It comes in either silver or dark stainless steel, with a design that mimics wine chillers and commercial refrigerators, which means this model will be right at home in any chef-quality home kitchen or home bar. The door features a glass panel for easy identification of what you have inside and to help take stock of beverages and snacks at-a-glance. Mini fridges are almost synonymous with college dorm life, but they can be helpful around your home or office as well. They can provide extra cold storage for groceries like vegetables, fruits, and even meat or keep frozen meals close-at-hand for quick lunches at your desk. There’s even a model from Frigidaire that has a water dispenser in the door so you can refill your reusable water bottles whenever you like! In general, people who spend this much on a refrigerator tend to be even happier with their fridges, surpassing the already higher level of satisfaction among owners of the basic models.
If you need a bit of extra storage for groceries or beverages, opt for a model with at least 4 cubic feet of interior space and temperature controls for optimal cooling. If you want a mini fridge for your home or traditional office, choose a slightly smaller model to fit under or next to your desk but still has lots of space for water bottles and your lunchbox. If you’re looking for a mini fridge for your college dorm, an ultra-compact model will be your best choice, since you won’t have a lot of room for appliances.
You can find a few models with door dispensers on the Energy Star Most Efficient list, but they’re the exception. That said, we analyzed more than 28,000 customer reviews for 34 fridges, and we were able to pick out a few models that seemed especially prone to major malfunctions within the first few years of ownership. But even then, the gap between the most-reliable and least-reliable brands looks pretty narrow. And any company can sell you a dud and drag its heels on customer service, even if it has the best reputation.
Entertain in style when you shop models featuring sleek stainless steel or glass exteriors. Whirlpool brand offers a variety of options to complement your home. Mini fridges are a great solution when you either have very limited space or need somewhere to store excess items.
They’re often on sale for lower prices than similar Whirlpool models, so if you see one you like for a good price, go for it. There are plenty of other finishes to pick from, though they’re available on fewer models. Other neutral, brushed-metal finishes such Frigidaire fridge as black stainless or slate are common. Glossy black and white are still widely available, particularly on cheaper fridges. Whirlpool and GE sell a bisque finish, though we aren’t sure whether this cream color is a throwback to or a holdover from the ’80s.
Even if you have a communal fridge, you may want a separate place to stash your stuff, in case that one is too crammed to fit your latest grocery haul…or you can’t trust your roommates not to eat your lunch. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best dorm room refrigerators that can fit into even the smallest spaces, as well as some guidelines of things to consider before you haul one to school. If you want a wet or mini bar fridge, look for a model with a (double-paned) glass door.
It features both a refrigerator and a freezer section, each with its own door, so you can chill drinks or store extra groceries and even make extra ice for gatherings with family and friends. The refrigerator door has sections for storing cans as well as larger bottles, and there is an interior light that comes on when you open the door, allowing you to quickly see what you need even at night. The legs of this mini fridge can be adjusted to accommodate uneven floors in your kitchen or garage for optimal compressor performance and cooling.
This design may improve food preservation, but we haven’t looked into the topic and can’t verify that that’s the case. Our first major research project was a survey of Wirecutter readers, with more than 5,000 completed responses. This survey gave us solid data on overall satisfaction by brand and door style, an idea of the refrigerator features that make the most people the happiest, and some info about refrigerator reliability. If you have young adults going to college for the first time this year, this stainless steel mini refrigerator from Whirlpool is the perfect addition for their new dorm room and it’s now on sale for just $84.99. When looking for a dorm room refrigerator, it’s important to remember that those freezers are not meant for long-term storage.
You can always opt for an Energy Star certified model for even better energy efficiency and lower operating costs throughout the year. But keep in mind that use cases and environmental factors will have an impact on energy use. ZDNet’s No.1 choice is the Hisense LCR44D6NSE for its stainless steel design and ample interior space. We compared pricing as well as features like volume/capacity and Energy Star certification to determine our top picks. Compact fridges work well in small areas where every square foot counts and are ideal for apartments or small kitchens.
Frigidaire’s lineup really has no standout trait, except that some of its top-freezer models offer stylish pocket handles and glass shelves for lower prices than other brands’ top-freezer models with less-nice features. So, even if a deeper, standard-depth fridge fits your space, we think a counter-depth refrigerator is worth considering. According to our analysis of customer reviews, people who own counter-depth fridges usually find that the fridges have plenty of capacity, and they tend to be equally happy with their fridges overall. Counter-depth fridges are also arguably easier to organize and look better in most kitchens, plus they tend to use a bit less energy. We did spot a few patterns among Frigidaire, Whirlpool, and GE top-freezer models, though we’re not sure how conclusive they are. Whirlpool top-freezer fridges, for example, have significantly higher owner satisfaction and a very low rate of utter hatred.