Thinking about getting Wine Enthusiast Classic XL 300 Bottles

Thoughts? anything I should know to prevent me from getting this wine fridge?
I have researched extensively and I think it should work for me.

I will be placing this fridge free-standing in my home office with ambient temperature of 60-70F (so I can look at the fridge all day ). I am not looking for dual temp cooler, so single zone is fine.

I am concerned about the longevity of this fridge. I am not sure if wine reviews out there are brutal or what, but there are so many negative reviews that says their fridge dies within a year or two no matter what brand it is. My regular fridges in my home has been running many years and its fine.

Thanks all.

-edo-

If your budget allows, you might want to consider a Le Cache unit. They are the same folks who make cellarpro cooling units. Also note that the Wine Enthusiast cabinet (and others that use shelves instead of bins) will not hold 300 bottles unless you take out all of the shelves. Because doing that is not practical, the real capacity is probably closer to 250 bottles.

There are better ones on the market. A lot of people have good luck with Le Cache and Eurocave. If you buy the WE unit, try to get it from Costco. If it dies in a year Costco is very easy to deal with.

who makes the Wine Enthusiast fridges? If Vinotemp, then stay far far away.

Costco is an excellent suggestion if you don’t purchase a Eurocave or La Cache.

I’d buy a eurocave. Was my first cellar and never was disappointed

Eurocave. My first is still running in a buddies home. I purchased in 1982. 1 compressor change in that whole time.

My first ever wine cellar came last week and I am pretty excited

I was nervous about the delivery of the unit given that many people complaints about deliver issues on Internet. The delivery guys are professional, uses appliance dolly and work very carefully not to damage the cellar nor my woodfloor. Gave them $20 tip

The cellar ended up in my home office. One thing that I am not sure I am quite fond of is the temperature difference between the top and bottom rack. When setting my temperature settings at 55F, the top rack ended up getting 59F, middle racks gets 55F and bottom rack gets 51F. The good thing is temperature is fairly steady, which is what’s important.

I have about 60 bottles in the cellar as a start and hope to get more along the years.

Here are some photos of the WE Classic XL wine cellar. Thanks for your input!

Congrats! It’s a beauty. Use is well and don’t make filling it with wine a goal, but make filling it with wines you love the goal and do it slowly.

Mike gives sound advice. It’ll probably be full before you know it, so really try as hard as you can to resist the urge to fill it immediately.

Thanks! The cellar is mostly filled with local washington wines. I live within 5 miles of woodinville, the wine retail heaven in seattle area. Hard to resist winetasting & getting more bottles

How is the noise/sound level of the unit? I’m getting close to replacing the dinosaur unit I have, but was concerned about the 39db level noted in the specs.

I have purchased a number of WE fridges of varying sizes. All I can tell you is that even the bargain level under the counter wine fridge that gets a bunch of use is still standing strong 5 years later, whereas others i’ve had from competing brands which were more expensive have conked out. I have no issue recommending their fridges. They seem pretty well built.

As far as the noise, it is fairly quiet most of the time.

What I notice is that the machine does not “kick in” and cool temperature down at all time. so most of the time the unit is actually very very quiet.

However, when the cooling “kick in”, it makes a little bit of a sound and gradually goes away in within 30seconds.

I think if you place this in a common area or storage area of your house, you will not see any noise issue. IF you put it in your bedroom, you may not be very happy every 30 minutes or so for 30 seconds

I know I’m late to the party here and that you already received your unit, but I have had a terrible experience with the two I’ve had. They’ve basically been disposable. I’ve moved quite a bit and they tend to stop working after a year or two. Service ends up being prohibitive. The problem is that the equivalent EuroCave costs double.

I hope this one works out and holds up!

Your cooling performance will get better as you fill the unit and the bottles help stabilize the overall temperature. A full cabinet will perform better than a half empty unit. Put water bottles or anything else that can be chilled until your wine fills in the space.