Caldura 17 litre Compact Mini Fridge

Cold, but noisy

Posted by Liam Foot on April 22, 2014 Reviews

I want to start by clarifying the difference between fridges and coolers. This is an actual fridge, not a cooler. It's important to know the difference between the two when you're looking for a mini fridge.

A cooler, as you will see if you read the small print, only keeps drinks 2 degrees celsius (on those that I checked) below the room temperature. A couple of degrees won't make much difference to your drinks, especially if your room is on the warmer end like mine. This is a fridge, and keeps your drinks properly cold. If you're looking for a mini fridge to store your drinks in, make sure it's a fridge.

This fridge operates between 5 and 10 degrees celsius, and has a thermostat in the back-right-top corner. I use this fridge for bottled beers and cans of coke. You can fit the normal 330ml cans of coke and 440ml cans of beer in the fridge door, and it will close. You cannot stack two cans of coke in the door, and most beer bottles cannot stand in the door. I have only been able to fit 275ml bottles of Beck's Bier in the door, and 300ml bottles of Foster's Gold were very slightly too tall for the door to close.

I can fit 330ml bottles of Heineken inside the fridge, standing, easily. You can also stack two cans of coke, and they will stand inside the fridge without trouble.

I use this fridge without the shelf, because you can't really lay down your bottles of beer. They always get in the way of the door. Even with the door empty, if you lay down any bottles, even the smaller Beck's bottles, they get in the way of the door. I find it much easier to just have everything standing.

Why 4 stars? Noise.

I keep this fridge on the lowest temperature through the day. I don't really notice it because I'm used to my PC making noise, it has 7 fans. I keep the fridge right next to my PC, and they make a similar amount of noise. I've adjusted to it, and I usually wear headphones at my PC anyway. When I go to sleep, I turn up the thermostat to the highest temperature (10C), and the fridge goes near silent, as it doesn't have to work. It's just waiting for the temperature to naturally increase to 10C, and once this happens, it's just as noisy as before. I find that I have enough time to fall to sleep before this happens. When I wake up, I turn it back to the lowest temperature. It's worth me saying that I keep this in my bedroom, about 3 metres from my head when sleeping.

I've read some people saying it's not that noisy, and to them, I say try sleeping next to it!

I think it's worth a buy if you're looking for something to keep your drinks cold.

This review is also available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R3K7UZ9FJ5VZ9N/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Back to Blog