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5 Best Dual Zone Wine Fridges [Essential Picks in 2023]

Tasting a good wine is one of the greatest pleasures in life but the flavor of this delicious drink is easily influenced by its external environment.

One of the main mistakes made by many wine lovers is not storing bottles of wine at the right temperature.

However, storing wine at the right temperature is not as hard as you may think, and in most cases, you don’t even need a wine cellar. What you need is a convenient household appliance, namely a wine cooler.

In this guide, we recommend our favorite versatile dual zone wine coolers. Those with two independent storage zones for keeping wines at different temperatures.

Do I Really Need A Wine Cooler?

A wine cooler allows you to keep your precious wine at the right temperature and humidity, so its characteristics will not be altered by any environmental factors.

The main question that arises is why should you buy a wine cooler when you could simply use a fridge to store your wine?

Well, the answer is simple.

A wine cooler is an appliance designed specifically for wine. It has different characteristics compared to a regular refrigerator and can provide different temperatures that are ideal for preserving or cooling wine before a tasting session.

If you plan on keeping an extensive wine collection then a wine cooler might be a worthwhile investment.

Here are the special characteristics of a wine cooler:

Types of Wine Coolers

Basically, we can classify wine coolers based on the cooling system used or based on their structure.

In the first case, wine coolers can be divided into two categories, compressor wine coolers and thermoelectric wine coolers.

Compressor wine coolers use the same cooling technology as a normal refrigerator. It's based on compressing the air and then releasing it to reduce the internal temperature.

These wine coolers are equipped with built-in thermostats that start the cooling system each time the temperature starts to rise.

The thermoelectric wine coolers use electric current to reach and maintain the desired temperature. 

These devices actually use a metal rod that transports the heat outside of the system, keeping the temperature low on the inside. 

These devices are more energy efficient but aren't ideal for locations that are really hot or humid. 

Since they aren't as powerful, they can struggle to maintain temperatures in extremely hot environments.

Based on the structure of the wine coolers, there are single zone and dual zone wine coolers.

Single zone wine coolers maintain the same temperature inside the whole internal space.

Dual zone wine coolers can provide two temperatures that can be set to preserve different types of wine, or to preserve wine and to cool it before serving.

Because different wines should be kept at different serving temperatures, you might decide that a dual zone wine cooler is a more appropriate investment. 

Purely for long-term wine storage, a single zone cooler is all you need. All wines should ideally be stored between 53.6 °F - 57.2 °F.

However, if you want to keep some wine at serving temperature then a dual-zone wine fridge is what your looking for. With two independent temperature zones you have more options.

How to Preserve Wine?

To keep wine for the long-term it needs to be kept at the right temperature.

Between 53.6 °F - 57.2 °F is ideal but you can drop a few Fahrenheit for white wines if you wish.

The desired humidity, in both cases, is about 70%. But if you can keep the humidity constant somewhere between 60 and 80%, that's just fine.

You also need to keep it aways from sunlight. UV light can be really harmful to the composition of a wine. Thankfully, good wine fridges have UV filtering glass on their doors.

Vibrations are also harmful to the composition of wine. Vibrations can initiate chemical reactions that alter the flavor of your wine. They also disturb sediment ahd make it unsightly.

Wine coolers are specially designed to produce minimal vibrations. Thermoelectric models don't really produce vibrations at all, while compressor based models are well insulated.

Is a Dual Zone Wine Cooler Right For You?

Well, the answer to this question is tricky.

Basically, unless you are a true connoisseur of wines, or unless you own a wine business, you probably don’t really need a dual zone wine cooler.

However, if you are a wine lover and you want to make sure that you preserve the different types of wine at the right temperature, then a dual zone wine cooler is an essential appliance.

But a dual zone wine cooler is more versatile than this.

A dual zone wine cooler will let you maintain the desired temperature to preserve the wine in one part of the cooler and a lower temperature to cool your wine before serving in another part of the cooler.

For this reason, even if you might not need a dual zone wine cooler, you can still take advantage of this awesome characteristic.

How to Choose a Dual Zone Wine Cooler

The first thing to determine when choosing a dual zone wine cooler is whether you want to invest in a compressor or in a thermoelectric appliance.

Once you decided this, based on how large your wine collection is, you should determine the size of the cooler.

Depending on your real necessities, you should be able to determine the right size for you. 

Another important aspect to determine is where you want to place the wine cooler. On the market, there are built-in wine coolers that can be included in your furniture.

