We have one, but it's mostly for wine and beer. It was a splurge item ... DH loves it, so I don't regret it. I did the same thing you're considering ... I bought a faucet and light fixtures from eBay and saved a lot of money there.

I'm one of those weirdo moms that limits my kid's sugar consumption, so having too easy access to juice or soft drinks wouldn't work for us.

We bought one because it seemed like an interesting way to break up a solid wall of drawers. It was a choice between the wine cooler or those rattan baskets for potatoes and onions. The wine won - no contest.

It looks lovely sitting in it's shipping carton an it does break up the long line of the cartons that the drawers and cubboards are sitting in.

Thanks! erikanh - you're not weird about the sugar consumption (apple juice is terrible for kids' teeth enamel, for one thing) - I am same way about juice, but we like to have it available now and then, along with those mini bottles of water. Having a properly cooled bottle of wine seems like a glorious thing also.

I guess it would break up all the white base cabinets and be interesting; I hadn't thought of that angle....decisions, decisions!

Phew, threedaisies, thanks for saying I'm not a weirdo. =) Some years ago a neighbor and her little ones were over playing and when I offered the kids water with ice and lemon slices, she seemed surprised and asked me, "Don't you have any juice?" I explained to her that I seldom gave my little girl juice so that she would learn to like the taste of water. She looked at me like I had three heads! After that I tried to make sure that I had juice in the house for DD's little friends.

I have the Kitchenaid beverage fridge that has 3 separate zones for beverages, red and white wines. Mine gets down to 37 degrees in the beverage section, seems nice and cold to me. I'm not a wine or beer drinker, but I do enjoy a well-chilled bottle of San Pellegrino.

Now that you mention it, the glass door does break up the line of white cabinets, and when you leave the light on it looks pretty at night.

I had this same delima when I was in the planning stages. I love the look of wine coolers, but they don't get cold enough for beer and bottled water. They are quite affordable though, but it's because they don't have the cooling ability of an undercounter beverage refrigerator. Those are very pricy, almost as much as a full-sized refrig (around $1000). In the end, I decided it wasn't worth the extra cost. I will probably put a small dorm refrigeragor in my sunroom for extra beverages.

A big consideration is the unhindered access to drinks. Kids can go through a lot of juice boxes (more than necessary) if it's too easy to get to them! lol!

My Summit fridge gets VERY cold, in fact I set the temp too low and exploded two cans of soda! I have a regular counter-depth refrigerator that I knew wouldn't be big enough for everything. I have two teens, we go through a lot of soda and water bottles, plus I stash other stuff in there on heavy shopping days.

erikanh: Oh dear. I forgot about that pretty interior light - I'm such a sucker for fun details like that. I might be sold. The three zones on the KA is a great feature...I have no idea if the U-Line has zones or not, I need to look into that.

idrive: so is the Summit fridge a built-in? I haven't come across that brand yet. I'll have to do some more internet research, darn. ;)

ccombs: the unhindered access might be troublesome (my youngest is 3 and into everything) but I guess I would have to set down rules for the fridge. Something to think about, certainly. I don't want a $1,000-1,200 headache!

Thanks for responding!

Well, one thing to think about is does your refrigerator have ice and water on the door? If you want to encourage more water consumption, that is the green way to do it, plus having a filter pitcher for the interior as well. Those plastic water bottles are expensive and bad for the environment! I have the refillable aluminum sports bottles that I fill from the filter pitcher for "easy take with" consumption in the beverage fridge along with some beers and various oddball beverages from local ethnic markets. It frees up the main fridge, which is more a beverage fridge's purpose---if it's sited correctly. I bought the $400 Magic Chef from Home Depot and it's been working just fine and gets cold enough for cold water and soda.

I wouldn't do it for kids' beverages, but if you can find a grownup reason for it, go for it. :)

I don't have space for it so I didn't consider it. My 4 year old drinks water from the fridge door (or bathroom sink) but she's too klutzy to open a juicebox should we provide those (we don't).

If kid visitors don't like water or milk, I'll give their moms the blank stare I enjoy giving my father-in-law when he asks where the chips are. Bwahahahahaha.

So, wine fridge or "real" fridge? I'd get a real one to hold holiday overloads, which means drinks for the guests won't be in there. I'm not a great host though...

DH and I had the very same discussion.

