With the arrival of deliveries last fall, I came to the point that all of us have (or will) in this hobby: I am out of space. I had been storing my modest collection of 350-ish bottles in a combination of two 12-case offsite lockers and then a large 120 bottle cooler at my house. However, once I realized the next size up in storage at the off-site would be $900/yr, I started looking around for other options.
Our house is small, so upsizing my wine fridge in the house wasn’t an option and it gets too hot in our garage for a normal oversized La Cache-style cabinet. After significant searching, I ran into an old thread on the CoolBot which got my wheels turning: Coolbot Review - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers
Final Project Plan:
48”x66”x108” 2x4 framed, freestanding enclosure.
Closed Cell Spray Foam Insulated via DIY kit to R-29
Prehung steel exterior door from Home Depot
8000 btu Window AC controlled by a CoolBot
Projected Materials Cost: $2200
Projected Capacity: 700+ bottles via bin/shelf storage
grad school done…time to get this finished before it gets warm
DIY Spray Foam
I went with a 601 kit from here - which came with everything, including a protective suit and goggles. Honestly the hardest part was making sure everything was warm enough - ideal temp range is 65-85F…and the high that day was 55. I warmed the tanks on the heated floors in our bathroom before use, then ran a space heater inside the cellar to get the frame warmed up. But once I got going, I was happy that it was cool outside - in the 1.5 hours it took to spray, I sweated through the clothes inside my ‘Breaking Bad suit’. Doing the same project on a warm day would be miserable.
Pro Tip: to trim foam after it has set, use a Fein/oscillating tool - cuts like a hot knife through butter with minimal dust.
CoolBot
Super easy 30 min install - no surprises. One thing that should be noted, due to the way window AC’s are programmed, the interval of cooler activity is very different than a wine specific cooler. If left in ‘cool’ mode, the fan will run constantly and indefinitely, kicking on the compressor when the temp rises too high. On Eco mode the AC will cycle off, but the fan will come back on for 20 seconds every 2.5 mins to circulate air and give the temp sensor to get a better reading.
Racks
The local lumber yard sells clear, one-by hemlock at about $0.50 a foot depending on width. I decided to do shelving versus individual bottle racking - less work. A jig made it easier to replicate several identical shelves - glue and 15ga finish nails hold everything together. Shelves finished last weekend, install happens next weekend along with lighting.
Well good job. It’s not that hard to build these things and the good thing is that you have some satisfaction for work you did yourself. Shelving is a LOT less work but not always a joy. What you can do since you’re doing them yourself though is rather than lay them flat, put them at a very slight angle so that in case of a small tremor, the bottles won’t fall as easily. Not much you can do about a big one obviously.
CoolBot
Super easy 30 min install - no surprises. One thing that should be noted, due to the way window AC’s are programmed, the interval of cooler activity is very different than a wine specific cooler. If left in ‘cool’ mode, the fan will run constantly and indefinitely, kicking on the compressor when the temp rises too high. On Eco mode the AC will cycle off, but the fan will come back on for 20 seconds every 2.5 mins to circulate air and give the temp sensor to get a better reading.
That sound’s odd to me - it would be annoying for sure. Doesn’t sound like the CoolBot adds any flexibility in controlling the unit - except for temperature? I was thinking there were several folks that post here that had these window AC units in cellars located inside their home - that would really be annoying if the fan keeps going on and off every couple of minutes.
Nice job! Your earlier advice inspired me to try to build something, so I was waiting to see how this turned out for you. I spent a few days drawing up diagrams, planning materials, and trying to convince the wife that this was a great idea.
In the end, a friend of a friend of mine was giving a way a beautiful (wife approved) large (220+ bottle) wine cabinet as he was moving across the country, and I was lucky enough to snag it. I need to replace the cooling unit (went with a Cellar Pro 1800) which is arriving this week.
Looking forward to seeing it all filled with shelving and wine!
