Even cheap wine tastes good at the right temperature!

I have owned the GE Wine Cooler 4 months, following is a “wine refrigerator novice’s review” of it.

*** Please see updates below ;-)

My much better half and I were planning our new kitchen and from the get-go had decided we absolutely wanted, nay!! NEEDED a wine refrigerator. We consume a lot of wine, mostly reds, and simply love wine…at the right temperature. We now have a popular saying in our house “even cheap wine tastes good when served at the right temperature!!”.

I purchased the unit from one of those “we sell all that is electronics” yucky places, the only reason was that I knew I could bargain for it there. I paid 300US$, good deal.

When we were choosing our new kitchen’s appliances, we had decided to buy all Kenmore Elite from Sears, however could not get the Kenmore wine refrigerator in time and opted for this unit instead.

I will admit to being a big wine consumer, however my technical knowledge of wine is fairly limited, that is what my friends are for ;-)

Here is my experience to date broken down into 8 sections!!
1. ;-) Installation time (from the box to functioning)
2. ;-) Initial "how do you..." time
3. ;-) Changing the door opening side
4. ;-) Adaptation period (on going)
5. ;-) Accuracy of temperature
6. ;-) Durability & Care
7. ;-) Loving
8. ;-( Not-loving

Here it goes:
1. Installation time (from the box to functioning):
•Conventional wisdom says that if a refrigerator is moved on its side or back, it must stand upright for 24 hours before being restarted…so I waited 24 hours.
•When the 24 hours was up, the unit was lit up and functioning in 3 minutes (just the time to rip the cardboard & tape to get to the unit)

2. Initial "how do you..." time:
•As a typical male, I did not read any of the instructions until I had it plugged in, working and set the temperature.
•Due to the very sparse number of buttons and indicators, and the ones provided are very self explanatory, I was able to figure out the functioning of the unit in a matter of a couple of minutes.
•The following buttons are available.
•••Red wine pre-set temp button: Hit it and the unit seeks to keep about a 54 Fahrenheit temperature.
•••White wine pre-set temp button: Hit it and the unit seeks to keep about a 45 Fahrenheit temperature.
•••Custom temp button: When selected, the user simply uses the Red & White wine buttons that are now “up” and “down” buttons to navigate to the desired temp.
•••Temperature display panel: Displays the temp
•••Nifty little light button: When hit, lights up the inside of the refrigerator.
•That’s it! Like I said, about 2-3 minutes to figure out the controls.

3. Changing the door opening side
•Granted, I am a dumb computer guy, worst yet, I am a Project Manager. This took me about 15 minutes on my own to change the door from opening left-to-right to my desired right-to-left.
•You will need a few tools to do this (interchangeable screwdrivers tips are suggested along with bolt remover, bring ‘em all with you!!)
•This was not complicated nor difficult, just a little bit time consuming, i.e., it involves removing the top of the unit to reveal the electronics components to unplug them…this should give you an idea of what you are in for.

4. Adaptation period (on going):
•So far been loving the thing, I keep it set on the red wine setting at all times.
•Other than for fun, I have not really “used” the light inside, it is however just as interesting as most cable TV shows to turn on/off ;-)

5. Accuracy of temperature:
•Although I have not tested the wine with an independent thermometer, I can assess that the red wine, when tasted, feels like the perfect room temperature of an 18th century French castle (to go along with the proverbial “you should always serve your red wine at room temperature”, yeah, the room temperature from ye old castle!)
•So, all that to say I am very happy about the temperature the wine is brought down to.

6. Durability & Care:
•Care: Other than scrubing off dirty paws off from the stainless steel casing, the thing is spotless and has not required any maintenance.
•Durability of the buttons: Pressure type of buttons, require not much to operate, should be good in the long run.
•Durability of the casing: The main body is quite solid; however, after flipping the door around I have gotten to realize that the top of the unit is flimsy and is secured in such a fashion. There are only 2 screws at the back while the front holds by overlapping about 2 milimeters of plastic to “lock” it in…yikes, be careful when moving it around!!

7. Loving:
•The size.
•The price.
•The stand-up tray that allows you to prop-up the “prettiest” bottles, or, ones that are partly consumed…
•The light (it’s just fun to press on/off)
•The metal racks inside are pretty & functional
•The humidity control (to ensure that the corks do not go flimsy & dry on you)
•The pre-set temp buttons (this makes it dumby-proof really).

8. Not-loving:
•The dorky engineer that figured out that the most cost effective way to hold the top of the casing was 2 cheap screws and overlapping plastic…not swift.
•The dorky engineer’s assistant who wrote the specs on the glue to spray on the back of the big @$$ yellow sticker (about 10 X 10 inches) stuck on the glass door. I had to purchase a glass scrapping razor blade to remove it, still took me about 10 minutes to fight with it.
•Call me old fashioned, or new fashioned, but I like to be able to toggle between Fahrenheit’s and Celsius for temperature, I am just goofy like that, so if the company sells its product to places other than the US (i.e. Canada), then everybody is happy (there ARE other countries than the US that exist, and guess what, they don’t all use Fahrenheit’s!!!).
•The noise; now, I would not say that I find this unit as noisy as a lawnmower, however, I have to say that the compressor is a tad on the noisy side. Let’s just say that I would not recommend you stick the unit in the bar of your study where you like to sit peacefully while you read your paper, the subtle buzzing would likely drive you mad ;-)

At the end of the day, I like the features & functions of this unit. Price and quantity of bottles (for my tastes) are more than satisfactory. From what I have read, this is not a “wine cellar” (i.e. you should not use it to store vintage wines for 20-30 years…), however, if you are like me and want to store your “rolling stock” of bottles to make sure that whatever you fancy for dinner, you have the right bottle at the right temperature, this is a good solid unit for you I believe!

Updated July 17th: I have finally unveilled my new kitchen to my friends, in which now rests my new wine refrigerator. All my friends who have seen the refrigerator say that it looks really good, very attractive to look at. A couple are also now contemplating buying the same refrigerator.

Updated July 22nd 2005: I have come to realize that this unit is more noisy than I first thought. After spending an early quiet evening on the couch, which is in a seperate room, 20 feet away from the kitchen where the wine refrigerator is...I am now much more aware of the noise this unit makes. Again, nothing close to a lawmower, however most definitely louder than the nice Kenmore Elite refrigerator standing next to it. So, again, if you are planning on placing the unit near your quiet reading spot, think again my friend ;-)

Updated Dec 30 2006: Otay!! Been a little over a year living with this unit in my kitchen, loving the heck out of it, no breakdowns, still motoring away, and still looks as classy as when we bought it about 18 months ago. I have totally overcome the noise thing and now never pay attention to it. Friends who have visited have said nothing but good things about it.