Best Commercial Beer Fridge(Review 2023) – What to consider before buying a commercial beer fridge?
Maybe you already had a big refrigerator in your kitchen area or not but you still want to buy a better appliance that is smaller and more accessible than your large cooler. Especially, on the days like summer, you will not want to preserve your beers with other products in the same fridge because they need to be cooled in perfect temperature and environment to reach the best taste. Therefore, a commercial beer fridge will definitely meet your demand and here I am to help you find the best commercial beer fridge. There are a lot of helpful tips and buying guides waiting for you in the next parts.
You might want to see this first: Best Beer Homebrewing Kit.
What exactly a Commercial Beer Fridge is?
A commercial beer fridge is as known as a commercial beverage fridge/refrigerator that has a compact design to store beers. It is specially produced and placed in a small area like under your countertop in the kitchen, even in your bedroom or living room for convenience.
People buy a small fridge for not only storing beers but also other drinks such as wine, coca, soda,… that depends on its size and capacity.
Why should you Have a Commercial Beer Fridge?
If you are still hesitant between should you buy a commercial beer cooler or not, this part will give the exact and satisfying answer that how it is important and convenient to have a beer fridge in your house.
#1 “Intelligent” design
Beer refrigerators illustrate an essential part of domestic places with a small and compact form. They come with the ideal sizes that can be moved around your house from the kitchen to the living room or the patio. You can place them in any corner under your countertop or near the bed or the sofa because they look like short and tiny cabinets with the cooling functions. Because the commercial beer fridge has its portability so you don’t have to stand up and move around to take a cold beer, it is right there and near your side.
Moreover, the commercial drink cooler is also designed with a sleek and modern style so it seems to have aesthetic value too; therefore, it can fit with every different item of furniture in your house.
Besides, units of these beer fridges are specialized so they allow you to store more beers at the same time and in the same space without taking the available area in your main large refrigerator when your friends come over on a regular basis.
#2 Maintaining the best taste
Some may wonder how the taste of beers change when you store them in different environments. For beer-lovers, they think that the normal refrigerator does not have the humidity control to keep the original flavors of beers. Furthermore, the big fridge also vibrates when running and has unstable temperatures because they need to adjust the internal temperatures suitable for the whole space, resulting in the altered flavor of your beer.
What to Consider Before Buying a Commercial Beer Fridge?
#1 Freestanding vs. Built-In
These types depend on your location for placing your commercial drinks fridge. With the built-in fridge, there is no gap or distance between the counter and the cabinets to the fridge. Therefore, the built-in commercial beverage refrigerators have an air vent at the front bottom edge (not any different spot) in order to let the air circulate. It is best for those who want their beer fridge directly installed with the cabinet or inline with other appliance in the place.
Nevertheless, a freestanding beverage cooler needs a space at the top (below the counter) and at each side or its rear which helps the freestanding fridge will not overheat quickly. To do that, it is equipped with a vent located at the side or rear to allow heat to vanish. This type is compact and designed to sit on the counter, table, shelves or wherever you want to place.
#2 Size and Capacity
The size and capacity of a commercial beer beverage can hold up to 120 cans or more for the large type, 60 cans for the small one and few for personal use only. You need to consider how many cans or bottles you want to preserve and if your house is a usual destination for meetings, you might need a large size refrigerator than a mini. This size could decide the height of your fridge as short or tall.
#3 Quality construction
The high-quality construction of any appliance illustrates its lifetime. First, your beer fridge needs to be made of durable materials such as stainless steel so it cannot be rusted and broken too soon. You also need to consider details like the shelves must be sturdy and not too flimsy to remove, the handle is bolted to the door securely and other necessary components of your fridge.
#4 Accurate thermostat
The temperature inside the refrigerator needs to display accurately so you would know whether your beers are preserved in the right temp or not. It is accepted to have a 5-degree difference between the display temp and the actual one.
For a thermostat of the fridge, you also can look for a refrigerator that has digital instant-read or thermistors. Digital one will be much easier and precise so you can adjust the temperatures automatically.
#5 Quiet operation
A beer fridge should not be louder than your big refrigerator or even your dishwasher. A modern model usually has a thermoelectric and virtually silent operation comparing to compressor models that are a bit noisy.
#6 Sensible control
The buttons of the beer fridge should be responsive and quick enough to manage the operation. The internal and display LED should work exactly as they are designed to work like turning off automatically. Moreover, the locking button should be turned on manually if it has just one.
#7 Good user reviews
They are the most reliable factor for newbies to look for. A good beer beverage cooler will definitely has consistently positive reviews and high-rated scores on the e-commerce markets. So before deciding to buy a whole new beer refrigerator, check some trustworthy websites and the rating scores on Amazon for sure.
Top 5 Best Commercial Beer Fridge 2023
#1 hOmeLabs Beverage Refrigerator and Cooler
The refrigerator from hOmeLabs is used to preserve both beer and wine so you just make the shelving both versatile and reliable not adjust it to hold the drinks inside. It can hold up to 120 cans of beers and 60 bottles of wine.
Manufactures of hOmeLabs design a blue LED bulb inside the fridge with a glass front door for clearer visibility. You can see how many and what types of beers or wines are there in the refrigerator from outsides without opening it.
Moreover, there is a very large digital display temperature on top of the fridge that is easy and convenient to watch. This interior can cool down to 34 degrees F and automatically restore to the temperature presets you install in case of a power outage.
