Home Improvement Product Reviews

Decent Wine Refrigerator, November 1, 2010

By 

Samuel J. Biller (Tampa, FL USA) – See all my reviews

  

Purchased the Whynter WC-211DZ 21 bottle wine cooler for a couple of reasons. It was sized right to fit in a space just below my kitchen counter top and the reviews giving Whynter products more favorable ratings over competing products. The Whynter is working well keeping both zones at my 58 degrees F setting which is my preferred setting for red wines. I would rate the quality of the Whynter good but not great. The slide out shelves feel kind of cheap. For this price point I’m still waiting for a product with slightly higher quality. The Whynter is fairly quiet although you can hear it running. As another reviewer mentioned the Whynter is designed for normal size bottles. It outputs a little heat out the side vents but nothing drastic. At this point I’m happy with my purchase. I will report back if I have any longevity problems.

Update 11/19/2011:
The unit is still going strong. No real complaints. As I mentioned in the earlier review the only minor annoyance is that the shelves don’t accommodate every bottle size but I usually can figure out a way to get 99% of bottles loaded.

Update 2/11/2012:
I started noticing that the unit has been making a noticeable noise and the LED readouts are losing some of their segments. A quick internet search reveals that others have been having some similar problems with the LEDs. I’m still looking for confirmation on the noise. I’m wondering if the fan is failing or its something else. The warranty is one-year so it appears I’m out of warranty. I will contact Whynter on Monday to see what they suggest. I’m dropping my rating from 4 stars to 3 stars as a result and will update again once I figure out the remedy for the problem.

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It looks good, but has some short comings., November 22, 2010

By 

D. Rockstad – See all my reviews

  

I just purchased the Whynter 21 Bottle Dual Temperature Zone Wine Cooler (Model #WC-211DZ) from Amazon.com. As always, there was a quick shipping time with Amazon. This wine cooler looks great. Silver, slim, and nice visual addition to any kitchen or bar area. However, in reality, there are definitely some areas that it falls short.

1. This wine cooler will fit ONLY “traditional” bottles. That means it will NOT fit Champagne bottles, sparkling wine, Muscat bottles (longer than traditional bottles), port, traditional chianti bottles, etc.

2. While this cooler holds 21 bottles, the metal racks only accommodate 18 bottles. Whynter designed this unit so that you place the last three bottles on the floor of the unit, NOT on a shelf. There is a track there for a shelf, but the unit only comes with 6 shelves (3 bottles on each) instead of the 7 shelves it should have. Not only does this not look as attractive, it makes it more cumbersome to look at the wine, as you cannot just slide the metal shelf out.

3. The metal trays do not slide in or out easily, making it a bit difficult to look at the wines on each shelf.

If you only drink red wine or white wine in traditional bottles and you are looking for your first wine cooler, than this is likely a good choice for you. If you are more of a wine enthusiast and like to store several types of wine, particularly champagne, I would NOT recommend this unit. I never would have thought that a traditional champagne bottle wouldn’t fit in a wine cooler. Alas, I now have no place to store all my sparkling wines.

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Yes, I would buy it again. But…, August 6, 2011

By 

M. Yeomans “MrMartini” (Memphis, TN, USA) – See all my reviews

  

I purchased the Whynter WC-211 DZ 21 about a year ago after extensive research. You’ve probably already read the specs on this item so I’ll skip straight to my impressions.

Pros:

Price. This is by far the most affordable serious wine fridge in this class. You could easily spend several times more on a “serious” unit but for a novice to moderate wine lover who wants to go to the next level this is definitely a viable fridge at a decent price.

Looks. This fridge looks bonafied in our kitchen. The temp gauges are a tad bright but I don’t mind. With the lights on it looks techy and modern. It actually makes a decent night light in the kitchen and matches the blue LEDs on our other appliances. With the lights off it’s more subtle but still looks slick and cool.

Dual Zone. It really works. My choice? Reds on the top at 55, whites and other colder wines on the bottom at 50. Nice.

Bottle size. Other reviewers have lamented the depth of the cooler and the fact that it limits the size of bottle it can hold. While it’s true that you can’t fit the longest bottles in this cooler, it will definitely hold bottles that are moderately fat or long. It’s not a big issue for me.

Cons:

Temp limits. While 44 degrees isn’t bad, I wish you could choose to cool all the way down to 35 for champagne and other cold-served wines. Of course the solution is that you just pop the bottle out of the Whynter and into the refrigerator for an hour and you’re set.

Sound level. I was surprised how loud this cooler is. It is at least as loud if not a bit louder than the full-sized refrigerator a few feet away. It’s not too bad but definitely noticeable.

Cheezy construction. If you use it much the construction feels fairly cheap – especially the racks.

Filters. The cooling unit on this fridge is so borderline that the air filters in the back must be almost perfectly clean for it to work properly. I had only had it a few months when I noticed that the temps had started to inch up. Over time the temps rose to nearly room temperature. Eventually, I pulled the unit out and noted that the two filters were pretty dusty. I cleaned them and within an hour the fridge was down to it’s normal temps. Now, as soon as I see the temps rise a degree above the set temp I clean the filters. The first time this happened I thought it was a faulty unit and that I was going to have to send it back (a complaint I’ve seen about these fridges in other reviews) but once I figured out that it was the filters I have had no other issues. Not a deal breaker but something to keep in mind – especially if your install is such that it’s not easy to slide it out and back.

Conclusion

I guess it all comes down to the question “knowing what I know now would I buy this wine fridge again”? The answer is YES. Despite it’s flaws this is a serious entry level wine fridge and for it’s price I don’t think you could do any better.

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