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+--- Thread: Small Wine Fridge Advice (/thread-21745.html)
- kcocat - 04-24-2005
Hi all,<P>I'm looking for a small (50ish bottle) wine refrigerator to give as a gift to my parents. From looking at previous threads on the board, it seems as though the Eurocave is the best, but its price is definitely higher than other brands. Before I found this board, I was looking at a few reviews elsewhere and it seemed as though there were a lot of problems with some of the cheaper brands such as Avanti and Danby. <P>Could anyone advise me as to which of brands are better than others? I've seen models online from the following :<P>Avanti<BR>Vinotemp<BR>Danby<BR>Franklin<BR>Haier<BR>Sanyo<BR>Eurocave ($$$)<BR>Others?<P>Thanks in advance!<P>Ken
- tw - 04-24-2005
I currently have a danby and it has worked wonders so far. I imagine there are less features than say a EuroCave but it does its duty quite well as far as i can tell. I have had it for about 6 months now and not one problem. If you got the money though and your parents are in to wine enough to appreciate a EuroCave, then go for it.
- hotwine - 04-25-2005
Welcome to the board, Ken. When gifting a wine fridge, there's more to consider than performance or capacity; you also need an idea of the location your parents would choose to place it, and therefore the style that would best suit their tastes. And the various manufacturers design their products differently; some exhaust out the back, some out the front at floor level. If they would want to display their wines, you would need a glass door-front, but if they wouldn't care about showing off their goodies, a glass door wouldn't be necessary. Lots to consider. Suggest you spend plenty of time looking before buying anything.
- kcocat - 04-25-2005
I'm not 100% sure where they would put the unit, but I'm guessing it will be in a bedroom or study (where they currently have a couple of cases of wine on the floor). They typically buy modestly priced wines ($15-$25), so I don't feel they need a high end unit (such as the Eurocave), but it also doesn't make sense to buy a cheaper unit if it doesn't work well. For instance, I read a review elsewhere where a unit tended to fog up on the glass and there was condensation on the floor outside the unit. I'm looking for reliability more than anything else, as I plan on partially stocking the unit with some nicer wines for them. I want a fairly small unit for them (50 or so bottles) because I don't think they would want a large unit in one of these rooms. It seemed that the Haier units were well received from some prior posts on this site, but they seem to be more upright and less wide than other brands.<P>Bottom line I guess is that I'm curious if people have positive or negative feedback on any of the brands I mentioned in the original post, so that I can purchase a unit that will do the job well and hopefully without any reliability issues down the road.<P>Thanks again!
- hotwine - 04-25-2005
"... more upright and less wide...."<P>Virtually all small wine fridges stand upright; have not seen any chest type. They're typically 20"-26" wide and vary in height depending on capacity. <P>I have both a Haier 34-btl and a EuroCave 260. Many differences between them. The most important single difference is stability of operation: the Haier's temperature runs up and down about a mean which the user sets using pushbottons on the top edge, and the variation is fairly extreme, something like +/- 6F for a total swing of 12 degrees; whereas the EuroCave is rock solid at the temp the user specifies with pushbottons on the top edge inside the unit. Instability of the Haier means I don't use it at all for aging wines, but rather for short-term storage only (a holding place for wines prior to moving them into the EuroCave or the cellar, or as a way-station between long-term storage and the dinner table).<P>Have never experienced frosting of the glass door on the Haier (unit is in the laundryroom); I ordered a solid door on the EuroCave, since it's in the garage and I have no need to display the contents.<P>Huge difference in price, of course.