LG Smart Mirror InstaView Counter-Depth MAX Refrigerator

The LG LRYKC2606S Smart Mirror InstaView Counter-Depth MAX Refrigerator is a stylish fridge with plenty of innovative features. But its biggest asset is industry-leading capacity, not the fancy add-ons.

Skip To Our Expert Review

Pros

Tons of space
Beautiful design
Whisper quiet
Great features
Consistent temperature
Four different types of ice

Cons

Glass smudges and scratches easily
Awkward hinge design
Doors slam shut

Buy From	List Price	Sale Price
LG	$4,099.99	$2,999.99	See It
Best Buy	$3,599.99	$2,999.99	See It

The LG Smart Mirror InstaView Counter-Depth MAX refrigerator is one of LG’s latest and greatest refrigerator models, having just been released this past summer. I have been using the LG LRYKC2606S fridge for several months now, and I’m ready to share my expert opinion based on the extensive testing that I have done.

LG is no stranger to kitchen appliances. According to revenue data from Statista, LG is the second-largest appliance maker in the world. The kitchen appliance market has become increasingly competitive in recent years, however, and brands are doing everything they can to set themselves apart. In the case of the LG LRYKC2606S French Door refrigerator, that means adding some intriguing bells and whistles to differentiate this model from its competition.

Some of LG’s marquee features in the Smart Mirror InstaView Counter-Depth MAX refrigerator are great, while others miss their mark. But the good news is that the LG LRYKC2606S excels in nearly every important area.

LG’s LRYKC2606S refrigerator is as close as I’ve seen any brand come to achieving the perfect counter-depth fridge. It does fall short in a few key areas, though, and I’ll tell you everything you need to know in this in-depth LG LRYKC2606S review.

What I love about this LG refrigerator
My biggest complaints
Should you buy it?
LG LRYKC2606S refrigerator specs

What I love about this LG refrigerator

I’m not going to drone on and on about the basic functionality of a refrigerator. BGR readers are a savvy bunch, and I’m certain that you all know how refrigerators work. Instead, I’ve decided to break this review into three main sections.

First, I’ll cover all of the LG Smart Mirror InstaView Counter-Depth MAX Refrigerator features that I like most. There’s a lot to cover, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise when you consider how much people love LG refrigerators.

Then, after that, I’ll describe all of my biggest complaints about this fridge model because I think they’re things that will bother you, the reader, as well. Are they deal-breakers? That’s for you to decide.

Finally, after I give you my verdict, I’ll dive into the specs and cover all of the important technical details of the LG LRYKC2606S refrigerator. That section can be found at the end of this review.

LG LRYKC2606S Smart Mirror InstaView Counter-Depth MAX Refrigerator — The in-door ice and water dispenser has built-in UV sanitizing. Image source: Zach Epstein for BGR

Capacity

There is absolutely no question whatsoever that my favorite thing about the LG LRYKC2606S refrigerator is its capacity.

If you’re like me and your kitchen requires a counter-depth fridge, I can practically guarantee that you’ve muttered obscenities at your refrigerator on more than one occasion. Maybe you were trying to squeeze in a platter that just wouldn’t fit. Perhaps you were having guests over, and you couldn’t squeeze in all the food you planned to serve. Even stuffing in a single pizza box from your favorite local pizzeria is impossible in most counter-depth models.

I’m happy to report that those days are behind me.

At 26 cubic feet, the LG Smart Mirror InstaView Counter-Depth MAX Refrigerator has the largest capacity of any counter-depth fridge I have ever tested. What’s more, all of the interior space is usable. The interior designs of the refrigerator space and the freezer space are both laid out in such a way that almost no space is wasted. In other words, you can use almost every inch of that 26 cubic feet of space.

I’ve struggled to fit even a week’s worth of groceries into some counter-depth refrigerators. I even bought a chest freezer because I couldn’t make do with the tiny amount of freezer space in my old refrigerator.

With the LG LRYKC2606S fridge, I have yet to even come close to filling the refrigerator space or the freezer. As a matter of fact, I can’t even remember the last time I opened my chest freezer.

InstaView door

While it’s true that the capacity is my favorite thing about the LRYKC2606S, it’s not the first thing I noticed. When LG first approached me about sending me a unit to test and review, it was the stunning design and the laundry list of nifty features that first caught my eye.

The name “LG Smart Mirror InstaView Counter-Depth MAX Refrigerator” is a mouthful, but it only highlights two of the many draws of this model. “MAX” refers to the capacity, which I have already covered. But the “Smart Mirror InstaView” feature is also a neat feature of the LG LRYKC2606S refrigerator.

As you can see in the images of this French Door fridge, the door on the right side has a reflective mirror finish. I have to say, that alone is pretty cool; I never realized how useful it would be to have a mirror in my kitchen. But the novelty of the InstaView door can be seen when you knock twice quickly on the glass. The LED lighting inside the fridge illuminates for 10 seconds, and the reflective glass surface becomes transparent so you can see what’s inside that half of the fridge.

