Whynter BR-091WS, 90 Can Capacity 2.1 cu. ft. Stainless Steel Beverage Refrigerator and cooler, Mini Fridge with Glass Door with lock

Full disclosure: I'm a mechanical engineer and I used to work at a refrigerator compressor manufacturing plant around 13 years ago. That doesn't make me an expert, but I won't address anything I don't have enough understanding of here.Construction/quality:The fridge itself is good. The handle is firm once installed, and I didn't notice any wobbles or anything unusual after I put it on the floor and adjusted its feet. Insulation could be a bit better, as you're able to notice the top and sides are colder after the unit has been on for a few hours. This is, however, a common difficulty with small refrigerators: to improve insulation you need to make the walls thicker, either losing internal space or making the unit larger, so there's an optimal point between insulation/wall thickness and heat losses. If you look at your kitchen refrigerator you'll notice its walls are quite thicker. Finally, the manual mentions that the control panel would lock itself after 2 minutes of inactivity, after which you'd need to press both temperature up & down buttons for 5 seconds to unlock it - well, that hasn't happened, and I don't know if there's a way to lock the controls (which are on the outside of the glass door), so I guess I'll just have to hope my kids don't mess around with it...Temperature:When the unit was plugged in for the first time it didn't take long for it to reach its lowest setpoint (34F) empty. A few hours after that, I loaded it with around 45 soda cans at room temperature, and it worked overnight and the good part of the following morning to cool those down to its lowest setpoint, which is expected given that it uses a small compressor. If you want it to work faster it's definitely best to put cans in the kitchen fridge overnight before moving them to this unit already cold. Another point worth mentioning is that the condenser (which is what dumps the heat from inside the fridge into the room it's located in) sits just beneath the external side walls (noticeable because those get warm when the compressor is running), so if you mount the unit where air flow is restricted, it will not operate as efficiently or get as cold as it's designed to.I've had some time to run a couple of thermometers in the unit. Unfortunately, their accuracy is abysmal and I cannot trust the actual temperature they're displaying. One is showing 12F right now, which is simply absurd, the other is much closer to reality - more on that below. However, for measuring the temperature variation, this second one is good enough. It's measuring a 6F min/max variation over the course of several days. Honestly, that's not bad for a beverage refrigerator. It doesn't mean the items you put in there will have their actual temperature vary by that much, it just means that the air inside the fridge is varying 6F - and take that with a grain of salt also, because there are several other variables to be taken into account here. Remember that it takes a while to cool something down, but it also takes a while for it to warm back up again, so you can expect the temperature of, say, a soda can to vary by approximately 2F. That's quite good! To check how cold my beverages actually got, I allowed everything to stabilize over the course of a few days, and then I took a water bottle, opened it, and measured the temperature using a meat thermometer that had just been calibrated with ice water - meaning it can measure things at or close to 32F very well. It measured 34F.Noise:I saw some reviewers complaining about noise, so I was concerned about that. Noise is subjective, so your mileage may vary. I have it in my office about 5 feet away from me, and while it doesn't bother me during my work day, I would definitely not have this unit in or near my bedroom at night, because it would bother me a lot. For reference, my bedroom sits next to the kitchen, and I don't hear my kitchen fridge because that one is actually silent. One thing to note is that I saw some reviewers mention that the internal fan made noise, but mine is truly silent; it seems to operate all the time and I don't hear it at all. The compressor and associated coolant flow are the main sources of noise, and if you want those to be more silent while also having a fridge that gets very close to 34F, you need to look for a name brand and pay maybe 3 times more than this, while still having the risk that it'll use a similar (likely cheap) compressor.Drip tray:The only issue I had so far is that the drip tray came broken and completely loose from the unit, which is why I initially rated the unit with 3 stars, but later changed it to 5 once they sent me a new drip tray. Further below I'll describe what a drip tray is, but for now what matters is that I opened a support ticket directly with Whynter using their website and they sent me a new drip tray. Interestingly, the new drip tray had a different shape, which seemed to match my compressor a bit better...so perhaps the original (broken) drip tray was an incorrect part? I don't know. It's fixed, they sent me a new drip tray fast, and that's what matters.Here's what a drip tray is: remember when you had to periodically remove all the stuff from your refrigerator and allow the internal evaporator (the thing at the back with all the tubes) to defrost? Well, a lot of people today don't even know that this used to be a thing because they came up with "frost-free" refrigerators. What almost no one knows, however, is that frost-free refrigerators still accumulate ice on their evaporators (which are now hidden away in large refrigerators), but there's normally a mechanism to melt the ice every so often, which will then drip out of the fridge and onto the drip tray. This drip tray stays right on top of the compressor because it takes advantage of the fact that the compressor gets hot when it's running, so it allows the water to evaporate away quite fast. The automatic defrosting method varies a lot, from a dedicated heating element, to allowing the evaporator to get a bit warmer (or less cold) from time to time so that ice can melt away on its own, to not doing anything and allowing some ice to still form depending on the temperature setpoint. I don't know which method, if any, this unit uses, so I won't be surprised if I see some minor ice buildup over the next few months, because I'm running it at its lowest temperature setpoint. Easiest way to deal with that is to raise the temperature setpoint for a few days (i.e., when going on vacation), which won't be an issue for a beverage refrigerator.Well, that's all I had. Quite a long one, but I hope it helps someone.

This is an excellent mini fridge! I searched thoroughly online and was particular about the height. Most of them were ~30 inches in height, so they were all on the shorter side. This one is 33 inches, the perfect height I was looking for.Coming from a 2.4 cu. ft. min fridge, this one holds so much more drinks! No more left over drinks sitting on the ground of my kitchen! After plugging in the unit in the afternoon, it was cool and chilly inside by evening time!I wasn’t concerned about the manual light switch, I can see the drinks just fine during the day and it’s a simple switch on/off if you need light at night. I also don’t use the lock mechanism (it comes with a key). But it’s nice to know I have it when my 2 y/o and 2-month-old get older.Can’t recommend this product highly enough! You won’t regret this specific mini fridge!

I have had this for some time now...wanted to wait to give a review. I love the appearance of the min refridge and love the light. Adjusting temps is easy and responsive. I use it for storing my can pops and bottled water. The bottle you can adjust and use to store things like the 64 ounce containers of oj, and other drinks. Holds a good amount too! THe only issue I have with this beerage cooler, is that it the ice accummulation on the back. I have tried temps of 36-38 as those are about the right temp for us, we love them cold We placed this at first in the kitchen, it still had ice build up after a period of time.. We dont leave the door open , just grab what we need and shut the door. We thought perhaps maybe the living room it would do better, slightly cooler in there. Nope, still had ice build up. Did this in the summer, spring and winter. Now although I am not fod of defrosting anything, it still keeps the drinks cold and I love the light and amount it stores, enough that I would still recommend this product for those reasons. Only other things is it has started making sounds after about 6 months, but atm we have it in the kitchen and this does not bother me. I have no clue if they are like this or not, but I still like mine, nice and cold drinks and saves room from our big fridge