What is the purpose of the Small Fridge when the Large Fridge does everything for us?

[Gizmo]

The Small Fridge needs to be piped in with cooled nitrogen at above 101kpa to work optimally. However the Large Fridge just needs to be hooked up to power and creates a perfect environment inside instantly. Is there any reason for this? Are the refrigerators just unbalanced because of the latest spoiler update? It Feels like cheating so I'm wondering if I'm missing something.

[Nightwolf]

the small one can have a custom atmos pumped into it. the large one has its own atmosphere (not sure if it generates its own or pulls from the surrounding atmos).

pure nitrogen? i think at chilled temps will preserve food the longest if i remember correctly vs other gasses. most players dont care and yeah vs the large fridge unless you have decay cranked up reallllly high theres not a lot of reason. there are alternative uses for a small fridge but on normal settings on the whole the large one is just better.

To minimize decay, food should be kept in a powered fridge in a nitrogen atmosphere of over 101kpa at a temperature of at least 110K (-163°C) as the calculation has been tweaked to not penalize preservation for being to cold.

this is off the wiki im not sure if its accurate anymore however

that being said if you hate farming and are just playing solo a small one is all you need to keep the bare minimum of food and not be bothered with large scale farming. the big fridge just wastes power

[Whiplash]

I wouldn't be surprised if they change the recipe for the large fridge later. As it stands there is almost no reason to make the small fridge (IMO). Maybe one or two early on to save your mushrooms and eggs.

Like they recently changed the large station battery recipe to be more late game (not sure if that is on live yet or only on the beta branch). The large fridge is so superior, even though it uses quite a bit of power. Keeping the nitrogen cold for small fridges can also be power intensive depending on the planet. Plus they hold only two slots vs like 15 for the large fridge.

IMHO they are imbalanced by comparison.

[Eightball]

I was also under the impression they changed the large fridge, after its introduction, to be THE best storage option for perishables and it no longer needed an N2 atmosphere (or any specific atmosphere) to obtain maximum shelf life; just plug and store.

Part of what I recall motivated this change was the fact you could build a 'cold room' with N2 and store your perishables on open shelves in said room and get better shelf life than you could inside the large fridge.

I agree with those who have said the large fridge will probably have a recipe change to reflect a more mid/late game use.

[Nightwolf]

my understanding was that fridges (large and small) eject heat into their surrounding atmos
to bring their inside temp to whatever is preset with them and do require an atmos to work properly. every time you open the door you let heat into their atmosphere which they then power to bring it back to temp. the greater the heat diff between the fridge and the outside
atmos the more power it sucks to cool.

the internal atmos in a large was inferior to a pure nitro atmos, so while it worked, it wasnt the best of the options available in terms of decay rate control.

i have not tested any of this i am just going purely off what is in the in game help file and the wiki.

truth is its not been a issue either way unless you play hardcore and even then you can simply build a freezer room with a airlock and fill it with nitro and shelves. even with manual harvesting, the small fridge just does not have a place with all the current game play mechanics now.

much like the air conditioners its just another thing that needs a heavy overhaul to fit properly.

another thing i have not check is the refrigerated vending machine. i would assume like the large fridge it simply slows decay but given how many other elements need a rework i wonder if it was just a rushed copy of the vending machine that stores the state of a item at the moment it entered.

[Cthulhu]

Small fridge iron, copper, gold.
Large fridge iron, copper, gold, steel.
You need steel for the large fridge so it is more of a mid-game item when you have something more advanced than an arc furnace, where the small fridge can be build from the beginning to save your perishables.

[Whiplash]

Steel really is not mid game. You can get steel going very very quickly. And many players rush for steel right away with a simple furnace setup right after they finish the first 3 basic machines.

[Xuhybrid]

Why do you need a fridge in the first place? Seeds and canned foods have no decay now. Mushrooms and eggs are the only exception.

[Gizmo]

Originally posted by Xuhybrid:

Why do you need a fridge in the first place? Seeds and canned foods have no decay now. Mushrooms and eggs are the only exception.

Not everyone wants to deal with canning, especially early-game

[Xuhybrid]

Canning is so easy though. What is there to deal with exactly?

[Overjay]

A small fridge can require way less energy to stay cool compared to the electric one. If you have a dedicated coolant pipeline in your base - this might be beneficial, since on Mars, for example, you can shed heat at night. On Europa, you simply vent it 24/7 with the coolant line being open to the outside atmos.

[vrme]

On Europa you can slmply fill your entire room with N2 and equilize temp with outside atmosphere.