bit-tech Shopping: Vinotemp VT-16TEDS 16-Bottle Wine Refrigerator

• Digital Display
• Environmentally Friendly (CFC Free)
• Slide Out Shelves

Rating: 8

Time with product: 3 Months

Strengths: Great looks, wooden shelves, digital temp readout, interior LED light, low electricity use

Weaknesses: Poor packaging, cheap metal chassis easily dents, limited temp range, no memory for power failures.

Summary: I had a specific location in mind for a wine chiller--in what was supposed to be the foot well of a built-in desk in my kitchen. This unit (and its bretheren--there are other chillers that are the exact same dimensions from Whynter, Avanti, etc... I think they're all made by the same manufacturer) was about the only wine chiller that would fit. Fortunately, its somewhat limited storage capacity isn't an issue. I mainly bought this to keep my red wine at proper drinking temperature. I can't stand drinking red wine out of the refrigerator--it's far too cold and really dulls the flavor and takes a lot of the pleasure out of it. On the other hand, wine at room temperature is a bit too warm. Enter these thermoelectric wine chillers. They use the peltier principle to cool themselves (basically a heat exchanger)--they are not traditional refrigerators with coils and compressors and all that jazz. This makes them much quieter and more energy efficient, but the downside is that you can't get quite as cold as you would be able to with a true fridge. This unit goes down to the low 50s, but the ability to hit that also depends on your environmental conditions... if your room's ambient temperature is too low, you may not be able to attain the low end of the range on this unit.Fortunately for my purposes, I want a temp in the low 60s for red wine--that is easy for the Vinotemp to attain and I rarely see the temp reading vary more than 1 degree from my setting.The face of the fridge looks great--the door frame is true stainless steel (unlike some of the other variations on this design that use silver colored plastic) and there's a nice white LED interior light you can turn on or off with a button.The digital temp readout is nice--just to be sure that the unit is maintaining your setting. You use two simple buttons on the front of the door to adjust the temp in 1 degree increments.This particular iteration has wooden shelves, which is pretty much meaningless in utility but does make the Vinotemp look more expensive than it really is.One downside is the product box did not have enough cushioning, and the steel chassis of the fridge has no reinforcement in areas, which led to several large dents on the back and top. Fortunately for my purposes those blemishes are hidden by the surrounding drawers in the cabinet, but if someone wanted to set this out the counter any dents would definitely look bad.The only other con I can think of is that the unit does not remember your temp setting if the power is disconnected. It resets to 55 degrees... so if your location is prone to power outages you may want to put this on a battery backup--or just keep in mind that you will have to reset your preferred temperature if any loss of power occurs. A minor quibble--certainly not a big problem for me.It remains to be seen what the longevity of this type of cooler will be--I am hoping that my moderate temperature selection means that the peltier element is only operating periodically--leading to a longer life.For my purposes, the Vinotemp 16TEDS fits the bill perfectly--I am very pleased.