big fridge or littler?

[chewie]

ok, what to do? i need a bit more room fridge-wise. i can buy either a 18cf sized one, for $400. takes $35/year to run it, so the paper says. OR i can get a dorm sized one, around 4cf, for 130. but it takes $30/year to run.

so, spend the extra bucks and get a bigger size or settle for smaller? i am looking to have extra for all the milk and eggs that my goats/chickens produce.

[Speckledpup]

If you have the room, the 18cf as a second fridge would be the way I'd go. After the intial investment it only cost $5 a year more to run and the extra room will be used.

[jwal10]

Full size for the extra freezer space. I saw one at home depot for 398.00....James

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...18&marketID=54

[Belfrybat]

You can go half way if you are not sure the small one would work and think the large one is too large. I have a Magic Chef that is just perfect. It's similar to this one:
http://www.mcappliance.com/productde...lName=MCBR980W
I'm going to guess the actual refrigerator is about 6-7 cf. I also appreciate having a bit extra freezer space for those times I have extra venison on hand.

The trick is to find one that isn't self-defrosting as those cost more to operate.

[Old Vet]

I have had both. The smaller one will stay full without any problem but the larger one is better because you have more room to store things like a deer. If you put a deer in the smaller one you will not have any room for ice cream.

[pheasantplucker]

go big

[plowjockey]

IMO, dorm fridges never measure up to what their stated storage is and they are not necessarily built to stand up for the long haul.

Any chance of picking up a good used one for $50, from Craigslist or farm auction?

[City Bound]

I would buy a small one if I could, because I have large one and it is nice to have the space but the space in the fridge is actually a problem for me because I rarely fill it and if I do I usually waste food because I cant see it. I would buy one of those small fridges that go under the counter like a dish washer. I would use that as my kitchen fridge and then buy a large freezer (put in the garage or basement) if I wanted to store game.

I find it easier to just go shopping once a week and buy what I need for the week, when it goes I go buy more. there are sales every week, so I dont have to worry about wasting money.
In europe most people shop like this, it works.

If you're single go with the smaller fridge.

If you have a family or have friends over a lot go for the big one.

Mine is smaller than the big one you're thinking of and there are a few times we have a lot of empty space but more often than not (today especially) it's easier to solve Rubik's Cube than to try to figure out how to get everything in the box that I need to put away.

[JuliaAnn]

We have one of the dorm sized ones, I don't know the cu. footage it holds, but it is about 4 ft. tall. We've had it for 5 years now, works fine. We are a family of 5, dh and me and three boys. It's sufficient for us. We have two medium sized chest freezers, and they stay full most of the time. I usually put anything in the freezer that can be frozen--butter, cheese, vegetables, meat, ice cream, etc. I just take whatever I am going to cook out of the freezer in the morning to thaw.

What I learned is that with a smaller refrigerator, we don't load it up with leftovers, fruit, vegetables, and chunks of pie or cheese that don't get eaten and are thus wasted. If I cook a roast and have leftovers, they go in the refrigerator and because they are right there in front of me, they get used in a day or two and not shoved to the back and forgotten about. I know we should have been more careful in the past about eating leftovers even with the big refrigerator, but I guess it's human nature---just shove it to the back and eat something different. We definitely don't waste food at all anymore, whereas in the past we did. We do use a lot of canned drinks, and the drink holder in the door holds six cans, so I usually have to refill it every day, but that's no big deal, it only takes a few seconds to drop six more cans in.

[HermitJohn]

Originally Posted by plowjockey

Any chance of picking up a good used one for $50, from Craigslist or farm auction?

wish I could still find good manual defrost fridge from 1950s or earlier for cheap (not priced as a retro decoration). Unfortunately the people that still had them pretty well died off and any old fashion looking appliances they were still using were junked. Any remaining ones in todays world are sold as period decoration or maybe somebody still has one in their garage for beer or pop. You just couldnt kill them, most got junked cause people wanted new and shiney model, not cause they stopped working. The 70s and newer fridges were made to self destruct within 10 years and had lot unwanted accessories and they had lot of PLASTIC.

I still havent done it, but making a fridge out of a small manual defrost chest freezer seems way to go. Electricity savings would pay for it very quick compared to my late 1960s auto defrost model. It keeps running but little watt meter says it uses lot electric per year. The 60s were the transition years from durable/practical to wasteful/disposable in appliances. Some of todays fridges may use less electric but be amazed if they last beyond 10 years.

[HermitJohn]

Originally Posted by chewie

takes $35/year to run it, so the paper says.

Is the price of electric they use to figure that the same as you are paying?

I am really dubious any 18cubic foot fridge unless its some super duper efficient one with foot thick walls made to run offgrid would use that little electric. Maybe an 8 to 10 cubic foot one could if it were designed fairly well.

