Through-The-Wall Wine Cellar Cooling Units

Would like to hear folks’ experiences with these. My plan would be to vent it into a finished basement space. How much heat do they give off in the finished space? Any favorite manufacturers? Also, most are wider than the space between the studs. How do you install it in the wall if studs are partially blocking access? Appreciate your thoughts and opinions!

I had a through-the-wall WhisperKool for a number of years. Mine vented to a garage. It put out a fair amount of heat right at the output, but dissipated quickly in the large space of a garage. I didn’t really have an issue with the garage becoming overheated - any more than it did normally during a California summer.

One word of caution - use some sort of sleeve in the opening (I used simple sheetmetal) to prevent water getting in to your wall in the event of a leak. My 1st unit did leak into the wall, and there’s no way to know it until you see the water damage. Remediation of that was a real pain, so I used a sleeve on the re-install to prevent this in the future.

Also, this was in a converted walk-in closet in the master bedroom - it was quiet enough that it didn’t bother us at all.

Whisperkool here. I would suggest upsizing – I had two “right-sized” units give up the ghost in five years each and replace with the next size up, still going strong after a decade. Building a box in the studs is pretty straightforward. Biggest issue for me is noise. I did not get the quiet version and the unit sounds like a jet engine. It is in a utility room and we must close the door to watch movies in the basement…

I’ve had a Cellarpro unit for 8 years, no problems. It vents into my garage, so I don’t have a noise issue, nor a heat issue given the size of the space into which it vents. Seems like it works well. I recall when I chose it, I concluded the cost vs. performance and reliability (really important) were seemingly really good.

I don’t think they put out that much heat. You have a refrigerator in your kitchen, which operates on the same principles, so does your kitchen get too hot? Yes, your cellar is bigger than the fridge, but how often is it opened, compared to the fridge? Do make sure the cellar is properly insulated. Sizing the cooling unit depends on the insulation of the cellar.

One thing to definitely consider: if the unit vents into a living space, see how quiet it will be. I have a friend who installed a unit in his kitchen with a pretty open floor plan. He ended up unplugging it because the noise was too much. These things are basically (imo) an air conditioner, with the outside of the a/c venting into your living space. Think about how loud a window a/c can be when you’re outside the window in which it’s mounted.

I once tried this (split system between cellar and unfinished basement) and it was a disaster. The basement got so hot that it was like descending into Hades and my housekeeper almost quit (because the washing machine was in the basement). It was also really loud. There are factors, of course, that will affect whether your efforts would be more successful - how big is the unfinished space; how big is the temperature differential between the basement and cellar; how good is your wine cellar insulation. I would ask an HVAC dude (that said, it was an HVAC dude who recommended my setup).

The better way to do this is to buy a ductless mini-split a/c system and put the condenser outside the house. You will need to buy a coolbot to trick the system to cool to 55 degrees. There are lots of threads of this. But the benefit is you don’t pay some ridiculous wine cellar premium on the unit and you are buying something off the shelf that can be easily repaired or replaced. I went this direction years ago and have had zero problems. When it comes time to replace the units, I will have lots of options.

I have window unit venting into basement. It seems to increase heat marginally but it dissipates in large basement. I’d make sure the exhausting area is 3x or more larger than cellar. I’m sure you can calculate exactly what the temperature delta would be, but using rough numbers a 3x space should go up at least 1/3 of the temp reduction in the cellar (so 70 to 55 would raise basement at least 5 degrees) - of course that doesn’t account for inefficiencies. And may not account for some basic physics principles than I’ve forgotten over many years.

To install in wall, it’s like framing a window - you cut the stud in the middle and then reinforce with jack studs and a header. How to Frame for a New Window Opening- Do-it-yourself-help.com

1 Like

How big is the room you are trying to cool?

It’s an awkward shape, but trying to hold around 1k bottles.

If the glass and door frame would come in I could better answer a few of your questions. This space (useless basement corner) is 10 feet x 5 feet. WhisperKool 4000. I went one size larger as this won’t be very efficient with all of the glass. It will be a bit noisier than I would like but shouldn’t be too bad. It fit right between the studs-comes with a metal sleeve to install and mount the cooling unit into. 900 bottles will fit into the racking. I could get a couple hundred more on top or on the floor if I need to.
D5DE87C7-0883-43A8-BF9D-8A5CB30278AE.jpeg
EA7A3FD8-3267-4579-ADAF-81A798B03C32.jpeg

2 Likes

I’ve used Whisperkool for over a decade and recently upgraded from a 3000 to a 3500 Extreme.

