<p>Has anybody purchased a dorm refrigerator with an actual freezer? I wonder if any of them are capable of keeping frozen things frozen?</p>
<p>YES. The best ones are the ones with a separate door for the freezer. One, the freezer works great and two, there is actually room to freeze things. I have purchased two, one for each D. You can get one of the high end ones that normally sells for $160-190 for around $80 at Walmart or Target in August. I think we ended up with two different brands. I am pretty sure one was an Emerson and was 3.2 or 3.4 cubic feet.</p>
<p>We bought a Sanyo for my daughter that has a freezer compartment. The problem is that the freezer areas are typically small so you can’t store a lot of items in it. Also, there is usually not a separate freezer control so you have to try and keep that area cold enough without making the rest of the refrigerator too cold. Check the dorm policies at the school as many have size limits on the refrigerators that you can have.</p>
<p>Best time to buy is in August. Stores have fridges in stock and you don’t have to store them over that 1st summer. We got ours from a local Sears. It had an inside door to the freezer and worked well.</p>
<p>We bought this style 2 door compact fridge for our daughter 3 years ago. It has held up great and she has been pleased with its storage capacity. The freezer top is roomy for what she needs and kept everything frozen.</p>
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<p>It lists an MSRP of $249 but we paid less than $150. I’m sure you could find deals later this summer or online.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the advice! I’m really torn between renting a Polarwave microfridge for $150 (divided between two roommates) and just buying one with the intention of reselling it later.</p>
<p>We bought the frigidaire one with the separate freezer and a seperate door. Small but sufficient for what my daughter wanted it for - some frozen breakfast stuff and ice cream - which would not have worked with one of the teeny freezer areas. She really liked it.</p>
<p>We bought one similar to the Frigidaire one (slightly bigger I think) and my D loves it and will take it back again this fall. The separate freezer was a necessity for her because she’s vegan and wanted to make sure she had options for times when the dining hall wasn’t convenient. She’s bringing it back next year even though their room will have a kitchen with a fridge. She’s attached, LOL.</p>
<p>Not all students need fridges though and I know a few who rarely used the one they had over the year so think ahead to eating habits, etc since they do take up precious dorm room space!</p>
<p>D’s bf had one in his dorm room. She used the freezer to kill the insects she had to collect for her biology class :D</p>
<p>Check to see the college’s requirements first. UCLA had a requirement that they only allowed one ‘microfridge (microwave/fride combo)’ and not both a separate microwave and fridge in a room. Also coordinate it so either not all roomies bring their own or they at least check to make sure there’s space and it’s permitted to bring multiple. </p>
<p>If you want a deal on one there are probably lots of them for sale used since once they move into an apt or home it’s usually no longer used.</p>
<p>Both my S’s college dorm rooms came equipped with micro- refrig. w/ small freezer.
They both used theirs a lot.</p>
<p>My son’s had a tiny freezer and he never used it. But he did enjoy having a door shelf tall enough for a 1/2 gal of milk or juice.</p>
<p>“Check to see the college’s requirements first. UCLA had a requirement that they only allowed one ‘micro-fridge (microwave/fride combo)’ and not both a separate microwave and fridge in a room.” - The same was true at Northeastern, and I’ve read other colleges do the same thing. I think it relates to energy usage, but not sure.</p>
<p>The micro-fridge costs vary by college. We were ready to pay the $120 for half portion of rental. But son’s roommate lived nearby and decided to buy the unit for $400. We paid the $120 to his family. It will be a pain for them to move it, but they’ll get a few years use and then be able to sell or use for their younger kid.</p>
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<p>This looks like the fridge I’ve had the last two years. No frost, worked flawlessly. It’s too big for a lot of colleges but it was okay for mine and is what I would recommend. I liked it because the freezer worked, was big enough to keep quite a lot of frozen food and an ice tray-- i kept ice cream, a few tupperwares of homemade pasta sauce, a big box of fish sticks, and three or four tv dinners in mine, and because it is narrow and tall instead of short and fat it has a smaller footprint in the room. Very nice. We’re saving mine for when my sister goes to college. I kept my microwave on top of it.</p>
<p>My daughter has the Emerson 3.1 Compact Refridgerator from Target.
We got it on sale for about $120 (it’s currently selling for $189. Watch for college sales in July and early August, it will probably go back down in price.). It’s a great little refridgerator. In the freezer section, the separate doors allow you to store some frozen dinners, ice tray, and some ice cream. It’s not too small or too big and it meets the requirements for my daughter’s school. You can adjust the temperature. It keeps all the frozen items, frozen.</p>
<p>im trying to limit the stuff i bring next year. do you need a refrigerator in the dorm?</p>
<p>Emory, do you need one, well you can probably get by without one however, it’s a nice convenience. If you are a picky eater, and do not like what the cafeteria is serving that day, it’s nice to have something stored in the fridge. It’s also nice to have a cold bottle of water or soda on a hot day in the fridge or a snack for those late night study sessions. Its a great convenience to have something stored in the fridge/freezer if you are too tired in the morning to make it to the cafeteria or when you are not feeling well. </p>
<p>If you do not want to bring a fridge to school, most universities have places you can rent it from.</p>
<p>I was looking, and the rentals are quite expensive compared to buying. Even if S moves off campus after a couple of years, his brothers will probably want one after him. I was thinking of buying from Amazon.com and getting it shipped free straight to the dorm. But that then begs the question of moving or storing it at the end of the year. I don’t think S’s school (Cornell) offers any free storage, and the one local place I’ve seen recommended is also quite expensive… We’ll be driving S but have a smallish station wagon so I’m not sure about that.</p>
<p>My daughter also has the Emerson with the separate freezer, which is surprisingly large and seems to keep everything frozen solid. In fact, after it arrived back home last week, it took a couple of days to start leaking in the garage. Turns out, the freezer was full of food and no one bothered to clean it out.</p>