The hOmeLabs cooler has auto defrosting function so you don’t have to worry about icing problems. Besides, it is also a noise free execution item for people who really hate noises from kitchen tools.
One issue with a beer cooler can hold wine is that it doesn’t have the right humidity level that will affect the taste of wine. However, this commercial beverage fridge guarantees the humidity is just right and you can enjoy your wine at any time.
Unfortunately, this also have some minus points that the low shelves seem to be colder than the top shelf and although they are removable but still quite flimsy, not sturdy enough.
#2 NewAir Beverage Cooler and Refrigerator
NewAir cooler is considered as a good beer fridge also as a good commercial soda refrigerator. Why did I say that? Because many mini fridges that holds up to 126 cans of beer or soda don’t have a power to make their drinks a little frosty, but the NewAir can. It can get your beers or soda down to a chilly 34 degrees D and taste much more better.
Like the hOmeLabs one, it is also equipped with a glass front door and the interior LED to see what’s inside the appliance. 5 easily removable chrome racks will help you customer the storage of cans and bottles with various sizes and shapes.
One feature of this fridge is that the noise level is about 35 decibels – an acceptable quiet level and will not affect your break time. One more thing, it is a freestanding item with a vent on the rear so I recommend you to keep a distance between the fridge and the near area, prevent overheating.
There is a limitation of this beverage cooler that it is not designed with an auto defrosting function, resulting if ice melts, this could spill out. To fix this problem, you just need to place a pan under the item to let melting ices go off.
#3 Danby Beverage Center
This Danby item is built to hold up to 120 cans, similar to the two fridges above. However, that number depends on the sizes, so it may store different types of other drinks like bottles of wine, soda, coca.
This case has the transparent window that can open from right or left side and a blue LED seem to be very convenient for users to see what is stored inside.
It comes with a mechanical thermostat for control with temperature range from 43 degrees F to 57 degrees F – may it is not cold enough for some special drinks,
If you have children or live with them in the house, so don’t worry about keeping beer within arm’s reach because it is installed a function that you can manually set to lock the fridge. Obviously, it is much safer than the items don’t have this essential mechanism.
As I’ve said, this item has a quite small temperature range so some customers complaints that sometimes their drinks were not cold enough to serve their guests. So if you are looking for an item that make your beers a little cool to chill than cold as frost, you can consider the Danby beverage fridge.
Note that the blue LED inside the refrigerator will need to operate manually by pressing the switch situated on the left side on the ceiling so that it can remain on while the glass door is closed.
#4 Ivation 18 Bottle Cooler
If you a beer or wine bottle lover, you should buy your own Ivation cooler right now. This freestanding beverage fridge is designed to protect and ensure their fullest flavors and perfect quality.
The environment inside the fridge comes with optimal and consistent temperatures. This item creates a temperature range from 54 degrees F to 64 degrees F with an efficient thermoelectric cooling system and superior insulation – a perfect condition for protecting the taste of wines (but not cold enough to keep beers a little frosty), so it is usually considered as a commercial wine fridge UK.
Moreover, the Ivation fridge is not a commercial mini fridge glass front like the others because it uses a smoked door to maintain the persistent humidity and keep the cork not drying out. This is designed to prevent air and any light from outside from entering the fridge that can break down the complex molecules – the creation of special flavors in beer bottles or properly aged wines.
This item can hold just 18 standard 750ml bottles of beer and wine in six slide-out Chrome racks at the same time. It is also very quiet and recognized to not vibrate due to an energy-efficient thermoelectric cooling system with no compressor.
Nevertheless, some customers complain about the temperature inside the unit is not keep consistent when they check by the thermometer, it fluctuates among 5 degrees F.
#5 Whynter BR-130SB Beverage Refrigerator
Whynter is a well-known brand that makes high-quality cooling appliances. May you be familiar with their fans and air conditioners, this brand also makes the beer fridge as well.
This unit has the capacity to hold up to 120 cans in five removable shelves. Even if you want to store cans, bottles or some different types in there, they can fit relatively well.
The Whynter is made of sleek stainless steel and has durable metal shelves so it can hold up and last over time.
As most beer fridges, this item comes with a glass-door case and soft interior lighting with an on/off switch that helps you to increase the visibility inside without opening it. However, its front handle is not recessed into the side so it can be quite difficult to grab with that type of grip.
Looking at the temperature range, this mechanical temperature control from high 30 degrees F to mid 60 degrees D – a little better than most. In fact, you can set it down to about freezing at the coldest setting, your drinks could get icy and extra cold in your fridge.
However, there is an uneven temperature distribution between drinks in the back and on the upper shelves. Beers in the back seem to be very cold to freeze but on the upper shelves, they still maintain fairly cool. It is also a bit noisy, not super quiet.
Conclusion
For those who want a cooler smaller and more compact than the traditional big refrigerator in the kitchen, buying your own a beverage fridge is nothing more ideal and convenient.
Although each brand has its own strength and weakness from the sturdy materials, the capacity, the wide temperature range to the sleek designs, I hope you will find your best commercial bottle cooler to store. However, if they are not bottles of wine, a beer fridge or commercial soda cooler is also good for you to have.
Hope this helps and thanks for reading to the final!
You may want to see: Best Beer Homebrewing Kit