With far too many wine bottles on hand now thanks to a total inability to say no to wine.woot, I'm looking for a decent wine cooler.

The Danby 17-bottle sold at Target for $100 was recently recommended, but is there anything that makes it better than this Sunpentown 17-bottle for $65? Is defrosting really enough of a problem to be worth $35?

Sigh... I wish woot would throw up a wine cooler. Thanks,
-bif

I did not know about the Sunpentown wine cooler when i bought the Danby from target.com but with a 10% off coupon i found on fatwallet.com and 4.4% cash back and free shipping it seemed like a decent deal. I like the Danby but i don't know if its worth the difference in price.

Igloo 46 bottle cooler for $177 at Lowe's. Bought it today. Seems fine. Surprised it didn't trigger the sale of a wine cellar this evening on wine.woot.com

Perhaps it'll show up in the woot-off...

I've had a 32-bottle Haier for 4.5 years now, and I love it. A friend of mine just bought the same unit rebadged as a Kenmore as a gift for his parents, and they're happy with it as well. There's allegedly 3 temperature settings--white only, red only, or both (white on the bottom, red on top), but I leave mine on white all the time, which is about 46F according to the display. My reds (and the whites that don't fit in the fridge at the moment) go on my wine rack or in the wine barrister.

And at $270, it's a pretty damn good deal too. Mine was $400.

I wouldn't get less than 35 bottles. I started to get a 20 bottle then a 45 bottle went on sale for less so I got that. The wife said we'll never fill it up. Then we found Wine.Woot and with the wine club manage to keep it more than half filled. Our two nieces keep their cokes in the bottom shelf. I guess you could always get another small one when you realized you were out of space.

dgloff wrote:I've had a 32-bottle Haier for 4.5 years now, and I love it. A friend of mine just bought the same unit rebadged as a Kenmore as a gift for his parents, and they're happy with it as well. There's allegedly 3 temperature settings--white only, red only, or both (white on the bottom, red on top), but I leave mine on white all the time, which is about 46F according to the display. My reds (and the whites that don't fit in the fridge at the moment) go on my wine rack or in the wine barrister.

And at $270, it's a pretty damn good deal too. Mine was $400.

hey, so based on your recommendation, i was looking at this kenmore. i was wondering why you didn't use the red+white temperature setting. does anyone have any opinion on how well this kind of thing works? also, do you know if this fridge is thermoelectric? is that a really big deal, as far as reducing vibrations go?

I've posted this in some of the wine threads, but read this and thought I'd throw in my 2-cents...When I recently got into wines again I did a lot of reading on good/bad ways to store your wine, etc...This was my conculsion...

**********

First of all, wine should be stored in a vibration free, cool environment that is also dark. For reds, I believe the temp should be around 60-degrees...The long and short of it is that you can get Theremoelectric Wine Coolers that don't have a compressor. They don't cool as fast and I think they would not be as ideal for white wine because they might have a problem getting to a lower temp, but they'll work perfectly for red wines, which is all I drink. They also do a good job of circulating the temp inside the unit and typically have +/- 2 degrees from the bottom to the top...Whereas with a compressor unit the variance is greater I believe. Oh, the Thermoelectric ones are apparently silent.

The largest Theremoelectrics I found were 28-bottle units. There were three brands I found: Avanti, EdgeStar, and Urbina Design. Ultimately I went with the EdgeStar because it had tinted glass and an LED light that won't emmit very much heat nor be too bright and the EdgeStar also has wood racks instead of metal. the Avanti was cheapest and I found them for $220 or so shipped. The EdgeStar was $250 shipped. I bought it on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=005&item=150008866723

vaaccess wrote:

...The long and short of it is that you can get Theremoelectric Wine Coolers that don't have a compressor. They don't cool as fast and I think they would not be as ideal for white wine because they might have a problem getting to a lower temp, but they'll work perfectly for red wines, which is all I drink.

I was only a white-girl until a bottle of Chapoutier Bellaruche changed my wayward ways. But I still enjoy a good white wine. I have a small countertop cooler I use for my whites I plan to try soon, and it is a Thermoelectic. The best way to get wine to temp for this type of cooler is to put it in the fridge for a half-hour or so when you get it home, then put it in the wine cooler. This has always worked well for me. I never see a variance of more than a degree or two at the most.

any1 have reccomendations for wine coolers? as some of these posts are fairly old. I'm basically just looking to use it to store red wines so that they dont spoil in my overly humid manhattan apartment. Feel free to message me or post to this forum. Thank you.

