Cellar Cooling Unit Maintenance - PSA

WINE TALK
1

I bought a used VinoTemp wine cabinet this week on the cheap. It was on Craigslist for $500 which is real cheap. I stopped by last week to look at it. We plugged the unit in and it ran. Owner said “It works too hard when the weather is warm, probably just needs a shot of freon.” I came back the following week to pick it up. The unit was still plugged in and running but not blowing cold. What he meant to say was, “The cooling unit needs to be replaced but it’s $1,000+ so I’m going to sell this $4,000 cellar to you for $500.”

When I moved the unit I got water leakage from the cooling unit which told me the compressor was working and the evaporator was icing up. Probably due to a plugged up condenser. Knowing how air conditioning works I shrugged him off and took care of things when I got home.

I pulled the cooling unit out today and bingo!
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The unit is branded Wine Mate. At the factory they rivet the case together. Nothing a 1/8" drill won’t take care of. 10 drilled rivets later and the outer cover came off. After removing the styrofoam insulation I found the following. I took the picture after removing the ice from the core.
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The compressor and condenser are in the other half of the unit.
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I used compressed air to clean the crap out of the condenser core. I also cleaned up all the water and debris in the bottom of the case which was starting to corrode some attaching fasteners. The case itself is powder coated and cleaned up nicely. I put it all back together with screws instead of rivets and reinstalled it in the cabinet. Plugged it in and it’s blowing ice cubes!

Remember, dirt, dust, pet hair, etc… are not your friends and can keep perfectly good equipment from working properly. This took me all of an hour to repair from start to finish and I now have a working unit for a total cost of about $2.00 for the screws. It only takes a few minutes to check yours for dust issues. A little preventative maintenance can save you from future failures.

Cheers!

2

Some people need to discover two important items. A vacuum cleaner and compressed air. If it cools or heats, it clogs up with everything in the air.

Good job making your $500 unit a $4000 unit

3

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4

nice job. most compressors don’t die, they are murdered!
do be careful opening units as there are capacitors that will hold a charge and give you a shock while unplugged.

5

I keep the one on my wine cellar clean. But last year one of my outside a/c units need one of those big oil filled capacitors and a friend of friend came to fix it. When he had the gauges still hooked up he noticed all the crape myrtles around and asked how often I washed the outside units, I said never, he grabbed a hose and said watch this. After he got done washing all the coils the head pressure went down by 20lbs. Needless to say I regularly wash all my outside units now.

6

Thanks for the PSA. I got lucky and scored a vinotemp for $300 with a working unit but it does seem to work hard. Its 11 years old and I bet its never been cleaned… Time to find out…

Sean

7

Keep us updated!

8

Excellent PSA, Brian. (One ounce of prevention = 10 pounds of cure.)

9

Nice buy! I vacuum the coil n my cooling unit twice a year. I even set a calendar reminder for it so I don’t forget.