Some may recall we had a very long, very ugly incident over a Vinotemp wine cabinet about seven years, and eventually ended up getting a Le Cache which was also not without (delivery) issues, but after those were resolved worked well for us until last month, when the Cellar-Pro cooling unit it came with died (Le Cache-CellarPro Not Cooling? - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers).
Anyway, we ended up purchasing a replacement cooling unit—same make, same model, and the good news is that though it wasn’t expected to be available until November, it arrived last week. The bad news is that keeps having an HA2 alarm. Sometimes every few minutes. Sometimes every few hours. Sometimes just once or twice a day. We are using it in the same climate controlled room and cabinet and exact place, under the exact conditions, our old unit operated in without ever having such an alarm go off even once.
Have been going back and forth with Le Cache/Cellar Pro about this. The unit is definitely cooling, but the HA2 alarms continue, and we are now four days after install. And while that install wasn’t difficult, it did require us bringing in two friends to help, emptying half the cabinet, etc., so not without hassle. We also did do the pre-install test on a flat surface, as directed, and it seemed to work, but that was only for five minutes. And, yes, let it set for 24 hours after arrival before even doing that.
Le Cache wants me to remove the filters and mess with the settings, so that the fan always runs in high speed. We’ve already done the trouble shooting of removing the noise hood (made by Le Cache) and leaving it unplugged for 24 hours, and neither worked.
I’m not really OK with permanently changing the settings to keep the fan on high, as our old unit (same make, same model) ran without any alarms for all those years in the same cabinet, in the same place, under identical conditions, without needing to fudge any settings, or remove protective filters (also identical).
This is supposed to be a brand new, full price unit and if I remove the filters (we even bought a brand new filter, at additional expense, with this unit, from Cellar Pro, just to make sure we were treating this new cooling correctly; and, yes, it is the filter made by Cellar Pro to work with the unit) and run the fan on high 24/7, logic says I’m going to be vastly shortening the cooling unit’s already apparently not long life span, perhaps substantially. Gut check here…Am I being unreasonable to continue to ask for replacement?
To me, if this was an old unit I was trying to keep running, those ideas are helpful suggestions I’d be happy to try, but not something I should be doing to try to get a brand new unit to work as designed.
They’re telling me my only options are to return it so they can inspect it, because they have insisted multiple times that they don’t think there is anything wrong with my unit, despite the alarms, because it was tested before shipment. They won’t send an advanced replacement. They won’t even promise how long a replacement will take, or if they’ll even send a replacement at all, or just work on this unit and return it.
I admit I don’t want to get into another protracted battle with any company, let alone another wine cabinet maker, but I feel like they should send an advanced replacement, even with a credit card on file, and I’ll return this unit to them when the new one arrives. Le Cache has flatly said that will not happen. Am I being too demanding? What is the reasonable resolution here, because I really can’t take the stress.
. And a little noisy. My previous one lasted 25 years and I replaced it with another one last month.