You could also choose a freestanding wine cooler, which has the design very similar to a refrigerator.

If you want to place the wine cooler in the living room or in the studio, some manufacturers have some beautiful models of wine coolers made of wood or other noble materials that are beautiful pieces of furniture.

Our Recommended Dual Zone Wine Coolers

These are the dual-zone wine refrigerators that we believe are worth your attention in 2023.

1. Kalamera 157-Bottle Freestanding Wine Refrigerator

One of the most popular dual zone wine coolers on the market is the spacious Kalamera Freestanding Wine Refrigerator that provides enough storage space for up to 157 wine bottles.

That's a huge amount of wine and thankfully this model is also available in 30 and 46 bottle sizes too.

With front vents, it doesn't need any clearance at the back or sides and will fit snuggly into any space.

The upper zone cools down to temperatures ranging between 40 and 50°F, while the lower zone will keep your wines at temperatures between 50 and 66°F. There's around a 60/40 split between the two.

The two temperature zones can be controlled independently with the digital control panel on the front. There's also a memory function that saves temperature settings in the result of a power cut.

With soft blue LED lights illuminating the beechwood shelves of the interior, this dual-zone wine fridge looks amazing too.

In our opinion, this is the best dual zone wine fridge for large wine collections on the market right now.

2. Wine Enthusiast 18-Bottle Wine Fridge

A beautiful dual zone wine cooler, perfect to keep up to 18 bottles of wine, this Wine Enthusiast wine cooler impresses with its sleek design that can match any interior.

It has a 6-bottle capacity top zone that's ideal for keeping wine to hand at serving temperature. Below, the larger 12-bottle space is perfect for long term storage and aging.

The independent temperature zones are controlled with an easy to use control panel on the top of the door. 

One of the best features of this wine cooler is the upright bottle storage space at the bottom. This allows you to keep cool a wine bottle that is already opened or simply keep your favorite bottle on display.

3. Koolatron 45-Bottle Dual Zone Wine Cellar

Another popular dual zone wine cooler is the Koolatron 45 Bottle Dual Zone Wine Cellar.

It can hold up to 45 Bordeaux wine bottles at a time, while the cooler is actually divided into two separate zones, each with its own door.

The aspect of this compressor wine cooler is modern and sleek, being enhanced by the aluminum details. The doors are made of dark tempered glass and your collection of wines will simply glow in the soft blue light.

The wine shelves are made of metal and are very slim, occupying very little space inside the cooler and a useful basket placed on the bottom will allow you to store even more wine bottles.

A LED display will let you set and control the temperature in both compartments, that can vary between 45 and 54°F in the upper zone and between 54 and 65°F in the lower zone.

4. Haier 12-Bottle Dual Zone

A small and rather economical solution for all those wine enthusiasts who are just beginning to form a collection of wines is the Haier 12-bottle dual zone wine cellar.

In fact, Haier manufactures small wine cellars suitable for 6 up to 18 bottles, but the 12-bottle wine cooler might be the right solution for the starters.

With a beautiful design and a dual touchscreen display, this unit is perfect for the storage of both red and white wines in zones with temperatures that vary from 46 to 66°F and from 54 to 66°F.

5. Koldfront 18-Bottle Dual Zone

The last dual zone wine cooler on our list is the Koldfront 18 Bottle Free Standing Dual Zone Wine Cooler, a unit designed to hold up to 18 bottles.

Like most thermoelectric coolers, the Koldfront unit has the temperature varying between 46 and 66°F in the lower zone and between 54 and 66°F in the upper zone.

The contemporary design fits perfectly even in the most classical interiors thanks to the steel details and to the beautiful wooden storage racks.

The temperature is controlled by a digital display and the tempered glass door is provided with a convenient safety lock.

Conclusion

The Kalamera 157-Bottle Wine Refrigerator is our pick for the best large dual zone fridge.

This unit is ideal for both wine enthusiasts and winemakers who don’t have access to a regular cellar, allowing you to store up to 157 bottles at the same time.

Being a compressor-based wine cooler, the unit will not have any issues in maintaining the set temperature, and you can choose to preserve, or just chill the wines, according to your needs.

With front venting it doesn't need side or back clearances so it's great for tight spaces too.

However, with a 157 bottle capacity it is huge.

If you need something smaller (much smaller) the Wine Enthusiast model is awesome too. With an 18-bottle capacity, it's a great size to get a wine collection started.