Avanti BCA31SS Beverage Center (BCA31SS)

My husband had been wanting his own private beer fridge with a glass front and an internal light for a long time, and after doing a lot of research I decided to go with this particular fridge. Mine came well packed, and without any dents or cosmetic damage from shipping (I ordered it here from amazon).

It really gets cold, and does a good chilling drinks. If you set it to continuous, it can start to freeze your drinks. I didn't realize this at first and I had a bottle of sparkling water explode into a slushy mess inside, but it was easy to clean up. It has 8 settings, the dial has 1 through 7 and continuous, and I find that setting it to a 5 or 6 is good to keep drinks cold but not too cold. The only downsides are that when it rotates on and off, it can make a little bit of noise, but it's not very loud and I don't really notice it anymore, and the shelves are a little bit flimsy. If you pack it full, the shelves start to bend and sag in the middle.

Other than that though it does a good job storing different sizes. The bottom can hold full sized champagne bottles, and the middle can store glass beer bottles, while the top can store cans. It works perfect for us, since we like to stock all three types.

Overall for the price, it does a good job. We are definitely pleased. My husband loves it!

[edit] The fridge died on 12/1/12, just 11 months after purchase. It was making a loud snapping noise every few minutes but the compressor wouldn't turn on. Since it was within warranty, the manufacturer sent a technician who replaced the part that starts the compressor. He said these fridges are equipped with a super cheap part that will almost guaranteed break down, but it's an easy fix if you can get a repairman in the door. Once he got the part from his car it took him less than 10 minutes to have it working again and out the door. As of 5/1/13, it's still working fine.

For the most part this product works as expected and has been reliable after several months now. My one complaint it that the wire shelves are flimsy. When loaded up with bottles, they start to bow in the middle and the bottles slide forward and fall off. Works fine as long as shelves are not filled more than about two-thirds with bottles.

Update October 2012. Died after 16 months.

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I needed something to fit in the old space where a trash compactor was in my kitchen. It looks very nice and sleek, better than I even expected. I am satisfied with my purchase, but wish it were a bit quieter and kept the drinks a bit colder. That being said, I am now used to it's "hum" and the kids and husband find the temp just fine. It is great for juice boxes, cans or wine bottles... the interior allows for a flexible arrangement. We even have oranges in there now. So overall, 4 stars as a second drinks fridge.

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If you want a refrigerator, order one. This is a drink COOLER. It is quite tall so it may sit above the height of most office furniture if you plan to use it as a stand-alone. It is a very good looking unit. The LED lights on the inside don't offer a uniform illumination but do have a pretty blue hue.

The fridge itself will accommodate anything from sodas to full sized champagne bottles, however, you may want to get some additional organizer racks for soda vending as the unit is set upmore like a standard fridge than a vending machine.

The unit is quiet, elegant, and efficient. It does not make ice. Again, if you want something that gets your drinks ice-cold you will have to do without the glass front.

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Simple and straight forward, do not buy this fridge if you wish to cool anything to a temperature worth calling chilled.

There is 8 total settings for this fridge, 0-7 & ON. The ON option will simply run the fridge compressor %100 of the time. The other settings are for varying temperature settings which should allow the fridge to cool when needed to meet the desired temperature. The problem is that anything less than ON doesn't cool a drink in this fridge to anything less than cooler than room temperature.

As other posters have mentioned working with Avanti is impossible, they might as well post no warranty at all since nothing seems to qualify for replacement.

I took the risk but take my word, don't bother. There is a reason the GOOD"beverage" fridges cost what they do ($400-$700) and I now consider this the low-end of functional working classy looking beverage fridges. Otherwise if you don't want looks go get a Sanyo from Costco, those at least work as they claim and you can get a warranty that covers something, specially customer displeasure.

Save yourself some money for the long run, buy a real fridge and spend a little more money and get what you pay for, a quality product from a company that takes pride in their customer satisfaction and will resolve your problem or offer resolutions when their product is still under warranty.

Worst purchase from Amazon ever and it isn't even their fault. If I had simply returned this thing when I got it instead of working with support I might be happier. Instead I now have a giant cube in my home which can turn my grape juice into wine or a Popsicle but the lily hood I will get a nicely chilled beverage on a hot day from this machine to my liking is highly improbable, I have not yet obtained the level of chill I was looking for. Approx 36-42 degrees F would be nice.