Cheap Wine Fridges

Reviews of wine fridges and coolers

Cheap Wine Fridge

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You may be asking yourself of why you need to invest your money on wine coolers. Simple, a wine fridge can preserve those expensive wines that you at home. It is a known fact that you need to use a specialty refrigerator to store wines.

Wine is a very delicate and complicated beverage. Storing it in very low temperature will compromise the flavor and overall integrity of wine. Letting wine bottles sit under room temperature on the other hand will also have a negative impact on the taste and quality of wine. If you are a wine connoisseur and you collect expensive types of wine, you really will find a wine fridge a necessity rather than an optional appliance.

In addition, not every household has ample space for an underground wine cellar. Not only is it expensive to install one inside your home, wine cellars are only necessary if you have a rather wide selection of expensive and vintage vino. A wine refrigerator that can hold up to as much as 200 bottles is commercially available so you have enough space for all your priced wine collection. You can even become inspired to collect more wine vintages when you purchase a wine cooler with a big storage capacity.

Aside from wine coolers, a liquor cabinet and a wall mounted wine rack are some of the other fixture that you need for your home. They not only serve the purpose of holding your wine, they also serve as wonderful decoration to your home interiors. A liquor cabinet has the same storage function as a wine fridge, except the former doesn’t have a cooling mechanism that will preserve wines in their ideal temperature. However, a liquor cabinet can display other types of beverages such as alcoholic beverages that do not need refrigeration namely vodka, scotch, and tequila. You can showcase your extensive liquor collection by placing them in a classic-looking liquor cabinet.

If you have an extra room in your home, you can actually convert it into a mini cellar. Although the room may not be located underground, you can make use of commercial air conditioning and cooling system to ensure that they stay within the ideal storage wine temperature range. For organization purposes, you can have a wall-mounted wine rack installed in your cellar. This eliminates the need for you to refrigerate all your wine in a wine cooler. A wall-mounted wine rack doubles as decoration to the cellar interiors.

Factors to Consider when Choosing a Wine Fridge

Price

The price of wine coolers will tell you the features and the level of quality that was put in the manufacturing of these products. Vintage wines are expensive and enthusiasts would very much prefer to store them in a wine fridge that is expensive as well. There is nothing bad with purchasing cheap refrigerators for your wine collection. However, make sure that they have passed stringent quality control. In addition, before looking into buying cheap refrigerators for your wine, it is quite helpful to read through refrigerator reviews as well. Feedbacks from customers will help you gauge if a certain wine fridge model and brand is worth your money.

Wine Fridge Features

Make your refrigerator purchase worthwhile by carefully looking into the specs and features of wine coolers that you like. Make a list of the top five wine coolers that you want to purchase and perform a side-by-side analysis of its features. A wine fridge with a myriad of features is desirable, especially if the manufacturer was able to provide you with clear explanation of what the features do to ensure that your wines will be at their best condition.

Design

There are various wine fridge designs in the market today. There are the standard white mini wine coolers that you can purchase at very low prices. The materials used in this wine cooler design are pretty similar to the ones used for conventional kitchen refrigerators. There is also the glass door refrigerator design. This construction enables owners to see their wine collection without having to open the fridge.  You can see where you placed each and every wine that you have on storage. There are also wine coolers made from stainless steel. Customers who want their wine fridge to match the construction and design of their modern kitchen most likely prefer this fridge design and style.

Storage Capacity

You need to estimate how much wine you would like to store in your wine fridge. Are you only starting a wine collection? If so, you may opt to purchase a wine fridge with a 20-bottle capacity. If you’re moving an extensive wine collection out from the cellar, you may want to look at purchasing a wine fridge that has a maximum storage capacity of 200 bottles. Your penchant for wine will determine the storage capacity feature of the wine refrigerator that you will need to purchase for your home.

Warranty

Wine cooler prices range from $150 to as much as $1000 dollars. Buying one is truly an investment, and should never be taken lightly by consumers. Make sure to only purchase a brand-new wine fridge. In addition, check the warranty attached to the model that you will be purchasing. A five to ten year warranty is known to be ideal when looking for a quality wine cooler for home use.

 

The wine fridge is the perfect alternative to a wine cellar. In fact, it is the modern version of a wine cellar, but before we get into details about the wine fridge let us first talk about a wine cellar. Now, what is a wine cellar? A wine cellar is actually a storage room for wines.

It can contain wines in bottles, barrels, and even in plastic containers. The purpose of a wine cellar is to keep the wines from harmful influences that may have an effect on its aroma and taste. It also provides constant darkness and temperature, which are ideal for storing wine.  This is because when wine is exposed to humidity and constant temperature changes it can spoil even when it is not opened. Wine cellars can be built underground, which is the more traditional one and it can also be built above ground. Above ground wine cellars after often called wine rooms and for wine rooms that can only accommodate less than 500 bottles it is now called a wine closet.

However, not everybody has the space or the budget to construct his or her own wine cellar, room or closet. As a solution, wine aficionados use a wine fridge. A wine fridge is more or less the same with your regular refrigerator except that it contains nothing but wine hence the term wine fridge. A regular wine fridge is okay if you are not planning to collect wines, but if you are a budding wine collector then choosing the appropriate wine fridge is serious business. Similar to buying items there are several things that you need to consider before you make the final purchase. In the case of a wine fridge, considering the bottle count or capacity is essential.  Think about the space you need in order to store your current collection after that multiply it by two in anticipation for your growing collection. To know how many bottles can fit inside the unit you can use Bordeaux sized bottles. However, if you plan to collect Burgundy or Champagne then the capacity will be lesser.

The next thing that you need to consider when selecting a wine fridge is the interior. Aluminum interior is more preferable than plastic interiors because it is better at conducting heat and cold. Moreover, if you want a unit that is capable of maintaining the ideal humidity within then choose a unit with a textured interior. A pebbled lining is also efficient at humidity control.

Apart from the interior lining of a wine fridge, there is also a need for you to take into consideration the shelving. You are well aware that bottles tend to roll out and if you choose a wine fridge that does not have shelves or rack then you risk breaking a bottle everytime you open the door. A typical wine fridge comes with fixed chrome wire shelves. Expensive units often come with wooden racks or wood-framed wire grids. Nevertheless, shelves that roll out are still better because this makes it easier for you to read the labels and remove the bottles at the same time. The racks or shelves should slide in and out smoothly. Do not forget to test this when checking wine fridge units.

Of course, a wine fridge is not complete without the door. Yes, you also have to pay attention to the door. A glass door is nice, classy and elegant but it does not provide the same amount of insulation a solid door can. In addition to that, wine fridge units with glass doors are more expensive. Nevertheless, if you still prefer the class door make sure that it has a UV protected finish because exposure to sunlight has a detrimental effect on the wines.

As much as possible choose wine fridge unit that does not vibrate too much especially when it is switched on or off. Strong vibrations have a negative effect on the wines in the end. Therefore, it is best to find a unit that is stable or a unit that has stabilizing solutions for vibration.

If you are planning to collect expensive wines then a wine fridge with a lock and an alarm might be a good choice for you. This will not only keep your collection safe but it will also notify you in case someone tries to take a bottle or two from your wine fridge.

Written by Wine Guru

January 5th, 2011 at 10:17 pm

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