Living in a flat often requires a bit of downsizing when it comes to your furniture and appliances.
One of these is your fridge.
A regular fridge can be chunky and take up too much space, but it’s also tricky to know how to find a small enough fridge that still offers you enough space in which to store the food you need.
How should you find the best fridge for your apartment?
It comes down to choosing smaller fridges that are designed smartly, such as ones that are sleek and have reversible doors which save space while providing storage.
There are many perks new models offer for apartment dwellers.
Here’s a rundown of small apartment refrigerators that will fit into your lifestyle.
Let’s start with the best apartment size refrigerator: find the best fridge for your flat so that you enhance your daily living.
Apartment Size Fridge & Recommendations For 2019
Best Overall Apartment Size Fridge: HomeLabs Mini Fridge
At first glance, this apartment size refrigerator is basically a mini fridge made with durable stainless steel. But, it’s perfect for someone who lives in an apartment or garage as it has a width of 18.5 inches and height of 32.8 inches so it can fit into smaller spaces.
With a storage space capacity of 3.3 cubic feet, this fridge also has a freezer section and reversible door hinges so that you have a convenient space for your canned, and other, beverages.
Benefits
- The mini fridge has three temperature options. These are “maximum”, “medium”, and “minimum”. When you want to freeze ice inside these apartment size refrigerators with ice maker included, you’ll use the medium or maximum temperature mode.
- The hOme Labs mini fridge comes with glass shelves that can be removed. If you have to store something a bit larger in the fridge, you can remove up to three glass shelves to create more space.
- This apartment size refrigerator has a reversible door that offers a lot of space, but it also has a compartment for your bottled drinks as well as an extra section for your regular food items, such as butter.
Drawbacks
- One of the drawbacks of the fridge is that it doesn’t have an interior light. While this might not be a big deal, it can be a bit bothersome when you’re opening the fridge late at night looking for a midnight snack.
Extra features
- While it’s made of stainless steel and looks modern with its sleek design, this apartment size fridge is homely.
- Not just for students living in dorm rooms, this fridge can easily form part of your family’s home because it can be personalized in a unique way. You can write notes on the front of the fridge door, so it’s the perfect spot for messages between family members and shopping lists. Just make sure that you use a wax crayon or dry erase marker, and then simply wipe off your grocery lists with a cloth and lukewarm water.
- While the fridge is a small one, it looks smart and sleek with its black design, adding a stylish touch to your home or garage. Gone are the days when appliances were just practical instead of also being chic!
Buying advice
The hOmeLabs Mini Fridge about $180.
If you’re living in a garage apartment or dorm room, this apartment size refrigerator is the perfect option for you with enough space for all your needs.
Runner Up: RCA Mini Refrigerator
Sometimes you want an apartment size refrigerator with some extra perks. That’s where the RCA Mini Refrigerator comes it. Offering capacity of 3.2 cubic feet, the fridge has a nice space-saving design along with a freezer and reversible door.
With a width of 18 inches and a height of 32 inches, the RCA fridge can fit in various small spaces in your flat, so it’s the best counter depth refrigerator.
Benefits
- The RCA mini fridge contains a built-in can dispenser, making it perfect for hosting parties.
- It has an adjustable thermostat and glass shelves that slide out for extra space.
- The reversible door can be opened from the right or left, making it much better for small spaces, preventing things from becoming cramped in a tiny kitchen.
Drawbacks
- While the inside of this apartment size fridge offers a lot of space, the freezer section is small, so if you need to freeze a lot of items this fridge might not be suitable for you.
Extra features
- The fridge’s flush black design is a stylish touch, and it also has an invisible door handle that makes it modern and further saves space in a small home.
Buying advice
At a price about $150, the RCA fridge is an affordable option with a lot of perks that make it worth it.
Alternative 1: Black + Decker Compact Refrigerator
When you have a small space in which to fit a fridge, you want to choose a product that you can customize so that you get everything you need from it.
The Black + Decker compact fridge does that, thanks to its removable and adjustable glass shelves, giving you the chance to make the most of its 2.5 cubic foot interior.
It comes with a reversible door and freezer compartment, and fits anywhere with its width of 20.4 inches and height of 29.5 inches.
Benefits
- It’s Energy-Star certified so you don’t have to worry about your carbon footprint when using this fridge.
- The door has a custom design, offering space for bottles as well as cans that can be stacked sideways. This basically makes it like a small full-sized refrigerator.
- The reversible door can be opened from the right or left, making it much better for small spaces, preventing things from becoming cramped in a tiny kitchen.
Drawbacks
- Some reviewers have claimed that the fridge does make a bit of noise, especially when it cools down. This can make it a bit irritating in quiet areas of the home. So, if you were hoping to use this fridge in your bedroom or study, it might require a different location in the home.
