of all requests, one brand is well clear of the rest, and error codes are almost irrelevant. This page examines the data in detail. All figures come from the activity of service centres that use the proprietary Archimede management system.
For the overview across all appliance types: appliance repair statistics.
Most common faults
The fridge presents the opposite picture to the washing machine (4x11%) and the dishwasher (15%): a single fault — "not cooling" — accounts for nearly half of all requests. It is the most concentrated result of any appliance category in the Archimede database.
Show the full data table
| Fault | Occurrences | % |
|---|---|---|
| Not cooling | 55,001 | 45.6% |
| Won't start | 16,205 | 13.4% |
| Water leak | 9,110 | 7.5% |
| Ice build-up | 5,889 | 4.9% |
| Noise | 5,470 | 4.5% |
| Won't freeze | 4,119 | 3.4% |
| Over-freezing | 3,566 | 3.0% |
| Door seal | 3,339 | 2.8% |
| Alarm | 3,065 | 2.5% |
| Won't turn on | 2,757 | 2.3% |
Worth noting: temperature-related faults — not cooling, ice build-up, won't freeze, over-freezing — together account for 56.9% of all cases. The fridge is the appliance where the primary symptom is almost always the same: "it's not cold enough." Engineer guidance: fridge not cooling, water leak, noisy fridge, faulty door seal, too cold or not cold enough.
Most repaired brands
Samsung is the most repaired fridge brand by a considerable margin — nearly double the second place (Whirlpool, 9.1%). For washing machines, no brand exceeded 10%. The distribution reflects Samsung's strong market presence, not its reliability.
Show all brands with full data
| Brand | Interventions | % |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung | 29,085 | 17.0% |
| Whirlpool | 15,587 | 9.1% |
| Ariston | 14,648 | 8.5% |
| LG | 14,252 | 8.3% |
| Liebherr | 9,204 | 5.4% |
| Electrolux | 7,867 | 4.6% |
| Bosch | 7,592 | 4.4% |
| Beko | 7,360 | 4.3% |
| Indesit | 6,229 | 3.6% |
| General Electric | 5,317 | 3.1% |
| Smeg | 5,191 | 3.0% |
| Rex | 4,989 | 2.9% |
| Candy | 4,914 | 2.9% |
| Haier | 3,412 | 2.0% |
| Amana | 2,754 | 1.6% |
| Siemens | 2,687 | 1.6% |
| Miele | 2,267 | 1.3% |
| Hotpoint | 2,220 | 1.3% |
| AEG | 1,774 | 1.0% |
| Other | 24,150 | 14.1% |
Worth noting: Liebherr (5.4%) and General Electric (3.1%) appear in the rankings only for the fridge — they are specialist refrigeration brands. Amana (1.6%), another cold-storage specialist, is likewise almost exclusively a fridge entry. Whirlpool and Ariston (same corporate group) together account for 17.6% — roughly matching Samsung on its own.
Most frequent error codes
The fridge has the fewest error codes of any appliance in the Archimede database. In the overall ranking, a single dishwasher code (E15 Bosch) has 4,429 occurrences. The most frequent fridge code — F02 Liebherr — has just 50. Fridges have less sophisticated on-board diagnostics; the customer tends to describe the symptom ("it's not cooling") rather than read a code from the display.
| Code | Brand | Fault | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|
| F02 | Liebherr | Alarm | 50 |
| A02 | Ariston | Not cooling | 48 |
| A01 | Ariston | Not cooling | 46 |
| E04 | Beko | Ice build-up | 44 |
| E01 | Haier | Not cooling | 32 |
| E02 | Beko | Display issue | 22 |
| E13 | Beko | — | 15 |
| F04 | Liebherr | Door seal | 14 |
| E01 | Beko | Not cooling | 12 |
| E01 | Franke | Not cooling | 12 |
The numbers speak for themselves: the fridge is not an "error code appliance". Liebherr is the only brand with a code above 50 occurrences, thanks to the diagnostic displays on its premium models. Beko appears three times (E04, E02, E01) with low figures throughout. Samsung, the most repaired brand, has no codes in the top 10 at all — Samsung customers almost invariably describe the symptom rather than report a code.
Fault profiles by brand
The dominant fault — "not cooling" — leads for every brand, but at markedly different rates. On Whirlpool and Ariston it approaches 50%, whilst Samsung sits at 37.7%. Samsung, however, has "water leak" at 14.2% — nearly triple the category average — a figure likely linked to the prevalence of side-by-side models with built-in water and ice dispensers.
Samsung — 20,340 interventions
| Fault | Occurrences | % |
|---|---|---|
| Not cooling | 7,671 | 37.7% |
| Water leak | 2,898 | 14.2% |
| Won't start | 2,623 | 12.9% |
| Ice build-up | 1,260 | 6.2% |
| Noise | 1,061 | 5.2% |
Whirlpool — 11,520 interventions
| Fault | Occurrences | % |
|---|---|---|
| Not cooling | 5,669 | 49.2% |
| Won't start | 1,457 | 12.6% |
| Water leak | 633 | 5.5% |
| Noise | 571 | 5.0% |
| Alarm | 540 | 4.7% |
Ariston — 10,982 interventions
| Fault | Occurrences | % |
|---|---|---|
| Not cooling | 5,452 | 49.6% |
| Won't start | 1,548 | 14.1% |
| Water leak | 615 | 5.6% |
| Noise | 538 | 4.9% |
| Ice build-up | 448 | 4.1% |
LG — 10,076 interventions
| Fault | Occurrences | % |
|---|---|---|
| Not cooling | 4,494 | 44.6% |
| Won't start | 1,304 | 12.9% |
| Water leak | 849 | 8.4% |
| Won't freeze | 682 | 6.8% |
| Noise | 570 | 5.7% |
Liebherr — 6,018 interventions
| Fault | Occurrences | % |
|---|---|---|
| Not cooling | 2,362 | 39.2% |
| Won't start | 793 | 13.2% |
| Ice build-up | 422 | 7.0% |
| Alarm | 401 | 6.7% |
| Door seal | 363 | 6.0% |
Worth noting: Whirlpool and Ariston have "not cooling" at roughly 49–50% — one intervention in every two concerns the same problem. Samsung sits lower at 37.7% but has "water leak" at 14.2%, nearly triple the average (7.5%): Samsung side-by-side fridges with water and ice dispensers generate considerably more plumbing-related faults. Liebherr has "alarm" at 6.7% and "door seal" at 6.0% — both above average, likely linked to the sensor arrays in its premium models and the greater attention Liebherr owners pay to seal integrity.
Explore the Lab
Full overview: appliance types, brands and most frequent faults
Ranked by frequency, grouped by appliance type
The most frequent problems for each appliance, in the customer's own words
Faults, brands, error codes and fault profiles by brand
Faults, brands, error codes and fault profiles by brand
Source and methodology
The data covers fridge interventions recorded in the proprietary Archimede management system from July 2019 to March 2026 (171,499 interventions out of 906,994 total). These figures do not represent the appliance repair market as a whole, but the activity of service centres that use the software.
Brand distribution reflects commercial market share. A brand with a high number of interventions is a widely sold brand — not necessarily a less reliable one. Fault classification is based on what the engineer records at the time of the intervention.
Other Lab pages: appliance repair statistics, appliance error codes, common appliance faults, washing machine repairs, dishwasher repairs.