Btw, im looking at the danby 17 bottle at target, and a 12 bottle wine cellar currently for $100 at JC penney.

also, does anyone have any experience with the haier systems? there's a nice looking 18 bottle thermo electric on homedepot which (important to me) is tall and skinny and thus has a small footprint. but i don't want to buy something that's gonna poop out in a year or two.

Hi all,
I posted this elsewhere ... a discussion on the wine cooler topic had been going on in the Pepper Bridge (as well as many other) forums. Anyway, hopefully of interest to those considering/comparing larger coolers and thermoelectric vs. compressor-based models.
===
When I was getting my compressor-based cellar/cooler I ran into this interesting statement by a major manufacturer [Danby]:
"These units do not maintain a constant set temperature. Like all refrigeration units the temperature fluctuates from 6 to 10 degrees either way - sometimes more if placed in an area that receives a lot of light. The temperature sensor is located at the top of the unit where the temperature will change the most. If the temperature gauge was placed at the bottom of the unit there would be less variance in temperature. All wine coolers behave in this manner. Many wine enthusiasts do not like this temperature fluctuation as they feel it is harmful to the wines, however, there is a large misunderstanding regarding the function of wine coolers. Wine coolers are meant for short term "cooling" not long term storage. If used properly the natural variances in temperature within your wine cooler should not negatively affect stored contents. Our wine coolers help filter out UV rays, however, any long term exposure to light can be harmful to your wine, so it is important to understand the purpose and ultimate function of your wine cooler."

In any case I still went with a compressor-based model because I needed the space in one footprint for the kitchen, I was concerned about the energy efficiency since this is long-term running appliance, and I figured that, despite the previously discussed pitfalls of the compressor-based models, storing wine at "around" 57 in one of these units is still going to be significantly better than it sitting in my closet at 78. (In the past I've had a number of Petit Syrahs, Cabs, and Ports ruined - and I mean YUK - after sitting for only about year in a constant 78 degree coditions)

I do like the thermoelectric models due to the previous mentioned points. The low noise is really a plus. And the fact that they usually have a small fan that also helps keeps the temp more constant (a wireless hi-low thermometer works great for this kind of test and to see the overall fluctuations). For a small collection/storage I would certainly recommend considering it. But consider this also:

One of the reasons that there are few large Theromelectric-based models is because of their exceptionally poor efficency (typically cooling cycle efficiency of thermoelectric is only 5-8% compared with over 45% for a compressor). Typically thermoelectric elements generate significantly more/extra heat than the amount of heat they are actually trying to "pump" out so they have to work harder/longer. I have seen ratings on one 28 bottle thermo systems that draws 80 watts but uses 1.5 KWH/24 hours (1,500 watts in a day). Another 66 bottle system I have seen draws 200watts and uses over 2 KWH/24 hrs. In comparison my larger 75 bottle compressor system draws 130 watts, but only uses 0.8 KWH/24hrs...which is better than even the small 28 bottle unit as far as the efficiency / daily price-to-operate.

So obviously many points to consider. The thermo systems do have specific attributes that are perfect for wine storage, but you'll pay for those ideal conditions over time.
===

dnarayanan wrote:also, does anyone have any experience with the haier systems? there's a nice looking 18 bottle thermo electric on homedepot which (important to me) is tall and skinny and thus has a small footprint. but i don't want to buy something that's gonna poop out in a year or two.

For a smaller cooler that's a cool little model..I like the tall skinny profile. The only problem I am aware of with Thermoelectrics is the hot-cold stress on the thermoelectric element eventualy causes failures.
(I've hear "7 years", but I've seen ratings from the manufacturers of just the thermoelectric chips stating "100,000 hrs" (over 11 yrs).) But I guess it would depend on the quality of the chip that the wine cooler maker uses as well as the other components (DC power supply) that run these types of elements.
I think that by the time a good quality model of today wears out, there will be a thermoelectric system that is exceedingly better (one company is working in a new thermoelectric technology that is 55% efficient - which rivals or is better than a typical compressor. But will be a while no doubt before we see commercial applications that use it. In my opinion it is more likely that the high power/amperage DC power supply required for a thermoelectric unit would die before the thermoelectric module itelf would stress-out.
Again, general advice is to go with a company whose quality you trust.

