This is the 300 bottle one. Not even 17 months. Essentially now at ambient. I believe it is still under Costco Warranty. Not sure how long that will take, but dealing with ~250 bottles of wine is going to be a nightmare. Love the trouble shooting guides these days. “Make sure it is plugged in.” Loads of help.
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Ugh, my condolences.
We’re in the final days of a major house reno and researching and selecting appliances was awful. Everything seems built to last just beyond the warranty coverage and the cost of repairs don’t seem worth it. We finally settled on a Vinotemp beverage center due to a great sale price at Costco plus the 2 year warranty, but I doubt it will last the 20 years my parents have gotten out of their 5 VT units.
At least you bought it at Costco! Let us know how it goes.
I’m sure u thought of it, but…I had one of my coolers stop cooling until i took off the back vent cover and saw the dust accumulation. Thorough vacuuming and it started cooling again.
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This unit has open louvers on the back. I can’t get to anything until I move it, and I can’t move it until I get most of the bottles out. There is nothing in the maintenance instructions about cleaning. Also, it went from working perfectly to not working at all. I think it would have lost some efficiency over time if it was clogged with dust, but I don’t know how sensitive those new coolers are.
I had this happen several years ago with a Vinotemp. Being an newer one, yours might have a high pressure switch that needs to be reset. If so, that will be an easy fix. Otherwise, I have replaced a small thingy (can’t recall its name) that sits on top of the condenser. It is a switch of some sort. Just pull some wires out and install a new one. At the time, I did an internet search and found what I needed for about $5. Unit is still running 15 years later. I’ll repost if I can remember what that small part is called.
I contacted Costco and they are supposed to get back to me in the next few days. I’ve never had to deal with a warranty issue on a large appliance with them. If they can fix it fine, if not I’ll probably replace it with the Wine Enthusiast Giant or the Artevino III. I got a bit less than half the wine moved yesterday when I ran out of boxes. Need to shuffle some things around to store the rest. Then I can move it out from the wall and take a look. The way things are made these days, I’m thinking there will be no “user accessible” parts I can work on.
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Thanks for that info. Costco was very quick to respond. One email asking me if I wanted to return the unit or see if it could be repaired and asking for the serial number, and a second email I got shortly after asking me to pick a date to have them come and haul it off. I couldn’t get to the serial number, so I decided to just replace it. I finally got it emptied and took a good look behind it. No filters to be seen, just the usual refrigeration parts and a big warning label on how flammable cyclopentane is. The next issue is going to be getting to it. I have been spending a lot of time reorganizing and decluttering the basement and garage and it is in total chaos now. I’ve got nine days.
Still trying to decide on a replacement. I like the Wine Enthusiast Giant for the capacity. I passed on it last time because it was a bit too tall for where I wanted to put it. The other option is the Artevino III. Less capacity but maybe a higher quality unit according to a friend. His experience with them is decades old, so I don’t know if the quality is still there.
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With the kind of price gouging we have seen over the past 5 years, the guys who repair wine coolers have joined the piracy game with gusto. Hard to get a simple repair for under $500, and many repairs cost $1,000. It is sheer insanity. These guys should be locked up. So, quality, warranty, and dependability are a big deal, these days.
Oof. 
Of course there’s cleaning. You can’t put a chiller with a back vent up against a wall where you can’t move it and can’t access the vent to clean. Mine has a side vent and needs regular cleaning. It does go from seemingly working perfectly to not working at all when it’s dirty. It’s not really like that, but you can’t tell when it’s working at 20% efficiency but still cooling. You can only tell when the efficiency drops below the ambient temp.
PoS company may sue customers for buying its junk, in my opinion.