Extra features
- Along with its adjustable shelves, the fridge has a full-width freezer compartment, making it easy to store bulky items like ice cream tubs. This is something many mini fridges lack, so this apartment size refrigerator freezer is worth it if you’re looking to freeze items.
Buying advice
The fridge sells for about $150, and its Energy-Star efficiency will save you money on your electricity bill in the long run. It’s perfect for storing underneath counters or desks.
Alternative 2: Costway Compact Refrigerator
The Costway Compact Refrigerator looks like a regularly-sized fridge with its freezer compartment on the top and fridge at the bottom.
It offers storage space of 3.4 cubic feet and has dimensions of 17.5 inches for width and 38.5 inches for height, so it is bigger than previously-mentioned apartment size refrigerators.
However, this makes it suitable for couples and larger apartments.
Benefits
- The fridge’s three glass shelves can be adjusted for extra space or completely removed, which also makes it a lot easier to clean.
- Inside the fridge there are door bins and a can dispenser to hold a variety of drinks on the inside of the fridge’s door without making you run out of space.
Drawbacks
- The fridge’s doors are not reversible, however there is enough space inside the fridge and freezer for your items. It’s therefore essential to install the fridge in an area of your apartment where the door can swing out properly without bumping into furniture.
Extra features
- The fridge has a crisper drawer that’s the perfect place in which to store fruits and vegetables so that they stay fresh.
- The fridge has extra nice touches like an egg rack.
Buying advice
Since it’s a bigger model, this fridge is definitely more suitable for you if you want to pack away more food in your fridge.
It’s got the benefit of an affordable price tag, too, selling for about $240.
This makes it one of the best apartment size refrigerator freezers on the market.
Alternative 3: Avanti Apartment Refrigerator
Sometimes you want the best of both worlds: a fridge that’s large but also compact. That’s where the Avanti Apartment Refrigerator comes in.
This fridge-freezer combo has storage space of 7.4 cubic feet, which is much more than any of the other fridges in this buying guide.
While that might make you think it takes up more space, it has a width of 24 inches and a height of 23 inches! One of the key benefits of this fridge is that it has reversible doors.
Benefits
- You can adjust the height of the fridge’s glass shelves, which makes it very versatile.
- The fridge contains door bins that offer extra storage.
- What makes it the best cabinet depth refrigerator? It’s a narrow fridge that makes it perfect for fitting into your apartment or townhouse.
Drawbacks
- The fridge tends to ice over on the back wall, so it’s best not to store items too close to it. It also has to be defrosted once in a while, which does make it a little higher maintenance than other models.
Extra features
- It’s got a handy crisper for fruits and vegetables that is see-through so you can see immediately what you’re storing in the fridge without having to move things around.
- The fridge is Energy Star efficient, so it doesn’t consume too much power despite its larger size.
Buying advice
The Avanti fridge costs about $400, but with its storage capacity it prevents you from having to purchase a standard refrigerator.
It’s a small full-sized refrigerator that fulfills all your needs.
Difference Between Regular Refrigerator And Apartment Refrigerator
When you’re interested in purchasing an apartment size refrigerator, you might wonder if it’s really better than a conventional, regular-sized fridge.
Check out the table below to see evidence that a smaller fridge really can challenge a larger one, as well as offer some extra perks.
| Regular Fridge | Apartment Fridge | |
|---|---|---|
| Versatility | These are heavy to move around and tend to stay in the place where you initially set them up. They are also more difficult to move into your home after you’ve purchased them. | As seen in the counter depth refrigerator reviews above, you can move these smaller fridges around and into different rooms. They can also be placed in tiny places, such as under a kitchen counter or desk to save space. |
| Freezer | Regular fridges usually have a freezer compartment that’s an average of 60 – 70 cm. | Some apartment fridges don’t have large freezers, but these are not always essential. As Good Housekeeping reports, when it comes to dorm rooms, freezers are hardly even used and tend to take up a lot of unnecessary space. |
| Storage | While a larger fridge can obviously offer you more space, it’s not always necessary to purchase a regular fridge for all your storage requirements. | Some of the latest apartment fridge models offer clever and handy storage perks, such as a special compartment for canned beverages and extra food bins that tuck away inside their sleek design, being more than enough for all your requirements. |
Based on the above, let’s now take a closer look at some apartment sized refrigerator facts.
What is the standard size of an apartment refrigerator?
While apartment-sized refrigerators are smaller in size when compared to conventional fridges, they usually come with enough space for singles, couples, and even small families, such as when it comes to the Avanti Apartment Refrigerator listed in the above guide.
Apartment fridges tend to have a narrow design to make them much less space-consuming, but they still maintain similar dimensions to a regular-sized refrigerator.