Just FYI (snooze time)...
Thermoelectric chips are a "sandwich" of two small thin plates that have many very small junctions between them. Each of these small junctions is made by joining two different types of metal...and by the "Peltier effect" one of the types of metal will become hot and the other type will become cool when a direct current is passed through this junction. Many, many junctions are used to multiply the small heat-pumping effect that each junction produces. (And hence the concern about the contraction/expansion stress on this sort of component as all these junctions heat and cool)

Now, for the chip to actually be usable, there has to be some way to get rid of the the heat. So, much like a compressor based unit has coils to dissapate the heat it is "pumping" out of the cooler, similarly the thermoelectic systems must have a big metal heat sink (metal fins and bigger the better) attached to the hot side of the element to get rid of the heat (usually with the help of a fan). Obviously the cold side should be very well insulated, especially for thermoelectric, since it's cooling efficieny is very low.

Well, lunch break is over ... and I can already hear you snoring.

Here's the one I bought on sale through the company I got mine through:
http://www.compactappliance.com/xq/JSP.detailmain/itemID.11442/itemType.PRODUCT/iProductID.11442/qx/shopping/product/TWR280BL.htm

It's a 28-bottle thermoelectric for $179.99 and apparently another 5% off through Friday.

Just thought I'd point it out for those that are interested. Mine has the wood shelves, but this is less than I bought mine for...

vaaccess wrote:Here's the one I bought on sale through the company I got mine through:
http://www.compactappliance.com/xq/JSP.detailmain/itemID.11442/itemType.PRODUCT/iProductID.11442/qx/shopping/product/TWR280BL.htm

It's a 28-bottle thermoelectric for $179.99 and apparently another 5% off through Friday.

Just thought I'd point it out for those that are interested. Mine has the wood shelves, but this is less than I bought mine for...

do you know how much room this takes up on the floor? just for us who might be square-footage-concious as we plan to move to bigger/higher-rent cities than tucson in the near future.

dnarayanan wrote:

do you know how much room this takes up on the floor? just for us who might be square-footage-concious as we plan to move to bigger/higher-rent cities than tucson in the near future.

I can measure it when I'm home...I'm out of town right now. Otherwise I would measure it for you promptly...

2 of my 3 cents (another post coming, have to run out the door):

One cent on Thermoelectrics: they seem to be a great idea but have drawbacks: they're universally quite small and relatively inneficient. However, the biggest issue for me is the fact that they can only maintain about a 15-20 degree temperature differential between the internal temperature and the ambient temperature. My house frequently gets above 75 degrees in the summer, so for one of those things to try to maintain a 55 degree temperature would be asking a lot.

One cent on temperature fluctuations: Ideally the wine would be kept in an area where the temperature didn't fluctuate at all, but it does take the wine within the bottle a lot longer to raise or lower it's temperature than the air around the bottle. It generally takes a room-temperature bottle several hours to drop the 20 or so degrees once I put it into my wine fridge, so if the temperature in the fridge is fluctuating by a couple degrees every hour or so (about ±2-4 degrees F in my fridge, read off a thermometer not connected to the thermostat), then the wine is probably fluctuating barely a fraction of a degree at the top of the wine fridge where the thermostat and thermometer are, and even less at the bottom.

Supposedly this should be a lot less of a problem than a situation where, say, the temperature cycled less frequently. For example, if there was a similar ±2-4 degree temperature differential between day and evening, then the wine would have time to come up to temperature during the day and cool off again at night. From what I can find on the web (which, unfortunately, isn't much) it sounds like the main problem with this type of fluctuation is that it causes the wine to "breathe" in and out through the cork, potentially accellerating oxidation and other types of ageing reactions.

Bottom line: I don't think the type of fluctuations you're going to see in a wine fridge are the type of fluctuations wine snobs are talking about when they say that temperature fluctuations are bad. It's probably not ideal, but it's also probably more stable than your cellar, and certainly more stable than your house. Someone with an infrared thermometer prove me wrong here.

Ok, so this is turning into more than 3 cents. BTW I'm pulling a lot of this out of my ass, but most of it I found in various places around the web when I was researching my own fridge:

Temperature fluctuations continued: Basically it's about tradeoffs, is a wine fridge set to 55 degrees and fluctuating a couple degrees plus and minus over a 30minute-hour cycle better than your other options? Unless you can dig a cave under your house it probably is. And remember, even full room wine "cellars" use themostat-controlled air conditioning, so they're not immune to this "problem" either (although they're probably a little better).

