How to Buy a Wine Fridge?
Collecting wine is a big thing these days. Everyone wants to pop a nice bottle from time to time, either with friends, relatives or alone in the comfort of one’s abode.
And nothing feels better when you have everything of the best quality, starting with wine glasses and finishing with a nice wine fridge.
Doctors say that it is best to drink one glass of dry red wine each evening for heart and mind. Just imagine sitting in your favorite chair, listening to some old jazz record, and sipping your chill wine from your reliable wine cooler.
This is the ultimate dream.
Wine Cooler Buying Guide
Wondering how to get yourself a nice cooler that will bring your wine collection to another level?
Most people store their wine alongside regular milk and sodas, but the regular refrigerators are not the best choice for your expensive wine. Here are some tips to find an affordable fridge that will also serve its purpose reliably for years.
Know your wine
When it comes to buying a nice wine cooler, above all the technical characteristics of the desired product, make sure you know your wine.
The optimal range of degrees for any normal wine cooler is 45 to 60 degrees. If you are planning on storing a particular kind of wine in the cooler, however, you will do fine without a full default spectrum of degrees.
That is where the knowledge of how certain types of wine are stored and aged properly will come in handy. Keep in mind that:
- The optimal range of degrees for light, sparkling white wines is between 40 and 50 degrees;
- For fruity, taste-filled red wines 50-60 degrees make the right aging conditions;
- 60 to 65 degrees is a perfect temperature for harder red and port wines.
Notice that before serving, the optimal temperature of any wine is considered to be 55 degrees.
Compressor or thermoelectric
Wine refrigerators can be subdivided into two major types by the methods of internal cooling they employ. Currently, you can pick a compressor or thermoelectric wine fridge, both of which are great in their own way but different.
Thus, fridges that use a compressor cooling system are somewhat similar to your regular kitchen refrigerator. These are powerful, capable machines that, however, produce lots of noise and are usually quite heavy. Consider ‘mini’ options if you have limited space for a future cooler.
Thermoelectric fridges are a lot quieter than compressor ones and the most popular ones as well. These use the Peltier effect to perform - a flow of current goes through two conductors providing the cooling effect for the whole thing. Thus, they don’t actually cool things inside, but they take away the hot air.
Such coolers are pretty energy-efficient, produce low vibrations and are quiet as a whole. If you don’t like any excessive noise, they will serve as your ‘serene’ storage.
Notice that thermoelectric machines can be slightly affected by the outside climate.
You can manage the temperature in most coolers and set up just the right environment for your aristocratic beverages.
Single or double-zone cooling
As soon as you decide on the basic type of your future fridge, you are going to have to pick between single zone wine refrigerators vs. dual zone wine coolers.
See, the working space inside of wine refrigerators is called a cooling zone. And coolers can have two types of such areas - single zone and dual zone.
A single-zone machine is a stack with one room and a single temperature control output. If you plan to store one-two similar in nature wines, this option will do you perfectly, you even get to save on doubling features. Other good reasons for picking this variant is if you are focusing on short-term wine storing or are a beginner collector.
Do you need to store both reds and whites in a space-efficient, reliable way? Get a fridge with two cooling zones. It will cost more, but it’s more of a necessity rather than commodity when it comes to the basic wine kinds separation.
When you get a dual-zone cooler, you can control the temperature in both its sections separately. This means that you can set different temperatures for different wine sections. This comes in hand if you need to properly age your red and white wines at specific temperatures over the longer terms.
Keep in mind that this option usually implies bigger coolers that can store more than 50 bottles. It’s difficult to achieve efficient space separation in the smaller ones.
Free-standing or built-in wine fridge
The right size for your collection is what to look for in a wine fridge. Thus, the question of available space and appropriate dimensions appears. If you have a collection of over 50 bottles, you, probably, would like to get a bigger fridge for your storage. But do you have enough space?
A built-in cooler can your most optimal option - it is compact, decorative, and practical all at once. On top of serving its primary function, a built-in model will also enhance the interior in the most classic way.
A regular free-standing fridge will require space and is a good option if you have a cellar or some area spacious enough to fit the ‘standalone’ cooler.
So the outcome of the ultimate ‘free-standing vs built-in wine fridge’ dispute completely depends on buyer preferences and capabilities.
