How Many Cubic Feet is my Refrigerator?

Measuring the space inside your refrigerator might not be your first choice of activity for a Saturday afternoon, but it has its purposes.

Perhaps you're planning to buy a week of meal-prep kits described as fitting in an 18 cubic foot fridge, or you're moving house and need to check that your fridge meets the movers' policies on what size they'll transport.

The space inside a Whirlpool fridge can vary greatly from model to model, as can the capacity of a Samsung fridge or LG refrigerator. You can't make any assumptions, so there are two different options for checking your fridge capacity for sure: finding the information using your model number OR measuring your refrigerator manually. Let's go through each in turn:

A) Find the info

There may be a sticker inside or outside the fridge with the model number. Alternatively, if you bought the fridge online, you could find your confirmation email with the model details. Once you know that, you can check on the manufacturer's website to find your fridge capacity.

It's worth noting that some modern fridges have a QR code that can be scanned with your cell phone. Once scanned, your phone will automatically launch a web browser and take you directly to information about your refrigerator.

B) Measure up

You've probably already given up on option A, and that's what brought you here. If the label has been removed, you don't have a confirmation email, or the model information is no longer available on the manufacturer's site, then don't worry: you'll just need a tape measure.

How to measure the inside of a fridge, freezer, or side-by-side refrigerator

1. If the fridge is very full, you'll need to temporarily remove enough food to give yourself some measuring space.
2. It's important to measure the space inside the fridge, and not the dimensions of the fridge exterior.
3. Measure the length, width and height of the space inside the fridge. Make sure you note them all down in the same unit! Mixing inches with cm, for example, will give you an inaccurate calculation.
4. Multiply the three numbers together.
5. 

Length (feet) x Width (feet) x Height (feet) = Volume in cubic feet (written as Xft³)
   
   Example: 5.8ft x 1.8ft x 2.2ft = 22.97ft³

You can use our cubic feet calculator to check your answer, or if you want to calculate cubic feet from inch or centimetre measurements. If you want to measure in units other than feet, you'll find instructions in the page too.

How do you calculate the volume of a refrigerator in litres?

If you want to find out how many litres your fridge can hold (or liters, if you're that way inclined), then there's good news: there is a somewhat easier way than lying it flat on its back and seeing how many bottles of Pepsi you can empty inside the cavity.

When you measure the inside of the fridge, take the measurements in metres before you multiply them together. That will give you the cubic metres (m³), and you can multiply that number by 1000 to convert it into litres.

Length (metres) x Width (metres) x Height (metres) = cubic metres (written as m³)

Example: 1.8m x 0.6m x 0.7m = 0.76m³

0.76m³ x 1000 = 760 litres.

If you want some help with converting between cubic metres and litres, or between any other units of volume, we've got a handy free volume converter here to help you.

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