Once cent on light: People who supposedly know what they're talking about say that wine, especially white wine, is suseptible to UV light. Common glass, even clear glass, blocks most UV light, but not all of it. The amount it blocks depends on the thickness of the glass and its makeup (darker glasses generally block more types of all light, including UV). It's possible that other wavelengths of light also affect wine. Ideally your fridge would NOT have a glass door. Unfortunately it seems fashionable for them to have glass doors; In fact, many are simply small fridges with glass doors. At the very worst, even with a clear glass door on your wine fridge, at least you have another layer of glass between your wine and the world.

One cent on vibration: Compressor-based wine fridges will vibrate. Specially designed fridges probably do a better job at isolating vibration from the compressor but i'm sure it depends on the model. On the plus side, compressor based fridges don't run constantly unless your fridge is in a hot place, and therefore don't vibrate constantly. I found it difficult to find any rationale as to why this amount of vibration was bad, but it seems that vibration can unsettle the particulate matter that otherwise would settle out of the wine. How much vibration is required to unsettle the particulate matter is, I think, a bit debateable. But what do I know. Similar to temperature fluctuations, I think the vibration that wine snobs are worried about are the vibrations from things like being shipped in a truck or being moved around by hand. If fridge vibrations were so bad, then things like walking around your house would screw up your wine ageing too. Heck, maybe it does. Whatever the truth, some vibration is probably worse than no vibration, and I think it's the Sub Zero people who said that like light and temperature it is another source of external energy that is going to affect how that wine ages. Again, however, it's a tradeoff: is the little bit of vibration from the fridge worse than leaving your wine out at room temperature? Probably not.

One cent on humidity: This is probably the least of the problems, but supposedly the corks can dry out in low humidity environments which will cause too much air to get past the cork, or worse, for the cork to crack. Too high of a humidity can cause (additional?) fungus to grow on the corks or, heaven forbid, for the labels to peel off (but if it doesn't have a pretty label, it won't taste as good!). Generally your wine fridge won't be too humid, but it could be too dry if you live in a dry climate or if you try to use a converted frost-free fridge/freezer. Most wine fridges use little water resovoirs that they just let evaporate into the fridge air and you have to keep them topped up. If yours doesn't have one you can get one from a cigar shop (people use them in humidors for the same purpose). If you're using a frost-free fridge/freezer I'm not sure that would be enough to keep the humidity up. Score one point for screw-topped/synthetic corked wine.

Like I said, this is what I could gather off the web when I was looking, anyone who knows better, please correct me.

UPDATE: This, ultimately, didn't work out. You can count the two years or so it did work as a success, or you can count the fact that it eventually failed as a, well, failure. Given the low investment I made in it, I'd say: success!

more details in this post here
------------------------------------------------------------


So here's what I did: I live in California, and my house frequently gets over 80 degrees in the summer. That can ruin a bottle pretty damn quick. How quick? I don't know, but I've seen visible heat damage on bottles in less than a month.

Now I am not a wealthy man, but more importantly, I am not a classy individual. If they made a wine fridge that looked like a giant beer koozie, that's the one I would buy (especially if it said "World's Number One Master Baiter" on it). So a stainless steel wine fridge with a glass door and wood shelves really doesn't turn me on. Especially not for a couple hundred bucks. But I'd certainly get one rather than ruin $500 worth of wine (not a hard number to hit with wine.woot.com being available)

What I ended up doing was converting an old freezer I had into a ghetto wine fridge. Cost me about $60 total as I already had the freezer. It's a small standup-style freezer, I don't know how many cubic feet. It's bigger than a mini fridge, but smaller than a regular one. Fits about 40 bottles. I was surprised: the freezer had been used for a couple years but it had no off-smells or mildew stains. I scrubbed it out and let it sit open in the sun for a day or so just to make sure. Good as new.

Temperature: I got a kill-switch thermostat off of kegworks.com for about $50 (people use them for making kegerators out of their freezers, so it immediately fits my "don't be classy" mantra) basically it's a power switch hooked up to a thermostat. You set the freezer as cold as it will go and then stick a probe into the freezer and it turns power on and off to the freezer to maintain a set temperature. Like I mentioned before, it maintains about ±2-4 degrees for the air around the bottles (Which I figure means that the wine in the bottles is pretty much constant). It cycles on for just a couple minutes each half-hour or so. The fact that it was a freezer probably helps maintain a constant temp as it may have more insulation than something meant to be just a fridge. The walls certainly are thicker than most small fridges, and the compressor has absolutely no problem maintaining a 55 degree temp, even when the room it was in was over 90.

Light: It's a freezer. Completely dark. Even better than most wine fridges.