While LG’s InstaView tech is cool, I have to say that it’s not something I find myself using on a day-to-day basis. The other feature of the InstaView door, however, is something that I absolutely love.

The door on the right-hand side of this refrigerator isn’t just a door. It’s actually two doors. There’s a small button hidden under the lower-left side of the door, and when you press it, the front panel pops open. This way, you can quickly and easily access items on the shelves without having to swing open the whole door.

This feature is great for two reasons. First, it gives you fast access to things that you use often. And second, it lets you quickly remove things from the fridge and put them back without too much cold air escaping.

Ice

I have now covered a few features of the LG LRYKC2606S refrigerator that appealed to me immediately. Namely, the large capacity and the sleek design. Now, it’s time to cover something that came as a bit of a surprise: Ice.

When I saw that this fridge model produced four different types of ice, truth be told, I didn’t think much of it. If I’m being completely honest, I might have even said to myself, “Who cares?” As soon as I began actually using the fridge, however, I immediately began to appreciate the LG LRYKC2606S refrigerator’s two different ice makers.

In the left door of the fridge, there’s a water and ice dispenser that can serve up two different types of ice: cubes and crushed ice. Technically, that’s only one type of ice — cubes — but I can give LG a pass here.

The real fun is on the upper shelf of the freezer drawer, where two novel types of ice can be found. First, we have mini cubes that my dog absolutely loves to chomp on. Then, there are also large spheres of ice that are perfect for cocktails.

I have been known to enjoy a good scotch, and I typically drink it neat. Given how cool the LG LRYKC2606S fridge’s ice spheres are though, I almost always opt for rocks these days.

Whisper quiet

One of the things I love most about the LG Smart Mirror InstaView Counter-Depth MAX Refrigerator is the fact that when I’m not using it, I don’t even know it’s there.

This LG fridge is whisper quiet, and that’s no exaggeration. The only time I ever hear any sound coming from the unit is when it drops a batch of ice. It’s awesome.

I can really appreciate how quiet the LG LRYKC2606S refrigerator is these days because of the unit it replaced. Prior to this, I had a Beko refrigerator in my kitchen that I was testing.

I’m a big fan of that Beko fridge too, as you can see in my review. But the compressor went fairly quickly on that unit, and the local company Beko used to fix it repeatedly made a mess of things. They gave up trying to fix it after the third attempt, so Beko ended up replacing it instead. The entire ordeal took several months though, and the compressor was very loud during that time.

Excellent temperature control

Last but certainly not least, I can’t say enough good things about the temperature control in the LG LRYKC2606S refrigerator.

Most fridges have certain areas inside that are colder than others. Even newer fridges are often too cold in some spots and too warm in others. You know exactly what I’m talking about if you’ve ever pulled a frozen head of lettuce out of your produce drawer while simultaneously wondering why the milk in your door is starting to smell even before the expiration date.

Meanwhile, the temperature is remarkably uniform throughout the inside of the LG Smart Mirror InstaView Counter-Depth MAX Refrigerator. I have repeatedly tested more than a dozen spots throughout the unit with two different infrared thermometer guns. I have yet to find a variance of more than one degree.

My biggest complaints

There’s a whole lot to like about the LG LRYKC2606S, as we’ve seen so far. But nothing is perfect, of course, and there are a few noteworthy complaints that I want to cover.

Door hinge design

Overall, I love the doors on the LG Smart Mirror InstaView Counter-Depth MAX Refrigerator. The dual-open InstaView door on the right is fantastic. The door on the left has plenty of shelf space despite housing a water dispenser and an ice maker. But there are also two things I don’t like about the doors, and the first is the hinge design.

Since the LG LRYKC2606S is a counter-depth fridge with 26 cubic feet of storage, you might assume that it’s quite deep and tall. In reality, neither is true.

At 70 1/4 inches tall and 29 1/8 inches deep, the outer dimensions of this fridge are pretty standard. However, in order to accommodate the unique door design, the doors on this refrigerator are very thick. That in itself means that the fridge is going to stick out pretty far beyond your cabinetry.

Compounding matters is the fact that LG used a hinge design that is, shall I say, less than ideal. My guess is that it was born of necessity in order to facilitate the dual door design on the right door.

Whatever the case, the hinges are situated in such a way that the front corners of the doors rotate too far back when the doors are opened all the way. Because of that, the doors will actually hit your cabinets if you try to position the fridge so that the main box is aligned with your cabinets.

As you can see in the image above, you have to pull the fridge out much too far in order to prevent the doors from hitting the surrounding cabinetry. It’s not the end of the world, but it does ruin the look a bit.

The doors will slam if you let them

As I mentioned earlier, there’s a second issue with the doors on the LRYKC2606S. If you release the doors instead of guiding them until they’re completely closed, they will slam. Every. Single. Time.

LG’s door design is great in that there are sunken handles on the top of the doors as well as underneath. This way, shorter people can easily pull them open from the bottom while taller people can comfortably pull them open from the top. That’s great, but neither handle position is comfortable when guiding the refrigerator doors closed. For that, you want front-mounted handles.

