The Auswine Forum

Hi all,

I am thinking about purchasing a wine cabinet and am looking for some input. In terms of capacity it will probably need to be in the 170+ bottle range, and therefore probably at the mid- to upper-end of most manufacturers' ranges.

Firstly, does anyone have experience or advice they would care to share with cabinets of this capacity or larger?

Secondly, how do people feel about these larger cabinets in terms of whether they should be single- or dual-temperature zone?

Many thanks,
Mark

Hi Mark,

I wouldn't say I am an expert but have recently bought myself the Chatelet 178 from Kitchener and am happy with it so far.

They are doing free delivery at the moment so might be worth a look.

Be careful about the warranty - it may be a "return to vendor" which means that you are liable for the cost of transporting it back to them.

Basically not worth the trouble, especially if you don't live near them.

I have heard anecdotal evidence that Kitchener aren't that great with after sales service if you have a problem.

Mark

I have had a 160 bottle capacity deLonghi wine fridge for about 6 years now and it has been perfect. It is not a split temperature fridge which I have heard from others are more temperamental to problems. My advice is to stick to single zone temperature units.

regards
mark

If you use search function here, you'll find several extensive wine fridge threads. Having read several of them, I can say that Kitcheners have an excellent reputation.
Cheers.

Hi all. So, lots of conflicting data all over the place. My cabinet will be on display - something of a feature actually - so appearance and noise elements are pretty important, and I like the idea of having most of good stuff that I have at home available, so that makes it in the 160-bottle + end of the various ranges. I like the idea of the Kitchener Peltier technology but it's basically a stainless steel box, and I am guessing (because it doesn't refer to the technology in reference to any of the other models/ranges) that they use a more standard compressor approach but don't have vibration suppression. The Transtherm Ermitage line looks very, very good, has 2 year warranty that I can get extended to 3 or 4 through applicancesonline or Harvey's, but at around $6200 plus delivery for the 179/229 capacity version its got a hefty price tag. Eurocave then looks interesting and is a tad cheaper for similar capacity but I can't find a review anywhere.

Anyone have any thoughts on all that?

Hi Mark,

If you are after something to 'display' the kitchener peltier is not what you want. I have the 380 bottle capacity and love it. I call it my meat locker and it sits in the corner of my study (behind the door). The technology is quite different to other wine fridges if i recall.. in that there is no compressor hence no need for vibration suppression etc. the only moving part on the peltier is the fan.
When i compared it against other wine fridges / cabinets etc, there was no beating it on price.
Also, peltiers are assembled in Australia (if that counts for anything).

Yeah fatboy those were pretty much my impressions of the Peltier as well. I suspect it needs the all round insulation and collant pathway or something of a solid door for the heat sink mechanism to be able to work. As I say, love the idea of the technology but not to much the "oh, so you have a big square fridge in your lounge room?" look:). Thanks for the input.

I have two Kitchener CT142S units purchased in 2011 (the Chatelet range appears to have replaced this line). They live in the dining room so I didn't want the Peltier range "look". I have generally been happy with them, except for the noise they make during operation (which is frequent). It's really quite agricultural (including a decent clunk when they kick in and out) and I've finally got the the point that I am now replacing them both in the coming weeks. Kitchener were fairly dismissive when I queried them about it a couple of years ago (but I didn't push the point so I'm not bagging them specifically). I've been doing a lot of research on different units over the past year or so and have come to the conclusion that most are quieter than the Kitchener. If noise is an issue for you this might be worth considering.

I believe the Kitchener's are thermoelectric and hence have a different approach to servicing if required. I contacted these guys as they were Australian to ask if they knew anyone who could service the ones I have (Quaff - also Australian but gone out of business). They were helpful in what to look for in a person to repair

Just resurrecting this thread to get your opinion on larger wine cabinets. I am looking for capacity of around 700 bottles and happy to get 2 cabinets side by side. They will be downstairs so not worried about how they look or noise. Don't want vibration though. Thinking of 2 Kitchener Levantier 380's
http://www.kitchenerwinecabinets.com.au ... .asp?ID=20
but am happy hearing of any opinions, recommendations and complaints.

Hacker wrote:Just resurrecting this thread to get your opinion on larger wine cabinets. I am looking for capacity of around 700 bottles and happy to get 2 cabinets side by side. They will be downstairs so not worried about how they look or noise. Don't want vibration though. Thinking of 2 Kitchener Levantier 380's
http://www.kitchenerwinecabinets.com.au ... .asp?ID=20
but am happy hearing of any opinions, recommendations and complaints.

I ran a Kitchener Peltier 430 for many years and was very happy with it.

That being said, I have recently moved to offsite storage instead, after crunching the numbers I realised that it was far more cost effective than 'bulk' storage at home. The plan now is to run a small cabinet at home to keep the 'drink now' bottles and recent deliveries in.

Winetastic. How did you calculate the costs of storage at home?

