Review of Danby DWC612BLP wine cooler

I choosing a wine cellar/cooler I bought the largest model I could get with some style, and price was important, so Danby got my business.
Here's a little info good and bad on the unit I got (and note that I am happy with the unit and would recommend it, but I'm also not blind to the shortcomings which would certaily affect other's decisions) :

+ Danby DWC612BLP from BigBuyCity on eBay (for example current item on 10/23/2006 #180041697894) for $488 + $129.90 = $617.90 (pretty good deal for 75 bottle system...was $600 total a few months ago but I see they raised the shipping)
+/- Freestanding (not a build-in) which is what I wanted, and the "BLP" model has the coils on the back of the unit. I think that they make another one that has the coils underneath so you can put it up closer to a wall.
- Stupidly noisy compressor. It's a small little Samsung model...but I don't know why it is not more quiet (it might be the system design not the compressor I can't tell). No issue for me as it is in the kitchen, but if you have a very quiet house you may have an issue with this. Absolutely Not for a bedroom.
- Took about 4 weeks to get (expected since it has to be trucked in, so just a pain that there were no local dealers and closest next-state retailer wanted $900+ ! )
+ real wood shelving, sealed, solid, and can take the weight
- It's a bit tight inside, although two shelves can be taken out for more room and allows you to stack bottles on top of each other.
+ Styling is quite good for the price. Typical black metal sides, and nice glass door.
+ The door is SOLID. Double-pain tempered glass, UV protect, good seal (I had to reverse the door, and this thing is heavy !)
- Door glass is not tinted (it has UV protection, but no general light protection, and the "platinum" trim is actually a type of, what looks to be, solid color plastic. Still looks good and has a solid feel to it.
- NO childproof door lock (Take careful note of this if you have kids!). Guess they had to save money somewhere.
+ energy efficiency is Quite good. Since I bought it, it averages 0.75KWH per day set at "59F" (the warmest setting) in a 78 degree kitchen. (so less than $42 a year to run at $0.15 KWH electricity cost). And for those that care about such things, the unit has a Power Factor of 0.93 - which is very good...almost looks like a resistive load to the power grid.
+ has a basic but nice digital temp control panel and incandescent light pod. Of course if you have a fully stocked unit, the light at the top doesn't help much. Replace the low wattage bulb with a small fluorescent or white LED type if you want to keep the light on all the time (to keep the heat generated from the light down).
+/- Temp variance of 3 degrees once the unit is fairly full. Not too bad I think, but would have been improved if they had a small circulation fan. On the good side you can put whites and roses on the bottom shelve as it stays cooler than the setting (thermostat is in the top control panel / so takes the temp form the top/warmest place).
- Very stupid: if there is a power outage the thing looses it's memory and the temp goes back to a factory preset ! Whoever heard of a modern day digital appliance not remembering the last setting? Well, they had to cut corners somewhere to keep the price down I guess...
+ Mine was missing the "humidity reservoir", but a quick fax of my purchase info to Danby and they got me one in no time. So good service from Danby at least on this small issue.

Hope this helps. There are not too many reviews about this model, and very few cooler manufacturers publish the energy consumption, which on mine I was actually able to measure and monitor for this review. Danby did a good job producing a cheaper large cooler with some tradeoffs. The biggest concern would be the noise and the lack of a LOCK.

exubri/Dallas area