Emergency! Fridge failure!

[Glenn E.]

Luckily it's fall in Seattle so we're not likely to see 65 degrees again for at least 6+ months. I've now closed the heat vent in that room, so it should stay in the 62-65 range for the rest of the winter.

My ArteVino from Costco seems to have died. The compressor still tries to run, but I think the fan has failed so it can't circulate the cool air. When I discovered the problem the temperature was registering as 67.8 degrees, so it's been at least a couple of days since it failed. All 3 of my fridges are packed in tight, so I'm going to have to unload the whole thing (which will require unloading the room first, as the room's packed with boxes of Port) in order to perform a better diagnosis and (hopefully) repair.

I had just commented to Kari that the Eurocave is now 10 years old and has more than paid for itself compared to off-site storage. Fridge #2 (and off brand that I can't even recall) was inexpensive enough that it paid for itself rather quickly. I'm not sure the ArteVino made it that far, though, so hopefully I'll be able to inexpensively repair it so that it can eventually make it to break even.

And no... it only had a 2 year warranty. A quick search of the forums tells me that it was purchased in December of 2013, so it's not quite 4 years old.

[Eric Menchen]

Well, we'll just help you drink all those bottles so you don't have to put them back in the fridge.

[Roy Hersh]

I have some extra room if you need it, Glenn.

[John M.]

Party at Glenn's!!!

[Moses Botbol]

Bring it back to Costco and ask for a refund.

[Glenn E.]

Bring it back to Costco and ask for a refund.

When this first happened I thought the fridge was 7-8 years old, but since it's actually only 4 I may give that a try. The warranty may only be 2 years, but it's kind of ridiculous for a wine fridge to fail after just 4 years.

[Moses Botbol]

Bring it back to Costco and ask for a refund.

When this first happened I thought the fridge was 7-8 years old, but since it's actually only 4 I may give that a try. The warranty may only be 2 years, but it's kind of ridiculous for a wine fridge to fail after just 4 years.

Who cares how old it is. You pay to be a member of Costco. Let them tell you it's too old and then you can leave it on their counter as you walk away.

[Andy Velebil]

Good call. My home wine fridge I bought at Costco is starting to slowly go out and not cool as much. I've tried cleaning it, etc. but I assume it has a slow leak in the coolant somewhere and it's running too hard and icing up now. Up to 63 which is fine but it used to chill to 58 without issue on the hottest days. I may try to take it back....now who has a truck to return it? Perhaps I'll go in and ask first....

Anyone ever return a large product to Costco?

[Houston Porter]

Does anyone use standard fridges with an added temp regulator?

I'm looking into a wine fridge and it seems like they are pretty expensive. Sure, they look much nicer than having a second fridge out in the garage, but I sure can find fridges cheap on Craigslist.

[Eric Menchen]

Does anyone use standard fridges with an added temp regulator?
I'm looking into a wine fridge and it seems like they are pretty expensive. Sure, they look much nicer than having a second fridge out in the garage, but I sure can find fridges cheap on Craigslist.

I've done that for beer in the past, before building a walk-in cooler for both beer and wine. It seems like a reasonable solution. A concern might be how much temperature variation there is. The classic Johnson controller (https://www.northernbrewer.com/johnson- ... thermostat) has 3.5 to 4 degrees F of range. You could buy a digital controller and make the range tighter, although that will cycle the compressor more. But put the probe in a bottle and you're probably o.k. Shaking is also bad.

You can also find wine fridges on Craigslist. Hopefully these aren't the cheap ones from Costco being dumped.

[Eric Ifune]

I once had my cooler fail midsummer in Las Vegas. It's a Breezaire and was over 12 years old so I guess it's demise wasn't wholly unexpected. Still, given the circumstances I was in a panic as can be expected. I made some calls, found a place in San Diego which would ship the same, although upgraded, model. I got it within two days and installed it. Being the same model the installation was pretty easy. Because of the thermal mass of the wines, the temperature didn't get above 60.

[Roy Hersh]

So what did you do Glenn, and what was the outcome?

[Glenn E.]

So what did you do Glenn, and what was the outcome?

So far I'm just using ambient temp. That room is mostly separate from the rest of the house, so with the heat vent closed it stays at about 58-60 degrees during Seattle winter weather. (I.e. 35-ish degrees outside.)

I meant to contact Costco and see if they'd do something for me since that's where I bought the fridge, but then got busy with work and forgot.

So... still unresolved, but not actually a crisis at the moment!