Wine fridges?

[JimHow]

Now that I'm maintaining two houses since my brother passed away I've gotta decide whether I'm going to move into the smaller one next year and sell the bigger one. I'm still a year away from making the decision, after I get through all of my four murder cases. If I go with the smaller house I'll likely need to move my wine cellar into refrigerated units in a spare room. With a cellar of 900-1,000 bottles, what are my best options?

[jckba]

Does your brothers smaller home have a basement? Because judging by your northern to me location, I would imagine that you could probably get away with storing your wine in a corner of the basement without the need of any sort of cooling unit.

I’ve had 2 Eurocave units from when I used to live in a condo that have worked flawlessly for the past 15 years and that is what I would recommend. Depending on the model and the number of shelves you choose to use they can generally store 150-200 btls. Bordeaux bottles fit better / stack more efficiently than Burgundy or Champagne. Now they are not cheap which is why I started off by asking if the home had a basement, but they do make double, triple and quadruple fridges to fit your needs. You can browse what’s available on the Wine Enthusaist (www.wineenthusiast.com) website.

[jal]

What Jean Christophe said. Wine fridges are too expensive, basement is your best option, 2nd best is to dedicate a room (or build a small annex) put shelves and a temperature control unit in it. What Stefan and Lucie did in their TV room.

[Jay Winton]

I've bought a couple of Vinotemps via Costco. They worked fine but their CS is abysmal so hard to recommend them.

[stefan]

Lots to look at from Wine Enthusiasts. Their prices tend to be high, but we found at Wayfair a suitable model from WE that has worked well for a couple of years so far. stefanJr has an 800 bottle wine fridge. It is too large to get into his house and the stacking is three deep, so it is a pain.

When we converted a closet to a wine closet the total cost was over $10K. We designed the closet for 400 bottles but it was large enough that we could have had it hold 800 if I were willing to have two layers. OTOH, in my large wine room I simply put in a portable AC that keeps the temperature 62F-65F. Total cost: around $400 and no damage to the room, although we did have to put in a louvered door for an adjoining clothes closet to control the humidity in it. For your young Bordeaux and young PN that would work if you are willing to keep the ambient house temperature at 72F or lower in the summer. For older wines, Champagnes, and fine whites you could have one wine fridge.

[AKR]

Why would you sell your current house vs. selling the 'new' one?

This book is worth a read if you are considering modifications.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Build-Wine-C ... 1891267000

Note that if you need to buy multiple Wine Fridges you will have to make sure the electrics in your house can handle that.

Generally most of these should each be on their own circuit.

I have a Eurocave and a Eurocache in separate rooms, separate circuits.

[JCNorthway]

A couple of years ago, I was looking at a unit from Artevino available at Costco. They are made by another brand that I'm not recalling at the moment. The reviews I saw were pretty favorable and the price was below some of the big names in wine fridges.

[Blanquito]

I have a Kenmore window unit AC ($350) tricked by a Coolbot ($389; but there are now cheaper options on the market that get good reviews: https://www.amazon.com/Inkbird-Temperat ... 42X3YEQ5D4 ) and a free standing ultrasonic humidifier (~$50) on a timer ($8) — together these things keep my 2500 bottle insulated cellar consistently at 55F and 50-60% humidity (it would be very easy to get the humidity higher by adjusting the timer, but then I’d have to refill the water reservoir too often). My only complaint is these window AC units are pretty noisy, so where you place it and where it vents to might be a consideration. And of course you’d need a contained space to cool, ideally insulated with a vapor barrier, but not essential, even a closet/small storage works (as long as there’s a wall to vent through) as Kenmores are very inexpensive compared to dedicated wine chillers, so no big deal to replace every 7-8 years if/when they crap out.

[SF Ed]

If you really want wine fridges, I have been extremely happy with ones from Vinotheque which are powered by Whisperkool refrigeration units. I have one that is 24 years old that still works great and another that just had to have the cooling system replaced after 22 years.

Vinotheque no longer makes fridges but Whisperkool is still around.

That being said, I would follow the advice from Jacques and Patrick and look to either use a basement or dedicate a room if you have the space. Wine fridges are for city folks like me where space is at a premium. In your neck of the woods you probably have the space for other much more economical solutions.

SF Ed

[jal]

Wine fridges are for city folks like me where space is at a premium. In your neck of the woods you probably have the space for other much more economical solutions.

SF Ed

Exactly!!

[DavidG]

Agree that a walk-in cellar is the way to go if possible.
More economical.
More customizable for fat bottles like Krüg and Taittinger Comtes.
With excess capacity you won’t have to fill the bottom rows. Or get on your knees to access them.

