Mini fridges or compact refrigerators come with different sizes. And to satisfy customers’ needs, many compact fridges also have a freezer for more purposes. If you are looking for a great option for your house, this article will help you with lots of useful information about the best mini fridges with freezer.
Special features of compact fridge
Mini fridges are becoming more popular because of the following features.
- Space saving and light weight
In case you want to store your food but do not have a large enough space, these mini fridges can be beneficial a lot. Most of the available mini fridges have the size range from 1.7 to 4.5 cubic feet.
Besides, this type of fridge often weighs from 22 to 95 pounds in which 60 pounds is the average figure. So it would fit well with most of the rooms in your house or office.
- Easy to maintain
Unlike the full-size refrigerators, it is much easier to clean this small option regularly. Despite separate freezers, they do not require as much time and effort for cleaning as the larger ones.
- Energy efficient
A mini fridge with a freezer can take up more energy than the non-freezer ones but much lower than the full-size fridge. With many modern models, it is possible for you to get a mini fridge having a separate freezer but still save a lot of energy as others without a freezer.
- Reversible doors
Both single and double door mini fridges support this feature. These doors are flexible enough for the right and left side. So you do not have many difficulties when using the convenient compact fridge.
What are the top 10 mini fridges with freezer?
It has a wide variety of mini fridges with a freezer nowadays. Each model can bring various benefits for you. Here’s the list of top 10 best compact fridges with a freezer:
Best Budget
1. Black+Decker BCRK17W
Dimensions: 18.5 x 17.52 x 19.72 inches
Capacity: 1.7 Cubic Feet
It is possible for you to put the stylish mini fridge model in many small spaces due to its portable size.
In spite of its compact design, it also has many types for customer’s choices. The small freezer above would be used for frozen meals, ice packs or even ice trays. For the cooling fridge, it has 2 separate glass shelves to offer you more storage space.
Besides, the Black and Decker model gives you many other options such as temperature control, reversible door, or leveling legs below. So it is very easy to handle your mini fridge.
The most impressive feature is that it is super quiet all the time. Its sound is low so this would be the great option if you are not interested in having any noisy appliance in your house.
2. Midea WHS-121LB1
Dimensions: 18.58 x 17.72 x 33.86 inches
Capacity: 3.3 Cubic Feet
Storage space of this Midea model is 3.3 cubic feet, it can offer extra chilling for your food rather than keeping frozen items or making ice cubes.
You can manage its temperature in the range from sub 32 to 35.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Besides, the mini fridge seems very quiet with the sound level at 42 dB.
It also gives you up to four wire shelves to divide all your items into smaller groups for more convenient storage. Under the fridge, there are some adjustable leveling legs, so it does not have any direct contact with the ground.
Best for Storage
1. Galanz GLR46TRDER
Dimensions: 19.17 x 23.31 x 50.45 inches
Weight: 76.1 pounds
Capacity: 4.6 Cubic Feet
Certification: Energy Star
Galanz offers several retro mini fridges in different colors such as white, red, black, blue, and green. Its capacity is 4.6 cubic feet in which 3.25 cubic feet for fresh food and 1.31 cubic feet for a freezer.
It has only one drawer but up to 4 glass shelves to contain divided food simply. Besides, a side-out shelf can bring you more ways to arrange your food and drink options.
It is also easy to manage the temperatures with the knob in your fridge. Its temperatures range from – 32 to 42 degrees Fahrenheit for the cooling compartment and zero or below degrees for the freezer.
Additionally, this model is widely common for higher efficiency but lower consumption of energy. It means that it can make your food cool quickly with much lower energy.
2. FRIGIDAIRE EFR756
Dimensions: 23.5 x 23 x 57 inches
Weight: 90 pounds
Capacity: 7.5 Cubic Feet
This dual door model has the capacity of 7.5 cubic feet, top-freezer. Only 0.5 cubic foot space is used for the freezer while all the rest is available for the cooling fridge.
The mini fridge offers you three removable glass shelves for food or snack and four door shelves for beverages or other small items. A single transparent drawer is also added for fresh fruits or vegetables.
