NewAir 15″ Dual Zone Wine Cooler Refrigerator in Black Stainless Steel – Under Counter Wine Fridge, Wine Refrigerator for Bottles, Wine Cellars & Home Storage, Holds 28 Bottles

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1. Check it out in my laundry room Verified Buyer – 18 May 2024

   We took a chance and purchased this cooler after looking at a hundred reviews all over the net. If you don’t want to read this entire review, the net summary is that this wine cooler is spacious, quiet, good looking, and functional. I’ve had the cooler for about two weeks before writing this review. Why this cooler: The cooler met all of our requirements (at least 36 bottles), it needed to be mid-sized and standalone or under a cabinet, have a glass door, comfortably fit larger cabernet bottles and a champagne bottle or two, and most importantly it needed to be quiet. We came from a 18 bottle cooler that used thermal cooling (no compressor) that held our larger bottles with ease and we didn’t want noises coming from our kitchen (our family room is next to it). After looking at all coolers in this price range, and more than triple this price, we decided to try this one. Our reasoning was that all of the coolers had positive and negative reviews, so we might as well start with the less expensive one. Space: Obviously a wine cooler is of no use if it can’t hold wine bottles properly. This cooler would be hard pressed to reach the full capacity with regular bottles, but it easily meets our 36-40 bottle need. The fridge is divided into two sections. The top and bottom center have a light, and the light bump out on the bottom makes it difficult to fit a standard wine bottle. A cab will not fit in the top center on the bottom as a result. While the shelves are removable, they are not adjustable. I keep smaller diameter mead bottles on that top bottom rack and therefore the light bump is not a problem. The top section light does not interfere with a standard white wine bottle at all. The depth of the cooler is great. The mead bottles are thin and long. They fit easily. The bump out for the compressor at the bottom (where large bottles need to go) is just slightly deeper than I would have liked. A champagne bottle barely fits straight in with the cork facing the back. I can easily for 4 large bottles on the bottom. The other racks in the center area double up the bottles. When loaded, the metal racks slide okay on the integrated plastic wall rails. If you have really wide red bottles, this may get a little tight. That said, I was able to fit all of my reds without any issues or scraping on the rack above. Noise: I was concerned about using a compressor based cooler in our open floorplan. Fortunately this cooler is very quiet. I measured it with a db meter and it hovered around ~35 db while the compressor was running. In our space with all wood floors, and when nobody is moving, measures between 28-32 db. If I walk around on the hardwood floors with sneakers, it jumps to ~40 db for example. In other words, you can barely hear the buzzing of the compressor when standing next to it in a quiet house. Occasionally I hear a ‘click’ as the compressor kicks on, but my 10 lb dog’s nails creates more noise on the floor than that. Aesthetics: The cooler looks okay as a standalone – more like a typical college fridge from the sides and back (which exposes the compressor). The front stainless steel door looks good and shows fingerprints like all stainless appliances. The internal light is fairly good and subtle but it’s not a full on light show. It reflects nicely even with bottles right underneath the center lights. The front panel digital readout is easy to read and bright. It would be nice if the LCD brightness could be adjusted. Maybe it can and I just missed it in the manual. Internally it looks clean and the chrome racks are well made and nice looking. Functionality: The unit so far has held the dual zone temperatures exactly as set. I keep the top at 45F and the bottom at 54F. I have seen it jump after I was loading wine, but it settled back within 10 minutes. It came down to temperature while empty in about 15 minutes so it seems to cool well. I didn’t notice the compressor cycling constantly as some have stated, and my house is usually kept at 74F in the summer and 68F in the winter for reference. The LCD panel automatically locks to prevent accidental inputs. At first I thought it was defective and was trying to change temps but nothing was happening – no registration on the panel. You have to hold the up/down buttons for about 5-6 seconds for it to unlock, then the rest of the buttons work. Speaking of, the panel takes a relatively light touch and requires a fairly centered touch too. At first I was pressing harder and harder to get it to register, but in the end a soft touch worked best for me. Thankfully it’s not something I will need to fiddle with very often but for turning the light on and off, it’s a little inconvenient. I would have preferred to not have an auto-lock on the panel or at least an option to de-activate that feature. Speaking of locks, there are none! If you need a wine cooler with a lock, keep looking or buy a chain to wrap around this one. For me, this is not any more of a problem than having beer in my refrigerator. The unit has two plastic roller wheels in the back, and two adjustable legs in the front with plastic bottoms. It was easy to slide around on my hardwood floors and didn’t leave any marks. Leveling was easy with the two front legs but they are a little difficult to reach. That said, they sit back far enough that they can’t be seen either. Other Thoughts: Smell – Some have reported a burnt plastic smell in their cooler that wouldn’t go away. After unpacking when I first opened the cooler, it did have that smell. The instructions tell you to wipe down the interior with soap and water. After I did this, I let the cooler sit with the door open for 2-3 hours. This needs to be done anyway before plugging it in to let the coolant settle. After that time I put the racks back in and I didn’t notice any lingering smell. Packaging – The unit came well packaged. It has a very heavy gauge carboard outer box with re-enforced removable ‘rails’ protecting the corners. Thick foam surrounds the unit and straps hold the top to the bottom. The bottom carboard that the cooler rests on is > 4 in thick. The feet and rollers are nestled in that and are well protected. Cutting the straps allows the top of the container to lift off. My box showed some corner strikes, but the cooler was in perfect condition. There is basically 2 in of padding all around the cooler so it would take a hard hit to dent it. Recommendation: Overall, I’m really happy with this cooler for the money I paid for it. So far it is working well, holds everything I have, is quiet, and looks good. I’m not sure what else I would want other than a little teeny bit more space between the bottles, but then the entire cooler would be bigger and wouldn’t fit under a counter. I would recommend this cooler to anyone who doesn’t have really particular needs and is just looking for a good and quiet wine cooler that can hold 40-ish ‘normal’ bottles.

