Customer Reviews

Cuisinart CWC-900 Private Reserve 11-Bottle Stainless-Steel Countertop Wine Cellar

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

I found this wine cellar at a local department store and bought it to take the place of storing/chilling wine in the refrigerator. A standard fridge might be ok for whites, which should be served colder, but not so for reds. When reds are too cold, the subtle flavors become "squashed" for lack of a better term. However, my standard fridge accomodates a standing opened bottle of wine awkwardly at best. Also the frequent knocks and vibrations of the standard fridge, as well as light exposure as said to be bad for wine preservation by those in the know. I'm mainly interested in the convenience of having wine-on-demand at the appropriate serving temperature, as I tend to drink mostly budget wines ($10 and under).

This unit is a single cooling chamber (as opposed to some dual-chamber models I've seen, which allow independent temperatures in the two chambers). It has presets corresponding to certain temperatures, which are inconveniently not listed in the manual. However these can be determined easily enough by dialing in a preset program and checking the temperature the following day. (I haven't bothered to do this) The manual does offer you which presets are best for the various varietals of wine (1 through 8, with 8 being the coldest). You can also set the temperature manually if you do not wish to follow the preset programs. There is a digital temperature readout visible through the door when it's closed - clever design, but very difficult to see if the unit is on the floor (where I have mine). True to claim, there is essentially no vibration when the cooling compressor/fan are engaged. The front door has a large window (see picture above) which is dark-tinted to keep the evil humours out whilst you gaze upon your vino. There is an interior light which comes on when you open the door, and can be switched to continuous ON position if desired. As to the previous reviewers comment about the compressor running a lot, it does run more in the first 24hrs than afterwards, but not excessively so. Mine slips neatly right under my home-office desk (close at hand for those bad days!). Actually, this is the coolest room in the house and so the unit runs less in that ambient temp, and hence consumes less electricity. You should be aware that it has exhaust vents to the right of the door handle that need several inches of clearance, so plan accordingly for your physical layout.

I give this model 4-1/2 stars for price & convenience. I have to withhold a 1/2-star simply because the digital readout window is hard to see from a high angle. If I get into white wines at some point, I like this unit well enough to consider purchasing a second one - and at this price, it's at least equal in total price (for two units) as some of the dual-chamber models I've seen, if not a little cheaper.

UPDATE 2/17/07

Well, as some others have reported, the unit developed a problem after about 11 months of service wherein it was running continuously without cooling at all. I called the Cuisinart company, and to my surprise they acknowledged an engineering defect and offered to exchange the unit at no charge for a new one with the defect corrected. There were some logistical trials and tribulations involved in the return, but finally the new replacement unit arrived yesterday and now I'm "chillin' like a villain" once again.

The dimensions of the unit by my own measurement are W 17-1/8" (43.5cm) H 16-3/8" (41.5cm) D 16-7/8" (43.8cm), and the door handle adds about 1-1/2" depth.

I think the problems that other reviewers had might be similar to what I experienced, though they didn't indicate that they kept the unit around long enough for me to be sure. I'm returning this unit to the dept. store where I bought it, but I'd like to warn other potential buyers to be watchful.

I knew that it would take a while (up to a week, possibly) for the unit to get to its holding temperature (I had it at 57 or 58, I don't remember, exactly). Once it did, it barely ran at all. I mean AT ALL; the fan might have clicked on once every couple of days, after that.

After a short period of time, though, the unit was literally running around the clock. Also, the temperature LED showed 74 degrees, though a thermometer I placed in the unit read 45 degrees.

I unplugged the unit, and with its door closed, I left it that way for a day. I re-read the internal temperature, which had increased to 50 degrees while it was unplugged --obviously well below my desired setting of 58, so I plugged it back in. The LED showed 50 degrees for about 30 seconds, and then the fan kicked in at the same time the displayed popped back up to 74.

I let the unit run for a few hours (the fan running the entire time), and re-read the temperature. It was 47 degrees, though the display still showed 70-something.

It obviously keeps things cool, but the fan will run _constantly_ if something goes wrong with the unit, probably the thermostat, but I'm not sure.

Like I said, the unit goes back today.

