I purchased this beverage fridge instead of a wine fridge so I could keep beer at 34 degrees... The first month it would keep an entire fridge full at the set 34 degrees. After about a month it can't hardly stay above 42 degrees and it runs CONSTANTLY and it's loud, which I could deal with IF it kept drinks cold. It's an over-priced piece of junk, the only thing it's good for now is a steady noise and increase in energy costs
We remodeled our kitchen and planned a built in beverage refrigerator. We chose the Summit SCR1536 because of size and the fact that it was made for built in installation.
Because this is a beverage refrigerator it was important to me to find a unit that would provide a cold environment for drinks I wasn't looking for a wine cooler. When we first installed the unit (last week in February 2012) we set the thermostate to 34 degrees. Within a short time the unit did in fact cool to 34 degrees. Unfortunately its a very noisy unit.
Now, three weeks later, the temperature fluctuates between 38 and 42 degrees. I called for service and was shocked to find out that this is considered normal. They said that it's impossible to maintain 34 degrees and that running from 38 to 42 degrees is well within what Summit considers "normal" even if I've set the thermostate to 34. Asked what the room temperature was I told them the kitchen was 77 degrees. I was told that too can be a problem since the unit will work best in a room under 70 degrees. (I have a junkie old mini-fridge in my garage that keeps drinks at 34 degrees and I live in Texas where the garage can get over 100 degrees during the day!!)
I can live with the noise although it's very disappointing but I'm buying a refrigerator to keep my drinks cold. The marketing material states that the unit has "Electronic controls for precise temperature management." Controls that run from 34 degrees to 43 degrees. I can tell you that the temperature controls are anything but "precise" and that this is considered "normal" by Summit.
The bottom line is that as nice as the unit looks, it was not a good choice and I would NOT recommend this product.
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I haven't had mine but a little over a week but I am happy with its performance. It has never been too loud for me freestanding in my open floor plan with all wood floors. The fridge is advertised as a built in but looks nice in my place freestanding against a wall. The outer case is black metal and perfect for a magnetic bottle opener.
The construction seems very solid and you can hold quite a large number of bottles. I am using it as a beer fridge and unfortunately given the configuration I only have one shelf where the standard long neck bottles will stand up--the other shelves are slightly too close together. This bottle issue is the only reason that I'm not giving it 5 stars. I am able to stand up about 18 cans on the upper level, a case of standard 12oz bottles on the 2nd shelf, and 8 22oz bombers/750 ML corked bottles for cellaring laying down on the shelves below that. You can't quite fit a case of cans on the top shelf because of the cooling equipment in the back that takes up some of the shelf space.
I also like how you can pull each shelf out a few inches and it will stop so you can get to beverages farther back on the shelf. That is a handy tool. I have found the thermostat to be quite accurate, although I haven't put it down as low as 34 degrees. At 39 my beer was plenty cold. I never have had any freezing of the cans/bottles on the back shelves either. Cooling seems to be pretty uniform. Adjustable shelves are sturdy enough to handle the case of bottles with no problem. The shelving positions allow for flexibility. Great, professional looking fridge, I'm very happy with it. Even though it is only 15" wide, the depth of over 22" gives you plenty of room to store your cold bevvies.
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This unit worked great for the first month. Kept beer at 34 degrees no problem. Then the back of the unit froze up and the temperature rose. Defrosted the unit, started up again and was able to maintain 34 degrees for about the same amount of time until it froze up again. After the third time I called the company because I was still under warranty and they told me this was normal behavior. That I shouldn't expect the unit to maintain 34 degrees. I explained that it had no problem doing it for the previous 30 days and then one day it stopped. I finally got the guy to agree to send somebody out to look at it but it started working again. Also he told me I was going to be charged for the service call if they determined nothing was wrong with the unit. After it started up again, I adjusted the temperature to 36 degrees and it ran like that for about a year. About a month ago I looked over and it was at 38 degrees and making a loud noise. I adjusted the thermostat to 38 degrees to see if it would cycle but after setting it to 38 degrees the temperature display immediatley jumped to 40 degrees. No matter where I set it it would immediatley display two degrees higher. The thermostat must be broken. Now I have it set to 37 degrees and the unit goes through periods of operating very loudly and for the first time in over a week it got down to 39 degrees, but I have seen it as high as 46 degrees. I also noticed a sweet powdery smell in the room the last couple of days and am wondering if the coolant is leaking out. I wouldn't buy anything from this company again. There customer service was a joke. The guy I spoke to on the phone couldn't be less interested in the temperature of my beer. Keeping beer cold is a serious responsibility and I felt he could of taken his job a little more seriously.
I do have the matching wine fridge as well and side by side they do look nice in our wet bar, but the noise of this unit and it's inability to keep drinks cold fetch it only two stars. I'd keep looking.
The wine fridge on the other hand has been solid and quiet, though it only needs to cool to 57 degrees.
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I just received this beverage center for a small bar I'm building for my basement. I purchased it with the matching wine cooler and was very impressed initially with the build quality. It looks amazing and stores a lot even though it's only 15" wide. I will update this review once I install and use it for a few months.
Took longer to take off back panel and clean things than it did to replace old solenoid system! Complete job took 20 minutes and is as good as new.
