Does anyone have experience with Wine Enthusiast brand wine fridges???

Particularly the large-capacity units.

TYIA

 

We have a couple wine fridges at work. (They fit under the counters neatly) I'll check next week as to what brand they are.

 

We have one of the smaller WE units for about 3 years. We haven't had any problems with it.

 

Consumer Reports rated the Wine Enthusiast 272 03 32 (32 bottles) about average, with average rating for temperature consistency and accuracy, better than average for noise, and below average for energy efficiency. My wine chiller is very quiet because it's in the basement. It works well for whites but is too cold for reds. It consumes a lot of electricity. The outside of it bears an uncanny resemblance to a cheap compact refrigerator.

 

I asked our wine guy (eg the guy who owns the 2 stores where we shop for most of our wine that's not at Costco ;-) a few years ago for recommendations - they're based on space to chill, so will vary - but he recommended the Grand Cru (entry level) and Breezaire (step up) from Wine Enthusiast. We have a wine closet (around 100cu ft) so we were looking for a chiller not a fridge unit. Still haven't added one to the room - it stays pretty consistently cool & about the right humidity but should probably be a little colder. We don't cellar too many bottles for a long time though.

 

Seriously, Ken, I've been toying with replacing the ancient, inefficient fridge under my bar with a wine cooler for years now. The space is big enough and has enough air circulation, and I don't use the fridge for anything but wine. The 32-bottle from Wine Enthusiast is probably what I would buy. I generally have 12-15 reds aging in an old wooden wine case downstairs, and this would be better for them. Plus, we both prefer whites served warmer than they come from a fridge. This may be the year that a chiller tops my Christmas wish list.

Now, as for the large ones, not for me. If I were looking that way, I'd want adjustable shelves or wider shelf spacing than some coolers seem to have.

 

The wine refrigerator I got from Wine Enthusiast (don't know which brand) is wood and credenza-styled with two doors. I got it 5-years ago, and it still works. I set it so it's just below 60 degrees F. All I have are reds. I don't know if it's true for all wine refrigerators, but the rack is fine for Bordeaux/Cabernet bottles. The Burgundy/Pinot bottles are a little larger in diameter so I can't fit them in the rack side-by-side or even next to a bottle of cab. I have to leave an open space for those bottles.

 

I had one which died after about 4-5 years. The racks were too small for the Pinot bottles and they ripped the labels if you tried to jam them in. It was also advertised as silent but it made a quiet whooshing noise, which became louder on hotter days.

 

I wish we had a basement, but that ain't exactly a common thing 'round here.

It seems most of the common retail brands of smaller coolers -- undercounter-size -- get rather middling to horrid ratings; we learned that when we did the kitchen project in the last place. I guess it's kinda looked at like so many one-time "durable" goods that in this day and age are just swapped out with frequency.

As for the temp question that someone raised -- wine storage is not refrigeration. Refrigerators can't run or at least not efficiently at the higher temps you want for wine and because they operate more efficiently when cold, they are more sensitive to ambient temp.

We're not worried about rose at 50 and pinot at 54 and cab at 58; we'll adjust the serving temp in advance of serving. So we're going single temp zone. Anyway, doesn't cooler air settle, anyway? That non-Bordeaux bottle thing is a pain. Obviously everyone sells on max capacity, which for many products includes stacked shelves, which makes accessibility a bit more challenging. Given where we live, what we drink, we have a load of non-Bordeaux shapes.

We might spend a bit more and go EuroCave. Can't believe when I asked the Wine Enthusiast sales people they didn't know who makes their product. That's asinine.

 

Our wine cellar doubles as our tornado safety zone. True story! Though with the beer currently in there, there isn't enough room for 2 of us ;-) Fortunately we also have a basement storage room along the earth-side of the basement, no windows etc. We just have to remember to grab the beer/wine & bottle openers before running into that space in case of a tornado....

 

We have the Summit brand at work. We use them for bottle water and coffee creamer. So far so good. They are wine coolers as they have settings for white and red.