Moreover, these shelves have spills to protect the below ones from any leakage of liquids. You can take advantage of leveling legs and castors under the fridge for any future movement.
Besides, it is a plastic mini fridge instead of a metal one. With this material, it might not be as durable as other stainless steel or aluminum fridges. The manual defrost is also the biggest drawback of this model.
However, the Frigidaire mini fridge with a freezer is quite lighter and consumes less energy at around 20 kilowatt hours per annum. So it is still one of the best options for your family.
Best for Dorm Rooms
1. Nostalgia Coca-Cola CRF32CK
Dimensions: 19 x 18.5 x 31.75 inches
Weight: 52 pounds
Capacity: 3.2 Cubic Feet
This model comes with 2 color varieties including red and black. With 3.2 cubic foot capacity, it is suitable for vegetables, fruits, snacks, beverages, ice, and etc.
Its cooling temperature ranges from 32 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Compressor cooling is used to optimize its ability to keep all the food fresh for longer.
Nostalgia offers you two removable glass shelves, door storage as well as an ice cube tray. And, it does support manual defrost instead of automatic option so this can become its big disadvantage.
One of the most impressive features of this mini fridge is that it has a unique handle on the plastic door designed as the classic Coca-Cola bottle. It would make your room more attractive and stunning.
2. RCA RFR 836
Dimensions: 22 x 20 x 34 inches
Weight: 57 pounds
Energy Star: 5 Star
It is designed with 3.2 cubic foot size with black, silver, and white color. The RCA model has 2 separate doors in which the top door is for the freezer and the below one is for the cooling fridge. And both of them are reversible.
It is also easy to adjust the temperatures for the freezer and the compartment. So you can keep your food at the best condition in all seasons.
Specifically, this mini fridge gives you a can dispenser as well as door baskets for 2L bottles. Then you can divide your stuff into many areas inside the fridge conveniently.
Further reading: Best Mini Fridges for College
Best for Offices and Small Spaces
1. Midea WHD-113FSS1
Dimensions: 18.5 x 19.37 x 32.95 inches
Weight: 52.2 pounds
Capacity: 3.1 Cubic Feet
This is a double door mini fridge model from Midea which has the containing capacity at 3.1 cubic feet. There are 3 color varieties available such as black, white or silver at different prices. It seems to be one of the best energy efficient options with a 5-energy star.
The temperatures are adjustable and separate between the freezer and the cooling compartment. To be more specific, you can manage the fridge compartment from 32 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, it is from -11,2 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit for the freezer above.
The other outstanding features are auto-defrost function as well as the flexible legs. Its doors are also reversible to be opened from left to right side.
2. Nostalgia Electrics RRF325CR
Dimensions: 20 x 23 x 34 inches
Weight: 94 pounds
Capacity: 3.1 Cubic Feet
It is the common retro style mini fridge from the Nostalgia brand. And North American Electrical Standards are applied to manufacture this product.
It can contain up to 3.1 cubic feet. A separate freezer is above the cooling compartment for this model. Inside the red mini fridge, there is a transparent crisper, two removable shelves, and the can dispenser for 6 items of beverage.
Besides, it has a full range thermostat so that you can adjust its temperature simply for each season. And with its beautiful design, it would be appropriate for decoration as well.
You may also like: How to Choose the Best Mini Fridge for Bedroom?
Best Color Options
1. Frigidaire EFR376
Dimensions: 20 x 22 x 35 inches
Weight: 40 pounds
Capacity: 3.2 Cubic Feet
Frigidaire offers you a lot of different basic colors, so you have more options than other brands. It is a 3.3 cubic foot fridge with a single door.
As its name mentioned, it has a retro style together with the bottle opener which is quite unique and attractive. Thus, it can be one of the most stylish and compact mini fridges for your house.
There are up to 3 glass shelves in the cooling compartment to contain more fresh food. Besides, a 0.25 cubic foot freezer is large enough to store an appropriate amount of frozen foods and ice inside.
Aluminum material can make it lighter and easy to clean outside regularly. In addition, the model is free of CFC as well as Thermostat adjustable.