I've owned my Cuisinart CWC-900 for about a week and it is driving me nuts. The fan runs constantly (about 22 hours a day) and is just loud enough to be annoying (sounds like a hair dryer on its lowest setting). For an otherwise well designed and aesthetically pleasing appliance, this is a deal breaker.

I have owned this wine cellar for about a week. Don't believe the "no noise" claim - the fan runs almost constantly and is nearly as loud as a full-size refrigerator. Also, even at the coldest setting, the wine temperature is often not cold enough. Bottles on the bottom shelf are coldest, most likely by design, and top-shelf wines are only cool, certainly not as cold as the temperature reading indicates.

Overall this wine cellar is a disappointment. It looks nice on the counter, but with the constant running of the fan, it might end up somewhere out of the way just so we don't have to listen to it. Kind of defeats the purpose of buying a Cuisinart with a stylish design.

I ordered this unit in early December and it arrived in mid-March. The offer included a mail-in special offer for an additional Cuisinart product, but the offer expired before the product arrived. I contacted customer service and was told the offer would not be honored.

I do not recommend this product and am considering returning it, though the high return shipping costs will likely keep me from doing so.

We received our unit last night and we were so excited - it looks beautiful, so compact and beautifully designed. Unfortunately, I can't BELIEVE how loud it is...it sounds

like a room fan on its highest setting, and that is in my air conditioned house.

It's going to be a pain to return since it is so big.

The unit started out OK, but after 6 months, it is no longer cooling (unless you consider 77 degrees cool). It began making a great deal of noise about 2 months ago, and earlier today I found that it was no longer making the noise - and the temp was holding steady at 77 when it is set at 58. Poor design and poor quality.

I had my Cuisinart wine fridge from September through April. It was not a great product when I received it. It was hard to see the LED temperature readout, it made a lot of noise and it only fit 11 bottles. I was willing to accept all of those drawbacks in exchange for the price and apartment friendly size. However, I took out a bottle of white wine two weeks ago and found, much to my dismay, that the fridge was at least 77 degrees inside and my wine was warm. About 600 dollars of wine suffered some heat damage, and all I can say is I am glad i only had six expensive reds in the fridge. Ironically, all the wine I stored in my closet seems to be in much better shape. I did call Cuisinart and they are sending a new fridge, but they will never be able to replace the wine that was damaged. I would not recommend this product. I would strongly suggest you spend a little more money for a superior fridge from a more specialized wine cellar producer.

I have owned this for less than a month. Although it's loud, it seemed to function ok until I moved it. I emptied and moved it to another location temporarily and back again, now it does not work at all. The annoying fan is still running, although after 5 days it's still at 72 degrees when it's set to 55.

Absolute garbage!

...with most of what's gone before. i'm a busy person, so i haven't written many reviews if at all. i write this now to warn you away from this product, and any other similarly designed product from cuisinart. when we received this as a gift, it worked great, but eventually gave out. it will not cool below 62 or so, which is way too warm for the sav.blancs we enjoy in the summer.
i have not tried to blow out the vent, but i cannot seriously believe this is a problem; there is no discernable dust afloat. yes i know dust is everywhere, but micro-particles should NOT kill a well-designed product, which evidently this is not.
So continue with your search, and READ the reviews first.

I have had this for about 6 months now and have been pleased with the product. It does a good job of keeping my wines in the 55 degree range. However, just this week, I came home and noticed that the LED display was reading 77 degrees.

Oh no. After having read the other reviews on here, I thought my unit was headed toward the local landfill. However, I decided to play around with it and see if I could figure out what was wrong. As it turned out, the fan on the bottom right-hand side of the unit was not spinning. I noticed that it was particulary dusty and used a can of compressed air to blow off the dust. Much to my surprise, all kinds of dust came flying out of the vents on the top right-hand side of the unit.

Evidently, the lower fan is an intake fan to circulate air across the thermoelectric cooling unit inside. Once I blew the dust away, the fan started spinning and the unit began cooling again. Personally, I see this as a design flaw, but luckily one that is easy to work around. What really bothers me is that my unit sits on my kitchen counter and is not in a particularly dusty area. I can only imagine how fast the dust would have built up had the unit been sitting on the floor somewhere.

So, if you are going to buy this unit, beware of its shortcomings. When it works, it does its job well. Just be sure to periodically blow out the dust on the intake fan on the side of the unit and it should offer many years of dependable service.