Mini-Fridge Recalls 2026: 1.5 Million Units Recalled for Fire Since 2023

Mini-fridges are the kind of appliance nobody thinks about twice. They cost $30 to $120, they get bought for dorm rooms, offices, garages, bedside tables and gaming desks, and they get plugged in and left alone for years. That is exactly why the recall pattern in this category deserves more attention than any single announcement has received.

We maintain a home appliance recall index built from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s public database. When we extended it to cover refrigeration in August 2026, one number stood out: compact and mini refrigerators account for roughly 1.5 million recalled units on their own — and unlike full-size refrigerator recalls, which have been recalled for everything from choking hazards to falling shelves, the mini-fridge recalls are almost monotonously consistent. They are fires.

Timing matters this month. The Cooluli recall landed on August 13, 2026, in the middle of dorm move-in season, and compact fridges are one of the most common things a student carries into a residence hall. If you are buying secondhand or unpacking a unit that has been in storage, the model check below takes about a minute.

Every U.S. mini-fridge recall since 2023

All five recalls below are active. CPSC recall remedies never expire, so if your unit is covered, the free remedy still stands even if the announcement is years old.

Unit counts, incident counts and remedies are the figures CPSC published for each recall. Source: CPSC / SaferProducts.gov, retrieved August 2026.

Why is it always fire, and always this category?

Read the four hazard descriptions side by side and the same failure keeps appearing in slightly different words:

• AstroAI: the minifridge’s electrical switch can short circuit.
• Cooluli: the minifridge’s electrical switch can short circuit.
• Frigidaire-brand (Curtis): internal electrical components can short circuit and ignite the surrounding plastic housing.
• Personal Chiller (Kell): the power cord can overheat.

In other words: a low-cost switching or cord component fails, and there is thermoplastic right next to it. That combination is what turns a $40 appliance into a fire report. It also explains why the remedies differ so much — when the fault is a cord or a switch, a manufacturer can sometimes ship a replacement part (Cooluli’s remedy is a new DC power cord and a sticker covering the AC port); when the fault is inside the housing, the only fix is to take the unit out of service (Curtis is refunding, AstroAI is replacing whole units).

Two more things worth noting about this category:

• These are high-volume, low-price units sold through mass retail. Walmart, Amazon and Target between them account for all five recalls. A recall of 634,000 units at $36 each reaches far more households than a recall of a $2,000 built-in appliance.
• Recalls in this category keep getting bigger after the fact. The Frigidaire-brand recall began at 634,000 units in July 2025 and was expanded in January 2026 to add model EFMIS121 and about 330,000 more units — a reminder that “my model wasn’t on the list” is worth re-checking later.

How to check whether your mini-fridge is recalled

Every one of these recalls is identified by model number, and in most cases serial or batch number too. Find the rating label — usually on the back of the unit or inside the door — and match it against the brand’s official recall lookup:

• Frigidaire-brand (Curtis International): “Frigidaire” is printed on the front; the model and serial numbers are on a label on the back of the unit. Covered models are EFMIS129, EFMIS137, EFMIS149 and EFMIS175 (6- and 9-can sizes, sold in many colors) and, added in the January 2026 expansion, the 6-can EFMIS121 sold in red at Target with serial numbers between A2001 and A2310. Only the listed serial ranges are included. Check and register for a refund at www.recallrtr.com/minifridge, or call 888-727-0198.
• AstroAI: the 4-Liter / 6-can minifridges sold on Amazon and astroai.com from June 2019 through June 2022 for about $40. Check at astroai.com/product-recall, email recall@astroai.com, or call 877-278-7624.
• Cooluli: 10-Liter and 15-Liter models from the Infinity, Classic, Glow Beauty and Vibe series, sold on Amazon and cooluli.com from January 2019 through October 2024 for $80 to $120. The physical tell: recalled units have an internal power supply with two power input ports (AC and DC) on the back, and a removable cord with no “brick” adapter. Units with a single DC port, or a laptop-style brick adapter, are not part of this recall. Covered batch numbers are 1535–1545 and 1200000–1202080, printed on a label inside the door. Check at cooluli.com/pages/product-notices-recalls, or email recall@cooluli.com.
• Personal Chiller (Kell Electronic): mini gamer beverage fridges with LED lights, sold at Walmart from September 2022 through January 2023 for about $60. Check at personalchiller.com/recall, email recall@kellelectronic.com, or call 888-860-9989.

