Antarctic Star 1.7 cu.ft Wine Cooler Review: compact drink fridge that does the job (with a few quirks)

I’ve been using this Antarctic Star 1.7 cu.ft wine and beverage cooler as a secondary drinks fridge, not as some fancy wine cellar. Think sodas, beers, a few bottles of wine, and the occasional energy drink. I put it in a small home office at first, then tried it in an open living area to see how loud it really was and how well it actually cooled compared to my main kitchen fridge.

On paper it looks pretty solid: up to 16 bottles or 68 cans, digital temp control, blue LED light, and a glass door so you can see what’s inside. In practice, it’s decent, but it’s not magic. It keeps drinks cold enough for most people, but if you’re picky about having your beer almost icy, this might feel a bit soft. The brand clearly positions it more as a wine/beverage chiller than a regular mini fridge, and that shows in the temperature range.

What stood out to me after a couple of weeks is that it’s a compact, straightforward unit. No fancy app, no Wi‑Fi, just set the temperature, load it, and forget it. When it’s running, you do hear it. It’s not crazy loud, but it’s not silent either. I’d call it “background noise you notice in quiet rooms.” If you’re sensitive to sound in a bedroom or open living room, that’s something to keep in mind.

Overall, my first impression is: good value if you just want cold drinks in a small space and don’t baby your gear, but it’s not perfect. There are quirks with the touch controls, the noise, and the real storage capacity versus what’s advertised. If you go in with realistic expectations, it gets the job done, but if you’re dreaming of a pro wine cellar feel, this isn’t it.

Looking at the price point and the Amazon ranking (it’s sitting high in freestanding wine cellars and beverage fridges), this Antarctic Star offers pretty solid value for money, as long as your expectations are realistic. You’re paying for a compact, glass-door drink fridge with digital controls and a quiet-ish compressor, not for a precision wine cellar or a heavy-duty garage unit.

On the positive side, you get:

• Decent cooling down to about 40°F for drinks.
• Good customer service – multiple buyers mention fast responses and even full replacements when parts failed.
• Compact footprint that fits under a counter or in a small room without hogging space.

On the downside, there are trade-offs: the real capacity is less than the big numbers on the listing, the touch controls are a bit annoying at first, and the noise level rules it out for super quiet bedrooms. Also, if you plan to use it in a very hot or uninsulated space, performance drops and you’ll probably be disappointed. In that scenario, you’d be better off spending more on a beefier unit without a glass door and with a lower temp range.

So in pure value terms, I’d say it’s a good buy for someone who wants a simple indoor drink fridge and doesn’t nitpick every detail. There are better, more robust models out there, but they usually cost more. If your budget is moderate and you want something that looks decent, keeps drinks cold enough, and you’re okay with a bit of compressor noise, this one makes sense. If you want perfect silence, super low temps, and exact capacity as advertised, you’ll probably end up a bit annoyed and should look higher up the range.

Design-wise, this fridge is pretty straightforward: black body, front glass door, blue LED light inside. It looks clean and modern enough that it doesn’t cheapen the room. It’s not high-end, but it doesn’t scream “dorm room” either. The tinted double-pane glass is a nice touch because you can see your drinks without opening the door, and it helps a bit with insulation. The blue LED is more for vibe than function, but I actually like it – you can easily spot what’s inside at night without turning on a room light.

The interior layout is simple: two metal shelves you can move or remove. If you want to use it as a pure can fridge, you can stack rows and hit a pretty decent capacity. As soon as you start adding wine bottles horizontally, you’ll play Tetris a bit. The shelves feel okay, not premium, but they hold weight without bending. The plastic trim and interior aren’t fancy; they’re just basic and functional. One buyer mentioned a scratch on the front plastic – mine didn’t have that, but the material does feel like it could scratch if you’re rough with it.

Now, the noise. This is the part people either tolerate or hate. When the compressor kicks in, you get a continuous soft whooshing sound, almost like someone lightly breathing through a mask – the “Darth Vader” description from another review is actually pretty accurate. In my small office, I noticed it while working in silence, but it didn’t drive me crazy. In my open living room during a quiet movie, I did catch myself hearing it in the background, and that got a bit annoying. Once it reaches temp, it cycles and quiets down, but it’s not a silent appliance.

So in terms of design, it looks decent and fits nicely in most rooms, but I wouldn’t put it right next to a bed or in a super quiet reading corner if you’re sensitive to noise. For a home bar, gaming room, or office where there’s usually some background sound, it’s fine. The design is more about function than style, and that’s okay at this price point, just don’t expect luxury finishes.

The materials on this Antarctic Star are very much “good enough for the price”. The outer shell is a standard painted metal, the door is double-pane tempered glass with a plastic frame, and the inside is basic molded plastic with metal wire shelves. Nothing feels premium, but nothing felt flimsy to the point where I was worried it would fall apart. The door seals firmly, and the gasket seems decent – you get a solid “thunk” when you close it, not a rattly feel.

One thing to watch is the front plastic trim and panel. A user mentioned receiving theirs with a scratch on the front, and I can see how that happens. The plastic can scuff fairly easily if you bump it with something sharp or drag it against a rough surface. Mine arrived clean, but after a couple of weeks, I could already see a minor mark near the handle area from regular use. Not dramatic, but if you’re picky about cosmetics, you’ll notice every little mark.

