What to Look for in an Outdoor Fridge
If you’re planning on creating an outdoor entertainment area or an outdoor kitchen, then you probably already know that you can’t use your in-house appliances outdoors and expect them to perform optimally. Outdoor appliances demand a higher level of performance, durability, and reliability – ones that are built to last, particularly in Australia’s extreme weather conditions. This especially applies to refrigerators as they’ll need to keep your beverages and food evenly cold in quickly shifting temperatures, without straining your electricity bill at the same time.
That being said, the perfect outdoor fridge needs to be durable, to have a cooling performance, be energy efficient and reliable. Luckily, there are many manufacturers that make such fridges, like the Rhino outdoor bar fridge, for example. The Rhino outdoor bar fridge can be the ideal solution for keeping your beverages cool even in the warmest months in Australia.
Most outdoor fridges are made from stainless steel to ensure durability as it does not rust, it’s corrosion and moisture resistant. To ensure durability, look for fridges that are IP23 rated, meaning that the unit is built for outdoors. The construction is very important as it’s essential that the fridge doesn’t release heat and stays cool regardless of the outside temperature. Moreover, the lights inside it should be LED for the same reason – they’re durable, emit no heat and are environmentally friendly.
Next, the cooling performance of the fridge matters significantly. You’ll generally come across fridges with two cooling technologies – forced air and cold plate. The cold plate technology features a frigid surface placed in the fridge’s storage compartment which constantly cools through natural convection when it contacts air. On the other hand, forced air fridges recirculate the air inside the fridge through a cooling cycle, thus providing consistent air circulation.
Furthermore, energy efficiency can easily make-or-break an outdoor fridge. Typically, when operating in outdoor weather conditions, efficiency is quite difficult to achieve. However, many manufacturers have overcome this challenge and have created fridges that balance performance and energy efficiency. That being said, find out how much energy the fridge spends in a 24 hour span (it shouldn’t be higher than 2KWh/24h) to make the best choice.
Lastly, the fridge needs to be reliable. In other words, once you buy it you shouldn’t have to worry about maintaining it or replacing parts of it anytime soon. Oftentimes, quality is determined by longevity and operation costs. So if you have to choose between a more expensive unit that won’t need frequent servicing and a cheaper one that might need servicing or replacement soon, then you should definitely go with the more expensive initial purchase and save yourself the money, time and headaches.