Does the Job
Pros:
Cost, Wooden Shelves, Quality of service from retailer
Cons:
Non-tinted display glass, Shelf space a little tight, Minor temperature fluctuations
The Bottom Line:
Friends have asked me about this because they're so impressed with the cost, utility, and looks. Buy it for those reasons!
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
While this is not top of the line, it more than works for my modest needs.
I needed to replace a 30-bottle wine cooler I had picked up months earlier because I had outgrown it.
Purchasing through Compact Appliance, the transaction was quick, easy, and I had the cooler delivered to my door in about a week.
While I *wanted* a multi-temperature, humidity controlled appliance, my budget didn't allow it, and this was a nice compromise. It fits neatly into the corner of my kitchen and is quite the conversation piece. It is not very loud, and it's steady enough to allow me to store my decanters on top. I keep a block of florist's foam on a rack in the lower part of the cooler to help with humidity. All-in-all, it's a nice, low-cost way to allow the wines to rest nicely.
It looks good. The metallic and black fits into my color scheme. The wooden shelves are a real plus. They help hold humidity and not as subject to temperature fluctuations.
The negatives aren't big and are more of a reflection of my being nit-picky than anything. For instance, the front glass isn't tinted. I found that very handy on my smaller cooler and was a little disappointed that it wasn't on this one.
Temperature fluctuations ... not too bad (not enough to hurt the wines), but will fluctuate between 50-59 degrees from time to time. There have been no issues with my wines because of it.
And lastly, the shelves are little tight. Bigger bottles can be somewhat problematic. Pinot Noir bottles are a nightmare, but I don't really consider that a fault of the cooler, since "regular" bottles fit nicely. In order to address that and to keep from pulling bottles out to see what's what, I have each bottle tagged with year, varietal, and winery on the front and price, retailer, and date of purchase on the back. (Okay. I'm a little, um, *retentive*!) The tagging is a good idea anyway, but the snugness of the shelves made it almost mandatory.
As I mentioned, those are relatively minor complaints. For the money, this is probably one of the best deals for wine storage for someone who's on a budget. The price given in this review was for EVERYTHING, including shipping as of June 2005.
LivingDirect
Wine Rack Superstore
