N'FINITY wine cellars are a fairly new line of wine cabinets launched by Wine Enthusiast. Wine Enthusiast started out as a mail order company selling wine accessories. Today the company sells wine coolers, premium wine cabinets like Le Cache, Vinotheque and EuroCave, custom wine cellars and other wine accessories both through their website and catalogs.
Analyzing the reviews submitted to Wine Enthusiast's website by their customers, especially the most frequent negative comments regarding the weaknesses of wine coolers and wine cellars, the company decided to design and manufacture a wine cabinet line that corrects these common problems (accommodating wine bottles of varying sizes, temperature requirements for storing diffenet types of wine etc.). That's how N'FINITY wine cellars were born.
Five models are currently available:
a 23-bottle 2-zone wine cooler
a 36-Bottle Double Door 2-Zone cooler
a 50-bottle dual-zone unit and
a 100-bottle multi-temp wine cellar
a 170-bottle two-zone wine cabinet, and
a 340-Bottle multi-temp wine cellar.
Read a review of the N'FINITY 50-bottle wine cellar to find out about its main technical features and to see whether it is really the most ideal mid-sized wine cabinet for either home or business use.
N'FINITY 50-bottle Wine Cellar, Dual Zone
The N'FINITY 50-bottle wine cellar is an attractive and sturdy medium size wine cooler with two independently controlled temperature zones.
The unit has black cabinet with black interior.
The tempered and slightly tinted door glass has stainless frame and stainless steel curved handle. The door opening can be reversed.
It comes with lock & key set (2 keys are included).
N'Finity wine cellars are compressor based with fan air circulation.
Control Panel
The digital control panel is integrated in the zone partition. The panel includes the following features:
On/Off for turning on/off the wine cellar,
Temp. Set Upper Zone: Adjusts and displays, via LED, the desired temperature (°F) of the upper zone.
Temp. Set Lower Zone: Adjusts and displays, via LED, the desired temperature (°F) of the lower zone.
Light - for turning on or off the interior illumination
Red, White, Sparkling,
Select (upper or lower) - allows you to select to control either the upper zone or the lower zone.
Setting the Temperature
Note: In order to maintain optimum operation the lower compartment should be set to minimum 4 degrees higher than the upper compartment.
Make sure the cabinet is properly connected to power according to the manual.
Press "On" to turn on the cellar.
Press the "Select" button to choose the Upper or Lower Zone
Set the desired temp. for the upper/lower zone by pressing the + (Up) and - (Down) buttons. The upper zone can be set between 41°F to 60°F (factory preset is 41°F), while the lower zone's temp. range is 45°F - 64°F (factory preset 45°F).
If you set the Upper or Lower zone between 52 - 64°F, the LED light next to “RED” will light up, indicating that you are within the recommended range for serving Red Wines.
If you set the Upper or Lower zone between 44 - 51°F, the LED light next to “WHITE” will light up, indicating that you are within the recommended range for serving White Wines.
If you set the Upper or Lower Zone between 41 - 43°F, the LED light next to “SPARKLING” will light up, indicating that you are within the recommended range for serving Sparkling Wines.
In case of a power outage, all previous temperature settings will be automatically saved and each compartment will return to the previous temperature setting, a useful feature that many wine coolers lack.
Shelving
5 sturdy hardwood shelves (2 in the upper compartment, 3 in the lower one) that smoothly glide on ball-bearing tracks hold the wine bottles. The spacing is wide enough to fit larger size bottles (Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Champagne).
Lower Zone Shelves: each shelf holds one row of 8 bottles (4 in the front, 4 in the back) the half shelf on the bottom holds 6 bottles (3 in the front, 3 in the back).
Upper Zone Shelves: each shelf can hold one row of 8 and a second row of 6 bottles for a total of 14 bottles.
Interior Light
Three blue LED lights provide low-intensity illumination for the cabinet interior. The On/Off switch is on the control panel.
Capacity: 50 bottles, top zone: 16, bottom zone: 28
Design:
Cabinet color: black cabinet with black interior, black front grille
Door:stainless steel-trimmed, tempered and tinted glass door with curved stainless steel bar handle, reversible hinging, lock & key set
Cooling method: compressor, auto defrost
Number of zones: two temperature zones
Built-in/Freestanding: both, front ventilation
Temperature Control:
Thermostat (Mechanical/Digital): adjustable digital thermostat for each zone
Temperature Range:
upper zone: 41°F - 60°F (5℃ - 15.5℃),
lower zone: 45°F - 64°F (7℃ - 17.7℃) (+/- 2°F/).
Ambient temp. range: 32°F - 100°F
Shelving: 5 glide-out hardwood shelves with ball-bearing roller assembly, spaced to accommodate 50 bottles of Bordeaux (standard) size and larger bottles, including Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Champagne.
Humidity level: 60%
Noise: no information
Electricity consumption: 140 Watt
Dimensions (H x W x D): 34.5" x 23.75" x 26" with handle, 24" without handle)
Weight: 113 pounds.
Price range: $900 - $1000 without shipping ($18 - $20/bottle).
Warranty: 90 Day Parts & Labor In Home Warranty with a Free Upgrade to 1 Year on Parts & Labor
Pros & Cons
Pros:
attractive, quiet, maintains temperature with 1-2 degree of fluctuation, fits different sized bottles
Cons:
"The bottles do not fit in the racks the way the manual says they should. ", loud (especially when used as freestanding)
The N'FINITY wine cellars vent in the front so they can either be used as built-in or as freestanding.
User Reviews - Strengths, Weaknesses, Complaints Reported by Owners
The N'FINITY 50-bottle wine cooler received fairly good reviews. The most important strengths mentioned by users of the N'FINITY 50-bottle wine cellar include: attractive design, quiet operation, well-built appliance, and it cost half the price of a EuroCave wine cellar of same size.
It is interesting though that despite the manufaturer's attempt to make a wine cabinet that accommodates bottles of various sizes, several owners of the unit mentioned that it is hard to stack wines in different size/shape bottles on the shelves (longer, slimmer bottles are difficult to fit in). According to some users it holds 40 bottles rather than 50 due to the shelving.
Other complaints are related to noise problems, although it might have to do with improper placement, because some owners on the other hand say that it is quiet. The unit does cycle often when first turned on until it reaches the set temperature but it holds the temerature well.
There's one serious complaint though reported by a user: he gone through 3 of these units: according to him the N'FINITY 50 wien cooelr is very loud and the temperature fluctuates too much (possibly got ruined his wines). Wine Enthusiast wasn't helpful to providing any help. Finally he got the first unit replaced but it was damaged (broken shelves, scratches) and it was way too noisy. Customer service of WE wasn't helpful this time either. After several trials of contacting them he managed to talk to someone and got another replacement but without refund becuse it was past 30 days.
