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Beverage Center

13 years ago

I have a wine cooler/beverage center dilemma.

My situation: I have a 30" base cabinet that will be removed and replaced with a built-in wine cooler/beverage center, all under cover of an existing granite counter top.

I would like dual temperatures: one for chilling red wine to just below room temperature, say 65 degrees, and the other for bottled beer, canned sodas, and the occasional bottle of white wine to refrigerator-type cold, say 36 degrees or so.

I'm having trouble finding a 30" unit (or two 15" units) that meets these wishes. Yet I gotta believe there's something out there. It's hard enough to find coolers bigger than 24", or two 15" units that can be ganged together. Add to that the fact I want my non-red wine beverages at a temperature colder than what most wine coolers can do--the few units I've found that will fit don't offer the functionality I desire. I've seen a few 30" dual-zone wine coolers, but they are just that. They're intended to chill wine and only go down to 45-ish degrees, too warm for bottled beer, soda, etc. Additionally the shelving/racks are only wine bottle appropriate.

Anyone know of good options I'm missing? Last resort is a 24" cooler with 3" filler strips on either side, but I'd really like to avoid that. Thanks for your thoughts and suggestion!

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Comments (3)

festusbodine
13 years ago
Not sure about a unit the size you are looking for. I will tell you however after owning the KitchenAid bev center for 6 months that these units, while they may offer a wide variety of storage options, do not handle any of them superbly. The wine racks are fine if you are not storing any thicker bottles, but when trying to arrange bottles of different sizes, you end up wasting a lot of space in between based on how the rungs of the rack are placed. The top storage for beer and soft drinks gets plenty cool for my taste, but I have read complaints from others who like their beer ice cold (probably drinking Bud Light.) Overall I am happy with the unit, but I can see why many people are not thrilled. Any unit trying to be the jack of all trades will be the expert at nothing.
ulinesalesguy
13 years ago
A few companies (U-Line included) make a 15" wine unit, and a 15" refrigerator; that said, if you are looking for both units to have glass doors, I am not aware of any companies that can do that, and have your beverage refrigerator reach refrigeration temperatures (36-37 degrees)
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plllog
13 years ago
Marvel makes both a 15" wine fridge and a 15" refrigerator. I agree that the two units is the only way you're going to get the temperature spread you want. I think U-line does too.

There's a 24" "side by side" Avanti that has separate spaces for wines and sodas and does claim the temperatures you want. Is that your worse comes to worst?

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