Wine Cabinet/Cooler advice

I recently got a deal (sort of) on a 240 bottle Vinotemp wine cabinet. The deal part is that I paid $90 for the cabinet. The sort of part is that the cooler does not work, which I knew in advance. The guy selling it was downsizing his residence and had already gone to a buy-as-needed wine model. He did tell me that he bought the cabinet in 1994 and that he was on his second cooler for the unit, both of them the Vinotemp brand, WineMate. He opined that maybe the WineMate units weren't the best equipment for the job. OTOH, it seems that if I go with the WineMate unit, I can get a cooler that precisely fits the opening in the cabinet.

Anyone have any comments on these WineMate coolers? Have any suggestions for alternative equipment?

Thanks!

I know nothing about the type of cooler you're asking about. However, I think I would have taken the deal as well. At a minimum, you have a nice place to keep wine and if you can place it in a cool place in your home - all the better. At best, you can get it fixed and placement in your home can be left to the decorator in you.
(I grabbed some Lucite shelving from a wine shop that was moving years ago with no idea what I could use it for but it finally came in handy when I built the wine cellar.)

Borrowing an idea from a friend, if you want to store wine in it and can't find a refrigeration unit, you could place a few 2-liter soda pop bottles full of ice in the unit and change them every day or two as needed, until you can find a refrigeration unit.

I know nothing about the type of cooler you're asking about. However, I think I would have taken the deal as well. At a minimum, you have a nice place to keep wine and if you can place it in a cool place in your home - all the better. At best, you can get it fixed and placement in your home can be left to the decorator in you.
(I grabbed some Lucite shelving from a wine shop that was moving years ago with no idea what I could use it for but it finally came in handy when I built the wine cellar.)

As you said, for $90 I got a large cabinet with built-in racking that will hold 240 bottles quite nicely.

Acquiring a cooler is not a problem. Vinotemp sells the exact size I need for the cabinet, cost is about $700 delivered. Meaning I will have paid about $800 for a unit that is regularly at least $2200 delivered. My quandary is more that I don't want to pour that amount of money into a sub-standard cooler. I do not know if the 5 year life the previous owner obtained from each of the 2 coolers he had is to the norm for this typ of device. Maybe his specific installation over-worked the cooler. Maybe whatever problems existed in the units has been fixed in the current generation of Vinotemp coolers.