When working from a home or traditional office, having a mini fridge for drinks, lunches, and snacks is a nice perk to have. And the Frigidaire EFR494 almost feels like it was designed for use in an office. The matte, retro design won’t stand out too much from the rest of your office furniture, and the door hinge is reversible so it can open to the left or right.
If you’re looking for a spot to store extra drinks, the Frigidaire 6-Can Mini Retro Beverage Fridge’s 14-cubic foot construction is the perfect choice. It’s small enough to fit on top of a desk, nightstand, or countertop and its portable design makes it double as a cooler. Owen Burke is a Senior Home and Kitchen Reporter at Insider, helping craft a brand new guides section for Insider Reviews. Ever in search of the perfect espresso, he focuses on espresso machines and equipment, juicers, kitchen knives, grills, meat and seafood, and the odd outdoors product. Some even end up purchasing two of these fridges to store side by side, using one as a fridge and one as a freezer. Note that if you do use this fridge as a freezer, you’ll want to be hypervigilant about condensation and be sure to get a good seal every time you open and close the door.
We have to note that the Energy Star Most Efficient list feels a little incomplete, or maybe built around questionable criteria. When you do the math on energy use per cubic foot of storage, there are plenty of big, stylish French-door models that beat out some of the smaller, more homely top-freezer models. Large fridges can also mean fewer trips to the store, which might Arctic King mean less driving . Then again, huge fridges also have a way of turning into graveyards for lost, wasted food. GE’s side-by-side models received a notably mediocre satisfaction rating in our survey, and other reviewers are lukewarm on them, too. Our data suggests that these models have more nuisance-type problems with reliability than most other brands’ side-by-sides.
You can put a small, affordable top-freezer fridge in a big cutout meant for a humongous, expensive French-door model. Bigger fridges do tend to make people much happier than smaller ones, according to our reader survey and analysis of customer reviews. Many people buy the widest fridge that fits their space and budget and often one that’s very deep , too.
Why go all the way to the campus cafeteria or dorm lobby for a cold drink when you can easily just get it out of this mini fridge in the corner of your room? Trust us, your kids will thank you and so will their new roommate. However, units can be built in as long as the space/ventilation requirements indicated in the owner’s manual are met. The front of the appliance should be left open so that air can circulate around the appliance. In the age of TikTok, aesthetics are king, and while this may seem frivolous to some, a mini fridge can also be used to elevate a small space.
You’ll also want to factor in where you might place it, once you consider the major furniture that’s provided—and that you’ll be bringing with you. Great for placing in cramped spaces or uneven surfaces , this sleek refrigerator livens up even in the most uninspired of dorms. The silver pull-handle and ornamental details give it a retro vibe, plus, it has a built-in side bottle opener, so you don’t need to rummage for utensils to crack one open. Consider replacing your old fridge and recycling your old second refrigerator.
Wide but shallow fridges, like counter-depth French-door models, might represent a happy medium. These fridges are big enough to help minimize shopping trips, they might reduce the amount of time you spend looking for items, and they are compact Frigidaire fridge enough to save some energy. Any prediction about reliability is based on data about older fridges. That’s a reasonable way to try to do it, but there isn’t much of that historical data to begin with, especially outside of the five major brands.
To your account to save and access your shopping cart on your desktop, tablet, or mobile device. Tossing out an old window AC unit is complicated—but with major potential consequences for improper disposal, it’s worth doing it right. If you want to try to thread the needle with a big, good-looking fridge that isn’t on the Energy Star Most Efficient list but is still pretty efficient, here are some rules of thumb to help you narrow your search. The Café CVE28DP4NW2 has LED lights across its back wall for better visibility, an auto-fill water dispenser, and compartments with humidity controls.
GE Appliances is owned by Haier, which also sells the budget Hotpoint and city-sized Haier brands, though we don’t have much info about those. If your knob is a dial that has a blue strip, the darker blue/thicker side indicates the coldest setting. If your model has a thermostat with temperatures in °C /F, set it to the coolest temperature. Danby’s refrigerators and freezers operate at a sound level between 35 and 46 decibels. This is within the normal decibel range for modern refrigerators.