Tuesday, August 27, 2013

VinoView Silent 35 Bottle Wine Display Refrigerator

VinoView Silent 35 Bottle Wine Display Refrigerator
  • Concave Door for Upright Storage
  • Silent Cooling Technology
  • Temperature range: 54-66F
  • Digital Controls w/temperature display
  • 35 Bottle Capacity

I purchased this over two weeks ago and the set up was very easy. It doesn't make much noise at all since it is thermo electric. It also doesn't produce that much heat, although I have kept it in my living room which has a very high ceiling and it takes a lot to heat up that room.

I installed it and powered it on and immediately turned off the lights. They look like a airport runway indeed!

It took less than two hours for the temperature to reach 58 degrees after loading the bottles for the first time. The ambient temperature these days is about 72 or so.

I have to yet experiment with the temperature control etc. but it seems to keep the wines at the perfect temperature and drinking wine is fun again.

The only problem I have with this cooler is the racks and how tough it is to squeeze in bottles. Also the fan at the back makes some bottles on the top three racks to stick out a little bit so that the horizontal space for three bottles (you see in the picture here) is almost unusable. So I am not able to put 35 bottles in there, but that is okay. Also being able to keep opened bottles vertically is a big plus.

Overall I am pretty satisfied with this purchase.

Buy VinoView Silent 35 Bottle Wine Display Refrigerator Now

I bought this wine cooler a couple of years ago, mainly because of its ability to store an opened bottle upright. This feature is about the only positive quality of this refrigerator. It's very noisy and seems to be running most of the time. Also, the temperature has never gotten below the low 60s. The display reads that the temperature is 56 degrees, but other thermometers do not agree with that. Don't waste your money. We have two wine coolers right next to this one that are quiet, maintain 55 degrees, cost less than this one, and hold more bottles.

Read Best Reviews of VinoView Silent 35 Bottle Wine Display Refrigerator Here

Buy this with the understanding that it's disposable, because when it goes, which mine did after four years, Wine Enthusiast told me that the parts are no longer manufcatured. They told me to call an on-line parts "remanufacturer", dismantle my refrigerator, send them my existing parts, wait several months, pay > $80 plus shipping, and reassemble my wine refrigerator, and I'd have a one year warranty on the replacement part. Or they'd be happy to sell you a new one.

My GE wine refrigerator is still plugging along after six years. You get what you pay for.

Want VinoView Silent 35 Bottle Wine Display Refrigerator Discount?

Updated review after 18 months ownership and still very satisfied upgraded to 5 stars.

It is quiet, but not completely silent as suggested by the name of the product. I have it in my living room and the slight hum is not bothersome at all and definitely much quieter than a regular refrigerator. Upon first use, it cooled very quickly, probably too quickly for the good of my wine and so I'd recommend to others to set the target temp high at first and then gradually lower it until you get to the desired temperature.

So far as storage capacity goes it is quite remarkable. Fitting 35 bottles in such a smaller cooler is amazing. However, getting all 35 in does take a bit of experimenting. While at first glance it may appear that most wine bottles are the same shape you quickly learn with this cooler that they are not. It is designed for standard Bordeaux size bottles but you may find that you have a couple that are not that standard shape. If so, it takes a bit of experimenting to get the best layout to maximize storage. The doors and the horizontal hangers are the best place for non standard. If you put the non standard bottles on the racks it is very difficult to remove them without scraping some of the label off unless remove the shelf above it first. I decided to leave the racks in to maximize storage. While I did not experience the issue of the fan getting in the way as reported by another reviewer, I can definitely see how it would happen depending upon the shape of your bottles. However, for standard Bordeaux size bottles there is no problem at all. Also, if you have wine shipped to you or subscribe to a wine club you are in luck as they have the same challenge shipping non standard size bottles so they will almost certainly only ship Bordeaux.

I have owned it for some time now and have learned how to fill it without a problem. I can now easily get full storage and no scraped labels.

I upgraded my review to 5 stars from my prior 4 stars as I'm now used to fitting bottles in it and now never have a problem filling it. I also learned to really like the fact that you can store open bottles vertically in the door. Open bottles once vacuum pumped last well overnight or a bit longer depending upon how long you left the bottle open before pumping it.

So far as temperature goes, it keeps a steady temp. I picked up a cheap thermometer and put it in the refrigerator just to double check the temperature. It does a good job.

Overall, this is a very good wine cooler, with excellent storage for the size, it quiet, good price and would recommend to others. The one concern I had about non standard bottles goes away once you have packed it a few times and get used to how to do it and the vast majority of wine bottles are Bordeaux size anyway and so there no problem with those.

I purchased a VinoView 35* Bottle Wine Display Refrigerator from Wine Enthusiast almost 5 years ago.

The VinoView unit cannot be placed in an enclosure, because it vents in the back, so it is free standing in my family room. It is quiet, although not silent, but certainly much quieter than my conventional compressor equipped under-counter wine refrigerator of approximately the same size. It also uses less energy than the conventional wine refrigerator, although it doesn't have quite as much cooling capacity. However, it has been able to maintain an interior temperature of about 58 60°F most of the time.

The claimed capacity is 35 bottles, that is rather optimistic. The rack space is tight, and slightly oversize or heavier bottles do not fit well. Having the ability to store opened bottles upright in the door is convenient.

The interior lighting was an interesting novelty at first: it has lights around the door, and lights inside the cabinet. After a while, I turned them off.

Unfortunately, the unit died recently. I disconnected it to clean it and when I reconnected it, it didn't work. So far, I haven't been able to find anyone to repair it. So I have spent $400 on an appliance that lasted not quite 5 years.

***update***

The wine refrigerator had stopped working last month after I unplugged it and moved it around in order to clean around and behind it -clearly, it was my wife's fault for making me clean my family room the day before our SuperBowl party :-). When I plugged it back in, a fuse on the controller board blew. I tried replacing the fuse, but the replacement blew as well, so I figured that there was a short somewhere that was triggered by moving the unit around.

A few days later, I contacted Wine Enthusiast customer service. After a lengthy conversion, during which he informed me that the expected lifetime of these types of thermoelectric refrigerators is only about 3-5 years, I decided to throw good money after bad, so I elected to purchase a replacement logic board for $50 (the customer service agent comped the shipping charge). Installing the new board was fairly simple (the old board had two soldered connections and several plug in connectors; the new board replaced the soldered connection with a quick disconnect that I crimped on after desoldering the wires from the old board). Now my VinoView wine refrigerator is working again.

I knew that I was taking a gamble in sinking another $50 into this unit to try to get it working; while it seems to have paid off, at least for now, there's no telling how long it will continue to run. If it works for another year, it will have been worth the repair cost, but either way I'm not going to invest any more time or money into it.

I am rather disappointed that the customer service agent at Wine Enthusiast (who was very polite and helpful) informed me about the limited expected operational lifetime of this unit only after I had contacted them with a problem. When I originally bought it, some 5 years ago, there was no mention of this limitation, either in the catalog or on their website. I'm quite sure that if I had been told of this prior to my purchase, I would not have bought it. expect that most other people would do the same.

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