This work was carried out in order to study heat transfer by natural convection in domestic refrigerators without ventilation. Only the refrigerating compartment was studied for three configurations: empty refrigerator, refrigerator equipped with glass shelves and refrigerator loaded by product. Both experimental and numerical approaches were used. The simulations were carried out using CFD (computational fluid dynamic) software by taking into account or by neglecting radiation heat transfer. The following conditions were assumed: constant evaporator temperature, three-directional laminar air flow. Numerical results show temperature stratification in the refrigerating compartment (warm zone at the top and cold zone on the bottom) for all configurations. A comparison of the calculated air temperature and the experimental values shows good agreement when radiation is taken into account. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.