I took the up front cost of the fridge to determine how long it would take before 'break even' occurred at the offsite storage. If you also apply compound interest to the purchase price for the same duration (or your own similar opportunity cost concept) and then add in the cost of electricity (I calculated that the fridge would be actively running 50% of the time as it was sat in a garage that got up to 40C frequently during summer but was generally below 15C during winter), basically the fridge would not be cheaper for my circumstances any time before the end of its useful life (10 years).

All that being said, can you put a price on having all your wine on hand whenever you want it?

winetastic wrote:
All that being said, can you put a price on having all your wine on hand whenever you want it?

That can also be a cost.

I store as much as I can offsite to remove temptation late in the night when it starts making sense to open a bottle you would normally reserve for a more sober occasion.

winetastic wrote:All that being said, can you put a price on having all your wine on hand whenever you want it?

After consuming a few bottles with friends at home it's not always an advantage to have your precious wines so easily accessible. If it's not there, you can't open it.

^ wont argue with that

Hmmm. I don't think the compressor would be on 50% of the time. Maybe for 3 months in summer, but the rest of the year it wouldn't be that active I'd have thought.

How much are you planning to spend on the fridge. How much would you expect to spend on offsite storage PA?

swirler wrote:Hmmm. I don't think the compressor would be on 50% of the time. Maybe for 3 months in summer, but the rest of the year it wouldn't be that active I'd have thought.

Peltier units behave differently, lower power draw when active, but active all the time until you reach the target temperature.

Well, after much looking I finally bought a Kitchener Levanter 380 bottle capacity (so they say, hope they're right). It will sit in my storeroom and give me enough choice for home drinking.

Hacker wrote:Well, after much looking I finally bought a Kitchener Levanter 380 bottle capacity (so they say, hope they're right). It will sit in my storeroom and give me enough choice for home drinking.

My 430 capacity fridge capped out around 415-420 bottles due to some being funky sizes and so forth. That included 2 magnums which I counted as 2 bottles.

Hacker wrote:Well, after much looking I finally bought a Kitchener Levanter 380 bottle capacity (so they say, hope they're right). It will sit in my storeroom and give me enough choice for home drinking.

I would like to know how this fridge is going as i am looking at the same fridge.

strippett wrote:I would like to know how this fridge is going as i am looking at the same fridge.

I had mine delivered 2 months ago and I must say it is rather large! You have to make sure it can fit into where it is meant to go. Luckily mine fit within a bee's eyelash.
It runs well but I have it turned off at the moment as the temp in the room is slightly lower than the 15 degrees it was set at. The thing is if you wish to use it as a day to day cabinet you may be disappointed as it configures bottles double deep and stacks three rows high on each of the shelves. So locating a particular bottle can be difficult.

Seems to be the norm for any of the fridges over 170 bottles. Stacked 3 high and double deep.

If you are an unorganised auction nut like me, it makes it almost impossible to know what you have.

Hacker wrote:Well, after much looking I finally bought a Kitchener Levanter 380 bottle capacity (so they say, hope they're right). It will sit in my storeroom and give me enough choice for home drinking.

How do you go with surge protection? Does this bad boy have it built in?

The TWE wine cabinet offer is back (https://www.wineestatespromos.com/serveandcellar), though it seems to get more expensive every year.

I am considering the 110 bottle dual zone fridge for $1500 (plus wine spend) - looks to be a superseded model, but a pretty reasonable deal for dual zone. Any thoughts on this?

Also, for those that keep wine fridges within their cellar, should I be worried about the risk of associated temperature rise in the cellar (i.e. generated by heat from the fridge unit)?

trufflequeen wrote:The TWE wine cabinet offer is back (https://www.wineestatespromos.com/serveandcellar), though it seems to get more expensive every year.

I am considering the 110 bottle dual zone fridge for $1500 (plus wine spend) - looks to be a superseded model, but a pretty reasonable deal for dual zone. Any thoughts on this?

Also, for those that keep wine fridges within their cellar, should I be worried about the risk of associated temperature rise in the cellar (i.e. generated by heat from the fridge unit)?

Got a 110 single zone vinny. still going super.
A little trick i use is to set it on 13 degrees not the default 12 so if the power goes out you'll know it's been off.
And get a decent surge protector for it.

Scotty vino wrote:How do you go with surge protection? Does this bad boy have it built in?

Hi Scotty, there is no surge protection in this system. The guy I spoke to at Kitchener said he hasn't heard that any manufacturer builds in this.

You could put a surge protector in your power box. It's a cheaper and centralised solution instead of buying multiple protected power boards and everything is 'protected'. Just check it after storms to see if it needs to be replaced. I don't know whether it would have an amount of cover you can claim like some of the Belkin's etc have if it fails.

I have a 50 bottle Liebherr that I paid around $2500 for in 2007 & also have a 170 bottle Vintec one I paid $3500 for in around 2011. The Vintec has broken down twice whereas the Liebherr has never missed a beat. I highly recommend spending the extra money to get a good single temperature fridge.