Avanti EWC1601B 16 Bottle Wine Cooler, Black, Reversible Glass Door

• Glass Door
• Rev Door
• wine racks
• quiet vibration free
• led interior lighting

I have had this wine cooler for about 5 years now and it still is working great. Which says something about this item. I love a product that is a good price and works as described and lasts for a good long while. It keeps the wine at a perfect temperature. I only store red wine in it, so I can't speak for white wine. I like the light in it as well, which I can turn off or on. I like that the temp. is also adjustable, so I set it on a warmer setting in the winter and a little cooler in the summer. I live in a very hot summer area and sometimes I am away for a week at a time, so my home gets very warm as I leave the air conditoner off while I am gone.

I also like that this cooler is NOT a refridgeratorit does not contain freon and does not use a compressor, so it is not an energy using applianceI never noticed a change in my electric bill, running this 24 hours a day for years.

The only negative I have seen in this item is that sometimes the fan in back is a little noisy, if you push the bottle of wine in the upper right corner too far back it jars the fan and it becomes noisyit is random, but since I have the cooler in another room it does not bother me. Most of the time it is very quiet.

This cooler is so great for the price, I am going to buy another.

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A very nice, inexpensive 'beginner' wine refrigerator. Compact and handy. Received in a timely manner, in perfect shape. I bought another brand from a chain store, but prefer the Avanti.

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I love my winecooler. An Italian friend from Veneto once told me that wine should be room temperature. I suppose that's room temperature in Treviso or Venice so this cooler is perfect. I could not keep wine in the refrigerator because it was too cold to enjoy,you really could not taste it, so this wine cooler is a great alternative. And it is a real bargain.

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These thermo-electric wine chiller units can only be described as, "They are what they are." What they are is low cost basic technology, performing a normally high cost task reasonably well for a short time period at less cost than a full compressor unit. In my experience, I have had one Edge Star brand wine chiller, and two Avanti SWC 1600M-1 wine chillers over the past 3 years. All of these units work fine when they work... but they seem to fail after about 18 months. Some last longer, some will fail earlier in the year of warranty. Avanti customer service responds promptly to your problem. If the failure is within the one year warranty period, they will send you a new one rather than fix the failed one, or replace the one beyond the one year warranty completely if you purchased the lifetime extended warranty that some stores sell for these units. I strongly suggest that for this kind of wine chiller, you should purchase the extended warranty if offered. The performance evidence of this type of product seems to indicate that inevitably you will probably have to replace it when it fails after a year of operation.

If the unit is out of warranty, and you do not have the extended warranty, Avanti Customer Service will take care of you by sending you the inside electronic control board for no charge, or refer you to the nearest service center. The control board is easily swapped out... there is only one red and one black wire soldered directly to the board, and you can re-connect those wires simply with the extra length of wire that comes off the board without re-soldering them to the board. Also, there is a fuse in the board that could be blown. But the fuse is not easily replaceable... each end of the fuse is soldered to the control board. You can replace the fuse if you are minimally skilled at soldering. Leave the fuse on the control board. Solder wires to each end of the new fuse, and then solder each wire to the ends of the old fuse still on the circuit control board. Now you have created a new fuse bypass loop around the old fuse, with a functional new fuse ready to operate like the old one.

The economics is that if these units cost $110 or less when they are new, and last about two years, then you cool 16 bottles of wine for just $55 per year. The Avanti unit consumes only 1.1 amps of power at 83 watts... which is minimal electrical cost per year. If you buy a compressor type unit, you would consume way more power than that, and the $55 per year for the Avanti is probably comparable or less than the yearly electric bill of a compressor unit.

The durability of these thermo electric coolers is variable. Some last 5 years, others are short termers. It all depends on the environment you place them in and what outside temperature they have to cope with. The second Avanti I had just now died after 18 months of service. It's not just Avanti's product... I found that all of these "thermo electric coolers" don't last more than 18 months. You have to have them on surge protectors, because they are sensitive to power surges and failures. When the Avanti worked, it was fine and kept good temperature consistency. Avanti has the better technology... their internal "heat pipe" type temperature transfer method works much better that the standard thermo electric cooler technology consisting of an inside fan air cooled heat sink temperature transfer to an outside fan air cooled heat sink system.

My advice: If you want hassle free long term wine cooler durability and better temperature control, then get a real wine cooler with a compressor. The cost of a good compressor type cooler will use more electricity. Fortunately, Avanti will replace some of their thermo-electric cooler models if you are within the one year period of the warranty, or if you have the extended warranty. Actually, you never send back the broken cooler to Avanti. You just cut a three foot section of the AC power cord, copy the specifications label on the back of the cooler, and send both to Avanti. Within 2 weeks, a new Avanti wine chiller arrives.. the same model you had.

Avanti is now sending me the replacement circuit board, which I hope will solve the problem and salvage the unit. If not, I will again use it next to my first failed Avanti cooler as a fancy, attractive tool storage chest in the basement as a mate to the failed Edge Star cooler.

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Nice wine cooler which works well and is attractive. I purchased two of the units one in April 2010 and the other in May 2010. The manufacturer's warranty is for a 12 month period. Too bad for me the first unit died after 18 months and the second one after 20 months. Surely one would expect more years of service than that. Now I am trying a different brand.