A mini-refrigerator is a compact appliance which comes with functionalities similar to a large refrigerator such as top-freezer refrigerator. However, it’s small in size and comes with limited functionality, space and power usage. But how can something not-as-powerful as a large refrigerator still solve problems? Well, it does!
Before I begin discussing the problems, I’ll like to clear it up that I won’t be able to mention all the problems. However, I’ll try to talk about the “common problems” faced by the majority of the people. I’ll also explain the way in which a mini-refrigerator solves it.
Problem 1: Low Space Problem
According to RCLCO, the average size of an apartment in New York City was around 866 sq ft in 2016 and the report also mentioned that the majority of the apartments were less than 750 sq ft. I happen to do a little research and I found out that the average size has reduced even more in 2019 and according to my research, the average size of an apartment in NYC in 2019 is around 767 sq ft.
Besides that, if you buy a good refrigerator, it could take around 6-7 sq ft which is almost 1% in your home which would also mean that 1% of your rent is accompanied by large refrigerators. That’s still fine as it’s important to have a refrigerator. But the real problem arises when people plan to buy a refrigerator for their room, adding another large-size refrigerator would mean that 2% of your apartment would be just for refrigerators. Adding a large one in your room wouldn’t make sense too, How? Would you store vegetables in your room? No right! That’s why having two large refrigerators doesn’t make much sense.
Solution: People who have limited space can go with one large refrigerator for their kitchen purposes and can have one mini refrigerator installed in their room for midnight food cravings, water, breast milk for toddlers, beer/soda cans, and other food items. As people who need a refrigerator in the room won’t have much food to store, a decent-sized mini refrigerator will solve their problem!
Problem 2: High Electricity Consumption
Prior to mini-refrigerators launch, many college dormitories didn’t allow students to have a refrigerator inside their dorms. That was why students had to walk outside their room to get water or fill chilled water in their bottle which would again get hot by the time they came back to their rooms. The reason why refrigerators weren’t allowed was because of high electricity consumption. Even now, there are certain energy-consumption restrictions at a lot of dorms. I’ve listed two of them below, but it doesn’t stop at these two!
Even mothers, who had toddlers at their home had to walk down to the kitchen refrigerator for preserving the breast milk. Before mini-refrigerators, there were only two options, one was to walk to the kitchen and the second option was to get a new refrigerator in the room. Option 1 needed more space and Option 2 would increase electricity bill + would cost huge money.
Solution: A large refrigerator for kitchen actually consumes 10-12 or even 15 times more electricity compared to compact refrigerators. That’s why colleges started allowing students to bring “Energy-efficient” mini-refrigerators to their dorm rooms and mothers could actually preserve the breast milk inside their own room and wouldn’t have to walk to the kitchen. The best thing about the mini refrigerator is that it not only consumes less place but also doesn’t cost much in terms of electricity.
Problem 3: High-Cost Refrigerators
This is not a problem for big families or rich companies but is a big problem for small-scale companies which are just setting up. In fact, this is something I faced when I was setting up my company. Those days there were only large refrigerators. Employees had to go to the floor below ours to find chilled drinking water and had to fill water bottles. Buying an $800-1000 refrigerator would be costly, but there were a few other factors such as space consumption in the office, energy consumption and other things which made buying a large refrigerator for a small-scale business way out of budget.
Solution: A mini refrigerator is not just cheap in terms of cost, but also has all the essential features required for people in the office. It costs much less than a large refrigerator, it consumes much less electricity and it doesn’t require much space. On top of everything, it is really portable and doesn’t require a team to move it.
The Verdict
I think that these were the 3 major problems which were solved by a mini-refrigerator. It has not only solved the problems but with other benefits such as portability, low-maintenance cost, modern look is the reason why people have started considering small-sized refrigerators even for their kitchen use. However, this is how a small-sized refrigerator has solved the problems which a large refrigerator wasn’t able to solve!