   

2. Rosstastic Verified Buyer – 13 August 2024

   Broke 1 year after purchase. Had an appliance guy come out to fix and said it would cost same amount to replace. The electrical panel failed and compressor needed to be replaced.
   

3. Steve Verified Buyer – 20 September 2024

   So we bought this wine fridge because we enjoy occasional wine and thought having a small fridge would be nice to have. The fridge is very sleek and nice. I have read that some customers did not like the fridge because the temperature does not stay at what they place it at. So after testing couple things out, I realized what they were talking about. Since this is dual temperature, I placed top at 55 and bottom at 50. But I did notice that the bottom was going up and was not staying at 50. So I was concerned that I also got a defective. But then after troubleshooting this more carefully, I realized why the temperature was not constant. If you turn on the blue light to the fridge, this light somehow heats up the fridge, making the temperature go up. If you turn off the light, the temperature eventually goes back down. So I think the company should look into better insulation for the light so it does not affect the inside temperature. But overall, I don’t leave my blue light on all the time so it does not really affect me. Overall, it works like it supposed to do and looks nice.
   

4. Mike Labrie Verified Buyer – 15 January 2025

   Decided to replace our trash compactor with a wine fridge under the counter. After lots of looking, settled on this. Has worked perfectly for 2.5 yrs. Took out one of the bottom shelves to stack 1.5L bottles that didn’t fit. Would definitely recommend.
   

5. BehindEnemyLines Verified Buyer – 23 January 2025

   After about 18 months one of the internal fans got very loud. I contacted the manufacturer and bought a replacement for about $25. Switching it out wasn’t difficult–just six screws and a plug-in connector.

   You can buy a replacement fan on idealwinecoolers.com for about $12, see attached photo for the one I pulled out of the unit.
   

6. Anonymous Verified Buyer – 7 March 2025

   We are so happy with our NewAir wine fridge! It is functional in the sense that it stores plenty of bottles in a safe place, but also doesn’t take up too much space. It looks great in our bar area and everyone asks where we got it. Highly recommended for the price point especially.
   

7. John Grubb Verified Buyer – 9 March 2025

   When it worked, it worked well, but the motherboard has gone out, and I have yet to find a repair shop in the city that will service it.