Antarctic Star 26 Bottle / 130 Can Wine Cooler Review: cheap, cold, and a bit noisy

I’ve been using this Antarctic Star 26-bottle / 130-can cooler as a combo wine and beer fridge at home. I didn’t buy it to build a fancy wine cellar, more as a way to get drinks out of the main fridge and keep a few bottles at a decent temperature. So I went into it with pretty down‑to‑earth expectations: keep drinks cold, don’t sound like a jet engine, and don’t die after a month.

In day‑to‑day use, it does the basics fairly well. It cools fast, it holds temperature reasonably, and it fits a good amount of cans if you play Tetris with the shelves. For wine, you can hit the usual 55°F target without much hassle. The blue LED light is mostly cosmetic, but it does make it easier to see what’s inside at night without lighting up the whole room.

On the flip side, this is not a premium appliance. The build feels like a typical budget fridge: lots of plastic, wire racks, and a compressor that you can hear if the room is quiet. Some users report popping and cracking noises and I’ve had a bit of that too, especially in the first days. It’s not unusable, but if you’re super sensitive to noise, it’s something to keep in mind.

Overall, I’d put it in the “pretty solid for the price” category. It’s not flawless, and you can tell where they saved money, but if you just want a freestanding drinks fridge that keeps wine and cans cold and you’re okay with a bit of noise and manual defrost, it gets the job done.

For what it costs, this Antarctic Star cooler offers good value, with clear trade‑offs. You’re getting a 3.2 cu.ft glass‑door fridge that can handle both wine and cans, with adjustable shelves and a decent temperature range. If you compare it to more “wine‑specialized” brands, you’ll often pay a lot more just for the label and slightly better finishes. Here, most of your money goes into the basic hardware: compressor, glass door, and storage volume.

The compromises are where the price shows: manual defrost, some noise, average materials, and occasional quality‑control hiccups like noisy compressors or faulty panels. The good news is the 4.2/5 rating over more than 5,000 reviews suggests that most units behave fine, but the bad ones are out there. If you’re the type who gets stressed by any defect or by dealing with returns, you might see that as a big negative.

In daily use, it does save space in the main fridge and makes hosting easier. For me, that alone has been worth the money. Being able to stack a ton of cans and keep wine at a decent temp without hogging kitchen fridge shelves is practical. It’s not glamorous, but it’s useful. Compared to buying a smaller, prettier unit with half the capacity for a similar price, I’d rather have this one that actually holds a party’s worth of drinks.

So in terms of value: good deal if you want capacity and don’t mind a few rough edges. If you have a bigger budget and care more about silence, perfect fit‑and‑finish, and long‑term reliability, you’ll probably be happier stepping up to a more expensive brand. For a budget home bar or extra drink storage in a pantry, this one makes sense.

Design‑wise, this thing is pretty straightforward. You get a black body with a silver‑trimmed glass door (depending on the exact version you pick) and a blue interior LED light. It looks fine next to regular stainless or black kitchen appliances. It’s not high‑end, but it doesn’t scream “cheap dorm fridge” either. The glass door is clear, so people will see your drink stash, which is great for a bar area but maybe less ideal if you hate visual clutter.

The control panel is basic: a small digital display and a few buttons. There’s a small learning curve because, as several reviewers mentioned, you need to hold the lightbulb button until it beeps before you can change the temperature or toggle the light. Once you know that trick, it’s easy, but out of the box it’s not intuitive, and the manual is just okay. If you’re not patient with buttons, you might get annoyed for the first few minutes.

Inside, you’ve got wire shelves that are removable and adjustable. They’re not fancy, but they’re functional. The layout is clearly optimized for horizontal wine bottles, but with some shelf removal you can stand bottles upright or turn the fridge into a can monster. The downside is that wire racks can make bottles a bit wobbly, especially half‑empty ones. If you’re constantly pulling things in and out, expect a bit of rattling and label scraping.

One detail I noticed: the leveling legs at the front matter a lot. If you don’t set them right, the door might not close as smoothly, and you can get extra vibration noise. Once I adjusted the legs properly, the door sealed better and the noise went down a notch. Overall, the design is practical and fairly compact, but you can feel they focused on function and price over fancy finishes or clever storage tricks.

The materials are exactly what you’d expect at this price point: mostly painted metal, plastic trim, wire shelves, and a glass door. The cabinet itself feels reasonably sturdy when you push on it; it doesn’t flex or feel like it’s going to cave in. The door has a decent weight and the seal around it seems tight enough. It’s not on the same level as a premium under‑counter unit, but it doesn’t feel like it’s going to fall apart the first time you move it either.

Inside, the wire shelves are both a plus and a minus. They’re strong enough to hold a full row of bottles without bending, so no worries about sagging. But wire means bottles can rock a bit if you bump them, and labels can catch. If you’re picky about keeping labels pristine, you’ll notice. The black finish on the shelves and interior looks fine out of the box, but it will scratch if you drag metal caps or cans across it aggressively.

One complaint I’ve seen (and I agree) is the plastic smell when you first open it. Mine had that typical new‑appliance odor for a few days. It goes away if you leave the door open for a while before first use and wipe everything down, but the first impression isn’t great. Another user mentioned ugly stickers and residue on the outside; mine had factory stickers too, and they did leave some glue when I peeled them off. A bit of elbow grease and cleaner took it off, but again, it’s a small annoyance that reminds you this is a budget product.

Overall, the materials are nothing special but effective. You can tell where they saved money—no fancy shelving, no thick insulation panels, no premium handle—but it doesn’t feel like a toy. If you treat it as a mid‑range bar fridge and not a luxury showpiece, the build quality is acceptable.