Vibration: Ok, so this is it's weak area. It's a freezer. You don't care if your steaks vibrate, so it's not designed to be low-vibration. That said, the compressor doesn't run very much and it actually doesn't vibrate that bad. For me, it's a tradeoff between vibration and having the wine get hot. I'll take vibration any day.

Humidity: don't know if this is a problem yet, I don't think it is. We have relatively mild humidity where I live. It isn't a frost-free freezer, so it's probably just fine. There is some condensation on the coils, which probably means that after I open the door and then close it again, the humidity inside is slightly higher than the humidity outside. I haven't gotten my hygrometer yet though, so we'll see, but i'm not worried.

How does it work? I'll let you know in 3-5 years :-) But I figure I've got temperature taken care of, with probably minimal fluctuation, no light, a little vibration and probably decent humidity. Is that as good as digging a cave under my house or building a full-room wine storage facility? Probably not. but it's damn close, and it's a heck of a lot better than storing it in my closet.

So basically, I'd recommend getting a wine fridge or going my route if you're keeping the bottles for even a relatively sort period of time. Especially if your house gets warm like mine does.

*whew* So these were three long posts. Sorry for the verbosity, hopefully this will be useful to people.

andyduncan wrote:I found it difficult to find any rationale as to why this amount of vibration was bad, but it seems that vibration can unsettle the particulate matter that otherwise would settle out of the wine. How much vibration is required to unsettle the particulate matter is, I think, a bit debateable. But what do I know. Similar to temperature fluctuations, I think the vibration that wine snobs are worried about are the vibrations from things like being shipped in a truck or being moved around by hand. If fridge vibrations were so bad, then things like walking around your house would screw up your wine ageing too. Heck, maybe it does. Whatever the truth, some vibration is probably worse than no vibration, and I think it's the Sub Zero people who said that like light and temperature it is another source of external energy that is going to affect how that wine ages. Again, however, it's a tradeoff: is the little bit of vibration from the fridge worse than leaving your wine out at room temperature? Probably not.

I, like you, have grabbed a lot of my information off of the net and also based on other knowledge that I have. (which may not be a lot to some of you. :P )

Anyway...My issue with the compressor is resonance. Resonating vibrations can be really bad. As I think I have referred to before, resonance is the reason a 42 MPH wind can take down a solid bridge. That's the kind of vibration I worry about and that's the kind of vibration you can expect from a compressor. I'm not bothered by wine being shaken during shipment. It's hours upon hours of resonating vibration that concerns me.

Now...Whether that means a compressor's vibration can ruin a wine or not...I don't know. I'd have to see real hard evidence to know for sure. But, to me it isn't worth the risk. I have well over $500 in wine, which is a lot to me. Obviously I'm not going to store all of it for a long period of time, but some of it I am keeping around for a special occassion or waiting for it to be a special wine, etc. Regardless, I don't think the resonance of a compressor can be discounted.

I'll admit...I was an engineering student for a couple of years and ended up switching to an MIS degree...So, I don't have years of educational background to base my opinion on, but I know enough to be dangerous I guess.

vaaccess wrote:

Ok...I did some Googleing...It looks like my assumptions and thoughts were wrong...Found this referred to on a couple of sites:

http://dat.erobertparker.com/bboard/showthread.php?t=31446&page=2
As to studies, a Dr. Vernon L. Singleton Professor of Enology, Emeritus from the University of California at Davis is described by Matt Kramer in his book "Making Sense of Wine" as having specialized in the effects of vibration on wine. Dr. Singleton is quoted as follows: "The only bad feature about vibration is possibly in dispersing sediments. You may, if you disperse them hard enough and often enough, find that it produces such fine particles that it fails to settle. So it may affect clarity, which in turn, can affect flavor. But barring that, I can say that vibration doesn't make a difference. If you can look at a bottle of wine and it's still clear, then it wasn't vibrated enough to make a difference." This is why we stand a bottle of old wine up on end for a few days before drinking it... a tradition I go along with because it makes sense.

When my electrostatic dies or I need a larger cellar, I'll go with one that has a compressor/temp setup that allows for minimal temperature fluctuation and decent vibration dampening.

Mike

vaaccess wrote:
Ok...I did some Googleing...
...
Mike

Excellent Googleing. Thanks for the research.

My next experiment will be to stick a probe thermometer through a cork into a wine bottle (filled with water of course), then put it in the fridge to see how much the wine in the bottles is actually fluctuating. Will post my results when I get them.

