Tropical countries like India, the ambient temperature reaches to 45-50°C in the summer and higher ambient temperature directly impacts the energy required by the household refrigerator. This paper presents an experimental performance of a domestic refrigerator incorporated with a phase change material (PCM)-based condenser in parallel to the conventional wire-and-tube air-cooled condenser for the climatic conditions of India. It is proposed to operate the refrigerator with the PCM-based condenser, while the ambient temperature is higher during the day, otherwise with the air-cooled condenser. Due to large latent heat storage capacity of the PCM, the condenser temperature would not increase significantly. The COP of the PCM-based condenser was 28\% higher as compared to air cooled condenser for 60min which reduce to 3\% as PCM temperature reached to 33°C. The energy consumption is lower by ∼15\% in 312h of refrigerator experimentation with the proposed modification. © 2017 World Scientific Publishing Company.