The Auswine Forum

hi all, i am looking at buying my first wine fridge and at the moment am looking at a 209 bottle,420 ltr VINOVAULT fridge. does anybody have one or are there any thoughts [good or bad ] regarding this particular brand ??

Hello and welcome ,, there is already some threads on wine fridges so maybe take a look

Regards Dazza

I'm thinking about one of the Vinovault fridges too so if anyone has any comments on this particular brand I'd appreciate it.

I ended up getting one so if there is any interest I can post comments.

Scrooge wrote:I ended up getting one so if there is any interest I can post comments.

By all means please give us a run down on it.

Scrooge wrote:I ended up getting one so if there is any interest I can post comments.

I'm going to buying another fridge soon, so definately interested in what you have to say.

(Well that or look into off site storage. Much of my collection is stored at my mums place which was burgled yesterday).

xsorxpire wrote:

Scrooge wrote:I ended up getting one so if there is any interest I can post comments.

I'm going to buying another fridge soon, so definately interested in what you have to say.

(Well that or look into off site storage. Much of my collection is stored at my mums place which was burgled yesterday).

Damn, were they burglars of "good taste" (ie. did they take anything drinkable?) or were you spared that?

Moved my collection from under the grandmother's house for fear of the same happening....

odyssey wrote:

xsorxpire wrote:

Scrooge wrote:I ended up getting one so if there is any interest I can post comments.

I'm going to buying another fridge soon, so definately interested in what you have to say.

(Well that or look into off site storage. Much of my collection is stored at my mums place which was burgled yesterday).

Damn, were they burglars of "good taste" (ie. did they take anything drinkable?) or were you spared that?

Moved my collection from under the grandmother's house for fear of the same happening....

Kids. (School holidays).

Took money and a laptop.
All the door locks are being upgraded and deadbolts installed right now.
Security system on Sunday.

(All this is being done for free through another forum i am a member of)

I don't think they will get in as easy again....

I bought the VinoVault W420, details of which can be found here http://www.deluxeproducts.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=117, on eBay where it can be purchased from the supplier for $1,390 upwards or $1,699 buy it now. Advertised capacity is 209 bottles. It is by far the cheapest wine fridge of that capacity I was able to find though Kitchener were running a freight free deal which made their similar fridge (not the Peltier type of Kitchener fridge which if money was no object would be what I would buy) reasonably comparable but still sufficiently more expensive for me to chose the VinoVault. Vinovault's freight was quite reasonable - I have previously looked (years ago) at the Quaff fridges and would have bought one if I could have picked one up rather than paying (at the time) a huge freight charge.

Delivery was quick despite my property being out of Allied's (the carrier) coverage so the last leg was contracted to Starky's. The driver was really helpful. He couldn't fit the truck between two trees by my (rather long) drive so walked it up on a trolley and right through the house into the room I wanted it in.

The fridge is pretty much what I expected, Chinese made, quite well built, 6 wooden shelves and a smaller wire rack that sits on the base in front of the compressor. I had to put a piece of wood under the rear feet to get the fridge vertical, the adjustable front feet then allowed fine tuning. Not sure why that was but it didn't worry me so I didn't contact the supplier about it.

I believe the design capacity relies on getting 3 layers of 11 bottles on each shelf and 11 bottles in the space in front of the compressor at the front, all 'standard Bordeaux bottles' which seems to be what all the manufacturers base capacities on. I allowed a bit more room on the bottom 5 shelves to allow for real world bottles. This has left room on the top shelf for 2 layers rather than 3. Expected capacity is therefore 198 bottles. I am very happy with that. I had expected to get less bottles in than that. Luckily I don't have many odd shaped bottles which would clearly play havoc with this type of storage.

Having cooled all the bottles down, the temperature is stable but there is a significant temperature gradient from back (the back wall acts as the chiller) to front. I believe that is because the door is double glazed glass and the room temperature is much hotter than the fridge already. I'll learn more about this when I insulate the door which I will be doing - I did this with my other small wine fridge and unless you can't stand the look of it I'd recommend doing so, it seems to save a lot of energy.