Tips to Find an Affordable Fridge
The price of wine coolers depends on a bunch of factors such as their size, capacity, basic mechanism type (compressor- or thermoelectric-based), a number of cooling areas and control outputs, type of construction (built-in or free-standing), and various additional features.
Even if you have enough budget, space, and domestic options for built-in furniture, keep in mind that wine coolers, apart from their basic characteristics, differ only in design and some other insignificant aspects.
So don’t get ‘overhyped’ with all the fancy features of a certain machine - the main purpose of such coolers is to store wine in proper conditions and that should your top priority.
We’ll tell you from the get-go that the best wine coolers for every budget can be found online would be a more profitable, reasonably-priced way in most cases. Choose only the reliable, certified providers, like KingsBottle.
Your Wine Cooler Checklist
Modern wine coolers can do more than just their basic purpose, providing a range of additional capabilities for fine wine preservation. Here are some of the top features to look for in your wine cooler:
- Size and space. Consider the area where you can put your future wine fridge. Remember that bigger coolers, usually, come as free-standing cabinets, while smaller options can be either that or built-in. And, surely, there is no use in getting the biggest cooler if you have only five bottles in the collection.
- Cost. There are almost always cheaper alternatives out there, so don’t strive for ‘awesome’ options that cost more than you can afford. If you don’t have enough money for the fridge of your dreams – start small. After a while, you will understand either you need the bigger refrigerator or not.
- Noise. Will it be placed in your kitchen or some other, more distant area of your house behind a couple of doors (like a cellar)? If you are okay with some buzzing in your kitchen, then go for the compressor fridge and if you value silent nights – go for thermoelectric ones. And the compressor type will be a more cost-efficient way to go if you have a separate room or cellar for your chiller.
- Safety and special features. Additional special features may provide more intuitive and accessible control alongside some safety protection. A cooler may have built-in LED indicators for temperature, humidity, etc. There can also be a power surge indicator that is connected to the respective protection module that shuts down the fridge in the case of significant power spikes.
- Humidity control. This feature will help you even more control and step your wine preserving game up even further. Different levels of humidity affect how different types of wine taste. With humidity control, you can take care of your wine in every aspect.
- UV ray protection. Take special heed of this feature if you have lots of clear bottles to store. UV rays are pretty bad and harmful for your wine, so make sure your purchase features good UV protection that doesn’t let either light or heat inside.
- Digital thermostat. A complex of the mentioned-above LED integrations may be called a digital thermostat in the product specifications, so be sure to check your purchase for that. This feature, usually, can also automatically turn the cooling system off at desirable points and let it go up to the optimal level. Due to this, you get constant temperature management and save energy.
Overall, you can get the cellar cooling features inside your house for an affordable amount of money if you pick wisely. Proper humidity levels keep the best taste and prepare wine for proper serving, so don’t save on that aspect. At KingsBottle, we have a wide range of wine coolers to let you find better home organization-fitting options and compact, built-in solutions for the minimalistic smart home design.
Why KingsBottle?
You can find all of the listed above features at our shop as well. KingsBottle reimagines the refrigerated wine cellar by taking it upstairs. Now you can find every type of high-quality cooler at our website. All of our fridges are designed not only to chill your favorite wine collection but to also please your eye since all of them are individual pieces of art.
We have been creating top quality coolers for over ten years and we never missed an opportunity to improve as a service provider. We have spent many days researching, redesigning, improving, contributing, and making the best of a simple wine cooler. Now, you can enjoy your time like a true wine enthusiast and connoisseur you are. No other brand can present you with the vibes that we do.
We pay attention to every little detail, like compressor noise, wood for the shelves, and all other parts of the cooler. We put only the best of the best in them. Wine fridges are not just another job to us, we are truly passionate about them so we create handy compact coolers as well that are perfect for most home designs.
KingsBottle imports all products directly from the manufacturer and this is why we can offer lower prices with exceptional quality. This is how to buy the best wine cooler – you just have to check with a KingsBottle employee on all parameters we have listed previously, and pick the cooler of your dreams.
Now that you know how to choose a wine fridge for your home wine collection - don’t hesitate and purchase one. It will definitely change your leisure perspective and all of your friends will be wowed.
We all love a good glass of fine wine but every bottle should have a home to chill and to age. Keep and present wine like it should be done. Get your collection a home from KingsBottle.