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NewAir's 224-Can Beverage Fridge Can Keep Your Fam

The NewAir 24″ Can Fridge is a monster beverage cooler capable of chilling up to 224 cans of soda, or whatever you want to keep in it. First off, I'm just going to call it the 224. It doesn't have a catchy name like the Froster 46, which I reviewed earlier this year. Like the Froster, the 224 is a ...beverage fridge; but where the Froster was a compact solution for small spaces, the 224 comes in ready to fulfill the chilling needs of a good-sized family or small office. What's in the Box: One 224-can beverage refrigerator, six adjustable shelves, and the product manual. Setup: The fridge is designed to work as either a free-standing appliance (say, in your garage), or set into a built-in space in cabinetry, where it can be a classy addition to your kitchen or family room. Attach the included door handle using a Phillips-head screwdriver. Plug it into a grounded 3-prong outlet, and set the desired temperature on the control panel on the front door. Use: The illuminated LCD control panel is bright and easy to read. There are 3 color choices for the LED lighting (white, blue and amber). Press the list button quickly to cycle through the colors. There are 3 light modes. Press and hold for 3 seconds to select a light mode: on when the door opens, on all the time, or on all the time with color-changing. Up and down buttons to control the temperature settings from 37-65 degrees Fahrenheit (you can press and hold both temperature buttons for three seconds to shift to Celsius). There are also alarms if you leave the door open too long, or if the temperature exceeds the one end or the other of the range for too long. Output: The space available to fill with 224 standard 12-oz. cans is pretty significant. That's more than 37 six-packs of soda or beer (or kombucha, or cold-brew, or…). What's nice about this fridge is that you can use, or not use, any of the six shelves to create the space you need for the beverages you want to put in it. The shelves also pull out, so you can reach items further back. Everything fits tightly, and feels solid and secure. The 224 also includes a carbon air filter to maintain fresh air inside the cooling chamber. This is a perk for keeping wine fresh, because there is aspiration through the corks that can allow musty air in to spoil the flavor of your precious wine. What I like about the 224: Its monster capacity lets you keep beverages cold for every family-member's tastes, with the ability to chill both cans and bottles without sacrificing space. The LED lighting is a classy touch. The flexibility to keep it free-standing, or incorporate it into cabinetry. The control panel is conveniently located, bright, and easy to read What could be better: The stainless-steel front really isn't stainless. It picked up fingerprints pretty easily when I took it out of the box. I also wish the manual included specific instructions for how best to load it with different cans and bottles, rather than leaving it to us to figure out. I wonder if there's an algorithm for this… The final verdict: If you're a real soda, wine, or beer snob who pays attention to serving your favorite beverages at the optimal temperatures, then the NewAir 224 could be the perfect addition to your family leisure zone or game room. It's not a full-sized fridge, of course, but it holds a huge quantity of drinks. Its quiet operation makes it great for a media room where it won't bother anyone. Disclosure: GeekDad received a sample of this item for review purposes.