Humidity seems to have stabilised around 45%. I think that is pretty acceptable though I have surprisingly few corks to worry about anyway, mostly stelvin closures.

All in all I'm happy with the purchase. It is certainly nice to get the rest of my wine out of my old passive set up which was capacious but too hot in summer. It has taken quite while to slim down my collection enough for a fridge to be viable solution but now I plan to just accept the storage limitation and buy accordingly.

Scrooge

Any further updates on your vinovault. I am considering various fridges at the moment including the Vinovault, Cybercool, Euroart. Keen to hear as much positive or negative feedback and reviews as I can.

We have two Euroarts which generally have been good. Advertised I think as holding 168 bottles, I can get 159 in of varied shape including Burgundy and Champagne bottles with the shelves that were supplied with it. I am not anal enough to check internal temps although pretty much everything I have taken out of it felt pretty cool to the touch. It seems to have handled Perth summers without thrashing too much. Mind, you, I don't have any Latours, Lafites or other 20+ year wines in there either (or at all in fact!).

The one issue I had with one of them was that the control board died and simultaneously blew a transformer (this was at about age 3 years and not during summer), which would have been fine had the company I purchased it from and their contracted repair people not pissed about for four months over who was responsible for repairing it.

Cheers

Dave

I'll be flogging a couple of 2 year old Vintec V155 sg e ss in 6-8 weeks. Feel free to PM me if you are keen cheers - Nick

Hello people who know more about wine fridges than me.

Thank you for those who have posted their experiences in this thread and others, I found them very informative.

Is there any further love for the Vinovault (I am looking in particular at the 54 Bottle Under Bench model)?

Bump, bump.

OK, how about any Vinovault feedback?

Don't make me go back to that Choice article now!

I'm also in the market for a 100+ bottle fridge so would be keen to hear reviews.

I have come across the Lebherr Grand Cru series and thought they were fantastic. I came across this ad on GraysOnline which APPEARED (in name) to be a Liebherr, but I called up and was told that it is just the name that they have given the wine fridge. A 155 bottle Liebherr Grand Cru for $1,300 would be too good to be true I suppose:

new-grand-cru-155-wine-fridge-with-bonus

I've got myself one of them...I think its roughly a 320 bottle capacity, single zone, solid door. I must have had it now a bit over 2 years and its not missed a beat. Very happy with the purchase. The only thing to keep in mind is keep tabs on where you have put your bottles. Ie, something that is at the back and bottom of a rack can be annoying to get to. I use cellartacker to keep tabs of where I've put my mines.

daver6 wrote:I've got myself one of them...I think its roughly a 320 bottle capacity, single zone, solid door. I must have had it now a bit over 2 years and its not missed a beat. Very happy with the purchase. The only thing to keep in mind is keep tabs on where you have put your bottles. Ie, something that is at the back and bottom of a rack can be annoying to get to. I use cellartacker to keep tabs of where I've put my mines.

Hi daver6,

Which make of fridge are you talking about - sounds like the Kitchener.

Cheers

paul

Nope, its the Liebherr Grand Cru WK 6476 that I have.

http://www.liebherr.com.au/HG/en-GB/127 ... -0_24573-0

Dave Dewhurst wrote:
The one issue I had with one of them was that the control board died and simultaneously blew a transformer (this was at about age 3 years and not during summer), which would have been fine had the company I purchased it from and their contracted repair people not pissed about for four months over who was responsible for repairing it.

you need refrigeration service other than your purchasing one, try bergen

I had a vintec sg110 single zone. It stopped working after 3 months. Both fans went then the control panel completely s#%t itself. Vintec sent repair guys but they were clueless . In the end they replaced it and the new ones been great. It's quieter and seems to hold temp way better. 110 bottles if they are standard Bordeaux bottles. No such collection. Vintec seemed to be obsessed with end to end bottle space on this model. A few mm here and there wouldve made a load of difference for oddly shaped bottles. The lowest shelf shouldve been designed specifically for magnums. Door is sexy lookin .