Thermal coupling in wine chiller

No, I would not recommend putting water into the chill chamber since if there is a "gap" hole in this compartment, the water could get inside the unit's electronics etc.. which could at the very least short the unit and at worst electrocute you as you take the bottle out/touch the unit. That's the problem with this or any other Peltier/thermoelelectric type of chiller. They are only good for maintaining an ALREADY cold bottle's temperature, not for chilling it rapidly. There is no good or inexpensive way to get better chilling from these types of units. It's the law of themodynamics and heat transfer. Water is the best/safest/most inexpensive medium to use, not chilled air or even super cold air. Cold air or even super cold air just does not match the chilling potential of a liquid like water. The reason why 50F air is no problem, for you to be out in for hours, but 50F water you'll get hypothermia in 20-30 mins.

The best unit for chilling a warm wine bottle is the cooper cooler. Go to www.coopercooler.com. It uses ice and water and sprays the ice cold water over the bottle while spinning it to chill it quickly. This unit is great since it can also chill single serve drinks like beer/soda etc so is more versatile than the other chillers. Cheapest is about $59 which is much less than the waring at ~$100