Kalamera Wine Cooler Review
We have been searching for the best built in wine cooler for a while now, and we have had little success so far. When you collect something like wine, it means you know what high quality means, and you are willing to invest in it.
This is why it can be difficult to be fully satisfied with a wine appliance, such as a wine cooler. You have high standards and spend a lot of money. Naturally, you want value in every aspect.
This dilemma is what brought us to this Kalamera wine cooler. We have not found the perfect wine fridge, and we are crossing our fingers that this 15-inch wide wine cooler is the one.
Review Summary:
This wine fridge is not the most expensive model we have seen, but it is by no means cheap. The Kalamera product line, after all, mostly consists of expensive cooling appliances.
We have seen some Kalamera wine cooler reviews that had good things to say about this product, so we decided to give it a try.
Key Features:
- 30-bottle capacity
- Single zone
- Universal hexagon bolt lock
- Beechwood shelves
- Temperature memory function
- Smart digital temperature control
Pros:
Cons:
- It uses compressor cooling, which means increased vibration.
Verdict
We are impressed with the features of this Kalamera wine fridge, especially the beechwood shelves, which are highly functional and stylish.
One problem we noticed with it, though, was that the shelves (and the entire interior) seem to have been too conservatively designed, for lack of a better term. The width is just a fraction of an inch too small to fit the advertised 30-bottle capacity.
Check Price On AmazonFor Whom It Is The Kalamera KRC-30SZB-TGD ?
The Kalamera 15-inch 30-bottle wine cooler is for wine enthusiasts with more or less 15 bottles of wine that need storage and has the cash to invest in a quality cooler. Why 15 bottles?
As a rule, you need to go for a wine cooler whose bottle-count capacity is twice the actual number of bottles that you have.
This is to ensure that your wines get the best treatment possible and to allow for bottle size-related issues.
Specifications and Benefits of the KRC-30SZB-TGD
Technical specifications
Build: freestanding or built in
Cooling system: compressor
Temperature control: 40 to 66F (single zone)
Door swing: reversible
Input voltage: 110 V/ 60 Hz
Input power: 90 W
Rated current: 1.5 A
Weight: 72.8 lbs
Dimensions (without handle, W x H x D): 14.9 x 33.9 x 22.4 in.
Dimensions (with handle, W x H x D): 9 x 33.9 x 24.2 in.
Suggested built in dimension: 15.3 x 34.1 x 22.4 in.
30-bottle capacity
Please take note that the declared bottle count is for standard 750 mL Bordeaux wine bottles. And you have to stack and arrange the bottles a certain way to maximize that.
You are supposed to alternate the positioning of the bottles. If the top of the first bottle faces front, the top of the next one has to be facing the back, and so on.
Just like in other wine coolers, if you want to store bigger, bottles, you are free to make room in the chamber by removing a few racks or so.
Universal hexagon bolt lock
Wine coolers are child magnets because of the enclosed space they can hide or play in. This is a dangerous scenario, and Kalamera went ahead and did their best to help prevent that.
There is a built in hexagon bolt lock on this unit, avoiding any untoward incidents involving your kids. This mechanism also protects your wine from ill-mannered visitors who would think about tinkering with your cooler’s controls.
Beechwood shelves
The gorgeous beechwood shelves must be our top favorite in this 15-inch built in wine fridge from Kalamera. There are a unique charm and class in the combination of the industrially inclined exterior and the wood beneath the glass door.
And the shelves do not only do a good job of looking good, but they also do a good job, period. Although relatively thin, the wood shelves are strong enough to hold heavy wine bottles.
The great thing about these is that although they are strong, they do not damage the wine bottles and labels. There are also stoppers on both sides of each shelf. They are there to stop the shelves from being pulled all the way out.
Finally, another thing we appreciate about the decision of Kalamera to put wood shelves in this model is that the wood helps cushion the impact of vibration on the wines.
As this is a cooling appliance, there will always tend to be some vibration no matter what companies do.
Temperature memory function
This is a wonderful feature that allows you to restore the correct temperature right away after a power loss. This feature is found in the thermal meter and is very helpful in protecting the appliance and the integrity of the wines.
This mechanism is also great for owners who get particularly forgetful. Emergencies are called such because they fall out of our routine, and when that happens, our memories tend to be less powerful.
Smart digital temperature control
This 15-inch built in wine cooler from Kalamera comes equipped with an LCD temperature display. It allows you to monitor and select the right temperature for your wines between 40 and 66F (this is single zone wine cooler).
Advanced cooling technology
We mentioned earlier that this unit is a compressor model. Compressor wine coolers are, like air conditioners, notorious for being loud and for having too much vibration.
These are not just bad for you; they are also bad for your wine collection. Somehow, Kalamera found a way to resolve that, which makes this one of the few times we accept the usage of the word “advanced” in describing a product feature.
This built in wine cooler is surprisingly quiet, so you get to enjoy the superior cooling power of a compressor without having to endure an irritating drone sound in your living space.
Also, Kalamera apparently installed a vibration reduction gear in the unit, protecting your precious wine. That, we cannot verify. However, we do know that the beechwood shelves are effective at cushioning vibration.
Additional Tips
These are some pointers from Kalamera themselves on how to set up your cooler for the first time:
- Let the unit stand upright for at least 24 hours before plugging it into a power source for the first time. This is to avoid any potential malfunction from interior components that may have been damaged by shipping.
- You may plug it in after 24 hours and let it reach the optimal temperature.
- You may only put the bottles in after 24 more hours.
Final Verdict
All in all, we must say we are impressed by the Kalamera 15-inch wine cooler. We would have declared it the best built in wine cooler had it not been for the fact that the shelves, albeit very classy, are too tight for many bottles.
The good thing is that the problem ends there. We like the safety lock, the cooling system, the overall look, the temperature controls, and the value for money.
The bottom line is: this product is not perfect, but it is the type we can still confidently recommend to wine lovers with exquisite tastes and the willingness to invest in quality. You can learn more about this product by clicking here.