<p>Are there any good resources from which to rent refrigerators near Duke? Does the University rent them out? </p>
<p>Anyone's experiences with fridge rental for the academic year would be appreciated.</p>
<p>yeah bump...i would like to know the same thing...thanks didgeridoo08 for bringing this up...i really appreciate it.</p>
<p>My roommate and I rented one for freshmen year. We were both from pretty far away so we just said what the hell and rented one. It cost a fair bit, but is very convenient - you pick it up on campus somewhere and just leave it outside your room at the end of the year. </p>
<p>On the other hand if you live nearby or plan to get storage, it'd be cheaper to buy one and keep it for 4 years than to rent it, if I remember correctly.</p>
<p>how much does it cost to rent/buy</p>
<p>I am guessing its gonna be a mini fridge. Its only like 100-200 at your nearest wallyworld.</p>
<p>I think the refrigerator/microwave combo is about $125 a year to rent (IIRC). A mini-fridge should be about $100-200 to buy.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. Where do you rent it from then? Just Wal-Mart? Or do you buy it for $125-200?</p>
<p>I think there's a company that sends out mailing about rentals. It might even be collegeboxes, but I definitely remember something of the sort in the blue devil Delivery Catalogue. Check in that.</p>
<p>Yea we got the frig/microwave combo for like $150, and they weren't that clean either. If its not too difficult, I know even Target sold fairly decent microwaves for $40 and you could probably find decent, comparable fridges for less than $125. Summing those two up, it'd be marginally more expensive to buy the combo and keep it for four years (or more?) than to rent for only one year.</p>
<p>a short drive from campus you can go to walmart, target, best buy, etc and even places like linens & things and bed bath & beyond (i know a bunch of linens and things are closing, like the one near my house-- no idea abt the one in durham-- and i remember walking in the other day and seeing large mini fridges on major sale) and those two places routinely take coupons to buy cheap mini fridges (and microwaves). OR keep an eye out on facebook advertisements, a lot of upperclassmen might be trying to unload theirs at the beginning of the school year, so you can buy one that way. </p>
<p>i don't think renting is cost effective at all, even if you are coming from far away, since they're things you're going to want to have all four years (or three years, more realistically considering senior year off campus). i don't remember anyone really having it freshman year other than one person, and it was old/dirtyish and didn't work as well as our new stuff.</p>
<p>In my opinion it is really not worth it to rent these things. It is way more cost effective for you each to buy either a refrigerator or a microwave and then keep it with you. (especially if you buy it used) Also the microfridges that the company rents are all extremely used. (they have to be, they rent them out each year) So not only will you get better quality buying it yourself, it is cheaper in the long run and you only have to make the purchase once.</p>
<p>I realize the convenience can be tempting but there are ways to go purchase these things even if you don't own a car personally. As an RA I've given quite a few residents rides to the store to pick up everything from fans to fridges. (that isn't to say you should expect your RA to go pick it up for you as we don't all have cars and it isn't part of our job, but most people with cars are quite happy to do this sort of favor)</p>
<p>Personally, I would swing by Costco or Sam's Club if you know someone with a membership and buy whatever they have on sale. If you don't have a membership then Sears is fairly close as well as any of the other stores listed in the post above.</p>
<p>If you are dead set on renting the go ahead. But realize you are choosing the more expensive route. (and again the cheapest way to deal with your stuff over the summer when you have to fly back and forth to school is a storage unit, so you would be able to store it unless you decided to do collegeboxes)</p>