Patent ID: 8038235

Claim:
A compact refrigerator appliance comprising: a first component comprising a thermally insulated cabinet having side walls surrounding a first axis, a bottom wall transverse to the first axis, and a top wall transverse to the first axis, the walls defining and enclosing a refrigerated interior storage space; one of the side walls comprising a door hingedly connected and pivotable relative to at least one other side wall for selectively blocking or unblocking access to the interior storage space from a direction generally transverse to the first axis; a refrigeration unit operatively connected to the cabinet for cooling the interior storage space; a second component removably mountable over at least a portion of the to wall of said cabinet without interference with pivoting of the door, said second component having side walls surrounding a second axis, and a bottom wall transverse to the second axis, the side and bottom walls defining and surrounding a liquid tight storage space adapted to hold liquids without leaking and haying an upper opening to the storage space generally traverse to the second axis; a lid hingedly attached to the second component for enclosing the upper opening in a closed position and lying substantially flat along a back wall of the thermally insulated cabinet in an open position; and said top wall of the first component and the bottom wall of the second component each having at least one contoured portion defining complimentary mating surfaces for guiding and maintaining said second component in a pre-determined orientation on the top wall of said cabinet, and when the second component is mounted to the first component, the first axis is generally parallel to the second axis and access to the storage space of the second component is generally parallel to the first and second axes.