Maintaining the integrity of your wine is a unique task that regular fridges aren’t prepared to perform. To foster an ideal environment for fine wines to thrive, a wine refrigerator varies from a regular refrigerator in three essential categories with differences that come down to temperature, humidity and cost.
Temperature: Regular refrigerators keep perishable items at their freshest when set in the range of 33–40°F (0–4°C), but wine refrigerators generally have temperature ranges between 40–65°F (4–18°C) to best preserve white, sparkling and red wines.
Humidity: Your refrigerator captures moist air and funnels it out of the compartment, making it the cold and dry place it’s meant to be. Wine refrigerators, however, maintain a higher level of humidity to help prevent bottle corks from drying out and allowing air to pass through, spoiling the wine.
Cost: Their considerably smaller size and specialized feature set means that, on average, wine refrigerators cost less than regular refrigerators.