That's exactly what I was thinking today! Who needs a hinge if the refer is built in? Most ice boxes only have a hinge so you can open a smaller hatch (say half of the whole lid) to grab things versus popping open the entire top when you don't really need to. Granted the big opening is necessary for loading block ice but we're making 'electric' ice here with the engels.

As far as what I think of the engel.... It's a great idea. I have never even plugged it in to see if it works! I will one of these days, I suppose. Just out of curiosity I looked at their web site recently to see if there was anything new as far as developments thinking this thing might be outdated by the time I fire it up. High carumba! I payed about $600 and choked a little but rationalized it away with time. Current pricing would make me hesitate to pull the trigger but you said it, the price we pay for a coldie!