Cuisinart CWC-600 Private Reserve 6-Bottle Stainless-Steel Countertop Wine Cellar

• 6-bottle countertop wine cellar in an attractive stainless-steel design
• Thermoelectric compressor-less cooling technology for quiet operation
• Controls with 8 presets ensures ideal storing and serving temperatures
• LED display; 3 removable chrome racks; interior lighting
• Measures 21-1/2 by 11 by 16 inches; 3-year limited warranty

Good:

* Nice looking, well built

* Digital display with presets for easy temperature setting

* Interior light

Bad:

* Constantly powering on and off every 2 minutes for 20-30 seconds

* Noisy fan while powered on. Louder than a full-sized fridge.

* In the event of a power failure, the unit defaults to the coldest setting (45F) which is a more drastic temperature range than if I left my wine on the counter.

Update: My electric bill went up 157% after plugging in this unit. I would reduce this to zero stars, but Amazon won't let me change my rating.

DO NOT BUY THIS ITEM!!!!!

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I purchased this unit and, contrary to the other reviewers, am relatively happy with it. The fan noise is louder than expected and you certainly wouldn't want this in a quiet area of the house, but its not objectionable in an already noisy area like the kitchen.

Also, I'd like to clear the air about some of the claims against this unit. Many people are complaining about the power usage, mostly because they hear the fan going off and on a lot. The problem is that people are equating this to a refrigerator which would use a ton of electricity if it cycled on and off this much. But a fridge uses a compressor, and this unit uses a thermoelectric cooling system. Its a VERY different system.

I have a power meter that measures the power usage of an appliance over time. This unit uses 15 watts when the fan is off and about 75 watts when its on. I have it set to 57 degrees F, and my house is at 74 degrees. The amount of cycling I get translates to a cost of about $35 a year to run the thing (at 10 cents a kilowatt hour). Seems pretty reasonable to me.

In a fridge, the ENTIRE system (compressor and fans) cycles on and off based on the interior temperature. Since the interior temperature is fairly stable, it doesn't have to turn on and on much.

I'm not an expert on thermoelectric cooling, but my limited knowledge leads me to believe that its a continuous and proportional cooling system. What that means is that its always electronically moving heat from the inside of the unit to a heat sink on the outside. The amount of heat moved depends on the interior temperature, the exterior temperature, and a voltage setting (you set the voltage when you select the temperature on the control panel).

So the fan on the outside is turned off and on just to cool the heat sink on the back. Since the heat sink heats up and cools down quickly, the fan turns off and on frequently to keep it cool. The fan will be on more if your house is warmer. The "cooling" is always happening whether the fan is on or not. That's why it uses 15 watts when the fan is off.

But, and this is the important part, the fan cycling on and off does NOT indicate a compressor or other cooling element turning off and on, so its not using a ton of electricity. Its just the fan.

Now don't get me wrong, the fan cycling on and off can be annoying depending on the location in the house. But don't mistake that for gobbling up electricity.

Other than the fan noise, its a nice little unit. I measured the temperature inside and compared it to the control panel setting and its spot-on. For most people, if you want to use the lowest setting, 45 degrees, you're better off just using your normal fridge since it should be set at around 40 degrees. But if you're really looking for cellar temperatures of 55 to 65 degrees, this does a great job.

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Cuisinart claims this operates quietly. This is not true. The unit has a very noisy fan. The fan comes on every few seconds, runs for a few seconds and then shuts off for a few seconds. This cycle continuosly repeats and needless to say it is very noticeable and annoying. I've followed the directions and tried all the presets but it doesn't seem to matter. What a disappointment from what I thought was a reputable company.

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As many of the other reviews say, this unit is not a quality unit. Despite following all instructions the unit runs for 30sec, stops for 30sec and then repeats itself. This is very annoying and I would assume a big drain on electriciy. It has not mattered how cool the room is, where I position the unit, or even what setting I set it to. Even in a 67deg room, the unit runs constantly to keep the internal temp at 57deg. We got this as a gift from my parents, and I called the company to ask if it should be running so much. They asked me to send it back, which cost almost $60 because it had to be specially packaged by UPS to be sure it didn't break. We got a new unit and it still runs the same way. I haven't been able to get the company to refund the money I spent to ship the first unit back and they keep giving me the run around, acting like it is something that I am doing to make the unit run constantly. Very disappointed in a company that I thought was high quality.

This is my 2nd attempt at writing a review of this product. We were genuinely excited when we purchased this particular unit. That excitement quickly faded as we learned that it has serious design flaws.

1st: The troubleshooting section states:

The inside temperature does not seem correct The room may be too hot. Example: if the ambient temperature is 80*F or higher, the unit can have difficulty chilling adequately on the white wine setting.

The white wine setting should be about 45*F according to the users manual. Having said that, I took the temperature where the unit is. It is 78*F (I live in Southern AZ where it is hot for 8 months out of 12). I first tried to set the wine cooler temp to 52*F. No dice, the display continued to flash indicating that it was not reaching that temp.

I tried setting it to 58*F. No dice. The display continued to flash. I tried setting it to 65*F. Still no dice.

The other major problem is that as others have reported, the unit will build up quite a bit of condensation on the inside bottom of the unit. It built up so much that it spilled out onto the counter where we have the unit.

I emailed Cuisinart about the problems. I even took a picture of the unit with a digital thermometer on top of the unit clearly showing the room temp to be 78*F. The unit display was blank indicating that it was flashing meaning that it could not reach the set temperature. I had the unit set to 65*F.

I went back and forth with their customer service. They kept giving me canned nonsense answers, and did not read my original email at all. After many back and forth, they finally agreed to replace the unit.

However, after reading some of the other reviews, I am NOT confident that the replacement unit will be any better. If it has problems, I am going to demand a full refund. I doubt that I will get one, but I will demand it anyway.

It is a shame that the unit is so problematic. We have a Cuisinart knife set, and could not be happier with it. The same goes for my Cuisinart coffee maker.