Soon wanting to move into some aged, hard cheeses which necessitates a cheese cave. Leaning strongly toward a wine cooler (compressor cooled only).
My needs are not huge. Most of my cheeses will be in the 2-3 pound range and will have only 3-4 at a time to age. Will be waxing or vacuum sealing so need for RH control, from what I understand.
Any suggestions as to brands/models/size would serve my needs for my modest use. This would help me as I search for a new or used unit.
Many thanks.
Hi--I just acquired my first cheese cave this summer! And I did not bring home what I thought I would. What helped me was, first, reading all the related posts on the subject in this forum. Next, I went to town and physically looked at all the models available from several stores (Best Buy, Home Depot, etc.). The wine coolers, which I was most interested in, that were available at the time were either too big, too pricey, or too small. My last stop was at Costco for food shopping, and by chance they had a 4.4 cubic foot frig, without a freezer compartment (important feature to me), Hisense is the brand. It was on sale, and since the floor model was the only unit left and it had surface scratches on the top, it was further discounted. Needless to say it found it's way to my home, and I've been very happy with it thus far. Since it's a frig, I did need to purchase a separate temperature controller.
I've been happy with my HEC brand wine cooler, especially after I made some wood-slat shelving to replace the curvy metal shelves that came with it. Best feature is that it has a temperature control with LED readout. I bought this for $100 off of Craigslist.