I know this question may be redundant- and I have searched for a thread that might have the answer but couldn't find one so real quick:

I got a wine fridge/cooler for my birthday, 30 bottle capacity. If I plan to store both reds and whites (premium ones) in there, what is a good temperature that will be beneficial to both?

Thank you and sorry to bother if this has been asked a gazillion times before!

"Carpe Vinum!"

55. Keep the whites at the bottom.

55 - 60 would be best but you also need to pay close attention to two things. Temp. fluctuation and humidity. You can buy a Hygrometer at any pet supply store. You want to keep the humidity between 60 - 70% bellow 50% is not good. If you find that your humidity level is low get a small bowl and fill it with water and put it in the bottom of the unit.

One other thing that many folks worry about with these small units is vibration, it seems as if there are two camps but many think that the vibration from these small units will harm the wine. One way to help protect against vibratin is to put the unit on carpet.

Hope this helps.

Check the documentation for the wine fridge. Sometimes, the manufacturer will graduate the temperature, so the bottom of the fridge will be about 5% colder than the top allowing you to seperate your reds and whites. I like to set my fridge at 57 degrees.

Equally important is finding a flat, even surface to place it on and leaving enough room in the back for proper ventilation. Enjoy your new wine fridge.

Adrian

Grape Apparel - Wine T-Shirts

Even better would be a temperature / humidity monitor with memory, so that you can see how much it varies. And if you could spare 1/30th of your capacity (not a good trade with your sized unit) you can even stick the temperature probe in a bottle to see how much the liquid temperature varies.

But probably all of this is not as important for your case. With only a 30 bottle capacity, I'm assuming that you aren't looking to store your bottles for many years before opening.

quote:

Originally posted by seanr7:

One other thing that many folks worry about with these small units is vibration, it seems as if there are two camps but many think that the vibration from these small units will harm the wine. One way to help protect against vibratin is to put the unit on carpet.

That depends on the unit. Nowadays, many use the Peltier effect to cool the wine, and therefore have no compressor or any other moving parts that would cause vibration.

- Jeff

Thank you very much everyone...your answers have been incredibly helpful! Being in the Philippines, humidity is incredibly high so I don't know how much I have to worry about that (?)

And yes, I don't think I will be doing much super-long term cellaring, I really just want somewhere to keep my wines out of the heat!

The carpet idea is great- I actually have the same unit in my restaurant and it does vibrate a bit- I am going to implement that in the resto as well.

Thanks again! This forum is awesome!

"Carpe Vinum!"

Just a quick note on some of those thermoelectric (non-compressor) models. The they generally can only cool down to about 20 degrees less than ambient temp and the model I have doesn't like anything over 78 degrees Fahrenheit. If you're in the Philippines and it's hot, just something to keep in mind.

As you said, though, at least you don't have to worry about humidity...

How about having an offline at your place in the Philippines?