Durability is always tricky to judge without years of use, but between my experience and the reviews, there’s a pattern. The compressor and cooling system seem generally okay, but there are some cases of parts failing after a few months, like the control panel dying. One user mentioned the electronic panel failing in about three months, which isn’t great. On the other hand, there are many reviews from people who’ve had it running for longer without issues. So it’s a bit of a lottery, like most budget appliances.

Where Antarctic Star stands out a bit is customer service. Several reviewers mentioned very fast responses, even on weekends, and the company either sending replacement parts or just shipping a whole new unit when they couldn’t fix the issue. In one case, they replaced the fridge because a part wasn’t available. In another, they gave partial refunds when the customer didn’t want the hassle of returning a noisy unit. In my own contact with them (about a noise question), they replied quickly and didn’t give me canned nonsense.

That doesn’t excuse quality control problems, but it does make the risk a bit easier to swallow. If you get a unit with weird popping sounds or a panel that acts up, it seems they actually try to make it right instead of ghosting you. Still, you need to be okay with the possibility of dealing with support, especially in the first months.

Long term, I wouldn’t treat this as a 10‑year investment piece. It feels more like a 3–5 year secondary fridge you buy knowing it might not outlive your main kitchen fridge. For the price, that’s not shocking, but if you want something to build into cabinetry and forget for a decade, you should probably look higher up the range.

On performance, the cooler does the main job: it cools fast and keeps drinks cold. From room temperature, I could get cans down to a nice, crisp chill in a couple of hours. Wine bottles take longer, obviously, but if you set it around 45–50°F for beer/soda, it feels pretty close to a standard kitchen fridge in terms of cooling speed. For long‑term wine storage at 55°F, it holds that number fairly well, with a few degrees of swing when the compressor cycles.

Noise is where things get a bit mixed. There’s the usual low humming from the compressor that you’d expect. In a kitchen or living room with a TV or normal background noise, it’s fine. In a dead‑quiet room, you’ll hear it. On top of that, like some other users reported, I also got the occasional popping or cracking sound. From what I can tell, it’s the compressor and the metal/plastic expanding and contracting. It’s not constant, but when it happens at night, you notice it. If you have skittish pets, they might jump the first few times.

Another point: this is manual defrost. If you set the temperature too low and pack it full, you can get some ice buildup on the back wall, especially if you open the door a lot. One of the angry reviews mentioned ice forming even at 55°F; I didn’t get that at 55°F, but I did see light frost when I ran it colder and loaded it heavily. Every now and then you’ll need to power it off, let it thaw, and wipe it down. Not a big deal, but definitely not as low‑maintenance as a frost‑free fridge.

So in practice: performance is pretty solid for a budget unit. Drinks get cold, wine can be stored at a reasonable temp, and it doesn’t struggle unless you suffocate it in a tight space. Just don’t expect total silence or zero maintenance. If you can live with a bit of humming, some occasional pops, and the odd defrost session, it does what it’s supposed to do.

On paper, this Antarctic Star is a 3.2 cu.ft freestanding beverage and wine cooler that claims up to 26 standard bottles of wine or 130 cans. That number is technically possible only if you really pack it and mostly use cans. In real life, with a mix of bottles and cans and shelves spaced so you’re not scraping labels, you’ll be under those max numbers. For a normal household, it’s still plenty of storage for weekend use or small parties.

The temperature range is 40°F to 61°F, which covers both beer/soda territory and wine storage. If you’re fussy about wine, 55°F is easy to set and maintain most of the time. Just understand this is a single‑zone unit: you can’t keep reds and whites at different temps. I ended up using it mainly for whites, sparkling, and beer, and leaving reds at room temperature or in the top area where it’s slightly warmer.

Dimensions are 19.29"D x 17.52"W x 31.18"H, so it’s basically the size of a tall dorm fridge. It’s meant for freestanding use only, and they insist on leaving at least 5 inches of clearance on all sides. That’s important: if you cram it into a tight cabinet thinking you’re clever, it will run hotter, louder, and probably die sooner. It weighs about 48.5 pounds, so one person can move it around carefully, but two is more comfortable.

In practice, I’d describe it as a compact bar fridge that happens to have wine‑friendly shelving and a glass door. It’s not a built‑in unit, it’s not a dual‑zone wine cellar, and it’s not a silent piece of furniture. It’s a basic compressor cooler that lives happily in a kitchen corner, pantry, or home bar area and keeps a decent amount of drinks cold without costing a fortune.

In terms of pure effectiveness, the cooler does its main job: it stores a decent amount of wine and drinks at a stable temperature. The horizontal racking works fine for standard 750 ml bottles. If you only store normal‑sized bottles and follow their layout, you can get close to the 26‑bottle claim. The problem starts when you add thicker Champagne bottles, odd‑shaped craft beer bottles, or try to stand things upright. Then you quickly realize that the advertised capacity is more of a theoretical max than a realistic everyday number.

For mixed use, I ended up running it like this:

• Top shelves: horizontal wine bottles.
• Middle: a mix of standing bottles with one shelf removed.
• Bottom: rows of cans laid flat or stacked.

The temperature consistency is decent. The top is usually a bit warmer than the bottom, which is normal for this kind of fridge. If you’re picky, you can use that to your advantage: keep beer and sparkling at the bottom, whites in the middle, and anything less sensitive at the top. Compared to a true wine cellar, it’s less precise, but for everyday drinking bottles it’s fine.

So, effectiveness wise, I’d say: it gets the job done for casual wine drinkers and people who want extra drink storage. If you’re a serious collector with expensive bottles, or you need perfect temperature control and layout flexibility, you’ll probably find it limiting. But as a secondary fridge for the stuff you actually drink regularly, it works.