Emerson 8-Bottle Wine Cellar Review (FR24RD)
January 2020 UPDATE:
The Emerson 8-bottle wine cellar has been discontinued by the manufacturer – not a bad thing, since it's ratings were not at all positive.
We have two new, very promising wine coolers in the 8-bottle range, however. The NutriChef PKTEWC08 8 Bottle Thermoelectric Wine Cooler/Chiller is a very popular counter-top model, very nice-looking (not the photo here – that's the Emerson), with outstanding reviews. It gets 4.3 stars on Amazon, at a solid sampling of 68 reviews, as of this writing. We'll provide a full review in the near future. They call it a “red and white wine cooler”, although it's actually a single-zone cooler – but, you can set the temperature for either one – just one type at a time.
If a 6-bottle wine cooler works for you, you might want to check out the Magic Chef MCWC6B 6-Bottle Single-Zone Wine Cooler. It gets even better reviews – 4.5 stars on Amazon (rare in the small appliance niche), from a great sampling of 306 reviews as of this writing. Again, we'll have a full review soon, but you can see the details here, right now.
Original (Emerson FR24RD) Review:
Our Rating: 
Based on: 13 reviews/ratings
Approximate price: $80
Capacity: 8 bottles
Features:
- LED displays temperature and adjustable control
- Interior light illuminates the bottles inside
- Thermoelectric cooling system; compressor-free design operates silently without vibrating
- Tempered glass door
- Stainless steel look (not actual metal)
- 10.7Hx19.6Wx16.2D”
Pros:
- Thermoelectric, so energy-efficient and quiet, with no vibration
- Stylish
- Inexpensive as wine coolers go
Cons:
- Reliability problems
- Limited capacity (compared to larger models – true for all 8 bottle wine coolers)
- Some concerns about temperature accuracy
- Being thermoelectric, cannot cool more than 20 degrees lower than ambient temperature
Sampling of owner comments about the Sunbeam 8 bottle wine cellar:
- “sleek, elegant design, very quiet, chills to perfect temperature”
- “effective wine cooler for the price”
- “a very thoughtful gift”
- “will not hold oversize bottles, uses a lot of counter space”
- “too big for a doorstop, too small for a closet, too warm for a fridge”
- “poor customer support”
- “stopped cooling after about 18 months”
- “won't work for long”
Our review:
The Emerson 8-bottle wine cooler seems like it would make a very nice gift for a wine lover. It is very stylish-looking, small enough to keep on display, and is inexpensive as wine cooler/chillers go. Furthermore, it’s a thermoelectric cooler, so it’s quiet and energy efficient. It is small, although not as small as some buyers had expected.
Several customers bought this unit thinking it would fit nicely on a counter-top, but it does take up considerable space. And, it should be noted that the stated 8-bottle capacity is only for a “standard” sized water bottle – generally, a Bordeaux bottle. Longer bottles, such as Rieslings and Champagnes, may not fit at all. Wider bottles, such as Burgundies, will reduce the number of bottles that will fit..
Unfortunately, a large percentage of current (or previous) owners report problems with the unit. In our sampling of a dozen reviews, 4 reviewers noted that their coolers had failed completely, in less than a year. Two other reviewers noted that the actual temperature inside did not match the temperature indicated on the unit. Another reviewer complained about an odor coming from the unit that was bad enough that they had to move it to another room. More recent buyers (7 reviews, all less than 2 months old when we read them) report being quite happy with their Emerson wine cooler – possibly due to their having owned it only a few weeks. Nevertheless, we are concerned with the long-term reliability of the Emerson 8 bottle wine cooler.
Bottom line recommendation:
The Emerson 8 Bottle Wine Cooler is NOT RECOMMENDED.
Check out our other recommendations for 8-bottle wine cooler/chillers, and our wine cooler buyer's guide.