I feel I've been tooting their horn a lot lately but call Scott at Perlick. He is in charge of Factory Seconds. If you are looking to build in the unit, really no big deal if you have a little ding on the top or side.

He's been holding mine for me until we are ready for it. Such a great and friendly guy. What an incredible product.

The savings on the 2nds is incredible. What I was quoted in the store for the beverage center I'm getting was $2k+, I'm getting it for $860. That's a great savings!

If there is an issue with putting it in the closet he can tell you. If there is a company that has one that can be put in the closet, I"m sure they must have one.

Call him Monday. You won't be sorry. Tell him I (Karen) sent you.

I don't get any discounts or kickbacks from recommending them. I"m just so thrilled to have found them.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.bringperlickhome.com/products/factory-seconds.php

Thanks as always Karen!
But - I was hoping for a cheap unit, one of the ones you see online for a few hundred dollars. We are not that serious about wine, just want a place to store it that is not going to turn it to vinegar. Any one done this before?

We have a freestanding Kenmore that we got for our wedding registry almost 6 years ago. The instructions say specifically NOT to surround it in a cabinet. However, there are some nice built-in ones. We saw a gorgeous Kitchenaid one in the scratch and dent area of our local hhggregg that was dirt-cheap, but it was a built-in. I would also suggest looking in those type of locations, either Sears Outlet or else scratch and dent/overstock areas of stores.

The three laws of thermodynamics can be expressed as:
o You can't win
o You can't break even
o You can't get out of the game

In this context, you can get out of the game by leaving the wine fridge off, but otherwise, it has to generate more heat than it generates cooling. Unless you can determine that the heat flow through the closet walls and door with the closet interior just slightly warmer than the exterior exceeds the power input to the fridge, it will get hotter and hotter in the closet until either the heat flow is balanced, or the compressor fails.

That is not to say you can't use the closet for the wine fridge, but the closet will need to be ventilated. It may be sufficient to use some quiet media rack fans to move air into and out of the closet. (Rackmount Supply and similarly named sources can be checked for such fans.)

kas

To provide some perspective, Perlick's 24-inch refrigerator is listed as using 2.4A at 120 Vac, or, potentially for however long it runs under various conditions, about 290W. So imagine a 300W bulb hanging in the closet that is on for various periods with the door closed, and you may conclude that it would get a tad warm in there. And in this case, the warmer it got the longer the bulb would be on.

In addition, if this closet were also used as a pantry, the foods would be aged more quickly than if the closet remained cooler.

kas