Wine Fridge help
2I’ve been getting by with a 20 bottle wine cooler and 60-72° passive cellar (combination of racking and boxes) for many years.
I just saw the new Costco flyer and am very tempted by a hefty upcoming sale on a 155 capacity Vinotemp (Element) unit. For those experienced wine fridge folks out there, a few random questions.
-What do you think of Vinotemp? Is the Element series a step down?
-Is it really necessary to keep standalone fridges 6" from the wall at the back? This is what most spec sheets seem to recommend, but we certainly don’t do this with our regular fridge.
-I also see the dual zones hold approximately the same # of bottles. How do you all handle temperature settings when you have a majority of bottles of either red or white (red in my case)?
Thank you, Casemates hive mind! For those interested, here is the link to the unit that comes in black/stainless. Note the difference isn’t just color; it has different handle types and location of the temp display.
https://www.costco.com/vinotemp-155-bottle-wine-cooler-with-dual-zone-cooling.product.100413028.html
- 3 comments, 4 replies
- Comment
Unless you need fancy and purdy, here in SoCal you can do much better $$$ wise sourcing a used unit from Craigs list, consignment store or your local equiv.
I’ve picked up a couple that hold 400 ~ 800 for between $250 and $750 that have worked fine for years.
Spacing; depends how it’s vented. It needs space to rid itself of the hot air out of the compressor coils.
@rjquillin
@KNmeh7 @hscottk
Here are a couple of pics of a 432 bottle cooler listed at $499, but I ended up picking it up when they reduced the price to $250.
Dual zone is a pain and not worth the extra money, imo. Go for simple - there’s less to malfunction.
With a passive cellar with those temperatures I’d probably not even bother with a wine fridge.
@klezman @hscottk yes, I wasn’t concerned with dual zone when I bought mine. What I was concerned about was the 10-12 deg temps swing every season so I added the 200 bottle wine fridge down there. There’s no cabinets in that room in the basement so it’s open on all sides with approximately 3” spacing on the back.
I probably wouldn’t need that fridge if I’d had stayed off of this wine site!
Our 33 bottle cap unit stays upstairs in the pantry
@klezman @ttboy23 @rjquillin Thanks for the feedback. The sale is now up ($600 off) but I’m still undecided. This brand gets bashed quite a bit over on WB. And I have done fine with the passive cellar. But I’m reluctant to age wines more than 5-7 years with this setup. It does hit the low 70s in August/September which has worked out ok but certainly isn’t optimal. I’ll definitely need to check Crsigslist again. The ones I’ve seen in the past were always impossibly huge units on a fourth floor walk up in NYC. That’s when the Costco deal looks better and better!
@hscottk FWIW, I’ve never had an issue with slow temperature swings like you’re getting in your passive cellar. And 70 degrees is nowhere near hot enough to cause a real problem.