Cellar problems

[hotwine]

Can't get into the cellar thread to post this.... nothing but a blank page there.

Hadn't been in the cellar for a couple of weeks (have been living out of the EuroCave) until yesterday PM.... went looking for a SCMV PN to pair with cedar-plank salmon. Opened the door to deathly quiet - no hum of the compressor, no fan blowing - and 68 degrees on the thermometer! Panic! Ran back in the house and called my refrigeration guy. He couldn't get out here until today, when he found a blown compressor. Temp held at 70 all day in there, so damage to the goodies should be minimal. Damage to the wallet is a little more severe: $1383.

Note to self: Visit more often!

[andrawes76]

Hotwine,

Good news for you is that your damage should be very minimal given the past couple weeks were very cool. Sounds opposite to problem I had last winter. Freeze came and froze my unit. $135K in damages... I just found out about the cellar thread. Will investigate and fix the problemo...

Thanks for pointing it out.

PW

[winoweenie]

Sorry to hear that HW. I had the opposite 10 or so ago when I was in Napa in August. My next door neighbor was watching the abode and called me friday afternoon at 130 and said I had no refrigeration. Had him call my guy who went out and the compressor had gone south. To make a long story bearable, with temps hitting 110* I had him close the door and when the new compressor was installed Monday at 3pm the temp had only risin to 64*. Mark a victory for insulating to a max. WW

[Thomas]

One of the benefits of living East--we have natural stone cellars here.

If I lived in your areas, I'd seek a way to forgo electricity and develop some sort of cavernous existence for the wines. That, or reduce the collection by drinking faster.

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[url=http://www.thomaspellechia.com]UltimateBB.com[/url]

[winoweenie]

Good advice Fooster but found out early on that I could purchase much faster than I could consume the stuff.WW

[This message has been edited by winoweenie (edited 10-12-2010).]

[Innkeeper]

To address the other half of the problem, I'm sure the cellar thread has been brought up before.

[TheEngineer]

Wow.. Serious in both cases. I agree with the insulating to the max theory though. Cheap at the time of first installation and well worth the initial delta.

[hotwine]

It's quite heavily insulated, but the inner and outer doors aren't completely air-tight. It's a whole lot better than it once was, though!

[Kcwhippet]

I'm pretty much the same as Foodie. We have a passive cellar well protected from the vagaries of the environment. I have a temp monitor down there and the warmest it's ever been in the worst summer weather has been 62. In the winter it gets down to 54.