Wine Bottle Chiller/Refrigerator Websites and Buying Guide:

Wine Fridge/Refrigerator Reviews Information and Purchasing Guide

The wine industrial sectors is experiencing solid growth as Baby Boomers almost retirement and have plenty of discretionary income to spend on items like wine. Also, the younger generation now has access to wine bars in all major cities and their taste for fine wine is increasing too. The need for home wine refrigerators used to be a niche marketplace but it’s gaining steam as younger and younger wine drinkers are shopping wine coolers to put in their homes. If you are just beginning, like I am, consider a smaller wine refrigerator (40-50 bottles), but nothing too petite. A essential rule of thumb amongst wine guides is to buy a wine cooler that has double the capacity of what you think you will use. The thinking about it behind this is that your collection will probably grow over time and the need for available space will growth. You want a wine fridge that has fantastic quality insulation and will keep your bottles at a constant 55 degree temperature and at about 50-70% humidity levels. When storing wine, temperature and humidity are key factors in maintaining the fantastic quality of the wine. If the humidity is too, the cork will dried and if it’s too high you can get mold.
For the interior of any wine refrigerator, you want ones that have aluminum (preferred over plastic). Aluminum interiors in wine storage systems will conduct cold and heat better than the lower price plastic wine fridges. For humidity control and maintenance, try to find wine refrigerators with a pebbled lining. Different normal kitchen refrigerators that have solid doors, many wine coolers come with glass doors so the owner can view the wine or show it off to his/her guests. The glass doors are actually more high-cost than those with solid doors and they don’t insulate nearly as well. Keep any glass doored wine refrigerator away from sunlight or get it protected with a UV finish since wines that are exposed to sunlight can be damaged. Vibration control is another feature to consider when shopping a wine refrigerator. Wine should not be shaken and the compressors on fridges vibrate a little when they are turned on or off. To alleviate this problem, many wine fridges come with specially coated racks that grip your wine or champagne bottles and limit vibrations. Others have compressors that are mounted on rubber blocks to eliminate the shaking. The vibration control devices are most commonly thought in premium wine coolers from Viking or Sub-Zero. The interior shelving is definitely a feature you want to look at closely. The better units come with wood racks while simple and easy models have only chrome/wire shelves. If the shelfing rolls out your job of stocking the wine cooler will be much easier. Test this aspect in the store when you go to look at some. Dual zone wine refrigerators are great for storing both red and white wine at different temps. Lastly, some models have locks (great if you have smaller children or teenagers) and alarms to let you know if you mistakenly left the door ajar.

Budget/Value Wine Refrigerator:

The Danby Silhouette DWC512BLS got mixed product reviews in wine forums, but we thought enough positive things on this model that we decided to include it here. It’s certainly not a premium model, but owners say the “value” is there and they like the way it was designed to be both freestanding and a zero clearance built-in undercounter model. The Danby wine fridge holds 51 wine bottles, has dual temperature zones for red and white wine storage, 7 full width wooden shelves, a tempered glass door with stainless steel frame, and a humidity reservior. The Danby wine refrigerator has a 5-year limited warranty. Owners say it can be a little loud at times and they also wish it had aluminum interior instead of the plastic.