Comments on: Small extra fridge

Question: Small extra fridge

suleikacasilda — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 13:34:34 -0800

Please help me choose a secondary fridge (in the UK) - for an upcoming party and perhaps to keep after that.

We're living in a small one-bedroom flat with a galley kitchen, and we have a 90cm side-by-side fridge-freezer something like this one. We're having a party in early Jan and we were thinking of borrowing, renting or buying another fridge or drinks cooler to put in the living room. But it occured to me that a compact one might be useful as a permanent fixture, since we're always bemoaning our lack of fridge space. It would be great to shop for fresh food twice a week instead of almost every day.

We probably have enough space in the living room for a standard under-counter one, and certainly a compact one, although we'd probably prefer one or two smalller ones (mini-bar size) which could be hidden in a cabinet eventually.

My two main concerns are:

Noise (are there different types of fridge, some noisier than others?)

Food safety (are drinks coolers or hotel mini-bar-style fridges less safe for things like meat?)

Ebay has some 30 litre (1 cu ft) ex-hotel mini-bar fridges on sale for £50 including postage which, the seller boasts, are pretty much noiseless. That would be great in our living room/office. I travel a lot and I don't remember ever being woken up by a loud mini-bar clicking on and off in any hotel room, but are they really consistently quieter than a normal kitchen fridge? And do they have decent temperature regulation?

By: chrismear

chrismear — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 15:09:49 -0800

I'm almost certain that I've read about mini-bar fridges not being good enough to keep food safely cold enough for long periods.

If you look at consumer fridges designed for drinks, like this one, you'll see that they have a temperature range from 4 °C to about 15 °C. Refrigerated food, on the other hand, should be kept below 4 °C.

If you're going to be putting food in it, I'd make sure you get a fridge that's designed for that purpose.

From my experience with mini-fridges, some of them have substantial gubbins hanging out the back, while others seem to put a lot of it (including the compressor/pump stuff) actually inside the plastic case. The latter kind are quieter, for obvious reasons. However, this does make the inside of the fridge weirdly shaped, since there'll be a big lump sticking in where the gubbins lives (if you see what I mean), rather than just having a big rectangular space.

By: suleikacasilda

suleikacasilda — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 12:48:38 -0800

Thanks for this (and sorry it's belated). You're right about the temperatures. So we've decided to just buy a small, cheap, average-noise fridge to stick in the corner of the living room, and if we can't stand if afterwards we'll sell it or give it away.