On average, their measurements tend to be approximately 23 inches in width and 34 inches in height.
Traditional fridges, on the other hand, tend to have 32 inches of width and be 65 inches in height, as reported by Little Home Appliance.
How much does an apartment size refrigerator weigh?
It’s not easy to calculate the average weight of your apartment refrigerator because this varies depending on the model, but you’re looking at a ballpark figure of 180 to 200 pounds, as Little Home Appliance reports.
Now, that might seem a lot but it’s actually not so bad if you consider that a regular fridge (with 27 cubic feet) tends to weigh approximately 352 pounds!
What should I look for when buying a refrigerator for an apartment?
When purchasing a fridge that will fit into your apartment and save space while still ensuring you can easily store away your food, there are some important considerations to bear in mind.
Here’s a rundown of the most important things to look for when buying an apartment refrigerator.
Determine why you need the fridge in the first place
You might want a mini fridge in which you can store drinks when hosting parties in your dorm room or a fridge for your bachelor pad that can stock the food you need on a weekly basis.
The former will require you to ensure that the fridge contains enough space in the door for bottles and cans, such as with the use of a rack design that allows you to store cans sideways.
If this is what you need the most, it’s probably unnecessary to purchase a fridge that has more space inside for food, such as a crisper drawer that keeps produce fresh.
On the other hand, if you want to store some food, you want to look for an apartment refrigerator that has extra food storage, such as one that has removable shelves so that by moving them in or out of the fridge you can store items that need to stay cool.
Consider if the fridge should have reversible doors or not
While the issue of reversible fridge doors might seem like something that comes down to personal preference, it does have a practical element to it that you should consider, based on where your fridge is going to be placed in your apartment.
A reversible fridge door basically means that you can hinge the door either on the left or right of the fridge.
If you’re placing the fridge in a very tight space, such as in the kitchen under the counter, you want to be able to open the fridge door without it knocking into furniture or inhibiting the flow of traffic into the room.
That’s why reversible doors can be highly valuable if space is a big concern for you, and they should be something you look for in an apartment refrigerator.
Find the right spot for your fridge
Before you buy a fridge, you should use a tape measure to measure the space where your refrigerator is going to be installed.
Make sure you measure the height, width, and depth of the fridge before purchasing it.
You should also leave approximately 2.5cm of space around the fridge.
No matter the size of your fridge, this is important to create enough air circulation around the fridge so that heat can escape from it.
Consider the sound the fridge produces
Even though they’re small, not all apartment refrigerators are going to be silent. That’s why it’s good to have a backup plan in place.
For example, if you want to put the fridge in the bedroom, but it’s a noisy model, this can interrupt your sleep at night.
It makes more sense to put it in the lounge or kitchen instead where louder sounds can be better tolerated during the day.
Having a backup plan for your fridge location might not be practical, that’s why you should always consider what reviewers say about the fridge you’re interested in purchasing before you make your move.
This ensures that you don’t purchase one that runs so loudly it irritates you.
How many watts does an apartment size refrigerator use?
Considering the amount of watts your fridge uses is important so that you don’t consume too much energy.
A fridge can be one of the appliances in your home that uses a lot of energy, which also means that it costs you more money in electric bills.
A conventional fridge generally uses around 1,000 watts on average, which costs 10 cents per hour of use, as reported by Spark Energy.
While this might not seem like a lot when compared to an appliance such as a clothes dryer that can use up to 4,000 watts in just one hour of use, your fridge is working all the time.
Choosing an energy-efficient fridge model certainly helps to reduce energy wastage and protect your pocket, as fridges that are certified as Energy Star appliances use 20 percent less energy than traditional models that are not certified, Hunker reports.
That said, a smaller fridge can go the extra mile to save you even more energy and money.
As reported by Hunker, smaller refrigerators generally use approximately 350 watts, which is a massive difference when compared to conventional fridges!
Conclusion
If your household only requires a smaller fridge, based on the number of people living in it and your space limitations, it’s worth considering the benefits of purchasing an apartment size fridge.
These models generally offer lower energy consumption than traditional fridges and are built to be sleek so that they don’t take up too much space.
That said, it’s not always easy to know what to look for when purchasing an apartment size refrigerator, which is why the above buying guide in this article can help you choose one that’s perfect for your specific needs.
Smaller refrigerators have certainly come a long way when it comes to what they can offer.
For example, many of them have greater space inside than one imagines them to, as well as smart doors that are reversible and can be used to store more than just a bottle of soda.
After taking a closer look at the pros, cons, and extra features listed in these apartment size fridge reviews, you’ll be on your way to finding the perfect fridge for your apartment that caters to your needs while saving precious space.