If you need refrigeration and/or go the wine fridge route:
Avoid VinoTemp - malignant management and customer service policies. They sue their customers.
Eurocave is high end and high cost. Not a fan of the shelves but many love them.
Breezeaire cooling units are not great in terms of reliability, though I had one that went 15 years.
Whisperkool and CellarPro coolers have a better reputation.
I went with LeCache units with CellarPro coolers when we downsized.
A split system will be quieter and more efficient.

[AKR]

Wine fridges are for city folks like me where space is at a premium. In your neck of the woods you probably have the space for other much more economical solutions.

SF Ed

Exactly!!

While generally true, there can be areas that are either too hot, or don't have basements / below grade possibilities.

[JimHow]

Great advice, yeah I have plenty of room here in my big house.
The small house is my father's side of the family's home where he came back to after the war back in '45, it's a cute little house more in town.
I have no idea how they raised four boys, and a girl, plus the two immigrant mill workers in the two tiny closet sized bedrooms upstairs and two not much bigger bedrooms downstairs, I think there's like 1,100 square feet in the whole house. It's a cute place though, with hedges and a pear tree, the yard is like 90 x 100 feet I think. The cellar is in bad shape though, it needs a lot of work, I don't think I want to keep my wines down there. I don't think I'll be able to keep my Yamaha baby grand if I move, either, that would be a bummer.
My brother was doing a great job maintaining it but now it's empty. My girlfriend likes it up here in the outskirts and she's a clean freak but she only comes up from Manhattan like once each season. The smaller house is much more manageable, but space is, obviously, much more limited. I dunno, maybe I'll just keep two houses for a while, the real estate market has gone insane up here during the pandemic, I don't want to be a landlord, either. I figure I'll make some final decisions by next spring after I hopefully get through this crushing homicide caseload, slowly renovate it through the next year, etc. Maybe I can figure something out with the closet space, but that's limited as well.

[JimHow]

Wow, it's only 1,028 square feet.
It's a very comfortable little home, though.

[Hm$(still)]

I’ll second the coolbot solution. Very economical, reliable and easy to repair since you simply throw away your a/c unit and buy a new one. I have mine running in a small meat locker keeping 1200 bottles cool for under $1500 fully operational (including the locker).

Hm$

[OrlandoRobert]

Wow, it's only 1,028 square feet.
It's a very comfortable little home, though.

One bathroom?!?

I’m out!

[jal]

Looks like a starter home for a young couple. Neighbors are close, hope they're nice, and there's no room to expand. Arv has a point, why exactly would you do this? Unless you'd keep it for sentimental values, which makes no sense to me, but whatever...
I would sell it and use a tiny portion of the proceeds to renovate yours. Make the bigger one super comfortable and enjoy it and the huge forested area nearby in your retirement.

[Hm$(still)]

Outdoor solution.

https://storeitcold.com/wp-content/uplo ... -02A-1.pdf

You’d also need a heater in Maine.

Hm$

[Jay Winton]

Jim, given the market in your area, it makes sense to renovate the old house if you can find a reliable contractor. Let a real estate firm manage it, sell it if a great offer comes along or if you decide to downsize, it's ready to go. We've more than pulled out our renovation costs in every home we've owned. Of course, having a talented decorator in house (not me) helps. mr vino aka real estate baron.

[JimHow]

Yeah that’s what I’m inclined to do, Mr. V.
I’m in no rush to sell it, I’d like to leave it up my niece Samantha, as I was going to leave it up her father.
The smaller house is less maintenance, especially as I approach old age.

[Claudius2]

Jim
I have two Kadeka wine fridges - they are Japanese and cheaper than say, Eurocave.
The first Kadeka I bought 12 yrs ago and it has been fine though is getting on.
I bought an Electrolux Icon several years ago and it was twice the price of the Kadeka, despite being the same size (around 160-180 bottles each). The Icon died completely after a few years and the distributor no longer handled them so I could not get it repaired. That was a rather expensive failure. So I replaced it with another Kadeka which has so far been fine.

Another option is offsite storage though not sure it’s easily available where you live. I have two offsite units which are so overloaded I have to press the doors hard. So no more purchases for a while.

The house I lived in when back in Australia was far too big for me, being over 6000 sq ft including the garage and storage space. I am just happy now living in a condo which is 1270 sq ft and has a pool, gym, tennis courts etc. I also hate gardening so I am glad to be free of the terraced yards (the house was on the side of a hill overlooking the river) and the need to maintain them.