The mini fridges are made as cheap as possible with very little insulation. Thats why they use so much electricity for their size. I'd be looking for a mini made in and sold in Europe or Japan if you want longevity. In those places most people have mini fridge as their only refrigerator. They arent just something for college student to keep 6 pack beer in.

[arabian knight]

You can never go wrong if you buy the bigger one. Once you have gotten a small unit, you will always be saying "Why Didn't I Get The Larger One, As I am always Running Out Of Space."
So what if you are living alone. I live alone and never once even gave it a thought to get one of those "student room apartment sized" "toys".

[poppyandnan]

$5.oo for more space, shucks, I'd get the big one!

[HermitJohn]

Originally Posted by Old Vet

I have had both. The smaller one will stay full without any problem but the larger one is better because you have more room to store things like a deer. If you put a deer in the smaller one you will not have any room for ice cream.

Interesting, most people keep their deer body parts in a dedicated freezer, not their refrigerator. But maybe you just eat your deer up faster than most??? Or maybe you just shoot very small deer?

[Belfrybat]

OK, we've all chimed in with our favourites. What size did you decide to go with?

[mightybooboo]

Last two ive bought,a freezer and a refer,the energy usage numbers were smack spot on accurate.The cost of energy may vary,but the power usage claimed is surprisingly accurate,same for my TV too now that I think of it.

[City Bound]

Originally Posted by JuliaAnn

We have one of the dorm sized ones, I don't know the cu. footage it holds, but it is about 4 ft. tall. We've had it for 5 years now, works fine. We are a family of 5, dh and me and three boys. It's sufficient for us. We have two medium sized chest freezers, and they stay full most of the time. I usually put anything in the freezer that can be frozen--butter, cheese, vegetables, meat, ice cream, etc. I just take whatever I am going to cook out of the freezer in the morning to thaw.

What I learned is that with a smaller refrigerator, we don't load it up with leftovers, fruit, vegetables, and chunks of pie or cheese that don't get eaten and are thus wasted. If I cook a roast and have leftovers, they go in the refrigerator and because they are right there in front of me, they get used in a day or two and not shoved to the back and forgotten about. I know we should have been more careful in the past about eating leftovers even with the big refrigerator, but I guess it's human nature---just shove it to the back and eat something different. We definitely don't waste food at all anymore, whereas in the past we did. We do use a lot of canned drinks, and the drink holder in the door holds six cans, so I usually have to refill it every day, but that's no big deal, it only takes a few seconds to drop six more cans in.

I can relate. I just waste food because I dont see it. If I see it and there is not so much of it, then I use it or I feel creative and want to dream something new to do with it.
With my freezer, I fill it sometimes but looking at myself honestly I notice that this arrangement does not work so well for me also, because I rarely eat it and it gets wasted, it just gives me some kind of peace of mind to know it is there, not to be eaten, which is silly.

[City Bound]

My neighbor told me that back in Scottland when she was a kid they use to have metal boxes outside the windows of the houses and apartments and people would just open the window, open the box, grab the milk, eggs, or butter, use it , then put it back in. It stayed cool all winter.

I might put some stuff in a cooler and leave it out side this winter and see if that works like a fridge.

[Macybaby]

Do like me and get both (or more). I have two dorm sized fridges and a small one regular type, along with my 36" regular "house" refrigerator.

One of the dorm fridges is dedicated to Hubby's beverages, the other contains several 1/2 gallon jars of pickled eggs at this time, and bottled water. The laundry fridge has about 8 dozen eggs (and counting) along with 6 quarts of yogurt (I make two gallons at a time). Up until a supper time, it also had the left over turkey. The freezer of that fridge holds the ice cream maker along with smaller bags of specialty flour and assorted chocolate/flavored chips and butter bought on sale.

During harvest, I keep all three empty as possible so I have room to store things as needed - there is also room for aging meat - usually chicken or rabbit, but hopefully there will be some venison in there soon.

we didn't actually plan to end up with some many fridges. When we bought the place it didn't come with a fridge, so I bought the first dorm size fridge just so I would have something for milk until I had time to shop for what I wanted. Had to modify the cabinets first too, as I wanted a bigger one than would have fit.

Then DH started working out of town, and he wanted a small fridge for the room he was renting - so he bought a smaller dorm size unit - I didn't want to give up the one I had as I'd gotten use to both.

So after that summer, he didn't need that small fridge, so we found room for it in the laundry room.

Then last summer, I kept running out of room while harvesting, and we decided to look for a regular fridge, but the smallest we could find. Got the floor model from Menards at a very good deal as it had a dent in the side - worked for us!

Cathy