Can a Freestanding Wine Cooler Be Placed Under a Counter?

Freestanding wine coolers, a built-in wine fridgeintegrated wine coolers and even wine walls all have their perks and disadvantages when it comes to people choosing a wine fridge that suits them the best.

They all have features that can outweigh each other, however, freestanding wine coolers will be the topic of today’s blog. Are there any features that freestanding wine coolers have that stand out above the rest? Can these wine coolers do something that you didn’t know about?

These will be the questions we will be running through during this read to hopefully give you a better understanding of the different features of freestanding wine coolers, and what they can and can’t do. For example, can a freestanding wine cooler be installed under a counter?

 

What is a Freestanding Wine Cooler?

When you think about a freestanding wine cooler - it is certainly a self-explanatory definition. Freestanding wine coolers are stand-alone wine fridges and can be stored anywhere where there is space in your household. However, they are usually demanding a lot of room - therefore, making sure you have an available unit for your luxury wine cooler to go is essential.

A freestanding wine fridge can come in many shapes and sizes with numerous shelves. For example, it is possible to have a freestanding fridge that can fit up to 20 bottles. On the other hand, you can purchase freestanding wine coolers that can fit up to 300 bottles of wine in them!

The main purpose of a freestanding wine cooler is to keep your shop-bought wine beverage fresh and at peak temperature for the best tasting and smelling experience. Without a wine fridge, wine can lose its magical taste and turn into an unpleasurable, chemical mess. Whilst storing your wine bottles, they also have a luxury and aesthetically pleasing appearance about them. This can create great first impressions when having visitors to your home!

 

Can You Place Freestanding Wine Coolers Under Kitchen Counters?

As freestanding models can be moved around - a question we always receive is “can I place my freestanding wine cooler under my kitchen counter?’ and the simple answer we reply with is no, they can't unfortunately.

Freestanding wine coolers are built with a vent on the back of their model and need space to breathe. This is where the heat and frost can dissipate. However, if this wine cooler is forced into a space where there is no room, cabinetry on each side and directly up against a wall - heat and frost build-up can start affecting the temperature inside of your wine fridge.

When the temperature of the wine cooler is affected, this is when your wine can start to slowly deteriorate. Your once fine-smelling, sweet-tasting wine will be permanently tainted and become sour with a jam-like texture if kept in that humid environment. For some more in-depth information on the importance of wine humidity, then check out our blog post here.

On top of this, the manufacturer will most likely terminate your warranty as you haven’t been using it properly if they find out you’ve been storing it underneath the kitchen counter.

 

Where Do You Place Your Freestanding Wine Coolers?

As discussed previously, we do not want to be storing freestanding wine coolers under your kitchen counter. So, where can you store them without it hindering your wine’s performance and your freestanding wine cooler altogether?

 

Kitchen

Most wine coolers are stored in the kitchen as this is usually the most convenient place to store your wine. It also makes it easy to go and grab a bottle if you’re feeling like a cheeky glass of wine.

If the space is right in your kitchen and you feel like you have enough room where the wine fridge can't get enough air - the kitchen is a great place to store your wine!

One tip to take into consideration is to make sure your kitchen doesn’t have any sunlight beaming on your wine fridge. Excessive sunlight could potentially damage the temperature of your wine fridge - ultimately leading to a wine you can’t drink due to the damage done.

 

Utility Room

The main reason for a utility room being a popular place of accommodation for your freestanding wine cooler is that this room is usually very free of space. Keeping other appliances in this room can also free up space around the home for some of your creative ideas.

A utility room is a good choice for people who think a wine fridge won’t suit the aesthetic of their kitchen and ruin the look of what they’ve designed.

 

Basement/ Garage

These two rooms are very similar in the fact that they will both be extremely dark. This is a perfect environment for the wine as it will not be exposed to any sunlight - meaning the taste, smell and appearance will stay at their peak.

Another benefit of keeping your freestanding wine cooler in the basement or garage is that there’s usually lots of space. Once again this grants you the ability to put it anywhere where the wine cooler has adequate room to ventilate correctly.

 

What to Consider When Placing Your Freestanding Wine Cooler?

Now we know where to place our freestanding wine cooler - what else do you need to consider when placing your wine coolers in these rooms?

 

Power Source

When choosing any of the rooms we’ve talked about you need to consider whether this room has any plugs and sockets for your wine cooler. Whether it be dual zone wine fridges, built-in wine fridges or an under-counter wine fridge - they will all need a power source nearby.

 

Taking Measurements

Before purchasing your freestanding wine cooler you want to make sure you know its measurements (inches, cm or mm). This way you can measure out how much room you have in a certain area where it could fit the spot perfectly.

Taking these into account can prevent problems from occurring when the wine cooler finally arrives. For example, if you didn’t realise how big your wine cooler was before it came and you had no space - going through a refund process is unlikely to make you happy. So it's always best to check measurements against the space you have in your household.

What Freestanding wine coolers do Elite Wine Stock?

We have probably the broadest range of freestanding wine fridges available in the UK, with capacities ranging from 16 Bordeaux bottles to over 200 bottle tall freestanding wine fridges.

Some of our best selling freestanding wine coolers come from Dunavox and are all stocked in our Warrington warehouse:

DUNAVOX HOME-16 - A small 16 bottle counter top wine cooler designed for serving temperatures of a small collection, the benefit to this model is it will go down to as low as 4°C rather than the normal 5°C

DUNAVOX HOME-30 - A 30 bottle dual zone unit with the capability of both zones being set to the same temperature - its the perfect height to fit neatly at the end of a run of kitchen unit (not undercounter) There is space for 4 standing bottles at the bottom should you not finish the bottle, opened bottles can be kept there.

DUNAVOX HOME-54 - This is one of Elite Wine's best selling units, the unique depth it provides at 48cm means it can be included at the end of tall kitchen units and not protrude too much.  Of course the capacity is attractive, with a maximum of 54 Bordeaux bottles, there is plenty of space for all your Prosecco for Summer days and Merlot for your Sunday roasts!

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