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The best dorm room mini fridges for back to school
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Hey, parents, college freshmen and dorm-bound students: Don’t forget to add a mini fridge to your back-to-school shopping list. This dorm room essential takes up minimal space and keeps your drinks and snacks nice and cold.
The shopping experts at CBS Essentials have curated a selection of customer-favorite mini fridges with various features, including freezers, eraser board doors for notes, skincare refrigerators with mirrors and quiet models that won’t disrupt your sleep. All these top-rated mini fridges boast four-star ratings or higher and come with tons of positive reviews.
Sticking to a dorm room budget? Many of these mini fridge options are currently on sale right now. We’ve even found quite a few under $50!
The best mini fridges for dorm rooms in 2024
Shop our selection of the best mini refrigerators for dorm rooms below. All of these cool fridge finds have a four-star rating or higher.
Our top choice: Upstreman mini fridge with freezer
Upstreman via Amazon
Amazon’s No. 1 mini fridge has a 4.5-star rating and it’s on sale now. The Upstreman mini fridge has a 3.2-cubic-foot capacity and features a reversible door, an adjustable thermostat, a crisper drawer, removable shelves, a freezer and an ice tray. It measures 17.4″ x 18.7″ x 33.1″.
“This mini refrigerator exceeds my expectations,” says an Amazon customer. “Lots of room and it gets very cold without putting it to the maximum. I’m very happy with this purchase. I highly recommend this item!”
Upstreman mini fridge with freezer, $140 (regularly $180)
Frigidaire eraser board mini compact dorm fridge
Frigidaire Store via Amazon
This 4.3-star-rated fridge includes a reversible door, two adjustable shelves, a 2L bottle storage area and a door can rack. It measures 16″ x 20″ x 30″.
We especially love that this 3.2-cubic-foot Frigidaire mini fridge has an eraser board door. Claim your fridge with your name, write your roommate notes or draw pictures on the exterior of this appliance using a dry erase marker.
Frigidaire eraser board mini compact dorm fridge, $137
Frigidaire portable mini fridge
Frigidaire Store via Amazon
Add a pop of color to your dorm room with this retro Frigidaire beverage and snack refrigerator. This 4.3-star-rated mini fridge can hold up to nine beverage cans, skincare and snacks. Choose from four colors: black, blue, red and pink (shown).
“Bought this for my daughter for her room. She loves it. Keeps her beauty rollers and drinks/snacks cold,” says an Amazon customer who called the appliance a “nice fridge.”
This refrigerator measures 7″ x 12″ x 10″. Note that the price may vary with color.
Frigidaire portable mini fridge, $40
Galanz one door mini fridge
Galanz via Walmart
This 3.3-cubic-foot refrigerator features a full-width chiller compartment, two adjustable leveling legs and a convenient reversible door. The refrigerator measures 17.48″ x 19.09″ x 33.19″.
“I really do think it’s worth the price, not even starting with the fact you get a one-year warranty so if anything goes wrong you can get a replacement,” says a Walmart reviewer. “It does just what I need to for a great price … it’s pretty big and very quiet.”
Galanz one door mini fridge, $118 (regularly $190)
Midea refrigerator
Midea via Amazon
This 2.4-cubic-foot fridge has a 4.5-star rating. It measures 20.08″ x 17.52″ x 24.8″.
“If you’re looking for a low-cost fridge perfect for your room or a mini-bar, then this is going to be perfect for you,” says an Amazon reviewer. “This fridge is great, because it is lightweight (for a mini-fridge, of course), surprisingly durable, and small enough to keep in a room while still holding plenty inside.”
Werseon mini skincare fridge
Werseon via Walmart
If you’re looking for a refrigerator that will keep your serums, moisturizers and face masks nice and cool, consider this mini skincare fridge. This Werseon refrigerator features a lighted makeup mirror door with a button to adjust the brightness. This tiny fridge operates quietly, reaching only 28 decibels. (Standard refrigerators operate between 32db to 47dB.)
Note that this is a very small refrigerator: It measures 8.74 x 2.64 x 10.44 Inches.
Werseon mini skincare fridge, $37
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Leonard Glenn Francis, a former defense contractor convicted for masterminding an unprecedented bribery and fraud scheme targeting the U.S. Navy, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to 15 years in prison. He was ordered to pay $20 million in restitution and a $150,000 fine, the Department of Justice announced.
Francis, known as “Fat Leonard,” pled guilty in 2015 to the bribery and fraud charges, but fled the U.S. in 2022 leaving his GPS ankle monitoring bracelet in a water cooler just days before he was to be sentenced. The U.S. Marshals Service told CBS News Francis was detained on an Interpol red notice at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Venezuela while boarding a flight to Cuba.
He was returned to the U.S. last year as part of a large prisoner swap deal with Venezuela. Ten American detainees were released in the 2023 deal in exchange for the Biden administration freeing Alex Saab, a Colombian-born businessman and close ally of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro who was facing money laundering charges.
U.S. Marshals Service via AP
In a 2015 plea agreement, Francis, the Malaysian owner of a ship servicing company in Southeast Asia, identified seven Navy officials who had accepted bribes and acknowledged paying off officials with hundreds of thousands in cash, as well as luxury goods worth millions.
He supplied them with prostitutes and Cuban cigars, luxury travel, Spanish suckling pigs and Kobe beef. Officials received spa treatments, top-shelf alcohol, designer handbags, leather goods, designer furniture, watches, fountain pens, ornamental swords and handmade ship models, according to court documents.
In exchange, officers gave him classified information and even redirected military vessels to lucrative ports for his Singapore-based ship servicing company. Francis, according to prosecutors, overcharged the U.S. military by $35 million for his company’s services.
Over 30 Navy officers and contractors have either been convicted or pleaded guilty to charges related to Francis’ services.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino sentenced Francis to a 164-month sentence for bribery and fraud and 16 months for failing to appear, to be served consecutively.
“Leonard Francis lined his pockets with taxpayer dollars while undermining the integrity of U.S. Naval forces,” said U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath in a statement. “The impact of his deceit and manipulation will be long felt, but justice has been served today.”
Francis, 60, was initially arrested in San Diego on September 16, 2013, and remained in pretrial custody until December 18, 2017, when the court granted his request for release pending sentencing due to a medical condition, the Department of Justice said. Francis served four years and three months in custody before he was released on bond and ordered into house arrest. He remained on bond under the supervision of U.S. Pretrial Services for almost five years, from December 17, 2017, until he escaped.
“Mr. Francis’ sentencing brings closure to an expansive fraud scheme that he perpetrated against the U.S. Navy with assistance from various Navy officials. This fraud conspiracy ultimately cost the American taxpayer millions of dollars and weakened the public’s trust in some of our Navy’s senior leaders,” Kelly P. Mayo, the director of the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Inspector General said in a news release on Tuesday.
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