Anyone have any experience with wine/beer fridges? We are doing some renovations in the house where we will be adding an island and some cabinets with counter along one wall and we want to add a wine/beer fridge. The reviews are all over the place with these things, but leaning towards a 30†XO or an Avalon but it’s only 23.75†wide. Any thoughts or experiences with a particular brand? Thanks
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I agree on reviews being all over the map.
That said, we have had a Wine Enthusiast brand one that looks similar to the one below for at least 5 years and it has been rock solid the whole time. No complaints.
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Interestingly enough, Wirecutter also recommends the brand and I have never been steered wrong by them on recommendations.
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Be honest with yourself on how you like your Beer and Wine, i like my white and rose colder than it's 'supposed' to be. so i prefer them in a regular fridge. wine fridges don't make them as cold as I like, so i steered clear.Comment
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How discerning (aka picky) are you? This, like so many things, is a product where "you don't know what you don't know" comes into play. This is not a shot at STEbbq, only that he has provided a "learning moment". Based on your question background you appear to want a "built in". If you read the description of the above unit it says "stand alone"............then give the necessary clearances all around the box which would make it look very odd in a "built in" setting. Likewise for suggestions from any of us, which is one of the short comings of internet queries. You have no idea what the performance/quality/operational standards of the commenter are as compared to what is important to you. Good start asking here, but I would suggest that you use the wide variety of suggestions I suspect you might get more as things you need to evaluate what's important to you.
I've had good experiences with cheapo units (stand alones, usually cheaper) in vacation home usage. But my preference for my main abode is for a higher end performer. The cheapies use "electronic cooling", vs the more costly ones that have a more conventional refrigeration system with pumps and coolant gas. Both work, just differently, and sometimes with life expectancy issues, particularly with the electronic ones. I'm fussy about how well the shelves work for bottle fitment, and prefer a premium roll out shelf design so it's easier to load, unload, and search for a particular bottle when desired. The less expensive ones have balky slide out shelves (usually no ball bearings), and aren't full extension. Can you reverse the door swing? Interior lights nice to have or necessary? If price is the highest determining factor then most of that stuff won't matter. But if you want what you need/like, then it takes more work than just a single query, even to a trusted group.Comment
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100% agree. I read his request as a request for a good brand, so I shared my experience with Wine Enthusiast, and linked to something that resembles my unit.
That said, they do also offer built-ins here: https://www.wineenthusiast.com/cooli...r-wine-coolers .
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OK, wine geek alert....
First off, what's your goal here? Do you simply want something that will chill down some beer and wine for current/near term drinking? Or are you looking to age wine?
A lot of standalone wine cabinets are designed to keep wine at a good temperature and humidity for long term aging - usually around 55F. That temp range allows a wine to evolve over time but keeps it from being heat damaged or aging too fast/badly.
On the other hand, if you just want to keep a case or two of wine along with some beer, cool for current drinking, then a regular fridge will be fine. Very cold temps (around the 40F of your typical fridge) *will* suppress flavors, so you might need to pull a bottle out a bit before drinking it but.. eh. There IS one issue here - regular fridges are very dry and will dry out corks over time. A few months? eh. A few years? No.
On the other other hand, you don't want to try to age wine in a regular fridge. The temps are too cold to allow the wine to evolve and it will be basically the same 10 years from now.
So... goals first.Last edited by rickgregory; June 23, 2021, 12:16 PM.Comment
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I appreciate all the points folks make, all valid that I have been churning in my head. I know I don’t want reds at 35 degrees and if I need to get the moscato my wife likes ice cold I’ll throw in regular fridge. Additionally, if I can chill beers so they aren’t piss warm that’s enough and when company comes I can throw on ice. I have also ruined a decent bottle of wine by not storing correctly and the cork dried out. I’ll probably spend a little more rather than less given the cooling systems and how they work. I was just curious if anyone had a go to brand as with these fridges there are a lot of brands I have never heard of.Comment
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I wish I could help. I love the look of wine fridges, sorta wish I could have one or had room for one. But my wife likes her whites regular fridge temp and my reds are all room temp so we'd never actually use one. Sleek units though.Comment
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"...and my reds are all room temp so we'd never actually use one. ..."
well... actually... I hope. you don't drink your reds at 85F. Most reds show better around 60-65F. So even if you have AC and it's like 72F in the summer indoors, a small wine cabinet can help if you keep case or so around. If it's just a few bottles... chill the red a little so it's around 65F. -
rickgregory My house is usually 65-68 in the winter and I prefer them a touch warmer than that, so in summer when it's 70-74 I like them better. Lord help me if my house is 85. Maybe in a power outage.
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My buddy that is really into wine has like 4 under-counter wine fridges, so that different types of wine are stored at different temperatures. Me? I like beer, and have 2 short refrigerators dedicated to holding 4 kegs, which I tend to keep set to 40F, as I like to taste my beer, versus the wife's Bud Light, which comes out of a full size fridge at 34F. The two dedicated to beer are this model, with the door insert removed and replaced with a sheet of plastic from Lowes:
Those are a nice height for under a bar, and have survived for 8-9 years in my garage. I started with them for storing wine and beer with padlocks to keep teenagers out, before switching them over to be kegerators.
The issue I see with many of the dedicated wine fridge units is that they are setup for bottles on racks, and won't work well for also storing your beerComment
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I have 2 beverage coolers. One KitchenAid and one U-Line. The KitchenAid has dual zones. We use it for red wine and beer. I don't really drink wine and my wife prefers reds. We like it and the temperatures are accurate. We also looked at a Sub-Zero as well. The Sub-Zero was actually in line with the U-Line and the KitchenAid in terms of price and my brother has it as well. But it wasn't for us. There was a compartment that we didn't need and wouldn't use. The U-Line has white wine and beer and is single zone. I researched and debated wether or not to get a beverage cooler vs a mini fridge. Having had both, I am glad we went with the beverage coolers. The operate differently, look different, and are built differently. In the end, it comes down to what you want. If I had to do it again I would stick with the beverage centers.Comment
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