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Haier HVFO60ABL 60-Bottle Wine Cellar, with Slide-Out Racks
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Average customer review:
Product Description
Features:
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #357927 in Kitchen & Housewares
- Brand: Haier
- Model: HVFO60ABL
- Dimensions: 51.63" h x 22.38" w x 24.25" l, 121.00 pounds
Features
- 60-bottle wine cellar with LED temperature read-out
- Electronic thermostat ranges from 39 to 60 degrees
- Automatic settings for red and white wines
- Soft interior lighting and locking smoked glass door
- Measures 24-2/7 by 22-2/5 by 51-3/5 inches; 1-year warranty
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Elegant, practical, and spacious, this 60-bottle wine cellar from Haier provides stable, cool quarters for an extensive menu of your favorite wines. The cellar features an electronic thermostat ranging from 39 to 60 degrees, so you can tailor it exactly to your needs. It also comes with simple-to-use automatic settings for reds and whites, and an LED readout showing both the programmed and the current internal temperature for easy monitoring. Designed to cradle the bottles, the 11 chrome racks slide out for easy access. The double-panel door, fitted with smoked glass, comes with a lock and key for extra security. A soft, unobtrusive interior light flips on with a simple switch. Like Haier's other cellars, this unit is CFC-free and comes with a one-year warranty. --Emily Bedard
Customer Reviews
Good value for the money
I have had this wine fridge for about six months and it's worked exactly as I hoped--which means it just sits there innocuously keeping my wine chilled to a temperature more amenable to long-term aging than the 76-80 degrees that is the usual ambient temperature of my apartment.
Although I had some initial qualms because the manufacturer was not familiar to me, this fridge proved to be very appealing right out of the box and has held up well since then. The strong points of this unit include: reasonably handsome appearance (including the smoked PLEXIGLASS door); study shelves that won't scuff labels; digital temperature readout; internal light; and quiet performance (virtually silent most of the time, except when it kicks in to lower the temperature, as when the door has just been opened).
Although I have no serious complaints, it's important to note that the quoted 60-bottle capacity represents a maximum theoretical capacity that could probably only be achieved by removing all the shelves (and to do so in order to cram 60 bottles in would impede air flow, which is important to maintain cool temperatures). In point of fact, there are 9 standard-sized shelves, each with five notches suitable for holding a standard 750ml bottle of wine. In addition, there is space to stack two more bottles on top of the five in the very top rack, plus 1 additional odd-sized bottom shelf, and some space on the "floor" of the unit to hold magnums, etc. Thus, 55 to 56 bottles is a more realistic statement of capacity.
Also, the built-in lock is basically just an allen wrench socket, which means a determined teenager will have no trouble getting at your Clos Vougeout! It will keep out an inquisitive child, though.
If you love wine and have the space, I'd encourage you to buy the biggest Haier unit you can afford... even if you don't have the 60 (or 56) bottles now, it's a remarkably convenient excuse to buy new wine to fill it!
Great Buy
When I told my friends about buying a wine cellar, one of them said I was silly. A portable cellar is not ideal for long term storage because the humidity is not controlled. Having said that, if you still want to use a portable wine cellar for long term storage, then please read on.
Before I bought this product from Amazon.com, I checked out the 2 reviews available for this product, and its sister product, the Designer Series one. One user gave this 5 stars, and one gave one star. So, I wasn't sure whether this was a good buy. I decided to take a chance anyway. This turns out to be an excellent purchase. The unit is beautiful and very easy to set up. One negative review said that the temperature fluctuated. Actually, it took about a day to stabilize. I have a calibrated digital thermometer inside right now, and it's at the exact temperature that I had set a day earlier.
The unit itself performed flawless. It is a bit noisy when the compressor kicks in to cool the temperature once in a long while. However, it is barely noticeable unless you are right next to it. The quoted capacity of 60 bottles is a bit of an exaggeration. In theory, you could fit 60 bottles in there. There are 9 standard shelves with 5 notches for 5 bottles of wine side-by-side. On each standard shelf, there is also an additional notch going width-wise across the cellar for the sixth bottle on each shelf. So, theoretically, 54 bottles can fit along the 9 standard shelves. There are also 2 half-shelves that can take 3 standard bottles each. The botton half-shelf can up to 2 magnums. However, I had some bottles that are slightly longer than standard bottles, those pretty much rendered the notch for the sixth bottle on each standard shelf useless. So, for me, the actually capacity is closer to 56 to 58 bottles.
If you store both red and white wines, the unit can hold both with ease. The unit, even with the temperature set to a certain range, will be colder toward the bottom, and warmer toward the top. The difference can be up to 10F. So, you can easily set your cellar to 50F, and have the top shelves be about 54 to 56F, and the bottom shelves be about 45F or so.
The lock, however, as one of the reviewers suggested, is just a simple allen wrench. Since I don't have kids, I don't even bother locking it.
In short, this unit is a great buy, because for the price, it does exactly what it says it will do: 1) display your wine with class and elegance; 2) store your wine within the recommended temperatures and keep them out of the temperature variation in the regular household; 3) do so with relatively low price; and 4) is very versatile for storing all types of wines. This wine cellar will meet or surpass any expectation you might have about it.
Like one of the other reviewers, I would suggest getting the biggest cellar you can fit nicely into your house. You'll fill it up very fast.
Beware - it may not be what you expect.
We so looked forward to our "60-Bottle Wine Cellar, with Slide-Out Racks". Unfortunately, it was delivered damaged but Amazon.com was great about sending out a new one quickly, etc. No problem with Amazon.com. The problem is that the racks do not "slide-out" as Haier claims. If you lift the back of the rack out of a groove the rack can be lifted out - careful if you have 5 wine bottles on there! No "easy access" as it says in the product description. Haier should be honest and call them "adjustable racks" like in a regular refrigerator. We called Haier and they said their "gliding" racks come out on a track. But who knew to look for "gliding" instead of "sliding"? So if you don't need racks that slide out on a track so you can see the bottles towards the back of each rack, then you'll probably be happy with this unit. We aren't.
