I have got 3 of those (or at least the European version) and like them a lot. One thing to really pay attention to is the metal bar you need to put in horizontally somewhere in the metal to ensure the sides don’t start bulging. It doesn’t sit very tight really.
Make sure your shelf design allows for it and that there is plenty clearance below it so you don’t knock it lose incidentally when you take out a bottle. I did that three times and it’s an enormous pain to put it back without having to offload all your wines.
I installed two of these a while back. I did take the recommended path and had an electrician install a dedicated circuit for it. I purchased a 3-pack of the MDS shelves for champagne and magnums and they work great. I did have a shipping snafu where they sent six rails for the same side and I had to get them replaced (but Wine Enthusiast took care of this very fast).
Costco’s local logistics group tried to deliver them to my front door initially, but I forwarded the purchase agreement saying that they would be unboxed with all of the packaging materials removed and they didn’t argue too hard.
I definitely agree on the frustration with the Napa bottles though, I’m constantly re-shuffling them and having to pair them against/around other bottles so I can fit a full case on each level. I’m around 250 bottles between the two and if I really pushed it I could probably get it to 350ish (even with some of the space sacrificed for magnums/champagne).
checking back in - I have had mine for almost 3 months now and I am noticing a potential issue with temperature. Though I have it set for 55 and I notice it fluctuates on the digital read out, anything I pull out seems a bit warm, especially in comparison to my 3 year old SubZero wine fridge upstairs in my kitchen.
Did some testing - put regular refrigerator thermometers in both the SubZero and the Eurocave and noticed the SZ is running about 2 degrees cooler than my set temp but the Eurocave is consistently about 5 degrees warmer. Right now I have 2 temp gauges in the Eurocave, one on the bottom stock of bottles and one on the top stack, and both have been in there for over 24 hours and both read 60 degrees. I also have a BBQ thermometer so I put those sensors to read the ambient air in the Eurocave and it was also reading warm - about 58-59 degrees.
Got too busy today to call support so I’ll try to call on Monday, but anyone have any advice? Could it be how they are stacked? Using the floor + 6 wooden shelves, they give you 8 shelves, so not using them all and I have about 175 bottles in there.
For those that have the unit, the compressor on the bottom, I did use that on the rear side as a shelf for 1-2 rows as I built up the bottom - could that be the issue? Anything else anyone can think of as trouble shooting (removing all the bottles) is obviously a PIA.
The fluctuation you’re seeing is similar to mine. Set at 55 and goes from 53.5 to 57 while cycling on and off. My temperature gauge inside near the top third reads 57. The variation of external thermometers can lead a man to drink haha so I don’t take much stock in it. My bottles feel properly cool though so I’d say your compressor might be going or perhaps the seal on your door is failing?
They are sending out a tech to take a look. I don’t mind the fluctation, that is expected nor can my hand detect a bottle stored at 54 vs 56. That said the bottles when I remove them seem warmer than my other unit for sure and those temp gauges I am putting in the Eurocave are reading 60 degrees on the nose top to bottom of the unit. So I guess we’ll see. support on the phone said keeping a row of 6 bottles on the compressor that cuts into the unit using it as a shelf is no big deal, he said if you have 170+ bottles and its reading 60 degrees, likely the compressor or more than likely the board is off and needs to be swapped out. of course I am like 3 weeks late as if it was 3 weeks earlier they would default service to Costco which likely would have been a full out replacement versus sending in a tech. oh well.
Yeah I read a few - mostly complaints about lack of “white glove” service, not enough shelves, not liking the shelves or a damaged product was delivered. in the first few one person complained about the compressor being too loud and 1 person about the shelves not holding weight but that could be user error inserting the shelves. only 1-2 about a DOA type of situation. 87% of the reviews are 4 or 5 star, and with Costco’s return policy and the sale price, there was not much risk. I have 21 months left on the return policy to figure it out.