DH makes his own wine (both red and white) but also likes a cold beer too. I love white wine, don't drink beer, but do occassionally have a soda.
So, we decided to go for a french door beverage center (beer/soda on one side, and wine on the other). We're getting a Danby.
The asethetics are all positive (the lighting, stainless look, etc). Plus, since we do hope to have kids in the near future, we also liked that the model we bought has two keys to keep each door locked.
This may be something that you could consider?
GL!

I have a glass front undercounter fridge and a wine cooler next to each other in my kitchen. The wine cooler really is just for show as I could care less if my wine is at optimum temperature or not (yes, the lights are cool at night!). The beverage center is another story. I never want to be without one again as it has become the most used appliance in the kitchen. I love that guests can see what I have, choose whatever they want to drink and not have to open my main fridge to see what's in there as sometimes it's not as organized and sparkling clean as I'd like thanks to two kids who love to cook. During parties, we keep beer, pop, water and juice boxes in our undercounter and it's great that the beverages aren't taking up room in my main fridge.

As for the sugary liquids issue, in my house I have noticed that the kids are drinking more water as I always have a cold case in there. Sure the kids have easy access, but they can only access what I put in there. Unless I'm having a party, the fridge is stocked with Mom approved drinks.

I also have an undercounter fridge in our media room that I only keep water in unless we're entertaining. Same situation, the kids are drinking more water from there as that's the only choice and they're too lazy to walk to the kitchen. I purposely keep lots of water around and limit their choices in order to promote them drinking it. Any way to get lots of water in their bodies is OK with me.

As for the temperature issue, I have found that you get what you pay for. Our $299 Magic Chef is horrible and does not keep things as cold as the temperature indicator says. Our Sub Zero in the kitchen is great. I need to buy another undercounter for the coffee bar in our master, which will probably be a U-line or Kitchenaid. My neighbors have these brands and love them. The drinks I've had from them are always as cold as my Sub Zero and I think they look just as nice.

Our initial plans called for a counter depth frig and we needed the extra space so planned for an undercounter frig. I hated the thought of paying over $1000 more for a SMALLER frig. Someone here recommended to recess the frig in the wall and we're running with it. I also like the idea of a separate beverage frig for guests and us so we're still keeping it even though we have a full size frig. The UC frig is also out of my work triangle. We entertain a lot. We haven't built our kitchen yet but the undercounter frig is still in the plan. I'm going with a Kitchenaid with a panel front. What I want is a lock for it. My kids will soon be teenagers and I want to take the temptation away from them and their friends.

On a side note my kids were given very little juice when they were young. They're now 8 and 11 and drink water or milk. When we go out to dinner they may pick soda (non caffeine) but many times stick to water. They are not allowed soda in our house (it's OK at Grandma's). Occassionally we have lemonaid or spruce up the water with a splash of cran-raspberry juice.

threedaisies: idrive: so is the Summit fridge a built-in?
Mine just slides under there, it isn't built in.

fori: I wouldn't do it for kids' beverages, but if you can find a grownup reason for it, go for it. :)
My grownup reason is it keeps my teenagers and their friends out of my main fridge! Besides, with my diet coke habit there wouldn't be room for food...

live_wire_oak: Those plastic water bottles are expensive and bad for the environment!
We buy a 24 pack for $3.99, cheap as far as I'm concerned and we refill them and recycle them.

we also have the kitchenaid bev. center with the 3 zones - it keeps the top area for beer, soda and juice boxes (I buy the Motts for Tots which is 1/2 water to limit sugar) nice and cold. It sits in our butler's pantry walk thru area between kitchen and dining room, so it was a no-brainer for us since we entertain A LOT. DH loves having the cold beers ready, and while we don't drink much soda or juice, it's there for guests and when we want it without taking up room in the main fridge. Also the location is out of my way when cooking! I also actually used it to store a key lime pie during a party that had our fridge filled to the rim! oh yeah, and the chilled wine ain't so bad either ;)

we LOVE our drink fridge.... We searched long & hard for a drink fridge (as opposed to wine fridge) and settled on a kenmore elite for 400. I *thought* it was a built-in one, but OOPS, its not. It actually worked out o.k. though b/c its in the island with tons of airflow in the back. We put in a partial false back on the island so people won't kick the back of the fridge. We've monitored the temp back there and its great (also right by an air vent, as luck would have it).

Anyway, my top 3 reasons I love it; 1) its WONDERFUL to keep people out of the main fridge; and 2) its SELF SERVE!! It really has made casual entertaining much easier... we just say "help yourself to the drink fridge" ! 3) One of the big things we wanted to do with this remodel is keep my DH from running up and down the basement steps to the backup fridge/storage when we were entertaining and i think the drink fridge has done that!

