midea WHD-113F Double Reversible Door Refrigerator and Freezer, 3.1 Cubic Feet, Black

CUSTOMER REVIEW



You can find this model at a big-box store for less, and they offer free shipping as well. But I came to Amazon first to read reviews and browse before looking up the model number online for the best price once I found which one I liked.



I had first narrowed my search of MINI fridges down to ones with a separate freezer. I find the built-in freezer section on other units always freezes up and intrudes on the fridge space, and isn't all that big to begin with. I also wanted something usable for more than just left-over-lunch and a gatorade - something around 3 cubic feet.



I looked at a bunch of units and I'm pretty sure they are almost all the same design made in China, with minor differences. I'm almost certain that the same factory makes all of these units and sells them to other companies that slap their name on the front. I saw one with a cute through-door water-dispenser, so if a major use would be using the fridge for ice-cold water that unit would be nice. The other difference I noted was in the fridge door - some have room for a 5-can stack and a full width tray at the top of the door, and some have room for a 6-can stack and a half-width tray at the top of the door. I thought 6 cans would be better than 5, since that tray is so small not fits there anyway.



Midea offers three versions of this same unit - all white, all black, and black with the door panels covered in stainless steel. I opted for all black, since its cheaper and blends in better. This unit isn't quite small enough to fit under my counter, but sits next to my desk and I can use the top of him as additional horizontal storage for a coffee maker, toaster oven, or what-have-you.



Let me summarize the rest of this review



PROS :

Super low energy usage. Some of the other mini-fridges in this class use ~$36/yr, this one uses only $29/yr.



Runs (down to) very cold. On Max the fridge is @ 38° and the freezer is at 25° when the ambient temp is 88°.



Separate freezer space. The freezer stays ice-cold and no frost in the fridge area. The freezer space is about 15 inches deep, 7 inches high, and 18 inches wide. The door takes away about 3 inches of depth for the shelf on the door.



Spacious. You can actually fit quite a bit in the fridge section. If you take out the middle glass shelf, you can fit larger objects like pots of chili and opened wine bottles.



Quiet. This is about as silent as a low-energy fridge can be. It is similar to a small aquarium air-pump, or a desktop computer. Fifteen feet away from it and I can only _just_ hear it. This mini-fridge doesn't have an evaporator with a fan blowing over it to remove heat, thereby reducing power consumption and noise, it simply radiates the heat out of the side panels which act as a giant heat-sink.



Door organizer. Holds a 6-pack of cans plus a half gallon of milk and a 2L bottle all at once with a tiny shelf space to spare.



Features. The vegetable crisper will keep loose wilty food in a higher humidity environment so they last longer. Built-in light is a nice touch. Glass shelves instead of wire racks. Comes with a small plastic ice scraper when you need to manually defrost the freezer, and a small ice-cube rack (6x2 mini cubes). Nice long power cord - about 36 inches. Plastic drip tray over the compressor for catching condensation from the auto-defrost of the fridge.



Packaging. This was shipped by FedEx to my home, and although the box is big and about 60lbs, it surprisingly wasn't crushed or looked damaged. The packing is a hard-plastic bottom tray lined in styrofoam that the fridge sits on. Over that was a one-piece 5-sided double-wall of cardboard that had a styrofoam liner inside protecting the fridge. The bottom was strapped to the top with bands. All the pieces of the fridge (door, shelves, etc) were taped up and packed with cardboard spacers around them. The item arrived in perfect condition (no marks), and worked on plugging it in.



CONS



The crisper doesn't have any humidity control, so don't put food that ripens in it as trapped ethylene gas will accelerate the ripening. If you like cold fruit like bananas and pears, buy some "blue apples" to absorb ethylene gas.



Manual thermostat control feels dated, although it does the job, and no digital temperature display or humidity display. I bought a separate digital unit by Andoer.



Doors held shut by magnets, not by latches. Magnets are not rare-earth, and are not the strongest. If your fridge is usually bursting with food, the light-weight doors might have trouble staying shut. You might need something like XtraGuard latches, Safety 1st appliance lock or fridge latch.



The soda-can holder is a nice feature, but if you don't drink canned drinks its a total waste of space. Also, this model chooses to hold 6 cans instead of 5, which means the shelf at the top of the door is only half-width, making it mostly useless. I keep a block of cream cheese on it for some bagels, and that's about all that will fit there. You'll have to choose what you will do with that space - besides a stick of butter, a block of cream cheese, or maybe a bag of candy or pair of jello dessert cups not much fits that tiny tray space.



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The unit itself is not designed to be a built-in. You can feel the heat given off on the sides, and the compressor at the bottom/back needs ventilation. Understand that a compressor-driven refrigerator doesn't just "make" cold, it simply moves heat out of the box making the inside cold and therefore venting heat to the outside. Make sure there is room on the sides of the fridge to vent that heat, or else the heat will stay in the box and try to warm up the fridge and then the compressor will be fighting against itself. If you keep the sides vented it should prolong the life of the unit. Also, not running the fridge on high will extend the life of the compressor. The compressor has a 5-year MTBF rating, and I would think that would be normal to expect for the life of this unit. These are sealed system units with no way to service them, and unfortunately, a new compressor is about the cost of the unit. Adding in labor and such makes it cheaper to dispose of these units than to fix them.