Technology Connections talks about a red fridge from Walmart for an hour
Technology Connections talks about a red fridge from Walmart for an hour
In a video by @Techconnectify@mas.to, Alec goes into a deep dive into the simplicity of his particular model, its shortcomings and variety of data logging tests in an attempt to fix them.
TL,DW: Very simple, cheap and ingenious design, with one compressor loop between the fridge and freezer in series. However, its temperature sensor is wonky and so the fridge is more affected by how long the compressor operates than the actual temperature itself. There is a signficant temperature differential between the top and bottom, fans on the exterior or interior could help but with the faulty sensor only made matters worse. With the controller replaced with a proper temp control unit the fridge functioned much better.
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Honestly, the best part about this channel is watching the guy be extremely American.
His fascination at an absolutely run of the mill entry level fridge that everybody outside Muricaland has owned at least once is delightful.
Oh, also, he's on Mastodon here @TechConnectify in case you guys didn't know that.
No, this is an absolutely bog standard low-end fridge here. He's just interested in clever engineering, no matter how mundane it is. His toaster videos are an excellent example of this.
If you watch the video he explicitly says he hadn't seen a fridge with some of the specific design details of this one. He also keeps calling it a "mini-fridge", which is also a delightfully American thing to say about what is an absolutely standard sized fridge for our standards.
I did. He also says at one point that he understands the construction is more typical of split-compartment mini-fridges, but acknowledged he hadn't much checked.
But, your interpretation is certainly fair, I don't really want to argue. Instead, I don't know how much you know about our fridges, but if that's a standard size over on that side of the pond, they're absolutely bonkers big by comparison here. That absolutely qualifies as "mini" here in the US, which stores seem to think is anything under about 7 cubic feet, or about 198 Liters.
A quick Google shows that by volume, there's not a single entry level full-size fridge with that small of a volume in the category. The cheapest fridge from a brand I personally recognize (in this case, a Whirlpool) has more than double the volume of the fridge in the video, 11.3 cu. ft. (320 L) compared to 4.6 (130 L) of the Galanz. Looking at the marketing images, that's still quite small here. It's not uncommon at all for a fridge to be more than 4 times as large as the Galanz.
Oh, they ARE absoutely bonkers there. Every time I stay in the US for any amount of time I am absolutely amazed at the fact that fridges seem to universally be the size of closets. You could walk inside one comfortably if you took out the shelves.
I can list other appliance culture clashes, too: not having washing machines in the kitchen but having driers, for some reason. Microwave ovens sized like normal ovens. Oh, and of course the absolutely ludicrous plugs, which of course he has covered but despite his protestations I have personally seen slide out from being fully plugged. Oh, and the power strips look like popsicle sticks. They're so tiny.
Interesting point on the microwave ovens. I live in the Netherlands and every apartment I've lived in comes with a standard combination oven and microwave, i.e oven sized microwave. Is that something standard in the US and not standard where you are?
As a fellow Dutchy... my current place is the first place I ever lived in that came with a combination oven and microwave.
Previously I've always had to supply my own microwave / oven ;-)
True that, I think it's more a case of that I've been renting in brand new apartments most recently, and a combimagnetron is the standard for all new construction in cities these days.
Although it's true that my Oma has them separate. But even then, the microwave is built into the cupboards, it's not a "loose" appliance on the counter top. That seems to be more of a thing in US/UK from what I see
Yeah I think it's the same... new apartments come with almost everything including the proverbial kitchen sink.
My current place (built in 2008) has a kitchen that includes an microwave oven, fridge and stove top. The only thing it doesn't have is a dishwasher.
What's always fun is that new Dutch apartments come with an entirely equipped kitchen, dishwasher and all, but then they come without a floor (bare concrete), and the walls are bare plaster.
Then as a renter I get to pay for all of it, and at the end of my lease I'm looking forward to playing the bluffing game with the next tenant. I'll try to sell my floor to them, while they try to get it for free under the assumption I don't want to spend time ripping it up if they don't pay.
They will lose.
Hehe yeah, that's always fun. The bare concrete. At least it's better then Germany, where you have to bring your own kitchen...
When I had the viewing of my current apartment, they said they were gonna give me a 10 litre bucket of white paint. Even tho the place didn't look that badly painted, but more because they always did that.