Wine cellars and refrigerated bottle coolers are a fantastic investment. To fully appreciate them you need to know how to handle the uncooled bottle refrigerator
Most people know that red wine should be served at room temperature and white wine should be kept chilled. However, this isn’t strictly true. In fact, the best way to store any wine is in a controlled environment, away from contaminants, and at a steady temperature of between 7-18°C, the optimum temperature is 13°C.
In short, one of the best gift for wine lovers is a bottle refrigerator. It ticks all the right boxes and ensures your wine can be kept properly for a day, a month, or much longer.
Of course, not just any refrigerator will do, to keep some bottles cool for your special occasions, a Candy wine cooler is the ideal solution for you.
But, like any appliance, the cooler can go wrong. You need to know how to deal with an uncooled bottle refrigerator.
Common problems with wine cellars
Your wine cellar is surprisingly complex, issues left untreated can quickly become major problems and mean expensive repairs. You need to be able to identify the issue and take the right steps to resolve it:
- Power outage: If the power has gone off the refrigerator may not have turned back on correctly. It could be an issue with the power supply, the circuit breaker, or the wiring in the uncooled bottle refrigerator. It will need to be checked.
- Leaking refrigerant: The refrigerant is pumped around and absorbs heat from the air, effectively cooling the inside of the refrigerator. If you have a leak it won’t work as efficiently and the temperature will start to fluctuate. The leak needs to be fixed before the refrigerant can be refilled.
- Water loss: The evaporator coils will often get condensation on them. This is normal and drips into a pan to be collected and removed. However, if there is a leak under your refrigerator then there is too much condensation. This places a strain on your unit and can cause it to become an uncooled bottle refrigerator. The issue is normally related to a damaged seal.
How to reset the refrigerated cellar
Resetting a refrigerated cellar is the best option if there doesn’t appear to be anything wrong with the unit but it can’t maintain the temperature properly.
To reset, simply pull the plug out and leave it out for between 30-60 minutes. Keep the door closed and your currently stored wine will be largely unaffected.
Plug the refrigerator back in and see if that has resolved the issue.
Non-functioning wine cellar? If your wine centre has simply stopped functioning you’ll want to check the power supply. An issue with this will stop the unit from working. However, if the power is fine then you’ll need professional help. There are several possibilities, but it may be time to replace the refrigerator.
What to do when the cellar fan does not work
The cellar fan is designed to move the cool air around the refrigerator, ensuring all parts of the unit are at the same temperature. This prevents hot spots which can seriously damage your wine.
If the fan stops working it could be an electrical fault. You’ll need to check if it has power to it. Should there be no issue with the power then the most likely issue is either a blocked filter or debris on the fan. Clean them up and it should start moving again.
As with all issues, the faster you get them looked at, the easier and cheaper it is likely to be to repair them.
