Midea MS-50 mini fridge, how does the 1 to 6 dial actually work?

[Thomas Martinez]

Saw the Midea MS-50 come up in a discussion about small fridges for hotel room and mini bars. Thus, figured I'd ask the question here as the manual info are relatively thin on the internet. This is supposed to be a compact fridge for bars and hotels, I assume with nothing too fancy.
The thermostat dial go from 1 to 6 with 1 being the warmest and 6 the coldest. I assume somewhere around the middle should be fine for a hotel room fridge that only needs to hold drinks and snacks. However, lower-end mini fridges tend to struggle to maintain their temperature unless you set them to one of the colder temperature on the fridge. Curious to know what people's experiences with setting the dial to various numbers is with the MS-50 in particular.

 

[Adorable All]

3 or 4 is where you want it for drink. 6 will frost everything up and you'll be chipping ice off the back wall in a week.

 

[Star]

the dial isnt a temperature setting, its a duty cycle for the thermostat. Higher number = compressor runs longer before cycling off. Theres no actual temp sensor calibrated to those numbers, its just a capillary tube thermostat with a spring tension adjust. People get this wrong all the time

 

[Funny Fowl]

Run mine at 4 year round, ambient vary from like 65 to 85 in the room and it holds drink around 38ish.

 

[Prehistoric Plunger]

the dial isnt a temperature setting, its a duty cycle for the thermostat. Higher number = compressor runs longer before cycling off. Theres no actual temp sensor calibrated to those numbers, its just a capillary tube thermostat with a spring tension adjust. People get this wrong …

wait so if its just duty cycle does that mean a higher setting actually wear the compressor out faster? or does the compressor not care

 

[Star]

wait so if its just duty cycle does that mean a higher setting actually wear the compressor out faster? or does the compressor not care

compressors prefer longer run over short cycles actually. Short cycling is what kill them. So running it at 5 in a warm room is fine, running it at 2 in a cold garage where it barely kicks on and off constantly is worse for it

 

[Sparkling Snake]

midea makes decent cheap stuff but the MS-50 specifically i wouldnt trust for a real bar install, theyre fine for a guest room where nobody opens it 40 times a day

 

[Bright Bird]

4

 

[Prehistoric Plunger]

compressors prefer longer run over short cycles actually. Short cycling is what kill them. So running it at 5 in a warm room is fine, running it at 2 in a cold garage where it barely kicks on and off constantly is worse for it

interesting, so theres basically no point in even having 6 position if its just two extremes that matter? like why not a low/med/high

 

[Shado]

I had one of these in an airbnb I used to manage. Set it to 4, walked away, never touched it again in two year. Guests complained exactly zero time about warm drinks.
The only issue I had with it was someone shoving a wet towel against the back of it which would then freeze solid and crack the liner. Not the fridges fault obviously. For what it cost me it punched above its weight but I would not put it behind an actual bar with high turnover.

 

[Tense Tuatara]

alot of people do not realize that the guts of these mini bar are basically the same as a dorm fridge but with a different sticker on the fridge

 

[Star]

interesting, so theres basically no point in even having 6 position if its just two extremes that matter? like why not a low/med/high

because marketing. The numbers seem to provide customer with fine control over the temperature when really only positions 2 and 5 are different from the 3 and 4 range. Position 1 is basically off and 6 is the freezer setting.

 

[Enchanting Elk]

get a thermometer and stop guessing what setting to put it on. $4 at walmart. The setting does not matter what temperature is in the mini bar.

 

[Funny Fowl]

get a thermometer and stop guessing what setting to put it on. $4 at walmart. The setting does not matter what temperature is in the mini bar.

^this. I got a cheap digital one and taped the thermometer to the middle shelf so it would give me the best reading of the fridge temperature.

 

[Adorable All]

yeah unless you want to make slushy 6 is overkill.