Nothing wrong with the 3000, it ran great for 10+ years. But my cellar is in a corner of my garage and unfortunately has exterior walls that get a bit of sunlight. Despite lots of insulation the original unit struggled with last summer’s heat waves in the SF Bay Area. It’s only rated for a 30-degree cooling differential, so anytime the temperature got over 85 it had trouble. That used to be rare around here but is becoming much more common. The unit vents into the garage so it became relatively frequent that the garage temp got up to 85-90.

I swapped the unit for Whisperkool’s new Extreme version, which can handle higher cooling differentials. The new unit is longer but fits into the same through-the-wall standard-stud-width space. Keeping the old unit as a backup just in case.

My cellar is similarly small, about 6 x 10 feet, and holds about 1k bottles as well. These units have been plenty of cooling power even with the lousy location. I expect the amount of heat exhausted into an adjacent space depends on the amount of heat that needs to be extracted from the cellar. If yours is in a below-ground space it shouldn’t be as much of an issue as it is for me. It does make a bit of noise though, so you may want to prioritize quieter versions.

Side note, in hindsight one thing I would change about my cellar is having more open floor space for case storage. I maximized the amount of racking in the room and it looks great, but in retrospect case storage is much more efficient. I should have done a better balance of racking and case storage.

I went low-end and put in a CellarCool CX2200, one of the smallest units. My space is very spartan–just enough room for me to get between racks. Capacity is about 500 bottles. The most important thing is how well you insulate your space, and what the temp is going to be in the surrounding area. Mine is in a basement, about 40" of which is above grade, so it’s generally pretty cool. My cellar walls are 2x4 studs, so not super thick, but well insulated. I would NOT vent into a garage in CA in summer unless I were in a cool, foggy area. Mine vents into the workshop area, so I occasionally run a fan to move the warm air into the larger space, but it’s not that big a deal. It’s not loud enough to bother me when I watch TV in the basement. It’s been up and running for a handful of years, and seems to be doing fine. If you have a large space you intend to hang out in, a thru-wall unit may not be adequate.

The framing in is completely normal stuff, but if you get a CellarCool, you need to make sure you can access the little door where you put in tablets to prevent mold, etc.

I am in the process of building a 700 cubic feet cellar (in the basement of an actively cooled house; will used blown in closed cell insulation).

The cooling units available are:

  • WhisperKool SC 4000 Pro
  • CellarCool CX4400
  • Wine Guardian TTW018
  • Cellar Pro 4200VSI

Like anything, it’s easy to find both positive and negative reviews of each on the web, but it is hard to know how much faith to put in them and what extenuating circumstances there might be.

I am currently leaning towards the WhisperKool or the Cellar Pro.

The comments above are very useful. Is there any experience with these specific units here or any additional comments on these brands? Given the cost, I would hope to have something that will last at least 10 years

(I got very lucky with a “KoolR” unit at my old house, which was still going strong at 13 years.)

Deleted

How much are all these WhisperKool and CellarPro etc. units? Because you can just buy a mini-split at Lowe or HD for thousands less. Plus a coolbot to act as a thermostat. Easy to service and you can easily replace it.

If you save a thousand dollars, that’s one or two bottles of village Burgundy at today’s prices.

I used a WhisperKool in an insulated upstairs walk-in closest (only room in the house that could act as a wine “cellar”) and vented to the outside of the house. Overall, it worked great. I will say that it was kind of noisy. Whenever it kicked on, it sounded a bit like a prop plane was flying over the house. In order to reduce the amount of time it ran, I keep the drain hose open in a pail so that the condenser didn’t have to work so hard. I had to empty that pail almost every day.

FWIW, I started the thread and just decided on getting a minisplit installed instead, for precisely this reason. (Bought a Coolbot also but haven’t connected it yet.) But let me tell you, it wasn’t cheap to get the minisplit installed. Maybe it’s just my area, but I am guessing it will come out around the same cost as a Whisperkool or CellarPro split system. But being able to service it by anyone was highly attractive to me.

champagne.gif

I’m telling you - that factor cannot be overstated. I can tell you from experience as someone who bought a house with a malfunctioning cooling unit that no one had ever heard of and no one could figure out how to service. And then spent years trying to find some other solution when the thing that worked was someone off the shelf. I have two ductless mini-splits and they have worked for 5 years now with zero problems.

The big problem I had was that normal residential HVAC people would not service a wine unit because it was refrigeration. And refrigeration people did not want to service a residence. It was a bit of a nightmare.

2 Likes