Materials for racking was about $250 - so $1900-ish for the box/door/insulation/cooler/electronics. But keep in mind I have all the tools, fasteners, and odds-n-ends that often drive the cost up laying around from other house projects. Tapping into the existing circuit for the garage, running Romex and terminating with proper boxes was all essentially ‘free’ because I used leftovers from our master bath project.
Single car garage that’s already packed with stuff - trust me I would have gone bigger if I could.
Honestly - this is just a proof of concept for me. We will sell the house and move in the next 2-3 years (need more room for kids) and when that happens, I’ll build bigger and better based on what I learn with this one.
Agreed - however when I took a look at CoolBot’s FAQs, it specifically addressed this issue as normal. Perhaps its standard with LG coolers - but that is the brand they specifically recommend and sell on their site. It’s in the garage and we can barely hear it kick on from inside the house…if it’s quiet. We have an 11 month old so that series of events happening simultaneously is rare.
I’m already looking into a mini-split system for the next cellar - which I believe has a more sophisticated thermostat. CoolBot can control that as well.
Thanks for posting this and congratulations! Looks like you’re seeing temps in the high 70s in Sonoma but we’re still stuck in the 50s here in Seattle. I have my project on hold pending the 65* requirement. Good tip on the space heater, though.
I do have one outside wall I can use for a residential AC unit, but I’m nervous about cutting through an exterior wall. Do you think there is any issue using an interior wall in a basement vs. a garage as you’ve done? Essentially you’re dumping warm air into an adjacent room. Wouldn’t that create problems?
Hey Brian - I’m venting into the garage, which can get north of 100 in the summer. But I’m not worried about it - window AC’s are designed to cool through a window on 100 degree day in places that are much more inhospitable than Sonoma. The cooler is oversized for the space and insulating to R30 (hopefully) means the compressor won’t be cycling much.
You might consider a mini-split if you haven’t purchased the cooler yet. More expensive, but you could run the line through your exterior wall - much smaller hole.
Did you install downlight cans in this space? My plan was to do that but thinking about it, the foam might prohibit that. Probably a question for foam-it.
You could do cans - you would have to pre-install a halo type housing system before and shoot around it. Obviously pre-wired.
In keeping with the cheap theme, I’m not skinning the interior walls - no ply or drywall. So I ordered a low voltage LED light kit from Amazon:Amazon.com
I wired in a switched plug to the circuit and used the same type of Lutron occupancy sensory I have installed in the garage - automatically turns on when entering and then waits until it hasn’t seen movement for 5 min and turns off. I was concerned about lights being left on after cellar access which adds heat, the occupancy sensor was the best solve for that.
This is great. I just finished my own project, wish we could have shared notes! I fortunately, had a room already framed out in the basement so I just had a insulation company come in and blow foam over the walls and ceiling ($1100). I looked at a lot of racking options and ended up with the Seville Wine Racks as they were only $110 each (free shipping on AMZN, but if you are a sams+ member they are $90+tax w/free shipping) and shelves were $10 each (buy directly from Seville). They are extremely sturdy (rated for 300lbs a shelf) and I took two racks and connected them, added shelves and turned them into 3 for more storage and stability. Each rack has 7 shelves, so you can easily add 3 to 7 shelves to two racks and store a lot of wine. The room is big, approx. 1900 ft^3 so I had to go with the Cellarcool CX8800, which isn’t shown because it is behind me when I took the picture. According to the rep, it has the same components as the Whispercool (made by same company) it just was made for slightly different sized openings. It was $1900 w/ shipping. If you had an outlet, you could easily install yourself but I had to have an outlet and light installed so needed an electrician. Again, I didn’t have to frame but was able to do everything including electrical work for $4K and I have another “3x” rack to put together for the third wall. I wish I would have know several years ago how affordable building a cellar would have been, I would never have purchased the Artevino (although it has been very reliable for the last 5 years)!
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