This time, it's not in reference to computer storage but to refrigerator space. We've wondered what to do since it is not easy finding a place for a second refrigerator. Many people may have a second refrigerator or a freezer in their utility room, but we opted for a sink. This sink has come in very handy, but we still don't have a place. Other people place in the garage, but it is not practical for Kyoko to go in and out of the garage so frequently.
One option is to find a refrigerator drawer, but the capacity of those are not very much, at most 4-6 cubic feet, and in general, cost in the thousands. Compact refrigerators sometime seem too small, with the largest one being 6 cubic feet. However, we thought we would go out and look. The advantage with a compact refrigerator is that we could put it next to the counter, and the tallest of the compact refrigerators are about counter-height.
Many compact refrigerators also have tiny freezers for ice cube trays. However, if the compact refrigerator is not frost-free or automatic defrost, then you are having to defrost it on a regular basis. In addition, we don't need anything to hold extra ice cube trays.
We did find that Sanyo sells a compact refrigerator which does not come with a freezer/ice cube tray section. This means there is more room for refrigerator space plus no worries about defrosting. The refrigerator space is just 4.9 cubic feet.
This was sold at Best Buy, and we found that this style also supports "reversible door". No, it's not to allow the inside of the door to be used as the outside of the door, but to be able to open the door left-handed or right-handed.
After going to Best Buy, we went to Lowe's. They were supposed to have some compact refrigerators which were 6 cubic feet, but we didn't see any there. Of the ones we did see there, which had the combined ice cube tray holder, the Sanyo seemed much nicer. One nice feature about it is that the shelf in the door can hold gallon containers.
However, it only came in a platinum (door)/black (rest of refrigerator and inside) color, and Kyoko prefers light colors. This particular model seemed better quality, too, with glass for the shelves instead of wired shelves. We thought we could wrap or cover the body in some way. We thought of shelf lining, but we didn't see any at Lowe's which looked nice enough. At home, Kyoko had some shelf lining leftover which was white with flowers pattern. However, she only had enough for one side, but considering it will be against a counter, then we would only need to cover one side.
To transport it home, we could use our Mitsubishi Outlander, but we had to put the refrigerator on its side, so the sales guy told us to wait to plug it in for 12 hours.
The instructions for setting up the refrigerator were a little on the slim side. For example, it said we had to remove the door cap when switching which side the door opens, but it didn't say how to remove it. Finally, with a utility knife, we were able to get the cap to come out. Also, the legs were on so tight, it was difficult to get them undone. I couldn't find the vice-grip wrench off hand, so first I tried a monkey wrench, but that only seemed to damage the plastic legs. I then tried a screw driver, but managed to snap off part of the leg. Fortunately, at Lowe's, I had also bought some plastic epoxy, and we were able to glue it together. I was wondering if I accidently left the vice-grip wrench at my mom's, but it turns out I did bring it back. I found it and then was able to loosen the legs.
