Thank you again for all the advice and ideas! That's why I love GW! CEFreeman: I know that is a common mistake- I'ld like to think that most folks are now aware that above the fridge is the last place you should put your wine. But then again, what about olive oil next to the stove? That's the most convenient place to keep it, and where most folks store it, but exposing it to the heat is also bad for the olive oil. I am keeping my design the way it is, although we tweaked the cabinet so the bottom doors line up with the glass doors above. I've decided that the "crate" wine storage is fine for us- and I like the way it breaks up the cabinetry. No wine drawers available through Medallion, but I'm fine with it.

I think you could probably take out the lattice strips &.... 1. Replace with shelves to hold cookbooks & a few pretty pieces of cookware. 2. Or, you could probably have doors put on, if you could find a match to your cabinets. 3. Depending on depth & size, you could have pullouts for trash & recyclables (again, if you can find panels to match your cabinets).

Our plan is to have a fully developed basement with wine cellar, but we're not sure when we can complete this. We can keep wine stored in a cool place until then but regardless if wine cellar is done immediately or down the road we would like to a the wine fridge in kitchen for immediate and short term consumption. We drink more red than white but with a wine fridge can start to enjoy whites more frequently. After reading above posts I'm not going to do the wine rack as we have so much window light and a sky light that would affect the reds stored in a rack. Here's another related question: we can get a 15" Subzero wine fridge (unclaimed order that salesperson wants to blow out of his store) for the same price as a 24" Marvel. Although SZ is superior and the price is incredibly low , I"m leaning towards the 24". Thoughts? Anyone have a Marvel wine fridge? Thanks to all for their responses on this!

R 13 isn't really great insulation. In addition, the Whisperkool unit isn't designed to vent to the outside. Cooling units are designed to operate within a general range of temperatures. So a fridge, an AC, and the Whisperkool unit are all designed to operate within their own unique parameters. An AC unit usually goes 25 degrees or so and expects the top temp to be somewhere in the 90s. So you get cooling down to the mid sixties or so. They don't get things quite as cold when the exterior temps are in the high 90s or 100s. A fridge is designed to cool down to the mid 30s or so, and to operate in an ambient temp of around 70. That's way past the condensation point, so you have really tight seals and super insulation. The Whisperkool is designed to cool down to about 55 or so from an ambient temp of around 70, not the 90s you may experience outside. It's not rocket science tho. If you want to get cooler, you need a larger evaporation coil and a more powerful condenser and you help the machine with tighter seals and better insulation. Thus, you can leave your door slightly ajar with a window AC unit and you'll still get fairly cool, but you wouldn't leave the fridge door slightly open. To your main question - the one degree fluctuation is not all that bad. Don't sweat it. To your larger question that you didn't ask - you're possibly overtaxing the Whisperkool unit. If it dies on you, you can replace it with a regular window AC unit. Just seriously oversize it, then tweak the thermostat - either replace / bypass it, or tape a resistor onto the probe so that it thinks the air is actually warmer than it is and it cools a bit more as a result. It's how I cool my wine cellar.