If your unit is covered, follow the brand’s instructions exactly. Several of these recalls require you to unplug the fridge, cut the power cord, and photograph it before the refund or replacement is issued — if you throw the unit out first, you may lose the remedy.

What if my fridge isn’t on the list?

Then it is not part of these recalls, and there is no reason to stop using it. Two habits are still worth adopting for any compact fridge:

• Plug it straight into a wall outlet, not into a power strip or a thin extension cord. Every recall above involves a switching or cord component under sustained load.
• Register the appliance with the manufacturer so a future recall notice reaches you, and re-check older units occasionally — as the Frigidaire-brand expansion shows, model lists can grow.

If you are shopping now rather than checking an old unit, our mini-fridge buying guide covers current models and notes which of the recalled model families to avoid on the secondhand market.

The broader recall picture

Mini-fridges are one slice of a larger pattern. Across the four appliance categories we have tracked longest — vacuums, air purifiers, space heaters and countertop kitchen appliances — fire or burn hazards drove 83% of the 76 U.S. recalls since 2015, covering more than 29.4 million units. Compact refrigeration fits that pattern rather than breaking it. Full figures, category breakdowns and the complete record list are in our appliance recall index, and the separate refrigerator, freezer and mini-fridge tally is in its refrigeration section.

For the largest recent full-size refrigerator recall — about 121,680 Galanz retro refrigerators, tied to 34 fires and one death — see our breakdown of the Galanz recall, including which models are and are not affected.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many mini-fridges have been recalled in the U.S.?

About 1,488,100 units across five recalls since 2023: 634,000 plus an additional 330,000 Frigidaire-brand units (Curtis International), 250,000 Cooluli, 249,100 AstroAI and 25,000 Personal Chiller. Every one of those recalls was issued for a fire or burn hazard.

Which mini-fridge brands are affected?

AstroAI, Frigidaire-brand units made by Curtis International, Cooluli, and Personal Chiller by Kell Electronic. Frigidaire-brand is the largest by volume, at roughly 964,000 units once the January 2026 expansion is included.

Has anyone been hurt by a recalled mini-fridge?

The recall notices cite three reported smoke-inhalation injuries — two in the Frigidaire-brand recall and one in the Cooluli recall — and no deaths. They also cite at least 127 reports of units smoking, sparking, melting or catching fire, and more than $1.1 million in reported property damage.

What do I do if my mini-fridge is recalled?

Stop using it and unplug it, then follow the brand’s official process: a refund for Frigidaire-brand and Personal Chiller, a free replacement unit from AstroAI, and a free replacement power cord from Cooluli. Several brands require you to cut the power cord and submit a photo before issuing the remedy, so read the instructions before disposing of anything.

Do mini-fridge recalls expire?

No. CPSC recalls do not expire. If your model and serial number are covered, the free repair, replacement or refund still applies years after the announcement — which matters here, because these units are cheap, long-lived, and frequently resold secondhand.

Is it safe to buy a used mini-fridge?

It can be, but check the model number against the recall lists above first. Recalled units routinely turn up on secondhand markets, and the Personal Chiller recall notice specifically mentions units sold through secondhand stores and websites.

Method and sources

Every figure on this page comes from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s public recall database, accessed through the SaferProducts.gov API in August 2026. We pulled recalls by date range for 2015 through 2026, filtered to household refrigeration, and used the U.S. unit counts, incident counts, hazard descriptions and remedies exactly as CPSC published them. Nothing here is estimated. Commercial refrigeration and countertop ice makers are excluded — the first is outside our home-appliance scope, and the second is already counted in the countertop kitchen appliance category of our main index.

This page contains no affiliate or sponsored links, and we have no affiliation with any brand named on it. The data is free to cite with a link, and we are happy to prepare a custom cut — by brand, year, hazard or unit count — for journalists and researchers. If you have been affected by a product like this, report it at SaferProducts.gov: those reports are what make an analysis like this possible.

Sources: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recall notices 23206 (Kell Electronic), 25342 (AstroAI), 25395 and 26199 (Curtis International), and 26685 (Cooluli). Last updated August 18, 2026. We refresh this page as new refrigeration recalls are published.