Vinotheque 400+ bottle fridge
0Hello … First time here and looking for some advice on a Vinotheaque wine fridge. We inherited this wine fridge and unfortunately it is not cooling. the compressor seems to be running but the temperature does not change. This is an older model I would say from the late 2000’s . We had a repair person tell us it may take thousands to fix but never pinpointed the problem. Anyone have any recommendations on the west coast of Florida for a repair company or a place that would be interested in buying it ? It‘a beautiful piece…
- 4 comments, 1 reply
- Comment
Hello, and sounds like you’re going to have a nice wine fridge, once you get it going!
Any HVAC tech ought to be able to check it out for you, but I’d look for one that works on refrigerators, as basically that’s what you have.
If you can find the model number, that will go a long way in helping you get the documentation you need to know how it is engineered. Even though they all work basically the same, compressor/condenser/evaporator and an air moving unit, the control systems vary widely. The manufacturer’s site, for example, lists a control scheme common to their units, which controls the thermostat from a sensor that resides inside of a bottle, inside of the cooler itself!
Aside of common things, like refrigerant possibly being needed, it could be a matter of just checking to make sure the thermostat sensor is indeed inside of a bottle, and not just dangling inside by its lonesome self. Other common problems are usually traced to faulty airflow, whether by dirty filter(s) or a condenser or evaporator being externally clogged with dust, leaves, fuzz, etc.
Try going to vinotheque.com and looking at their troubleshooting section.
Hope this helps, and good luck!!!
Thank you !! Wish us luck . Hope we can get it going …
@Sparks22 Wish you the best of luck, and if the temp sensor is a concern of yours, ask a HVAC tech to bypass it for a moment, to see if that works. At the very least, that will allow you to eliminate it as a variable.
I did have a long step by step approach you could use written here, but opted to erase it, lest the magic smoke appear, and you are met with the genie of higher repair bills.
Good luck!
And if you inherited it and have to spend several hundred bucks to get a new cooling unit that’s also not the end of the world.
From their site: "By measuring the temperature of the liquid, the temperature reading will be consistent and the unit will only run when it needs to.
To install the thermostat:
Avoid pulling too much on the probe cord as it may become disconnected, which would lead to inaccurate temperature readings."
and, above that: “All cabinets come with our Precision Digital Technology (PDT), a liquid temperature measuring thermostat system. With this technology, a bottle probe relays information back to the thermostat, giving you a reading of the wine, not of the air around it.”
The fact that the compressor runs is a good sign. If there were a bad leak, it would lose whatever lubricant it uses, along with the refrigerant, and it would seize up.
Edit to clarify: It would only seize up, if not designed with a shut-off mechanism to automatically do so when pressures are out of whack.