The Best Wine Cooler

HOW TO CHOOSE = When choosing the best wine cooler that suits your wine storage needs you have to find out and clarify what those needs are. That way, you can do a targeted product search.

First factor to decide on when looking for the best wine cooler is the size or capacity of the unit. If you drink wine only occasionally then you probably need a small wine cooler to keep a few bottles at serving temperature in case you have guests.

Small wine coolers are also the logical choice if you live in a tiny apartment and don't have much space for large appliances.

Medium-sized coolers make sense if you entertain often and want to keep a reasonable selection on hand, but you are not yet "a collector." Most 40-50 bottle wine refigerators are compressor-operated and many of them have two temperature zones for seperate storage of whites and reds.

If you already have a sizeable collection of wines then you probably need your best wine cooler to be larger. You might also consider building your own wine cellar from scratch or buying a custom wine cellar.

Even if it's a small wine refrigerator you want to buy, look for a unit that has a well-built cabinet with sturdy shelves. Opt for a wine cooler with aluminium interior because it conducts temperature more effectively than one with a plastic interior.

The majority of wine refrigerators have glass doors so you have a good view of your wines but it also has the disadvantage of less adequate thermal insulation over solid doors. Manufacturers are aware of this weakness so they use double pane glass doors in order to maintain constant temperature inside the wine cooler.

Besides high temperature, UV light can also spoil wine if it's exposed to direct sunlight for a longer period of time even if the wine is in a dark bottle. To protect your wines from UV light buy a wine cooler with tinted glass door that filters out ultraviolet rays. The insulation of the cabinet itself is important too.

Vibration is also the enemy of wine because it disturbs sedimentation that occurs naturally in wines. Many small wine coolers use thermoelectric cooling that ensures vibration-free, silent operation as opposed to compressor-run kitchen refrigerators.

A compressor in a refrigerator causes considerable vibration and noise when it starts a cooling cycle which isn't harmful for foodstuff you keep inside the unit but the regular shaking would spoil wine. Read more about thermolectric wine coolers.

Besides its many advantages a thermoelectric wine cooler has its own weakness, too. For effective cooling and to achieve constant temperature inside the appliance you have to place the cooler in a room where the temperature doesn't exceed 77°F (25°C).

If you have more trust in traditional, compressor operated wine refrigerators then check whether the model you want to buy is equipped with some kind of vibration eliminination system (rubber dampeners on the compressor, special coating on the wine racks to absorb most of the vibration caused by the running compressor).

If you're looking for a cheap but fairly good small wine cooler refrigerator then search wine refrigerators by Avanti, Danby, Haier, Vinotemp or Chambrer. They offer the widest selection of small wine coolers in the US $100 - $300 price range.

THE REVIEW = The Best Wine Cooler = Avanti EWC4001DZ . This 40-bottle wine fridge is a freestanding unit, it cannot be built in existing cabinetry. The interior can be illuminated by turning on the low-intensity LED lighting in the upper part inside of the cabinet. After 10 minutes the light will turn off automatically.

The control panel with the digital thermostat and blue LCD readout are integrated inside, between the two zones. The wine fridge comes with a factory-set cooling temperature of 54°F (12°C).

Setting the temperature is easy: just press the Up and Down arrows on the control panel to adjust the desired temperature you want the unit to cool to. If you will store mostly red wines then a setting between 58 - 64°F(15 - 19°C) is recommended, for white wines 48 - 57°F (9 - 14°C) is an ideal temp.range. At $460, the price range isn't bad either.

Other Top Performers Include:

Best Compact Luxury Wine Cooler = Marvel Luxury Series 30 WCM 23-Bottle Wine Cooler @ $450.

Best Best Dual Zone Wine Cooler = N'FINITY by Wine Enthusiast price varies by size @ $350 to $900

Best Wine Cooler when on a tight budget = MCWC44DZ by Magic Chef @ $330 to $350.

Best Price = is at Amazon.com

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