Recently I spent quite a lot of time researching my next fridge, and LG's linear compressor issues caught my attention. To make it worse, they purposely avoid the word "linear" in their new product specs, for example, "Inverter Linear Compressor" now becomes "Smart Inverter Compressor". There are many confusing and misleading reddit posts. Many people swear the "Smart Inverter Compressor" is not the linear type, thus it should be more reliable. Wrong!!!

After extensive research, I hope to put everything together and settle this confusion at once.

Regardless of LG's marketing terms, there is an accurate way to check whether your fridge model uses linear compressor or not. Here is how:

1. Get your fridge's model number. For example, LRFWS2096S, a French door fridge where they call their compressor type "Smart Inverter". If you already have the fridge at home, you can simply open the rear panel to find out your compressor model number and go to step 6 directly.

2. Go to https://lgparts.com/ and search parts with your fridge's model number. In this example, I search for LRFWS2096S

3. If you cannot find your model number, most likely it has a different color, for example, you won't find LRFWS2906V (a stainless steel look), but you will find LRFWS2096S (real stainless steel). All parts should be identical.

4. In the parts list, search for compressor. The LG part number of the compressor for LRFWS2096S is TCA37971203, and a substitute part is TCA36811409.

5. Look closely on the image, search for the model number. For example, TCA37971203 has the following image. Alternatively, you can also just do google image search. The model number starts with FLD*****.

6. According to LG's compressor catalogue, you can easily tell this is a linear compressor, because the model number starts with the letter "F". https://www.lg.com/global/business/download/resources/CT00000308/LG_Catalogue_Linear+Reciprocating%20Compressor[20211026_124201].pdf

7. Please note that the LG part number may correspond to more than one model, but one thing for sure, they must be either all linear, or all traditional, they are not interchangeable. You can also search the manual to find out the exact compressor model number.