The basic “Eurocave Premier” has some bad reviews on the Wine Enthusiast site too - in fact Premier S model has the same % of 1 star ratings as does the Artevino
Sorry I am a numbers guy, but there will always be bad reviews, which is why I’ll support companies with good customer service, return policies, etc.
Sounds like you’re going in with eyes open, but just for the record, I need to say that I had to return a wine cooler I ordered from Costco, and that experience was very much not up to the “Costco return policy” standards. Yes, I got it back to them eventually, but it was a huge hassle. They outsource not only the delivery, but the returns, to a local logistics company. That company was awful from the beginning, and I’m pretty sure they’re the ones who damaged the unit (but I didn’t notice until they were gone). I was then forced to deal with their incompetence again to try to get a return setup, and it was a comedy of errors. Costco’s customer service people were not particularly helpful — they just said sorry, that’s the only company you can work with to do a return, call them again if you’re having problems. I’m a huge Costco fan, but I personally am very hesitant to order anything online from them that I would not be able to put in my car and return myself if there was a problem.
Funny enough my parents have had a Costco card for 20+ years and maybe the 1x a year I may want to go I just go with my Dad. Because I was buying this Artevino I got my own membership to make it easier. That said, when I called Wine Enthusiast tech support they said since its been more than 90 days the warranty falls on them and not Costco, WE were calling out the tech, so I would hope Wine Enthusiast, and not Costco.com, handles the return if one is needed. I guess we shall see.
Did you go through Costco or Wine Enthusiast with your initial inquiry to the problem?
I went through Costco because it was DOA (physically broken by the delivery people). I should have noticed it when they brought it, but the delivery was such a weird experience that I was just trying to get them to leave by the end. So, partially my bad on not rejecting it immediately, though I’m not sure those guys would have accepted it back. Definitely if it’s a true warranty issue that WE can deal with, it could be a different experience.
I’ve had my Artevino III (from Costco) for about a year and a half now and I have only glowing things to say about it. The temperature consistency is amazing, it’s almost silent, and for my purposes it works really well. I have it almost 100% full most of the time. 180-190 bottles including lots of Burgundy/Rhone style. But I don’t have many oversized bottles.
Just got this fridge. There is a removable metal bar that goes across the fridge about halfway up. It says do not remove on it but it infringes on some stacking, can I remove this? or should i listen? Its a weak little bare I have no idea how it helps the fridge.
Can anyone recommend a good strategy for the artevino for storing good amount of champagne, burgundy shaped bottles and large California bottles (realm basically). In addition to my Boudreaux shaped bottles. Should I buy accessory shelves or remove some of the sliding that came with and do more bulk storage. Basically how do I maximize storage with so many bulkier bottles. It seems like I won’t get anywhere close to 200. Can I even get 100 in with a mixed collection?
I have a mixed collection of various shaped bottles and I have 184 bottles in my unit.
Dont use the presentation shelf. I’ll take a photo later today if possible and tell you you how many I am storing per shelf in bulk capacity. I basically use 6 shelves, 3 for bulk, 3 for sliding out plus I put 12 bottles on the bottom.
Thank you. Please do when you get a chance. Also do you stack like sized bottles with each other or do you fit more when you mix and match bottles. Any tips on using an inventory system for cellar tracker?
I mostly stack similar size bottles but it is certainly mixed in there too. On a few of the pull out ones I need to be more considerate of what will fit 12 to a shelf, but for the bulk shelves mixing/matching is rarely an issue for me.
For tracking I use CT and I use the “bin” label as a shelf label so for “bin” I have “bottom”, “Shelf 1”, etc. You could get more granular with front or back of the shelf, but I don’t get that carried away (yet). I only have 1 big heavy messy shelf with 60 bottles, the rest are fairly easy to move around and I try to keep the soon to drink stuff on the 3 sliding shelves by my 86 bottle subzero upstairs. So I can have close to 100 bottles fairly easy to pull quickly.
My shelf #s go from 1 - 6, 1 being the lowest shelf and 6 the top shelf
As pictured:
