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£80 will get you a decent case of 12 bottles of wine, but is it enough to buy you a fantastic wine cooler instead?
In our first test of wine coolers we've pitted the Currys Essentials CWC8B15 (£80) against the Liebherr WKb 1812 Vinothek (£1,289), to find out how they match up.
£1,200 is up at the very top of end, and a lot to spend on a wine cooler. But we've also reviewed 10 other models from top brands, including Baumatic, Candy, Caple, CDA, Haier, Husky and Stoves, ranging in price from £270 to £599.
Our test uncovered three wine coolers good enough to be named Best Buys, plus some wine coolers that you might want to think twice about before storing your precious reds or whites in.
Read on to find out more about the wine coolers we've just tested. Or head straight to our wine cooler reviews to see all the results.
Wine storage is serious business, so it's no surprise that expensive, feature-laden wine coolers tend to hog the limelight among wine enthusiasts eager to protect their reds and whites.
The Liebherr WKb 1812 Vinothek is no exception. It has many (although surprisingly not all) of the features you'd expect to see in a wine cooler costing more than £1,200: an air filter, humidity control system, plus alarms to alert you to errant temperatures inside or to an open door.
But less expensive wine coolers can chill wine quickly and keep it at a stable temperature just as well as more expensive models, and some include nice-to-have features such as wooden shelves and UV-protective glass in the door.
For £80 you probably wouldn't expect the Currys Essentials CWC8B15 cheap wine cooler to have many features, and you'd be right. It's got none of the bells and whistles found on most other models.
There's no air filter or humidity controls, no protective glass panel on the front to help block out potentially damaging UV rays, and no alarms or a child lock.
Although it doesn't match up to the Liebherr WKb 1812 Vinothek on features, it holds its own in other areas. It's almost as energy efficient, and both are easy to clean and use, for example.
But when it comes to wine coolers, it's temperature accuracy and stability that really separate the best from the rest. Read our Currys Essentials CWC8B15 review to find out if it scored well where it counts.
To see whether any of the more reasonably priced models we tested made their way to the top of our ratings, check out our wine cooler Best Buys.
We test nine key areas when assessing wine coolers, including temperature accuracy, energy efficiency, humidity levels, ease of use and quietness. Here are some of the most crucial elements of our test:
Want to know more about our tough tests? Check out our detailed guide explaining how we test wine coolers.
Follow the links below to read all of our latest wine cooler reviews:
Baumatic BWC155SS/2 (£239, 7 bottles)
Candy CCVB-30 (£289, 19 bottles)
Caple WI3124 (£445, 19 bottles)
CDA FWC304SS (£320, 20 bottles)
Currys Essentials CWC8B15 (£80, 8 bottles)
Haier WS25GA (£269, 25 bottles)
Husky HUS-ZY2-S-SS-31 (£350, 31 bottles)
Liebherr WKb 1812 Vinothek (£1,289, 66 bottles)
Liebherr WKb 4212 Vinothek (£1,499, 200 bottles)
Stoves 300SSWCMK2 (£299, 18 bottles)
CDA FWC624SS (£599, 38 bottles)
Haier WS53GDA (£415, 53 bottles)