-Andy

If any1 fines a good deal on a wine cooler. Please post to this forumn. I've done some research. The most reasonable deals w/shipping appears to be Bestbuy and Sears. With Target right there(but shipping prices are absurd)

andyduncan wrote:

Excellent Googleing. Thanks for the research.

My next experiment will be to stick a probe thermometer through a cork into a wine bottle (filled with water of course), then put it in the fridge to see how much the wine in the bottles is actually fluctuating. Will post my results when I get them.

-Andy

please do! i'm in the market for a cooler soon as i just got in on the pepperbridge, and would like to know what my best options are.

bougiee wrote:If any1 fines a good deal on a wine cooler. Please post to this forumn. I've done some research. The most reasonable deals w/shipping appears to be Bestbuy and Sears. With Target right there(but shipping prices are absurd)

Beveragefactory.com frequently puts their "damaged" stock up on eBay. If you wait around you can find ones with something as simple as a scratch on the back of the unit. Haven't bought from them but when I was looking for a 'real' wine fridge, those seemed to be good deals.

I gave it a shot thanks. I didnt see any such discount on damaged goods. But, I did notice that their prices were significantly worse and their shipping rates significantly more than the most popular retail chain stores. It almost makes you wonder how they are able to stay in business with most online shoppers being extremely price sensitive.

bougiee wrote:I gave it a shot thanks. I didnt see any such discount on damaged goods. But, I did notice that their prices were significantly worse and their shipping rates significantly more than the most popular retail chain stores. It almost makes you wonder how they are able to stay in business with most online shoppers being extremely price sensitive.

Yeah, their regular prices aren't great. If you didn't see any up on e-bay that's not surprising, they probably don't damage their stuff often enough to keep a regular supply available :-)

Well, my 28-bottle Thermoelectric Wine Chiller has officially become too small for my collection of wine. Damn that was fast.

So, now I'm considering getting something bigger. Just wondering what others have done in the 50+ wine cellar category. Along with the 9 Little Vineyard bottles on their way to me, I am also going to Total Wine to buy as many bottles of this Iugiter Spanish Granache wine that I had last night. Easily the best wine I have ever had and I don't want to miss out on having some around...Even though it is $30/bottle, it is definitely worth it. WS rated it a 92 and I think it's easily that high. Anyway...I'm a bit off topic now.

So, along with deciding what new cellar to buy, I'm also trying to decide what to do with my 28-bottle chiller. I guess my other option is to stop buying wine for a while until I get back down to a realistic level...But...Somehow I don't see that happening.

If someone has some thoughts for a new cellar and/or thoughts for how I manage things going forward, I'd love to hear it. RIght now the 35-bottle Danby from Best Buy is the best deal at $200 that I know of...

vaaccess wrote:Well, my 28-bottle Thermoelectric Wine Chiller has officially become too small for my collection of wine. Damn that was fast.

So, now I'm considering getting something bigger. Just wondering what others have done in the 50+ wine cellar category. Along with the 9 Little Vineyard bottles on their way to me, I am also going to Total Wine to buy as many bottles of this Iugiter Spanish Granache wine that I had last night. Easily the best wine I have ever had and I don't want to miss out on having some around...Even though it is $30/bottle, it is definitely worth it. WS rated it a 92 and I think it's easily that high. Anyway...I'm a bit off topic now.

So, along with deciding what new cellar to buy, I'm also trying to decide what to do with my 28-bottle chiller. I guess my other option is to stop buying wine for a while until I get back down to a realistic level...But...Somehow I don't see that happening.

If someone has some thoughts for a new cellar and/or thoughts for how I manage things going forward, I'd love to hear it. RIght now the 35-bottle Danby from Best Buy is the best deal at $200 that I know of...

i actually just went to my home depot today in tucson and saw a 48-ish bottle cooler by beverage factory? beverage something. it was 199 - right at my price range. the only thing i didn't like about it was that it was sort of big, and i was hoping for tall and slender to minimize the footprint. but i think i might get it anyways, as soon as i can get my buddy with an suv to help me lug it home.


EDIT: actually i think it was magic chef brand

Corrado wrote:Anyone know anything about these?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?DEPA=0&type=&Description=wine+cooler&Submit=ENE&N=0&Ntk=all

Free shipping + Newegg's reputation makes this tempting...