2. RCA RFR321
Dimensions: 20 x 18 x 32 inches
Weight: 45 pounds
This RCA mini fridge has many color varieties with different prices. Its inner space is about 3.2 cubic feet, and the freezer takes up 0.2 cubic feet.
The reversible door is the outstanding feature that makes it suitable for any location in your house. Additionally, RCA offers a compressor and adjustable thermostat so that you can change any setting easily.
It also has two durable wire shelves as well as door storage. Thus, the fridge is spacious enough to keep many kinds of items.
Further reading: What Are the Best Cheap Freezers for Home?
Mini fridge with a freezer vs mini fridge without a freezer
The main difference between these two types of mini fridges is their prices. Normally, a mini fridge with a freezer is more expensive than that of non-freezer ones.
Together with a freezer, you are able to keep several frozen foods or ice cubes inside your fridge for longer. So this can help you to diversify your options throughout the day. Besides, these mini fridges have different sizes because they need separate space for a freezer to assure the amount of food contained.
Adding a freezer means that this type of mini fridge needs more energy to operate well. Therefore, most mini fridges which have an additional freezer are at a higher level of power consumption compared to the ones without a freezer.
Further reading: Should You Buy an Upright Freezer or a Chest Freezer?
What are the outstanding characteristics of the mini fridges with freezer?
Compared to other refrigerators, compact fridges with a freezer have many impressive features.
- Separate temperatures as well as on/off option between the fridge and the freezer
In fact, you can save a lot of energy with this characteristic. Once you do not want to use the freezer, you can turn it off. Otherwise, you can adjust the temperatures inside depending on each specific circumstance to avoid excessive electricity consumption.
Therefore, it is safe to claim that mini fridges with freezers are more energy efficient than the full-size options.
- Auto-defrost option for both the freezer and the cooling compartment
The auto-defrost might keep your fridge free from any accumulated ice which could affect its functions negatively. This feature is applicable for most of the current mini fridges with a freezer.
For the defrost function of the mini fridge, you have to notice that some older versions do not support the auto-defrost. Thus, you have to unplug the power cable from the outlet for hours so that all the ices can melt naturally.
Further reading: How to Defrost a Mini Fridge Faster?
- Extra storage
It is more flexible for you to keep different types of food in a mini fridge with a freezer. The internal freezer can make room for frozen foods, ice creams, ice cubes, etc in addition to other fresh or dried items in the cooling compartment.
This is the biggest advantage of this type compared to the non-freezer choices. Only short-term or non-freezing food can be stored in a compact fridge without any freezer. If not, all your frozen food would become spoiled or moldy quickly.
- Varied in styles and colors
In addition to the basic colors like white and black, several manufacturers offer you many other color options for your mini fridge.
The freezer can be located on top or in the bottom of the fridge with different sizes. They can design two separate doors for the freezer and the cooling compartment or get the same door for both of these.
How much does a mini fridge with freezer cost?
In fact, a compact fridge with a freezer is quite expensive than other options without any freezer. Most of the models available in the market are sold for approximately less than 300 USD.
Regarding the cost of operation, you have to pay about 50 USD per year to run a normal mini fridge. However, with some energy efficient models, the operation cost is only from 20 to 30 USD annually.
Nevertheless, the actual payment can fluctuate a lot based on the amount of power your mini fridge consumes each year.
Further reading: Best Mini Fridge Under $200
Conclusion
Mini fridge is not too unfamiliar with many households currently. And with an additional freezer, you can even benefit more from your mini fridge.
This type of compact refrigerator gives more options than the non-freezer type. And its size still remains flexible with different locations.
It is now simple to find many mini fridges with the freezer coming from various brands at competitive prices. Among them, there are some outstanding models produced by Midea, Frigidaire, RCA, Galanz, or Black and Decker. Each of them will have their own advantages suitable for your demands.
Hopefully, this article can sum up some necessary and key information which can be useful and contributes to your right decision.
References:
1. Advantages & Benefits Of Selecting A Mini Fridge, wanderglobe.org, March 20, 2020
2. Mini Fridge With Separate Freezer Compartment, webquestions.co, Jul 5, 2021
