Beverage Fridge Buying Guide

Have you ever entertained at home and had to run back and forth between the backyard and the kitchen to fetch drinks for guests from an overflowing fridge?

Have you ever bought a 24-pack of soft drinks and had little room for the rest of your groceries?

Have you ever had to slot in your work lunch between the stacks of energy drinks, bottles of milk, and water bottles?

If you love to entertain at home, like to be well-stocked with your favourite drinks, or you simply keep running out of room in your main fridge, then a beverage centre may be an ideal upgrade for you.

A beverage centre is a compact and convenient appliance that gives you a separate space to store your drinks. It can be placed away from the kitchen and in another part of the house where access to ice-cold drinks is handy, such as a patio, a home office, or a rumpus room.

For a small-to-medium household, a small capacity beverage centre provides plenty of room to store everyone’s favourite drinks. If you have children in your household, a fridge with a lockable door can help keep your beers and wine securely stored. For wine connoisseurs or craft beer enthusiasts, a multi-zone or dedicated beer or wine beverage centre is a great way to keep your collection preserved in ideal conditions. A model with a glass door and uniform LED lights will attractively display your curated stock to impress guests at your next dinner party.

One of the benefits of owning a dedicated beverage centre is being able to set the ideal temperature for serving your drinks. Your main refrigerator needs to be set at a lower temperature than what is suitable for certain beverages. This helps to keep perishables such as vegetables, meat, and dairy products from going off. With a separate beverage centre, you can adjust the temperature to give you the optimal drinking experience.

Soft Drinks 

The carbonation in fizzy drinks is refreshing and thirst-quenching. Low temperatures of 3°C to 5°C helps to enhance the effervescence.

Juices 

A cold temperature helps to keep the juice fresh. A temperature range of 8°C to 10°C lets you relish the fruity flavours.

Beer & Cider 

Carbonated Cider & Lighter Beers at 3°C to 8°C

Standard Lagers & Pale Ales at 5°C to 10°C

Cloudy Ciders & Darker Beers at 10°C to 13°C 

The general rule of thumb for beer is that lighter beers are best served at lower temperatures while darker, more complex beers are best served at a warmer temperature to better appreciate their flavours.

Wines

Champagne and Sparkling Wines at 4°C to 10°C

White Wines and Rosé at 6°C to 12°C

Red Wines at 15°C to 18°C

The complexity of wines makes them more susceptible to quality changes due to temperature. Some wine labels state the best drinking temperature but, in general, bubbly wines and champagne are best served chilled. White wines, rosé, and lighter red wines are suitable to serve around 10°C, while full-bodied red wines are best served just under room temperature.

Noise Level

Beverage centres cool your drinks with compressors and fans so they make noises such as gurgling sounds, cracking, or an ambient hum. These noises are normal and part of the appliance’s operation. If noise is an issue, consider selecting a quiet model. Some models will list their decibel ranges in the specifications sheet or manual. As a rule of thumb, any fridge with a decibel range below 40 decibels (dB) is considered a quiet model.

Reversible Doors

Beverage centres will have either a left or right door hinge. The direction the door opens should be considered when thinking about where you would like to place your beverage centre. Choosing a model with a reversible door hinge will ensure you can have the door adjusted if you are moving or relocating the beverage centre.

Dual and Multi-Zone

A dual or multi-zone beverage centre provides separate spaces for different beverages in the same appliance. This lets you store a range of beverages that require different temperatures such as wine or beer. Dual zone beverage centres allow you to store your wines at their ideal temperatures while keeping other beverages in another zone such as beer and soft drinks so they are ice-cold and ready to serve.

LED Lighting

LED lighting is more energy efficient, longer-lasting, and emits less heat compared to conventional bulbs. The uniformity and brightness of LED lighting also allows you to have an eye-catching display if the beverage centre has a glass door. This allows you to proudly showcase your craft beer collection or to display an enticing display of colourful juices. This also lets you quickly find your beverages and to check stock levels at a glance.

Lock System

If you are planning to put alcoholic beverages inside your beverage centre, it may be ideal to select one with a lock system. This feature can be useful for preventing children from accessing alcohol. A lockable beverage centre can also be handy in shared spaces such as student accommodation or shared offices to prevent theft or misplaced beverages.

Alarm System

This handy feature will alert you when a door is left open after a certain amount of time or if the temperature changes. Usually models will have an audio alarm using a series of beeps to alert you, while some models have a visual alarm using flashing lights. 

Outdoor fridges with glass doors may result in condensation forming on the glass. These make the contents of the fridge hard to see. Additionally, condensation can form into water droplets and trickle down. This may lead to flooring damage or create slippery surfaces. Triple-glazed and Low E glass doors significantly reduce condensation, so we recommend models that are equipped with those, especially if you live in humid environments. Some models are equipped with heated glass doors that help to stop condensation from forming, making them the ideal choice for high-humidity climates.