If only they sold bigger non-Thermoelectric ones! DOH!!! NewEgg is definitely kick a$$ as is the free shipping.

vaaccess wrote:

If only they sold bigger non-Thermoelectric ones! DOH!!! NewEgg is definitely kick a$$ as is the free shipping.

yeah i looked at these, and thought 'great now i don't have to bug my buddy to pick my cooler up for me with his suv' but yeah i'm looking in the 40-50 bottle range too. just got my pepperbridge so want to get a cooler within the next week or two to protect what is now my biggest wine investment.

vaaccess wrote:Well, my 28-bottle Thermoelectric Wine Chiller has officially become too small for my collection of wine. Damn that was fast.
...If someone has some thoughts for a new cellar and/or thoughts for how I manage things going forward, I'd love to hear it. RIght now the 35-bottle Danby from Best Buy is the best deal at $200 that I know of...

I knew that was going to happen to you ! As someone remarked to my post that my own 75 bottle cellar was getting a bit tight, you need to drink more wine or have more friends over ha, ha.
In any case, I bought the largest model I could get with some style, and price was important, so Danby got my business.
Here's a little info good and bad on the unit I got (and note that I am happy with the unit and would recommend it, but I'm also not blind to the shortcomings) :

+ Danby DWC612BLP from BigBuyCity on eBay (for example current item 180041697894) for $488 + $129.90 = $617.90 (pretty good deal for 75 bottle system...was $600 total a few months ago but I see they raised the shipping)
+/- Freestanding (not a build-in) which is what I wanted, and the "BLP" model has the coils on the back of the unit. I think that they make another one that has the coils underneath so you can put it up closer to a wall.
- Stupidly noisy compressor. It's a small little Samsung model...but I don't know why it is not more quiet (it might be the system design not the compressor I can't tell). No issue for me as it is in the kitchen, but if you have a very quiet house you may have an issue with this. Absolutely Not for a bedroom.
- Took about 4 weeks to get (expected since it is trucked in, but just a pain as there were no local dealers and closest next-state retailer wanted $900+ ! )
+ real wood shelving, sealed, solid, and can take the weight
- It's a bit tight inside, although two shelves can be taken out for more room and allows you to stack bottles on top of each other.
+ Styling is quite good for the price. Typical black metal sides, and nice glass door.
+ The door is SOLID. Double-pain tempered glass, UV protect, good seal (I had to reverse the door, and this thing is heavy !)
- Door glass is not tinted (it has UV protection, but no general light protection, and the "platinum" trim is actually a type of, what looks to be, solid color plastic. Still looks good and has a solid feel to it.
- NO chilproof door lock (Take careful note of this if you have kids!). Guess they had to save money somewhere.
+ energy efficiency is Quite good. Since I bought it, it averages 0.75KWH per day set at "59F" (the warmest setting) in a 78 degree kitchen.
+ has a basic but nice control panel and light pod. Of course if you have a fully stocked unit, the light at the top doesn't help much. Replace the low wattage bulb with a replacement small fluorescent or white LED type if you want to keep the light on all the time (to keep the heat from the light down).
+/- Temp variance of 3 degrees once the unit is fairly full. Not too bad I think, but would have been improved if they had a small circulation fan. On the good side you can put whites and roses on the bottom shelve as it stays cooler than the setting (thermostat is in the top control panel / so takes the temp form the top/warmest place).
- Very stupid: if there is a power outage the thing looses it's memory and the temp goes back to a factory preset ! Whoever heard of a modern day digital appliance not remembering the last setting? Well, they had to cut corners somewhere to keep the price down I guess...
+ Mine was missing the "humidity reservoir", but a quick fax of my purchase info to Danby and they got me one in no time.

The eBay company I referenced also has the 51 and 65 bottle size Danby's at good prices as well.
Hope this helps!

My question with regards to coolers - are they really necessary if storing the wine in a basement? I live in northeast Ohio and my basement stays relatively cool all year long, though the humidity does fluctuate some ( I do have a dehumidifier). I'm going back and forth deciding upon spending big bucks on a 125 or 250 bottle cooler or just buying a wine rack system. I've accumulated quite a few bottles thanks to wine.woot, another discounted wine website that shall remain nameless, and recent trips to Napa and the Finger Lakes, and I would appreciate any feedback from the community. Thanks!

theograb wrote:My question with regards to coolers - are they really necessary if storing the wine in a basement? I live in northeast Ohio and my basement stays relatively cool all year long, though the humidity does fluctuate some ( I do have a dehumidifier). I'm going back and forth deciding upon spending big bucks on a 125 or 250 bottle cooler or just buying a wine rack system. I've accumulated quite a few bottles thanks to wine.woot, another discounted wine website that shall remain nameless, and recent trips to Napa and the Finger Lakes, and I would appreciate any feedback from the community. Thanks!