Erikanh, too funny about the weird looks when you don't have juice in your house. We get the same looks. I'm no health nut or anything. It's just how I grew up. Whenever my in-laws come over though, they need to have a flavored beverage with their meal. Water won't do. It often stresses us out bc we always forget to stock up on flavored beverages.

Anyway, we're going to have an UC fridge for the kids, but it's going to be more of a snack center. We just have so much food crammed in our refrigerator, we just need the overflow space!

gobruno, I grew up drinking lots of Kool-Aid and eating sugary breakfast cereals, but it was always water only with meals. I'm not a health nut either but diabetes runs in our family so I decided early on to strictly limit my little one's consumption of all types of sugar, processed foods and junky snacks. I wanted her to develop a palate for a variety of healthy foods. Now that she's older I've relaxed the restrictions quite a bit, but I still don't buy junk food, juice or soda except for parties/guests. Hmm, maybe I haven't relaxed so much LOL.

lwo, I couldn't agree more about having a water dispenser in the fridge and using reusable as opposed to recyclable water bottles. The enormous increase in the production of bottled water is wreaking a terrible impact on our environment.

Here is a link that might be useful: Why Should I Choose Reusable over Recyclable?

We opted for an UC beverage refrig for two reasons (1) Was getting a counter depth sxs refrig and was concerned about the lack of space, and (2) for entertaining thought it would be great having it out of my work area. As with others, it's turned out to be one of our most used appliances. My kids are grown, so this was purely for our enjoyment. Our recycle bin is right next to the UC refrig, so guests can help themselves coming and going. Oh yes, and the lighting is very cool.

We have the u-line undercounter built in bev fridge with glass door and trim that matches our white kitchen cabinets. According to the thermometer I tested it with in a glass of water it goes down to 37 degrees. We don't have a real fridge yet so we have food in it and it keeps well. When we get the real refrigerator it will be the big Samsung regular depth with ice and water in the door (DH loves crushed ice) but I'm so looking forward to having all the drink traffic in a separate area of the kitchen and having my real refrigerator uncluttered with drinks. The bev fridge will have wine (2 racks), beer, orange crush (a treat for when the grown children visit) and probably some bottled water for occasional use. I'm also very happy with how it looks and, as someone said earlier, it breaks up the run of white so it adds visual interest. The only thing I don't like is that the shelves are not adjustable so really tall things don't fit upright. Once that bottle of wine is open it either must go in the main fridge or we'll need to finish it. Off hand I'd say we'll probably finish what we start.

Just as a side note---our 3 children are all grown up and we endured many "3-headed looks" b/c our bev choices for all children were milk or water (and that meant tap water). We also didn't keep salt or sugar snacks stocked in the house (making popcorn was an activity and so was peeling fruit). Sometimes our children also complained that "everyone else" had all the snacks and drinks we didn't but now we see them making healthy choices in their own lives and we're glad we didn't relent when they complained.

flseadog, my DD likes to tease me about none of the kids at school wanting to trade snacks with her. I've been known to pack seaweed salad and fish cakes in her lunch. My weird kid actually loves them!

Have you ever tried the vacu vin wine savers? I don't drink wine and DH can't finish a bottle by himself. It comes with a little pump to remove the air and then special corks to seal the bottle. Works great and then you can store the bottle on its side again.

...but I'm still undecided! I may have to forgo that little luxury to get more cabinet space which is at a premium in my kitchen. I'm basically refacing and replacing doors, with a few new base cabinets. So a 24" undercounter fridge might take up valuable new real estate. I'm going to have to decide pretty soon though- like next week. The kitchen redo starts in less than 2 weeks.

Everyone's input was very helpful though!

ericknh, we do have a vacu-vin that we use for unfinished bottles of red that we have sitting out on the counter. It never occurred to me that bottles wouldn't drip if laid on their sides. Thanks for the tip (although I can still see that we may finish a lot of bottles of white anyway).

It tickles me to hear about the fish cakes and seaweed salads. My daughters have told me that in middle school everyone thought their home cooked leftovers were strange since their friends were eating heat and serve mac and cheese and whatever else was sold in the local supermarket. By high school, though, people would beg and wheedle for their home packed lunches. My son said he always had friends from grade school on that would have willingly given him their lunch money or traded their pre-packaged lunches for whatever he had.

I know you and your daughter will continue to have fun with your food adventures and her friends will learn about a whole new world of find tasting food too.