Food Refrigerator as Wine Storage

[Frank_Drew]

If a restaurant is closing near you and they are selling their equipment, grab all their refrigeration. Everything is heavy duty and stainless or aluminum. Thermostats are easily replaced or set. The may use a little more electricity, but generally they are better insulated, offsetting the amount of time they are actually running.

Excellent advice, Randy; the average life expectancy of restaurants is pretty short so
there’s a surplus of little-used equipment out there.

[BobH]

Re: Vibration.
take it for what it’s worth, but if I’m storing big $, or for long periods, I’m not taking a chance.

https://www.winespectator.com/drvinny/show/id/5460

“I also worry that vibration over time will agitate a wine, which could speed up the chemical reactions going on inside the bottle. I only got a C in high-school chemistry, but vibration is introducing energy into the bottle, and this added activity could affect the process of aging.”

I got a bunch of A’s in grad school chemistry, and I don’t worry about vibration in the least. The only aspect I’d worry about is if were fairly large and constant, if that might somehow cause a mechanical problem with a weak cork. Certainly not a well insulated fridge that is “on” a small fraction of the time, and barely transmits any vibration to its contents.

Oh come on, now, Alan. You know very well that the most common catalyst that you used in grad school chem labs was to shake the test tube vigorously. That’s always gets the reaction started.

[John_Morris]

If your fridge doesn’t cool evenly be careful about the wine on the lowest shelves touching the back plate since sometimes you can get ice forming there. But at the temp you’re going for, which is as high as the fridge can go, I wouldn’t worry much at all.

That does raise an interesting issue: Do you need to make sure there’s ample room for air to circulate? My under-counter wine fridge has the cooling unit at top, which should help keep the temperatures fairly even. But most home refrigerators draw cool air from the freezer side and they can have a pretty big wide range of temps from top to bottom and back to front. That’s presumably more of an issue at 40F that it would be at, say 55F, where the cooling mechanism won’t be cycling so much. But I could imagine that if you filed a regular fridge to capacity that you might have very cold temps at the back and bottom and pretty warm ones at the front and top.

[Neal.Mollen]

Re: Vibration.
take it for what it’s worth, but if I’m storing big $, or for long periods, I’m not taking a chance.

https://www.winespectator.com/drvinny/show/id/5460

“I also worry that vibration over time will agitate a wine, which could speed up the chemical reactions going on inside the bottle. I only got a C in high-school chemistry, but vibration is introducing energy into the bottle, and this added activity could affect the process of aging.”

I got a bunch of A’s in grad school chemistry, and I don’t worry about vibration in the least. The only aspect I’d worry about is if were fairly large and constant, if that might somehow cause a mechanical problem with a weak cork. Certainly not a well insulated fridge that is “on” a small fraction of the time, and barely transmits any vibration to its contents.

Another aspect of wine lore we (or many) accept without data.

I would worry (sans data) about storing champagne in a fridge , fearing the vibration could strip the wine of its fizz. Otherwise a regulator to keep the temp ~57 and a bowl of water to help with humidity and I think you’d be all set.

[Alan_Rath]

fearing the vibration could strip the wine of its fizz.

Without meaning to be critical, is there some evidence or experience you’ve had that leads you to have this worry? Because believing in something just because it’s an oft repeated conventional wisdom is kind of the same path the anti-vax’ers go down. One should have some direct experience to draw on, or a well known mechanism explainable by science, before latching on to a belief system. At least in this case, there’s zero harm in not storing your Champagne in a fridge long term, just as there’s zero harm in making wine by the phases of the moon.

[Neal.Mollen]

Because believing in something just because it’s an oft repeated conventional wisdom is kind of the same path the cathloic church – wait all churches – have been following since the dawn of time

FIFY and guilty as charged. I have zero evidence. I have unsupported surmise, just as my father and his father before him had.

[John_Morris]

I got a bunch of A’s in grad school chemistry, and I don’t worry about vibration in the least. The only aspect I’d worry about is if were fairly large and constant, if that might somehow cause a mechanical problem with a weak cork. Certainly not a well insulated fridge that is “on” a small fraction of the time, and barely transmits any vibration to its contents.

So based on your graduate degree, I shouldn’t worry about vibrations if I relocate my washer and dryer next to my new cellar? Seriously.

[Alan_Rath]

I got a bunch of A’s in grad school chemistry, and I don’t worry about vibration in the least. The only aspect I’d worry about is if were fairly large and constant, if that might somehow cause a mechanical problem with a weak cork. Certainly not a well insulated fridge that is “on” a small fraction of the time, and barely transmits any vibration to its contents.

So based on your graduate degree, I shouldn’t worry about vibrations if I relocate my washer and dryer next to my new cellar? Seriously.

I personally wouldn’t have any worries. And the vibrations in my 50 bottle wine cooler are almost certainly the same, or even more, than in my food refrigerator, that’s probably true for most wine coolers.

[Alan_Rath]

Because believing in something just because it’s an oft repeated conventional wisdom is kind of the same path the cathloic church – wait all churches – have been following since the dawn of time

FIFY and guilty as charged. I have zero evidence. I have unsupported surmise, just as my father and his father before him had.

So you get my point

[Neal.Mollen]

Because believing in something just because it’s an oft repeated conventional wisdom is kind of the same path the cathloic church – wait all churches – have been following since the dawn of time

FIFY and guilty as charged. I have zero evidence. I have unsupported surmise, just as my father and his father before him had.

So you get my point

Indeed I do