Sounds like you have an ideal situation for possibly not requiring a plug-in cellar. If you want to be "scientific" about it get yourself one of those high-low memory thermometers to see the temp ranges etc. and then decide if it fits the type of wine you like. Some humidity is good to keep the corks from drying out in long-term storage. I'm a bit jealous as you could have the opportunity to convert the whole basement into one big cellar. (If your basement is anything like my garage, a "garage sale" might me necessary first!) And wow, I'd look tornado warnings in a whole new way. Unfortunately here in north TX, no basements usually as we sit on a shelf of expansive black clay gumbo ... not the best even for a cement slab foundation that is just supposed to "float" on top.
I'm sure there are a few folks on here that currently have a set-up in their basement, so it would be good to hear the in's and out's and any recommendations.

theograb wrote:My question with regards to coolers - are they really necessary if storing the wine in a basement? I live in northeast Ohio and my basement stays relatively cool all year long, though the humidity does fluctuate some ( I do have a dehumidifier). I'm going back and forth deciding upon spending big bucks on a 125 or 250 bottle cooler or just buying a wine rack system. I've accumulated quite a few bottles thanks to wine.woot, another discounted wine website that shall remain nameless, and recent trips to Napa and the Finger Lakes, and I would appreciate any feedback from the community. Thanks!

i guess it means what 'relatively cool' is. is that like 60? 70? 80?

theograb wrote:My question with regards to coolers - are they really necessary if storing the wine in a basement?

I've been storing wines in my basement for years. I recently purchased a plain, old fashioned thermometer and every time I've checked it its been right around 63 degrees. Now, I'm not storing expensive wines for decades. . .but what I am storing seems to be faring just fine after a few years.

I did recently purchase a wine cooler (actually, a friend found it at a yard sale, brand new, for $100 so I could NOT resist) and have been using that to store the wines I want to consume immediately (and by that I mean "within the next few months"). Its a great way to have both reds and whites at ready-to-drink temps.

so question to those who have regular compressor-based (non-thermoelectric) coolers. Is there an optimal place to keep the wines that you like the best, that you might be storing for a few years that minimizes vibrations and temperture fluctations in the fridge? i mean, is the top or bottom or middle a particularly better place to store the 'better' wines you have?

vaaccess wrote:Well, my 28-bottle Thermoelectric Wine Chiller has officially become too small for my collection of wine. Damn that was fast.

So, now I'm considering getting something bigger. Just wondering what others have done in the 50+ wine cellar category. Along with the 9 Little Vineyard bottles on their way to me, I am also going to Total Wine to buy as many bottles of this Iugiter Spanish Granache wine that I had last night. Easily the best wine I have ever had and I don't want to miss out on having some around...Even though it is $30/bottle, it is definitely worth it. WS rated it a 92 and I think it's easily that high. Anyway...I'm a bit off topic now.

So, along with deciding what new cellar to buy, I'm also trying to decide what to do with my 28-bottle chiller. I guess my other option is to stop buying wine for a while until I get back down to a realistic level...But...Somehow I don't see that happening.

If someone has some thoughts for a new cellar and/or thoughts for how I manage things going forward, I'd love to hear it. RIght now the 35-bottle Danby from Best Buy is the best deal at $200 that I know of...

so i just goit a magic chef ~48 bottle compressor-based cooler from home-depot. it was 165 i think, in tucson. so far it looks pretty good. i got a thermometer for about 15 bucks from target where you can put the sensor in the fridge and have the digital display outside. it records max's and min's, and i've noticed about a 4 degree variation total (so +/- 2 degrees from the average) over the course of about a 90 minute period. based on previous posts, it sounds like the wine won't change in temperature too much based on this.

the negative side is the racks - i've noticed only about half the bottles can be at a declined angle so that the wine is touching the cork - so the better bottles go in those spots.

I finally went with a Whynter SNO 28 bottle cooler. It looks great and is very reasonably priced. I think I'm getting a second one as a backup storage in my garage.

The place that I bought my 28-bottle chiller from is having a free shipping sale on a lot of their stuff...

http://www.compactappliance.com/custserv/customerservicemain.jsp?cid=1288

They have the Edgestar 28-bottle for $199 shipped.
They also have an Avanti 52-bottle for $459 shipped.