As a result, I tend to just release my grip on the doors as I slowly swing them closed. But because the doors are so thick and heavy, they slam shut pretty aggressively. Other people I’ve watched use the fridge have almost always let the doors swing shut, just like me. It’s the natural way to close this fridge because of the handle design and the weight of the doors. The result is always the same… SLAM.

Nothing has been damaged so far, but it is a bit jarring.

InstaView door glass has two key problems

Believe it or not, my last two complaints also involve the doors. What is up with these doors?!

In order for the InstaView feature to work, the face of the door on the right obviously has to be reflective glass. In some ways, that’s a good thing. It looks cool, and it also prevents any cold air from escaping. On the flip side of the coin, however, it also has a finish that is very fragile.

The first problem with the glass isn’t really an issue at all for me, personally: It smudges and gets fingerprints on it very easily.

Honestly, I don’t care at all about the smudges. It didn’t take me long to figure out where to grip the door to avoid getting prints on it. Then, about once a week, I wipe the few prints that other people leave with the cloth that came with the fridge.

The stainless steel surfaces do a great job of repelling fingerprints, so it’s really not a big deal so see a few here and there on the glass door. What is a big deal, however, is how prone the glass finish is to scratches and scuffs.

I don’t wear any rings. Neither does my wife. And yet there are several spots on the glass that now have permanent scuff marks on them. I have no idea what scratched the glass or when, but those marks are now there forever.

You can see a couple of the aforementioned scratches in the image above. Those aren’t just smudges that will wipe off, they’re scuffs that are impossible to get rid of.

Now that everyone in my house knows how fragile the glass surface is, we’re careful not to touch it most of the time. As a result, no new scratches or scuffs have appeared since we first noticed the issue. This is something that you’ll definitely have to keep in mind if you buy this refrigerator.

Leaky water dispenser

It has been about a month since I first published this review. Not much has changed since then, but there has been one new development. Unfortunately, it’s a bad one.

At some point during the last week in February, the water and ice dispenser on the front door of the fridge began to leak. It’s a very slow leak; I haven’t even seen any water drip out of it. Instead, all I see is the mineral deposits that are left after the water evaporates.

Here’s an image so you can see what I mean:

LG LRYKC2606S Water and Ice Dispenser — The water and ice dispenser developed a slow drip after about two months. Image source: Zach Epstein for BGR

I have contacted LG to discuss the issue, but I haven’t heard back yet. I’ll update this review as things progress.

After contacting LG about the issue, the company was quick to send out a technician who had a look. He was great, and he immediately figured out the issue. It was a combination of ice buildup in the tray since we never use the door ice, and the sediment in my (extremely) hard water.

The technician cleaned up the residue, disabled the door ice maker at my request, and we were done. I would’ve felt bad that he made the trip, but it turned out to be worthwhile for both of us.

While discussing how much I like the fridge, I mentioned the scratches on the glass as my only real complaint. He took a quick look and told me that the glass panel was covered under LG’s warranty and could be replaced for free.

I’ll see him again in a week when the new glass panel arrives and he returns to install it.

Should you buy it?

The LG LRYKC2606S Smart Mirror InstaView Counter-Depth MAX Refrigerator is, in a word, awesome. It’s not perfect — nothing is, after all — but it outshines comparable refrigerator models in nearly every important area.

This refrigerator has a gorgeous design, but it’s hardly a case of form over function. It’s incredible that LG managed a class-leading 26 cubic feet of capacity in a counter-depth refrigerator. That’s on par with many standard-depth refrigerators. LG’s LRYKC2606S fridge also cools evenly and has a great layout that maximizes the interior space.

Where bells and whistles are concerned, LG has you covered there, too. There are four different types of ice including adorable mini cubes and sophisticated ice spheres. The InstaView door is nifty, and its dual-open design is even better. This model also supports voice assistants (Alexa, Google Assistant) as well as integration with LG’s ThinkQ app. I find that most people don’t bother with those features, however.

There are a few problems with this model’s design, but nothing that I would consider a deal-breaker. It would be great if the hinge design allowed the fridge to be pushed back farther, and you have to be careful to avoid scratching the glass. Those two main issues, plus the other little niggles I covered, don’t come anywhere close to outweighing the LG LRYKC2606S fridge’s good qualities.

Simply put, you won’t find a better counter-depth refrigerator in this price range.

🚨

CHECK THE LATEST PRICES!

LG Smart Mirror InstaView Counter-Depth MAX Refrigerator

LG LRYKC2606S refrigerator specs

How big is the LG Smart Mirror InstaView Counter-Depth MAX refrigerator? How much capacity do you get on the fridge shelves and in the freezer drawers? Does it have French Doors? Will this refrigerator even fit in your kitchen?

Let’s take a look at the key specs for the LG LRYKC2606S refrigerator:

General

Product Name: 26 Cu. Ft. French Door Counter-Depth Smart Refrigerator with Mirror InstaView
Brand: LG
Model Number: LRYKC2606S
Color: Stainless Steel or Black Stainless Steel
Color Finish: Stainless steel or black stainless steel
Side Panel Color: Dark Silver