Chest Fridge
30 points
1 hour ago
| 8 comments
| mtbest.net
| HN
tempestn
56 minutes ago
[-]
It's a cool idea, and might be great for a secondary fridge. For a primary fridge though, it's so much more convenient to have direct access to everything through a vertical door. I like energy efficiency, but I'm willing to pay 300kWh a year (around $40 here) for that convenience, let alone the space efficiency.
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refactor_master
49 minutes ago
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Most people in dense urban areas would actually pay less. By going vertical you’re freezing a whole m2 that was otherwise necessarily occupied by the fridge. In most places, 300 kWh is much cheaper than an extra irrevocable m2 for your fridge.

Plus, a horizontal fridge is just… convenient. You can’t even put things on top of a vertical fridge.

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tshaddox
49 minutes ago
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If you completely remodeled a kitchen around a chest fridge it might not be too terribly inconvenient. But the major blocker is that virtually every kitchen is designed with a perfect spot for a tall, relatively shallow fridge.
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stock_toaster
19 minutes ago
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Indeed. I could imagine a very neat one built into the cabinetry where the counter top could be lifted up or something.
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zeroq
15 minutes ago
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It's more about freezers than fridges. Less frequent access and ton more work to get the temps back. I never thought about it but it was such an a-ha moment for me when I recently learned about it that I'm genuinely flabbergasted why it's not more popular.
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ashenke
1 hour ago
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Because I have more vertical space in my kitchen than I got horizontal one.
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Hextinium
50 minutes ago
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This reminds me of the Technology Connections fridge rant video. Similar arguments all around, the dumping effect of cold out of a vertical fridge is pretty crazy to watch with a thermal camera.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=CGAhWgkKlHI

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mememememememo
39 minutes ago
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Why?

a: space.

A standup fridge freezer is floor space efficient.

How much rent is the chest freezer using per year :)

Made up numbers 10k for 1000sqft

10 per sq ft

So say $40 a year in rent. Still not too bad I guess

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anjel
22 minutes ago
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Modern refrigerators are designed for browsing. A chest fridge could save a person a lot of calories over time
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nom
28 minutes ago
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No.

Drawers.

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catapart
8 minutes ago
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+1

waist level, some below countertops, some above a freezer drawer. humidity settings.

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gnabgib
1 hour ago
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(2009)
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wolfi1
53 minutes ago
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he mentions inverter freezers at the end so it must have been updated more recently
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gnabgib
46 minutes ago
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I don't think so? The PDF includes "today (2009)", and also "started in 2004". It's been featured on HN before.. as far back as 2009. Unfortunately the archives first caught the (same) text in 2021, so that's not helpful.

rcfox's criticism from 2009 still stands (6 points, 2 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=865991

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