Skybox Rookie Fridge by Maytag

I don't plan on doing a lot of product reviews. But this product warrants one.

Just a few weeks ago, I discovered Maytag’s Skybox Fridge on an otherwise uneventful trip to Lowe’s. As I motored from the bathroom back toward the family waiting for me in the plastic garbage can aisle, something froze me in my tracks. Mouth agape, I looked in awe at a team-customizable home vending machine, capable of cooling and dispensing beers and sodas at the touch of one of four vending machine style buttons.

A little drool hit the cold, cement floor, shaking me out of my trance. (“Cleanup, aisle seven.”) Then I saw the price tag. My shock turned to sadness.

By the time you purchase the SkyBox Fridge, the stand and the customized team placards of your choice, you’re looking at close to seven hundy. No way was I getting that one past the house CFO.

But hope lives for the budget-minded sports-fan, in the form of the Maytag Skybox Rookie Fridge.

Let us rejoice.

I purchased my SkyBox Rookie Fridge from Home Depot about a week ago, and it’s been humming along ever since. Maytag claims the Rookie Fridge holds 98 cans or bottles, and though I was pretty good at geometry, I couldn’t figure that one out. I dropped about 32 beers in to start, and it seemed like I could cram about 12 more in there, tops. Enough to get you from a Saturday noon kickoff through the late game on Fox Sports, but less than they claim. I’m sure somewhere a diagram, containing roughly the length, complexity and captivation of the Kyoto Treaty, exists to show you how to shoehorn 98 beers into the Fridge, but I couldn’t do it. The unit measures 35.8” high by 19.8” wide—the size of your typical dorm fridge, and no doubt a key market for this product. The Rookie Fridge is heavy—78 pounds—and comes in one color: jet black. The top of the unit features a removable plastic bin with a lid suitable for holding vomit following a long day of football and libations, or, if you prefer, ice and beers or snacks.

Assembly was relatively simple: just screw in the four wheels to the bottom that allow you to easily drag the fridge closer to the TV on game day. One annoyance—one of the wheels was misaligned, so I had to screw it in at an angle, and it’s hanging there by one screw now, though it still seems stable.

Once you get the wheels in, you just prop the Rookie Fridge upright, roll it to a prominent spot in your home sure to irritate your significant other, and plug it in. The unit features an adjustable temp setting from 35 to 40 degrees. I set mine in the middle and it seems to be keeping the brews cool.

The Rookie Fridge doesn’t have a terribly durable feel to it. Time will tell how it holds up to being wheeled around by me and pounded on by my one-year old. The casing is metal, but the unit just feels a bit “airier” than it should. It’s not that the Rookie Fridge is light—it’s over 70 lbs., as I said earlier. It’s just that, well, it’s a sports fridge holding beer. It should feel more rigid and inflexible, like an Ohio State offensive game plan.

But here’s the best part: Maytag has the licenses from all MLB (the Devil Rays are the only AAA team available), NFL, NBA, and NHL teams as well as many NCAA schools, NASCAR drivers and WWE wrestlers.

The unit comes with a generic NFL placard, but you’ll definitely want to get your Rookie Fridge customized with the team of your choice. Simply order the placard(s) you want for $29.99 each from Maytag’s Web site, and then drop them into the front of the fridge door. A switch-controlled fluorescent light backlights the sign, giving the Rookie Fridge a great look.

For only $199 plus the cost of team placards of your choice, the Maytag Rookie Fridge is a solid addition to any sports fan’s media room, dorm room or house bar. I definitely recommend it.

Grab a Rookie Fridge brochure to see more. The Maytag SkyBox engineers even have a product blog.