Who writes this

Jean-Benoit Buisson

Every page on this site is written and signed by one person. This page says who, how the judgments are reached, and — just as importantly — what he is not.

How I got here

This site began with a question that has nothing to do with any one appliance and everything to do with how they are all sold: why does the fridge-door dispenser everyone recommended pour a glass of foam? Every page I found while looking for an answer had the same shape — a ranked list, a score out of ten, an affiliate button, and not one figure I could check. None of them said which keg system a dispenser was actually built for, what a replacement door seal cost, whether a thermoelectric cooler would hold its setpoint in a warm kitchen, or that the fix was usually a €15 seal rather than a new machine.

That is the whole subject. The equipment in this category almost never fails outright; a door seal perishes, a coupler is the wrong type for the local keg, a CO2 regulator is set to the wrong pressure, and then the whole appliance gets blamed and replaced. A wine cooler runs constantly because of a worn seal, not a failing compressor. A beer dispenser locks a buyer into one keg catalog that nobody mentioned before checkout. An ice maker's first-batch time looks fast and its daily output does not keep up. None of that is on the front of the box, and all of it decides whether an appliance earns its place or ends up back in a cupboard by the following season.

So this is the page I wanted and could not find. I read what manufacturers publish, I check every product reference market by market, I follow what things actually cost rather than what they are listed at, and I say plainly when a figure is not published at all. That last part matters more than it sounds: most of the disappointment here comes from a number nobody printed.

I keep notes — the honest specification of each family, the place where the manual contradicts the sales page, which seal or coupler fits which unit, and the buying mistake each category invites. This site is those notes, put in order, in five languages, because the same question is asked in French, German, Spanish and Italian and gets a far worse answer in four of them.

I am not a refrigeration engineer, and I do not pretend to be. What I can do is read carefully, compare honestly, and tell you which figure the maker left out.

What this site covers

Everything listed here is taken from the catalog of this site, and each entry links to its own page. When the catalog changes, this list changes with it. It is a list of what is covered — not a list of what I own.

What I care about

Three beliefs that shape everything written here. The number that gets quoted is usually the wrong one — a dispenser sold on its cabinet rather than on which keg system it actually locks a buyer into, a wine cooler sold on bottle count rather than on compressor versus thermoelectric stability, an ice maker sold on first-batch time rather than daily output. What the thing costs over three years decides more than what it costs today — seals, kegs, capsules and cartridges are wear and consumable parts, and on entry-level models they can outrun the machine or simply not be stocked. And the thing that matters most is rarely on the specification sheet at all: noise at the setting people actually run overnight, because that is what decides if an appliance stays switched on or ends up back in a cupboard.

What I am not

I am not a refrigeration engineer, a bar-fitting technician or a sommelier. I hold no qualification in any of them, I have never worked for a manufacturer or for a retailer, and nothing here rests on any professional title. Nothing on this site is advice about drinking: this site describes an appliance — its capacity, its temperature range, its keg or coupler compatibility — and stops there. In particular, nothing here is a tasting note, a serving suggestion or guidance about how much to drink. If you are looking for someone whose authority comes from a job title, this is not that site — what each judgment rests on is stated on the page it appears on, and you can read how these pages arrive at an answer in full.

How I work

Every figure names its source: a manufacturer specification, a manual, a standard, or the weight of long-term owner reports.
No price, product reference or specification is ever invented. Where a figure is missing, the field is left empty and the gap is stated on the page.
Product references are verified against Amazon before publication, per market. Where a model is not sold in that store, you are sent to a local search rather than to a page that does not exist.
Where the cheap option wins, the page says the cheap option wins — and where the honest answer is a €15 replacement filter or a five-minute descale rather than a new machine, it says that instead.

Why this site exists

Because this equipment is sold on the wrong numbers. A beer dispenser is advertised on its cabinet and says nothing about the keg catalog that decides what can actually be poured through it once it is installed. A wine cooler is sold on bottle count and not on whether its door seal is stocked as a spare. And the parts treated as afterthoughts — the seal, the cartridge, the coupler, the stopper — are usually the actual fix.

There is also a part of this that is not about buying anything. Most appliances that get replaced were not worn out; a door seal perished, a CO2 regulator drifted out of range, a coupler was never the right type for the local keg, and nobody had written down the ten minutes and fifteen euros that would have fixed them. A wine cooler running constantly, a dispenser pouring nothing but foam, a cooler that "used to hold its temperature". Those problems are cheap to fix and almost never written down. That is the subject a page full of new machines is guaranteed to skip. It is not skipped here.

Correcting me

If something here is wrong, tell me and I will fix it and date the correction on the page. Write to [email protected].

Jean-Benoit Buisson · Paris, France

Prices quoted in these summaries are dated readings. The live price is shown next to each product.