The Best Cheap Mini Fridge Reviews by Wirecutter

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. Frigidaire is a solid name in the refrigerator industry, and the 1.6-Cubic-Foot Compact Fridge is a great affordable, no-frills solution. While taking up minimal space, it has enough room for one or two bottles of wine, six packs, and several smaller items. We spoke with several refrigeration experts, including the folks at Liberty Home Guard, to find out what makes a good mini fridge, what to avoid, and how to take care of one in order to ensure it lasts for years.

We also checked to see what other reviewers recommend as well as what home users have to say. Our most important criteria was the ability to maintain safe temperatures for food storage, but we also took into consideration size and features. On this list you’ll find a variety of models for different needs and situations. The glass shelves easily slide out for when you need to make space for extra large items or when you need to clean the inside of the mini fridge. The stainless steel door adds a touch of modern style to any space and even coordinates with tool chests and workbenches in your garage. Stocked with a full width freezer and multiple compartments, the Whirlpool 3.1 Cubic Feet Mini Refrigerator offers multiple ways to organize your food and drinks.

They’re ideal for storing drinks, snacks, daily lunches, and leftovers, and the larger ones can also store perishable items for a few days at a time. You can read more about how we evaluate mini fridges in our Lab — plus everything you need to know to shop for your perfect mini fridge for your dorm or office — at the end of this guide. Just like full-size fridges, we tested mini fridges in laboratory conditions and used them normally over the course of a week. This combination of approaches gives us a great sense for how these appliances behave, both in terms of raw performance and overall user friendliness. A product must have both of these qualities in order to earn our recommendation. There are a few reasons this fridge isn’t for everyone, though.

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. There’s nothing more valuable than fridge space for home cooks. If you find yourself in constant awe at how fast your fridge fills up, it may be time to consider investing in some extra real estate with a mini fridge. These compact appliances can suit any space and still have ample room to comfortably house everything from extra soda cans and wine bottles to leftovers and groceries.

Small refrigerators come in different sizes to accommodate various needs and spaces. Whether you’re looking to save space and store excess items with a small or mini fridge, or keep beverages cold with an undercounter model, a small refrigerator is a perfect and practical addition to any home. Here are the best deals we could Frigidaire fridge find on a mini-fridge for college students – each priced under $200 with free shipping! All of these have separate freezer compartments and double doors. Just to reiterate, we think most mini fridges will work absolutely fine for storing drinks and some food for a few days at a time, as long as they have a compressor.

whirlpool mini refrigerator

This model has a single wire shelf that can be removed, making it easier to lug around when moving in and out of dorms or when you need to wipe out the mini fridge. Keep your snacks, drinks, and groceries cool in this 2.7 cu. You can even store frozen items in the compact 1/2 width freezer compartment.

Choose the ideal temperature for whatever you’re storing with convenient, up-front controls. Sellers participating in our shopping program provide pricing and product information to Bing. Compensation from these sellers is one of several factors that influences ranking of these results. Find out more about our approach to personalized ads and how to opt-out. We discovered which stainless steel pans really sizzle, not to mention shallow fry, steam and saute.

We did like the design of its can dispenser rack, as it lets you load cans in from the middle as well as the top. The Galanz GLR31TBEER features a 1950s, classic car aesthetic and comes in a variety of different colors. This mini fridge offers the most storage area out of all the models we tested, measuring a whopping 3 cubic feet—about 0.5 cubic feet larger than the rest of the pack. This 3.1-cubic-foot model is our top choice because it has two doors, one for the fridge and one for the freezer. Because the freezer is a separate compartment it’ll be able to keep foods frozen solid, so you can safely use it to store meats and poultry or a supply of frozen dinners.

One of the Arctic King ATMP032AES’s best features is its stainless steel facade, which looks nicer than some of the other, glossy-plastic-facade mini fridges we tested. 4.3 cubic feet is huge for a mini fridge, so this won’t slide under a desk, but $35 per cubic foot is a solid price. That said, colleges are close to summer break, so you might be able to find mini fridges on local listings for much less. The US federal government issues the certification to the most energy-efficient appliances available.