Fridge guide: chilling drinks and freezing ice cream

The Fridge adds cold-related value bonuses to specific goods overnight. Choose an eligible item, provide enough energy and check its feature the next morning. A lower liquid temperature alone does not mean the item has gained a sale-value bonus.

Fridge

Get a Fridge and provide power

After meeting Dr. Jackson, close your shop and visit his shop on the sector map. Buy a Fridge from his equipment stock. Once you already own one, offers of an additional Fridge depend on a random stock check.

Open the Fridge’s contents and put a charged Energy Cell in its battery slot. Check remaining charge against the Fridge’s current power use; energy cells and charging explains how to power and recharge machines.

The contents window has separate Chill Zone and Freeze Zone grids. You must own the goods you put inside. Wine bottles are not accepted.

Choose the right goods and zone

Goods	Where to put them	Overnight result
Ordinary beverage items	Chill Zone; the Freeze Zone also works	Chilled
Water Rations, including the small size	Either zone	Chilled
Bottle of Spring Water	Either zone	Chilled
Nudka	Chill Zone	Chilled
Nudka	Freeze Zone	Ice Cold, replacing Chilled
Bei’s Premium Vanilla Icecream	Freeze Zone	Frozen
Ordinary water in a refillable liquid container	Either zone can lower its temperature	No Chilled value feature

Chilled adds 20% to item value; Frozen and Ice Cold each add 25%. Ice Cold replaces Chilled on Nudka rather than adding both bonuses. Other item features and trading conditions still affect the final offer.

Run the overnight cycle

1. Put eligible goods in the appropriate grid, with enough space for each item.
2. Leave a charged cell in the battery slot with enough energy for the whole cycle.
3. Leave the goods inside when you end the day.
4. The next morning, inspect the goods for Chilled, Frozen or Ice Cold before taking them out to sell.
5. Check the buyer’s actual offer and budget before selling.

Why does chilled water sell for the same price?

Ordinary water that you pour into bottles, pitchers or other refillable containers can become colder inside the Fridge. That temperature change does not grant the Chilled feature used for the value bonus.

Sealed Water Rations and the Bottle of Spring Water can gain Chilled.

For water quality and contaminant removal, follow the water purification guide. For wine, use the wine-making and aging process.

Check power and upgrades

Use Scrap Metal on the Fridge to upgrade storage, or Electronic Parts to upgrade efficiency. Each upgrade consumes one material item and raises that upgrade by one level. Each track has seven levels; check the Fridge’s upgrade tooltip for its current levels.

Storage level	Chill Zone	Freeze Zone
0, before upgrades	5×2 = 10 cells	3×2 = 6 cells
7, maximum	5×9 = 45 cells	3×9 = 27 cells

Each storage upgrade adds one row to both zones. These are inventory cells, so the number of products that fit depends on their dimensions.

A new Fridge needs 2 energy per overnight cycle. Each storage level adds 2; each efficiency level removes 2, with a minimum of 2. For example, storage level 2 and efficiency level 0 need 6 energy; raising efficiency to level 2 brings that back to 2. Check the displayed requirement after upgrading and leave enough charge in the installed cell.

Cold features are maintained by refrigeration. At the next overnight settlement, a cold feature is removed if it has not been renewed in a powered Fridge. Before keeping stock for another night, put it back in the correct zone with power. Inspect its feature again before the next sale.

If the Fridge seems to do nothing

• No feature appeared: check ownership, the goods and zone in the table, remaining cell charge and whether a night has passed.
• The ice cream has no Frozen feature: move it to the Freeze Zone and run another powered night.
• Nudka is only Chilled: use the Freeze Zone for Ice Cold.
• The water is colder but its value is unchanged: check whether it is ordinary refillable water rather than a Water Ration or Bottle of Spring Water item.
• An item will not fit: check its dimensions, available grid space and whether the item is accepted.