Your Wine Cooler Buying Checklist
- Bottle Capacity sufficient to hold your collection and allow it to grow.
- Temperature Range appropriate to chilling all your favorite kinds of wine at the ideal serving temperature.
- Dual or Single Temperature Zones to provide temperature flexibility for your collection.
Generally speaking, serve white wines slightly warmer than fridge temperature, between 49-55 degrees F (~7-12°C).
- Sparkling Wines: “Ice Cold” between 38–45°F / 3-7°C.
- White and Rosé Wines: “Fridge Cold” between 38–45°F / 3-7°C.
- Rich White Wines: (like Chardonnay) “Cool” between 45–55°F / 7-12°C.
Extreme cold is not nearly as bad for wine as extreme heat. Cold slows down the aging process. And even if your wine is fluctuating from the ideal 55° F temperatures down to as low as mid-30s, as long as the fluctuation is happening gradually, it's not that bad.
When to put red wine in the refrigerator
Very few red wines need to be completely chilled before drinking with the exception of sparkling wines like Lambrusco. But reds can benefit from being in the refrigerator after they've been opened. "Once you open a bottle of red and are done drinking it, keep it in the fridge.Keep your appliances at the proper temperatures. Keep the refrigerator temperature at or below 40° F (4° C). The freezer temperature should be 0° F (-18° C).
If the coils are dirty enough, the unit will never be cold enough and will not be able to cool the inside of the refrigerator to the proper temperature. If the refrigerator is not cold enough, the evaporator fan motor might have failed. The condenser fan motor draws air over the condenser coils to cool them.
When stored at colder temperatures, the chemical processes slow down, including the process of oxidation that takes place when oxygen hits the wine. Wine stored by cork inside the fridge will stay relatively fresh for up to 3-5 days.
Here are our top ten most popular placements:
- Kitchen. This is by far the most popular place for wine coolers.
- Dry Bar or Wet Bar.
- Cellar.
- Tasting Room.
- Dining Room.
- Restaurant or Café
- Wine Bar.
- Finished Basement, Den, or Entertainment Area.
Beer, either cellared beer or caned beer, can also be stored in your wine cooler. Most agree that the best compromise if you are storing multiple types of beer in your cooler, is to keep the temperature at 50 to 55°F.
What is the difference between a wine cooler, beverage cooler and refrigerator? A wine cooler is set to a higher temperature range than a refrigerator or beverage cooler because wine should not be stored as cold as other beverages. On average a wine cooler will not offer temperatures below 46°F degrees.
Just like wine, beer can benefit much from being stored in a wine fridge because the equipment cools down faster than an ordinary refrigerator. The ideal temperature for most beers ranges from 45-60 degrees. A bottle of beer served at higher temperature is more likely to have a bland taste.
Any soft drinks that can be stored at ambient temperatures (which is most of them) can be kept in a wine cooler, too. That said, if you're drinking milk quickly (for example, if you're serving up milk-based cocktails at a party) storing it in your wine cooler for a few hours is fine.
While reading through various wine cooler reviews you will notice that wine refrigerators are generally more expensive than most wine coolers. This is because wine fridges are generally more powerful than wine coolers, making use of compression-based cooling technology.
Beverage Storage
You may have not realized this, but your good wine fridge is capable of storing other non-alcoholic drinks like bottled water, iced tea, soda, beer, and milk. You just need to know the specific temperature settings required for each beverage.A beverage refrigerator, also known as a beverage cooler or beverage center, is smaller than a traditional refrigerator. Unlike regular refrigerators, most beverage coolers have adjustable chrome metal shelves or glass shelves with holes for improved circulation of cold air.
Before you decide to get a wine fridge, you may want to consider what a wine fridge is supposed to do. The purpose of getting a wine fridge is to store wines well, and hopefully keep their flavors intact. Not having a wine cooler or keeping bottles at temperatures wines fare poorly in will cause your goods to spoil.
In order to build in any appliance under a counter you need proper ventilation to avoid over- heating. A wine cooler that has a front vent allows you to build-in, where as if it has side or rear ventilation you need adequate space on the sides and rear for the heat given off by the unit to dissipate.
Beer, either cellared beer or caned beer, can also be stored in your wine cooler. Most agree that the best compromise if you are storing multiple types of beer in your cooler, is to keep the temperature at 50 to 55°F.
The average alcohol content of a cooler is about 6 percent. Someone who drinks two wine coolers consumes much more alcohol than someone who has two glasses of wine. It's easy to see why kids might think wine coolers are less harmful than beer or wine. Wine coolers contain a lot of sugar to disguise the alcohol taste.
A freestanding wine refrigerator should never be installed under a counter. Freestanding wine fridges are designed with the vent on the back of the unit. When you place it under a counter with cabinetry on each side of it or directly up against a wall, that heat is unable to dissipate.
Moving along with the most optimum location for the wine cooler, you should avoid placing it on any type of carpeting. While some think that it is a great place to set a wine cooler, so it will not ruin any hardwood in the house or office, it is actually better to keep the cooler on an easy-to-clean surface.
Your wine stays cool and unspoiled until you're ready to pop the cork and drink it. Dual zone wine coolers offer the same level of cooling power, but better storage options. By dividing their storage space in half, dual zone wine coolers do a better job storing both red and white wine.
Ideally, placing a refrigerator on the carpet is not recommendable. Carpets obstruct the air flowing into the condenser, which is located at the base of the fridge. In addition, carpets are known to retain heat. Also, the heat can make the carpet under the fridge to fade.
Wine Cooler isn't Cooling Properly
Next, the owner needs to make sure that the thermostat is in correct working order. If it is set to a warmer temperature, then the owner will have trouble getting the cooler to the desired temperature. Compressor based wine coolers are the ones that may have the thermostat issues.Compared to a traditional refrigerator that keeps food and items at a much colder temperature than a wine fridge, the fridges used to store wine do not use a lot of electricity. Normal fridges use anywhere from 350-800 watts of electricity, while wine fridges typically use around 100 watts on average.
The Smirnoff version of a wine cooler is its Ice product line. These are ready-to-drink malt beverages, often called malternatives because they are similar to beer, that come in a variety of flavors.
?The best wine coolers are:
- Wine Enthusiast Silent 2-Temp.
- Kalamera 24-Inch Wine Refrigerator.
- EdgeStar 18-Bottle.
- Kalamera 30-Bottle.
- NewAir AWR-290DB Compact 29-Bottle.
- Allavino FlexCount VSWR56-2SSRN, 56-Bottle.
- NewAir Premier Gold Series, 116-Bottle.
- Allavino FlexCount Series, 172-Bottle.
