The Auswine Forum

I'm looking at getting a wine fridge and can get this Hisense one for about $700-800 - sounds like good reviews.

https://hisense.com.au/product/58-bottle-cabinet/

I'm tossing up between that and a Liebherr. Vintec sound too unreliable.

Any reason to not go for a Hisense one? Any other suggestions for best bang for your buck?

Cheers.

I have a 58 bottle one for the past 2 years, it's pretty quiet and stays in the 16c range very consistently.
No issues so far. Usually if you wait they go around $600 on sales (look for bing lee/the good guys ebay sales)

Thanks, Kev. How many bottles have you managed to fit in there? How long do you expect to keep any given bottle in there, out of curiosity?

I know little about wine fridges but last Sunday I was at an informal event at a friends place when out of the blue he offered me a small fridge he was going to throw away. Though I wasn't really interested the brains of the operation readily accepted because it meant that at least one shelf in our kitchen fridge and a shelf in the door would be liberated of wine bottles. So I am now in possession of a small General Electric fridge, about 19" wide, 20" deep, amnd 32" high. It has three adjustable shelves and some space at the bottom that might be good for beers but I have no idea how many wines I will be able to put in it.

I probably have about 50-55, most of my bottles are bordeaux, so they are easy, the pinot style ones are much more spacious.
I've had a few wines for about 5 years (started with a small free aldi one) then upgraded about two years ago, most of the ones in there are in the $40-250 range. I have about 40 in various boxes in the wardrobe, probably still cheaper than any offsite storage (in sydney anyway)

Kevhussey wrote:probably still cheaper than any offsite storage (in sydney anyway)

You might be surprised to find it's affordable without the risk of a fridge that dies, you can probably get more storage than you think and it might be convenience that determines if it's viable or not.

I'm keen to hear how this goes. Our Vintec lasted four years and some dodgy Homemaker thing I got from Gumtree keeps keeping on but I expect it will need to be replaced one day and a small Hisense was on the radar.

I have a 35 bottle Vintec for about 8 years and thought it wasn't big enough so I bought the 58 Hisense and had both operating but the Hisense stopped working after 10 months so I got it replaced under warranty with another and it lasted 14 months before it too stopped working. Hisense were good with the warranty but its just a pain in the but to have to keep swapping out fridges. Meanwhile the Vintec is still plodding along and I only keep whites in the fridge and the reds I keep in an unused cupboard

Thanks for the input, guys. I've got maybe about 35 bottles I'd want to put in right away, but a decent chunk of those are Champagne and Burgundy bottles, so I feel like it may fill up rather quickly before I can even put new purchases in.

That said, it does seem the best value brand out there.

Such a dilemma!

Kevhussey wrote:I have a 58 bottle one for the past 2 years, it's pretty quiet and stays in the 16c range very consistently.
No issues so far. Usually if you wait they go around $600 on sales (look for bing lee/the good guys ebay sales)

Hi Kev, just got this one today. It's been on for a few hours and I have started loading it up.

Looks like there is already some frost forming, at 14C. Is that your experience?

Not in my experience, your wines are touching the back of the fridge are they? Usually need some air to circulate.

I've got them cork end pointed towards the front, with room behind them. I think I saw the frost leaking down as water at one point, so I assumed that was the defroster kicking in. I'll get in touch with the manufacturer.

Kevhussey wrote:Not in my experience, your wines are touching the back of the fridge are they? Usually need some air to circulate.

I actually think it was because I kept the door open for so long while I was filling it - seems all good now.

Do you use dual zone temps or just one throughout? If so, do you have a particular strategy for where you're sticking the wines?

I just use one 16c. stacking - yes, fat bottom burgundy style on the wood, with bordeaux in the cracks so to speak.
I can also balance 6 bordeaux on top of 6 bordeaux - generally seems the best way.
The space on the bottom I can place 3 fat bottoms too.
I'll take a picture when home and paste it in. I'm pretty sure I have very close to 58 bottles