Had a bit of good luck today and picked up this baby for the amazing price of “free”
A LWS had this outside their place with a big “FREE” sign, I asked if it was working and they said it was. They are renovating and did not have space / use for this unit. I took a gamble and quickly rented a pick up truck and brought it my place. The model tag at the back said Eurocave Vieillitheque Confort v264 - made in France. I wanted to Google some info on this but there isn’t much available online aside from so Cellartracker forum posts and 1 WB forum post. I guess this is a really old model? If so, is this unit still serviceable in case it is broken? If by some off chance I will need to replace the compressor, is there even a Eurocave repair service available in Norcal? Any tips are welcome.
I have the same model, mine is 12 years old. There is an interior tag with the manufacturing date Which would give you an idea of age. These last awhile, so a 12 year old fridge has plenty of life ahead of it - I have a friend with a fridge from the 80s still running strong. If you haven’t plugged it in yet, I’d give it a week standing upright for the gases to settle.
In terms of repairs, there are some reports of DIY if you need to add coolant, but for anything more complex you’ll need to typically go through wine enthusiast, the general consensus on this board from what I’ve seen is that they are hit or miss for helping with service issues, finding you an authorized repair technician, etc. they told me when I asked that they didn’t have a technician for DC for example. You can obviously go through a regular refrigerator repair guy, but my understanding is that eurocaves use an unusual cooling system so a lot of repair guys don’t want to mess with them. Not something I’ve dealt with directly.
As for getting a new compressor I think that’d be tough - you’d need to ask Wine Enthusiast for sure since they are the only US dealer. That said, their compressors are known for lasting forever.
Jealous you scored a free eurocave, hope it works out well for you!!
Found a guy selling 2 units of this model on craigs list for $1,900. It is apparently in excellent condition. Only issue is it was made in 2004… Is that too old for that price?
It has been holding up really well… except for this week. Back wall has been icing up this past week and the temps are getting too low. Googled this and solution vary from making sure bottles do not touch the back wall, change filter to busted thermostat. Will let you know in a week.
Icing walls usually means the filter needs to be changed and it should be once a year. You can replace the thermostats. There are two of them in the unit but the main control board is no longer available. I learned that last year. I have one of these units left at my house. It is 15 years old and so far so good. I reluctantly replaced the one that needed the control board. I was not going to take a chance on a serious malfunction and the emergency replacement of the cabinet. Typically, I prefer to replace major appliances and equipment before they fail.
When you say filter, you are talking about that small round (nespresso capsule) like looking charcoal filter at the back, correct? Will try that soon. As for the thermostat, mind sharing how I can do this / buy the part? Did you contact a professional repair guy?
pretty nutso price. leave the seller your contact info. they are not so easy to move, so in some areas* i might suggest a fair price is closer to ‘free’. if the seller is forced to have them removed by a hauler, they’ll end up paying $200, more if they’re in awkward locations like a basement with a tight stairwell etc.
areas where residents don’t buy $100+ btls of wine
I recently acquired a unit very similar to this one. Mine is the Confort Duo 264, built in 2005, and I got it for $250. Mine is a dual-zone model, and I’m having some trouble keeping the main zone cool. The “chiller” at the bottom is chilling just fine, and the lower part of the main zone is good, but as you go higher up, it gets warmer, and the top shelf only gets marginally below room temperature - as high as about 68 degrees. I’ve got the thermostat set to 50, and the unit is about 85% full (I was hoping the thermal mass of all the wine would help keep it cool, but it’s been this full for a couple weeks now with no significant change in temperature). Anyone have any hints as to what might be going on?
I recently picked up a rebranded Transtherm (branded Eurocave for the US market but actually a Transtherm) so not the same model but it had the exact same problem. I will be interested if anyone has a solution. I couldn’t figure it out. However, I found the malfunction worked nearly perfect for my needs as I just place the wines in the cabinet according to preferred serving temperature - I have a continuously variable spectrum from the low 40s at the bottom to the high 60s at the top. I keep anything that is particularly special or intended for very long term aging elsewhere. I’m also a believer in wine being able to do fine at a range of temperatures around 55 as long as the temp is reasonably stable, which this broken cabinet does well.
My thinking is somewhat similar - a high temp of 68 in the cabinet is not the worst thing in the world, especially when the ambient temperature in the room gets up to 80 sometimes. I already have my cheaper daily drinkers on the top shelf - I might just need to reorganize things a bit more so that the best stuff is closer to the bottom.
Hi everyone. I’ve stumbled upon an old thread, but I’ve found myself in a similar situation as the OP. This being my first proper wine fridge, I was wondering if any of the more experienced EuroCave owners could help me understand how this thermostat works, and if mine is working properly, before I migrate bottles into it…
I acquired this same unit over the weekend for basically free. I paid $250 but that included having someone drive it over from Queens to Brooklyn and help me bring it up some stairs. It came from a catering company and was clean, odor free, and apparently “works great”. Four rolling shelves and 2 stationary shelves included. It needed a new battery for the temp display, and I replaced the charcoal in the filter.
After letting the unit settle for 2 days, I set the thermostat for 55 and fired it up yesterday evening. I have a Boveda bluetooth thermometer/hygrometer in my cigar humidor. I throw that inside the Eurocave. Compressor works. Test button gives me a successful read out (red light on top, green on bottom). Unit is in my apartment where the ambient temp is around 65. As mentioned earlier, no bottles are inside.
This morning I wake up and check the Boveda app to see how the temperature and humidity held up over night. Instead of 55, the device hovered around 46-49 overnight. I turned the dial up to around 62 (the dial only indicates up to 57) to see if it would maybe bring it up something closer to my desired temp (54-55). Nothing immediately happeneds as I turned up the temperature (i.e. the compressor “heat” light didnt come on, compressor didn’t appear to come on). Not sure if the heat cycle makes as much noise as the cool cycle, but I didn’t hear anything. I have a solid black door so I can’t see if the red light ever comes on for the “heat” cycle.
But an hour or so later and the temperature is at 56 and seems to be holding there. So the good news is, it looks like the compressor is able to cool things down, warm things up, and hold temps.
Does this sound familiar to anyone else who set up their new/used Eurocave? Should I assume that this discrepancy between the temp setting and actual temp is due to the fact that there are no bottles in the fridge? Thought I’d throw the question out there before I move 140 bottles from one room to another.
If you are trying this empty, you will get temperature swings since there is very little mass in the fridge. I would expect the unit to stabilize once it is 70-80% full of wine bottles.
I think so, too. Or at least I hope so. Only one way to find out…
Another Cave noob question—do folks out there put more than 1 layer on the old style moving shelves (not the MdS ones). Mine are the solid metal ones that have wood strips going from left to right.
Any advice on actually removing the filter? Does it screw out? I have one that I need to replace (icy back wall) and I can’t figure out how to remove it, partly because I can’t get a good grip on it. The unit is many years old and I’ve never replaced the filter but my luck seems to have run out.
