Hoping for some help from folks in deciding on a cooling unit for the cellar in our house build.
Cellar will be ~6ft x 8ft, 8ft ceilings (so 384cu ft), ~850btl storage. Interior room, and will be insulated on all 6 sides, but with a glass door. Looking for a ductless split system.
Now to the questions:
What size unit is appropriate? Based on space, a 500 cu ft unit like the Whisperkool Platinum Mini would work, but it also says to upsize the unit if you have glass door or walls. How much does one need to upsize?
Any suggestions on brands? WhisperKool vs Wine Guardian vs CellarPro? I’ve not found a ton of reviews overall to know if any of these are better than others in a way that matters. Looking at something like the WhisperKool Platinum 4000 or WineGuardian SS018.
Is it too small a space to use with a regular ductless mini-split AC with a CoolBot controller? You will have an easier time getting service from a traditional HVAC technician with something like that.
All of these work on essentially the same principle but I’ve seen a number of folks here over the years saying they have a harder time getting service on wine cellar equipment vs. something normally for your living space like LG or Mitsubishi. I have a through-the-wall unit so am hoping folks with mini-splits will comment…
Here’s my experience building 2 basement cellars- Both had adjacent utility/workrooms so I didn’t have the need for ductless split, through-the-wall worked great in my situation. Both were/are well insulated. Wooden doors with large, double-pane glass panels and weather stripping around the edges to ensure a good seal.
I used Breezaire for my first cellar and had no problems in 15+ years so used them again in my second. Don’t have any experience with other coolers. While very reliable, Breezaire is a bit utilitarian looking, which is fine for my space out of the way in the basement. I would consider a more upscale-looking unit(like the brands you’re looking at) if my cellar was in a higher traffic area of the house.
For the first cellar, I built a similar size to yours, which put me right under the CU FT limit for a certain cooling unit. Just to be safe I decided to spend $300 more to move up a size which was rated for about double my cubic footage. Did the same for the current cellar, I think this is $ well spent.
We have a WG SS018 and it’s working fine, but I personally would probably not purchase from that manufacturer in the future, due to some pretty poor customer service we got when we had issues.
I have had 4 cellars installed in houses. The simplest and my preferred solution is a ductless mini split. I’ve been very happy with Mitsubishi as my priority is reliability and easy service. As noted upthread the wine cellar specific brands are difficult if not impossible to get good service on. With a regular ductless mini split you’ll need a Coolbot to act as the thermostat.
I would find a quality HVAC firm (ideally one that does commercial refrigeration) and have them size the unit and set things up. Last one went 7 years with no service calls, dead quiet, and then I moved.
I don’t know anything about mini-split systems, but I just went through the selection process for a through-the-wall system. My suggestion would be to choose the manufacturer you want to go with based on reviews and comments here on WB, then contact the sales guys at the manufacturer you chose.
I went with CellarPro, and when I contacted their salesperson for help, she took a lot of information about my cellar (floor dimensions, ceiling height, wall/ceiling insulation, type of door, amount of glass, etc.) and calculated the unit that was the right fit. I’m my case, she “down sold” me to a smaller unit than the one I was looking at. (I was on the border between two units.) When there was a question about an item, she was even able to consult with the engineers to get the right information.
I guess what I’m saying is that purchasing this unit was something that I hope that I’ll ever have to do once or twice in my life. I found it was worth getting the advice of the manufacturer who size cooling units every day.
@John_S unfortunately I have enough battles to fight with our builders HVAC folks…probably easiest to just use a one of the cellar-specific setups (definitely a ductless split though) and will have it installed by the same HVAC installer that does the rest of our HVAC.
@SeanHarding what’s the size of your cellar (cubic feet)…if I recall you’re at about 1000 bottles, so maybe just a touch larger than what we’re building?
@Charles_Perry good suggestion on talking to the manufacturer. I had a good talk with someone at WineRacksAmerica today, but will talk with WhisperKool directly as well. They have a calculator on their website, but I’d rather talk to an “expert” than purely rely on the web form.
We’re somewhere around 560 cubic feet with a ~7 foot ceiling height (capacity is about 1600). Yes, I think it’s larger than what you mentioned last time we talked about yours.
Awesome, thanks for posting this. I’ve read a lot of Joe Lstiburek’s stuff as I’ve been learning all I can about Building Science for our house build…spend a lot of time on GreenBuildingAdvisor and such…
Sorry, didn’t mean to publicly marginalize your cellar size – yours is about 1.5x what we’re planning then So perhaps we might be able to get away with a smaller unit. Still waiting for a call back from WhisperKool.
I purchased a Whisperkool 3500ti (thru the wall unit) from Wine Enthusiast to cool a 750cf cellar. The unit is rated for 800cf per the owners manual. WE double checked the calculations for me, recommended the correct sized unit and gave me a set of build-out standards. Pretty straight forward assuming to challenging existing conditions in the space. No issues so far.
I’d recommend close cell foaming the space for 3-4 inches as that will make sure the unit works less vs more as I’ve been told these units don’t last forever if they’re running all the time
door will be the weakest link so find a good one. I found one with a 11-12 rvu rating fyi for $2700
I’ve been told to make the cooling unit not the last decision but the first as location and other factors are a problem if you wait til the end.
Probably too late, but a mini-split would be perfect. And you do not even need a CoolBot - it’s a less than $10 change to swap the thermistor. I’ve been running my $500 mini-split for 3.25 years now. PM me for more info if interested, or search my posts for a post I did on my cellar and mini-split.
Thanks Charles. It is too late, but as we’re building a home and working through the builder’s contractors I think we would have gotten push back on your recommended approach anyway.
We ended up going with the WhisperKool mini after talking to the manufacturer. Definitely more pricey, but I think it will work for us.
Hopping on this thread topic. Building a cellar myself and I have a few cooling options:
Through the wall:
-wine guardian or cellarpro
-$3-4k
Split:
-cellarpro ceiling mount
-whisperkool mini split ceiling mount
-$11-14k
I’m a bit torn between doing a split or through the wall. My wall would be close to our TV room and having a fan kick in could be annoying. Is it worth the extra $7-8k for a split system? Or is 54-59.5 db noise tolerable?
So perhaps we might be able to get away with a smaller unit. Still waiting for a call back from WhisperKool.