Waring Pro Single Bottle Wine Chiller (PC100)

by coolerman on November 18, 2009


Our Rating:
Based on: 25 reviews/ratings
Approximate price: $150 (around $80 online)
Capacity: 1 bottle

Features:

  • Professionally engineered and elegantly designed tabletop wine chiller
  • Offers precise, preprogrammed temperatures for 33 varieties of wine
  • Thermo-electric Peltier module with CPU control for constant temperature
  • LCD backlit screen; suitable for wine bottles with a diameter up to 3-1/2 inches
  • Measures 8 by 6 by 9 inches; 1-year limited warranty

Pros:

  • maintains a bottle of wine at the appropriate level throughout serving
  • pre-programmed for a variety of wine types – no need to know the correct serving temperature

Cons:

  • takes a long time to reach the appropriate temperature
  • many owners complain that it doesn't reach the correct temperature at all
  • fairly noisy
  • some concerns about temperature inaccuracy
  • doesn't work so well for chilling whites

Sampling of owner comments about the Waring Pro PC100 Single Bottle Wine Chiller:

  • simply does not chill white, rose, or sparkling wines to the desired temperature
  • This is as disappointed as I've ever been with a product before
  • maintains the wine's optimal temperature within a narrow band
  • (compared to the Cooper Cooler) PC100 will take longer to cool or warm, but you get to keep and read your label
  • best wine cooler I've seen so far
  • book says it would take approximately 53 minutes to chill to the serving temperature of 48 degrees – actually took over 2 hours
  • took 1 1/2 hours to chill to 44 degrees … when I poured the first glass it was actually at room temperature.
  • If you really want quick cooling, the Cooper is the way to go.
  • Keeps a cold bottle of wine cold without an ice bucket
  • electronic wine library gets each varietal to its perfect serving temperature
  • unbelievably noisy when operating

Our review:

For a product that bills itself as a wine chiller, the Waring Pro PC100 Wine Chiller doesn't actually chill wine very well. It takes considerably longer to chill a bottle of white wine than it claims. And, there have been some problems with the temperature of the wine actually being the same as indicated on the wine chiller unit. It does seem to maintain both red and white wines at the target temperature, once it's reached, however, which many owners found useful enough.

Most owners of this wine chiller who are happy with it either use it mostly to keep red wines at the right serving temperature, or chill their whites in a refrigerator or freezer in advance, and only use this chiller to arrive at the precise temperature and stay there. Having said that, a few owners did complain that the temperature reported by the wine chiller was inaccurate, after having checked it with a separate thermometer. Several commented that the bottom of the bottle was cooler than the top of the bottle, and the wine inside. I guess this isn't terribly surprising, since this particular wine chiller doesn't move the bottle and wine around.

All in all, the Waring Pro PC100 Wine Chiller seems to be a reasonable bet for red wine drinkers who wish to (reasonably) accurately control the temperature of whichever red varietal they happen to be enjoying. White wine drinkers who are willing to pre-chill their wine in a wine cooler or the kitchen fridge, may well be happy with it as well. Those expecting to use this wine chiller to quickly get a bottle of white wine to serving temperature would probably be much happier with the Cooper Cooler Rapid Wine Chiller, although their labels will suffer for the convenience.

Bottom line recommendation:

The Waring Pro PC100 Wine Chiller is RECOMMENDED, with reservations, described above.

See the Waring Pro PC100 Wine Chiller on Amazon

Check out our other recommendations for the Cooper Cooler Wine Chiller and our other single bottle wine chiller/coolers reviews, along with our wine cooler buyer's guide.

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