Having a mini fridge in the closet cuts the number of trips you would have made to the kitchen.
And hey, who said fridges must always be installed in the kitchen? It’s almost standard to find homes with fridges installed in the kitchen and nowhere else.
Those who live in dorm rooms and tiny apartments, however, are often tempted to install fridges wherever they can find a nook of space in the tightly packed home.
It can be in the cabinets, behind chairs, walls – all you want at the end of the day is a cold drink.
So, Can You Put A Mini Fridge In The Closet?
Yes – it’s perfectly OK to keep your fridge in the closet. A small TEC-sized fridge would do the trick. The only reason why you should install a fridge in such a seemingly unorthodox space is that you must have a fridge and there isn’t enough space in the house. Perhaps another reason would be the need to conceal your drinks and pricey food far away from fridge raiders and kids.
Two Types Of Closets
There are actually two kinds of closets in a typical home.
- One type is the conventional closet you’d find in the bedroom or pantry. These closets are often used to keep clothes but are also competent enough to hold a mini-fridge if you want to keep your frozen supply drinks and food away from the kitchen.
- Then there are kitchen-based closets designed to hold kitchen appliances. These closets too can house your mini-fridge.
Three Problems With Mini Fridges In The Closet
Having a mini-fridge in your bedroom, however, comes with a few problems that you must contend with:
1. Unwanted noise
The compressor in the fridge produces that familiar wheezing sound when converting cold air into gas and heat. It keeps wheezing throughout the night, meaning you have to put up with all that noise every day.
The noise can take a toll on your sleeping patterns in the long run. Even if you get used to it, the new guests in your bedroom, say, a new spouse, might not take it.
2. Unwanted guests
Now that there is plenty of frozen food and drinks in the closet in your bedroom, you will attract people who shouldn’t be entering your bedroom in the first place.
3. Freon Leak
Freon is a coolant found in many fridges and there is a likelihood of spillage. Fortunately, Freon is generally harmless.
Related: Should You Put Cardboard Underneath A Mini Fridge?
How Do You Install a Mini Fridge in A Closet?
A refrigerator is basically an enhanced heat pump tied to space heaters (often 1 space heater).
It absorbs the heat from inner compartments and transfers it to the radiator on the rear end via the radiator fluid.
For the heat to be dissipated sufficiently from the fridge, a stream of cool air needs to be pumped through and past the radiator.
The radiator heats the air mainly through conduction.
The heated air is light, hence rises and moves circulates in the room through convection while being replaced by dense cold air in its tracks.
Some of the heat is transferred by radiation but that’s just a tiny amount of the total heat emanated by the radiator.
The side panels of the fridge also serve as extensions of the radiator and assists with losing more heat to the environment.
However, much of the heat is dissipated from the back of the fridge.
As long as there is a sizeable gap behind the fridge and the walls of the closet, your food should stay cold.
Keep In Mind These Three Factors When Positioning Your Mini Fridge In The Closet
- A place for the cool and dense air to flow into the closet compartment that holds the fridge – can be from the bottom or the sides of the closet
- A space for all the warm and light air to rise and exit the compartment that holds the fridge, preferably at the top of the fridge
- Sufficient space around the mini-fridge to permit sufficient airflow to the back of the fridge and the radiator part
If you don’t set up the closet with the above three factors in the mind, the mini-fridge could “choke off” by failing to complete the air circulation cycles.
More on closets
Custom Closets
If you are setting up a closet from scratch, you’ll want to buy your mini-fridge before anything else.
Also, when choosing a mini-fridge that meets your needs, you need to understand the things you intend to keep inside your mini-fridge. Large 2-liter soda bottle swill requires more height.
Wine bottles will demand a depth that will permit them to lie on their sides.
Consider the “size” of your needs: how many guests do you plan to entertain in your home?
What’s the size of your family?
This can help you choose the right mini fridge and design a matching custom closet.
Existing closets
Assuming your manufactured home has a previously installed closet, you will simply need to take the measurements of the space (without the doors) and take them to the dealer who will help you choose a mini-fridge that fits in the measurements.
It is important to leave a reasonable clearance around the measurement space for replacement needs.
Because mini-fridges come in a range of sizes, the process of selecting one should be easy and straightforward because you have the measurements.
If you find out that the mini-fridge of your choice is very deep for your closet, you can add pieces of wood on the sides of the backside depending on the design of the fridge and air supply requirements.
You might want to make further changes to your closet to fit the mini-fridge.
Electricity
The closet will need to accommodate cords that supply electricity to your mini-fridge.
Unless the closet was custom-made for your mini-fridge, it will be a hurdle to reconfigure it to accommodate permanent sockets.
Closets are often constructed with a rigid wall on their rear, a design that makes it difficult to drill holes or cut out some backside sections to accommodate power cords.
The best route out of this is to deliver electricity in the compartment via an electricity extension cord.
Closet styled
Purchasing a mini-fridge with the same styling as your closet can be expensive – you could pay about three times the usual cost for such a fridge.
You can save a tremendous amount of money if you choose to make a mini-fridge of your own. Of course, the venture would consume a great deal of your time but worth your efforts.
The Best Mini Fridges for Closets – Recommendations
1. Danby Designer DCR044A2BDD Compact Refrigerator
This fridge may be quite large for a small home office, but it is compact enough to fit in the closet.
There is even an inbuilt egg tray, tall bottle storage, sizeable freezer, and an adjustable shelf to give “real fridge” experience” in very compact spaces. It is about 32″ high and offers 4.4 cubic feet of freezing area.
2. Black + Decker BCRK25B Compact Refrigerator
This fridge comes with most features you would find in a full-blown kitchen fridge, it has all of them in one small area.
Also, you don’t need to choose between adjustable temperature control and freezer space – this fridge comes with both.
It also comes with full-width shelves made from glass, door shelves, a reversible door, and an ice cube tray.
All these are packed in just 2-1/2 cubic feet of freezing space, and it’s just over 2 feet tall. It is energy star certified.
3. Cooluli Mini Fridge Electric Cooler and Warmer
This impressively compact device combines the features of a heater and a freezer – if it’s not warming your food, it’s turning it into ice.
The best part is that its highly adaptable that you can even carry it with you into the fields.
Wherever you choose use it – outdoors, closet, kitchen, etc. – it is powered WITH AN AC/DC adapter or 2A power bank.
4. Magic Chef MCAR320B2 Refrigerator
This fridge still qualifies as compact although it is nowhere smaller than 33” and capacity of 3.2 cubic feet. With that height, it can fit in every closet in modern mobile homes.
It can easily sit flush against the closet’s walls. Nothing protrudes from its back. The door is reversible, a feature you don’t want to miss in a compact freezer.
Related: Is It Ok To Put A Mini Fridge Under Your Bed?
Conclusion
You actually can keep a mini-fridge in your closet.
Whether you have run out of space or you’re looking for a way to hide your food and drinks, you need to ensure that the closet is spacious enough to accommodate the electrical wiring and support the “breathing” of the fridge.
It is important to take the measurements of the closet before selecting the mini fridge. You can find a mini-fridge that that can accompany you closet better on Amazon, Mayfair, or Home Depot.
