Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)SEE the UPDATE at the bottom of this review.
I've owned this fridge for three months now, and for the price, it has performed reasonably well--so far. When you add together the price and the shipping rates, you probably won't be able to find a cheaper thermoelectric wine fridge with this storage capacity. (I consider the non-vibrating feature of thermoelectric fridges an important requirement for cellaring wine long term.) However, there are some definite deficiencies and one really big question mark about long-term performance.
As my wine collection has grown, I've purchased several wine fridges from different manufacturers. Of the four wine fridges I now own, this one has the cheapest look and feel. Yes, it looks quite attractive from a distance, but when you get up close, you notice that every element of its construction seems just a little (and sometimes a lot) flimsier than my other fridges. For example, the material used for the inside walls of this fridge looks and feels like extremely thin plastic that could easily crack or be punctured. (The plastic liner seems comparable in weight and thickness to the thin plastic that is often used for packagaing small electronics accessories like headphones or video cables.) This plastic inside wall liner will probably hold up just fine if treated gently, but it seems like a clue to overall quality.
Similarly, the chrome trays that hold the bottles are just a little thinner, lighter, and flimsier than those in my other wine fridges. Speaking of the trays, with a tray loaded with bottles, you are supposed to be able to pull it out a few inches to get easier access to the bottles and a better view of the label. But the trays on this fridge do not slide smoothly once they are loaded with wine. Instead, they snag and get hung up. In fact, I worry that the force required to unstick and pull out a tray with bottles on it either might cause the bottles to come flying out on onto the floor or might tear the thin plastic that lines the inside walls of the fridge. So to get a tray out safely, you have to remove the bottles first, which defeats the purpose of having trays that are supposed to slide partway out for easier viewing and access.
With gentle and careful use, you can probably avoid problems with the flimsy physical construction of this fridge; however, the thing that worries me most about this fridge is the long-term endurance of the thermoelectric cooling device. This fridge sits side-by-side with another fridge I own that was made by another manufacturer and has exactly the same storage capacity. Compared to the other manufacturer's fridge, the AW fridge's cooling device kicks on and runs more often and longer--probably more than twice as long--to maintain the same temperature. With the temp set at 55 degrees, this fridge's cooling system runs almost non-stop, never shutting off for more than just a few minutes before kicking back on for another long stretch, and that's what makes me worry about long term durability. Because of my concern about the cooling device running constantly, I've raised the temp setting from 55 to 58 degrees, and that seems to help somewhat, but this thermoelectric fridge's cooling device still runs much more often and much longer with the setting at 58 degrees than my other same-size thermoelectric fridge does at 55. It only makes sense that the more often the cooling device kicks on, and the longer it runs, the shorter will be its working lifespan.
One last word to the wise: For those who are just starting to appreciate the pleasures and advantages of cellaring your own wine, maybe it makes sense to buy a small cheap "starter" unit until you can decide whether your wine bug is a temporary infection, a manageable illness, or a lifelong obsession. But before doing as I did--buying a second, and then a third, and then a fourth fairly small fridge--consider taking the money you'd spend on a bunch of small fridges and instead putting those dollars into the cost of one higher quality, higher capacity unit that will solve your wine-storage needs over the long haul. Better yet, find 25 or 30 cubic feet of space under the stairs or in a closet of your house, wall it off, put in racks, insulate it, and buy a cooling unit to refrigerate it, to make your own mini-cellar where you can easily store several hundred bottles.
The Bottom Line: This fridge seems like a fair deal for the price, but if I had it to do over, I think I'd be better off in the long haul spending just a little more for a probably more durable fridge of the same size (which you can find on sale for not that much more), or putting the money into a much larger fridge or cellaring system that would better satisfy both present and future wine storage needs.
UPDATE: The original review above was written in July 2009, about three months after I purchased this wine frig in early April 2009. This update was written in mid-August 2010. Today my New Air 28 bottle wine frig died. It lasted about 16 months. To reflect the short life span, I've deducted a star, reducing my rating to two stars. This unit never was able to get down to 55 degrees. The coldest it could do was 60 or 61. So to keep the unit from overworking itself, I set the temp to 60, instead of 55. Two of my three comparable Wine Enthusiast branded units are still running. One of my three WineEnth branded units has also died, so the fact is, none of these thermo-electric units can be expected to last very long. As stated in my original review above, rather of buying one or more of these cheapie units, I would recommend putting that money into a better product that will hold more bottles, or better yet, build your own mini-cellar in closet or under a stairway.
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NewAir AW-280E NewAir Thermoelectric Wine Cooler With Touch Screen LED Light
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