The part that really feels a bit cheap is the touch control panel. It works, but the touch sensitivity is not great. You sometimes have to press harder or use two thumbs to get it to register, especially for unlocking the controls. There’s a lock feature that kicks in after a while, and to unlock it you’re supposed to hold the UNLOCK and LIGHT buttons at the same time. In practice, you need to press them with firm pressure and hold for a bit, otherwise nothing happens. Once you get used to the trick, it’s fine, but the first time it’s slightly frustrating and the manual doesn’t help much.

So in terms of materials and usability, it’s a basic build with an average control panel. The compressor itself seems decent – some users even had parts fail and got replacements or new units quickly, so at least the company seems to stand behind it. Just don’t expect a luxury feel or ultra-responsive controls at this price; it’s more “it works if you press it right” than “smooth and polished.”

On performance, the big question is: does it actually keep drinks cold? Overall, yes, but with limits. The digital thermostat lets you set between 40°F and 61°F. Mine consistently hovered around 40–42°F on the lowest setting, measured with a cheap fridge thermometer I tossed inside. For sodas and casual beer drinking, that’s fine. My kitchen fridge is set closer to 37°F, so side by side, the drinks from the main fridge feel slightly colder, but not by a huge margin.

What I noticed is that cool-down time is not instant. If you load it full of room-temperature cans and bottles, you need to give it several hours, sometimes overnight, to get everything down to a nice drinking temp. That’s normal for a small compressor fridge, but you need to plan ahead. Once it’s cooled and you’re just swapping a few cans at a time, it maintains temperature much better. The compressor kicks on and off, and that’s when you hear the whooshing noise, but the temp stays pretty stable in a regular indoor room.

Things start to fall apart a bit if you use it outside its comfort zone. In a hot, uninsulated garage in summer, it struggled a lot more. One reviewer mentioned seeing internal temps around 50°F in those conditions, and I believe it. This unit just isn’t built for harsh environments or big temperature swings. Inside the house, it holds its own; in a hot garage, it’s more of a lukewarm drink cabinet.

So performance-wise, I’d say it’s solid for what it is: a small indoor drink chiller. If you expect frosty bottles like something straight out of a bar’s back fridge, you might be a little underwhelmed at the 40°F floor. If you’re fine with “cold, not ice-cold,” it does the job. Just don’t try to use it as a backup food fridge or expect miracles in a boiling garage.

Let’s be clear: this Antarctic Star is a compact freestanding wine and beverage fridge, not a full mini fridge for food. The brand even says it: don’t use it for fresh food. The temperature range is 40–61°F, which is fine for drinks and wine, but it’s borderline if you’re trying to store things that really need to stay below 40°F for safety. I tried putting a few snacks and leftovers in there for fun – they stayed cool, but I wouldn’t trust it for anything perishable long term.

Capacity-wise, the listing says 16 bottles or 68 cans in 1.7 cu.ft. In real life, you only hit those numbers if you pack it very carefully and mostly choose one format (almost all cans or almost all standard wine bottles). Once you mix tall cans, random craft beer bottles, or chunky wine bottles, you lose space fast. I’d say in a normal mixed setup you’re more realistically in the 35–45 can zone plus a couple of bottles lying down. So yes, the capacity is a bit optimistic, and I understand the one-star review complaining about that.

The fridge is fully freestanding, with product dimensions around 16.34"D x 16.93"W x 22.24"H. That’s small enough to go under a desk, on a counter, or in a corner of a home office or bar area. I moved it alone without any trouble; it’s not super heavy. There’s just one front glass door and two adjustable shelves. Nothing fancy, but it’s enough to rearrange for either cans or bottles depending on what you drink the most.

In terms of positioning, it’s clearly not meant for rough environments. There’s a user review that tried it in an uninsulated garage and, honestly, that lines up with what the brand warns: it doesn’t like big temperature swings. In a hot garage, it struggled to keep things really cold. In a normal indoor room, it holds its set temperature much better. So, if you’re planning to stick this in a hot garage or a shed, I’d skip this model and look for something more heavy-duty without a glass door. For a bedroom, office, or small bar area, it makes more sense.

In day-to-day use, this fridge is practical more than impressive. Once I found a good spot for it in my office, it became a simple “grab a cold drink without walking to the kitchen” tool. I kept a mix of cans on the bottom and a few wine bottles on the top shelf. The adjustable shelves help a lot here – I ended up removing one shelf and using the interior more like two zones: cans stacked upright on the bottom, bottles lying down up top.

Accessibility is decent. The glass door lets you see what’s low before you open it, which is handy. The blue LED is more of a mood thing, but it’s genuinely useful at night when you don’t want to light up the whole room. The door opens smoothly, and the handle area is easy to grab. I had no issues with condensation on the glass in a normal indoor setting. The seal is good enough that you don’t feel cold air leaking out when you pass by.

From an “effectiveness” point of view, the key points for me were:

• Cold drinks on tap: It consistently kept cans and bottles at a drinkable temp once cooled.
• Space vs claim: Real-world capacity is less than the advertised 68 cans if you mix formats.
• Noise trade-off: You get the convenience of a drink fridge, but with a noticeable compressor sound in quiet rooms.

Over a couple of weeks, I stopped playing with the settings and just left it at the coldest level. I only really touched the panel to toggle the light sometimes. If you’re the kind of person who likes to constantly fine-tune temperature by a degree or two, this isn’t that kind of precision tool. But if you just want a cooler that keeps drinks ready and you don’t obsess over exact numbers, it’s effective enough and pretty low-maintenance once set up.