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A quiet wood-racked wine cellar with unlabeled bottles, a closed notebook and a flashlight resting on a tasting ledge, and a split system's evaporator mounted high on the far wall.

Maintenance and prevention

A yearly cellar cooling check, done in spring

A yearly round of wine cellar cooling maintenance checks the room and the machine together. Test the door seal and sweep, look for gaps and sweating, compare a separate thermometer and hygrometer with the controller, time the unit's runs, clean its coil, filter and drain, and inspect cords and any outdoor condensing unit before summer arrives.

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At a
glance.

Once a year, ideally in spring before the exhaust side starts to heat up, spend an afternoon with the cellar as a whole: the door, the walls, the true temperature and humidity, and how the unit behaves over a few hours.

Read the whole guide

Best timingSpring, before the hot months

The exhaust side works hardest in summer.

Humidity to expectAbout 50 to 70 percent

CellarPro's design target inside the cellar.

Settled runtimeAbout 30 to 50 minutes an hour

Measured after the room has settled, per CellarPro.

ToolsA thermometer, a hygrometer, a flashlight, a notebook

Plus a vacuum with a soft brush for the coil.

Start with the room

The unit can only hold what the room lets it hold, so the round begins at the cellar door. WhisperKool asks for an exterior-grade door, weather stripping on all four sides of the jamb and a sweep or threshold at the bottom. Close the door on a strip of paper at several points; where the paper slides out without drag, the seal has gone flat. A strip of light under the door is a gap you can see.

Walk the walls and ceiling next. Look at switch plates, outlets, pipe penetrations and light fixtures, which CellarPro says must all be sealed; recessed light cans are a familiar leak. On the warm side of the walls, dampness, peeling paint or a musty smell point to a vapor barrier that has been breached.

  • Door: gasket on four sides, sweep at the bottom, latch that pulls it tight.
  • Openings: outlets, switches, lights, pipes and the unit's own frame sealed.
  • Surfaces: no sweating on glass, walls or racks.
  • Exhaust side: nothing stored against the unit, no new heat source nearby.

Source: WhisperKool — Ceiling Mount H.E. owner's manual — Exterior-grade door with weather stripping on four sides and a sweep; yearly corrosion check and monthly debris clearing at the outdoor condenser; technician service of the condensing unit; CellarPro — 1800 Series owner's manual — Seal outlets, switches, pipes and light fixtures; probe behind the front grille; 58°F setting with 4°F differential averages 60°F; 50–70 percent humidity; 30–50 minutes of runtime an hour

Read the true temperature and humidity

The number on the controller is usually air temperature measured near the unit; on CellarPro's through-the-wall units it comes from a probe behind the front grille unless a bottle probe is plugged in. The bottles in the middle of the room may be a degree or two away from that. Put a separate thermometer in a closed bottle of water on a middle rack, leave it a day, and compare.

Remember how the controller works before calling a difference a problem. CellarPro's example: with the setting at 58°F and a 4°F differential, the unit starts above 62°F and stops below 58°F, so the room averages about 60°F. A hygrometer placed away from the supply air should read roughly 50 to 70 percent; much drier and corks suffer, much wetter and labels and racks begin to mildew.

When the numbers disagree

A steady offset of a degree or two is common and can often be adjusted in the controller's settings. A probe that reads several degrees off, or jumps around, is a part worth replacing before it misleads the unit through a summer.

Source: CellarPro — 1800 Series owner's manual — Seal outlets, switches, pipes and light fixtures; probe behind the front grille; 58°F setting with 4°F differential averages 60°F; 50–70 percent humidity; 30–50 minutes of runtime an hour

Close on a small hygrometer standing on a cellar rack shelf between unlabeled bottles, soft light from above.
Close on a small hygrometer standing on a cellar rack shelf between unlabeled bottles, soft light from above.

Watch the unit run for an afternoon

Sit with a notebook for two or three hours and write down when the compressor starts and stops. CellarPro puts normal runtime at about 30 to 50 minutes in an hour once a cellar is settled. Wine Guardian's schedule asks owners to check for short-cycling, which it defines as more than eight compressor starts an hour, and to listen for new noise or vibration.

Compare this year's notes with last year's. A unit that now runs noticeably longer in the same weather has lost ground somewhere, whether in a dusty coil, a slipping door seal or a fan starting to tire, and the afternoon's other checks usually show which.

Sounds worth noting

Rattles often come from a loose grille or a duct touching a joist. A rising whine or a grinding from a fan motor, or a compressor that clicks repeatedly without starting, deserves a visit before it fails in July.

Source: CellarPro — 1800 Series owner's manual — Seal outlets, switches, pipes and light fixtures; probe behind the front grille; 58°F setting with 4°F differential averages 60°F; 50–70 percent humidity; 30–50 minutes of runtime an hour; Wine Guardian — Ducted split installation, operation and maintenance manual — Monthly checks for noise and short-cycling (more than eight starts an hour); yearly checks of insulation, fasteners, gaskets, ducts, wiring and cords

Service the machine side

This is where the separate guides on the coil and the drain come in; the yearly check is a good day to do both. Wine Guardian's yearly list adds items that are easy to forget: loose insulation, gaskets and fasteners on the unit, cracks in ducts, and the condition of wiring connections and cords.

Split systems have an outdoor half. WhisperKool asks for the outdoor condenser to be inspected for corrosion each year and for debris around it to be cleared every month. Trim plants back from it, clear leaves from the fins and make sure nothing has been stacked against it since last season.

What to look for outdoors

Rust on the cabinet, a pad that has settled and tilted the unit, and chewed or cracked insulation on the refrigerant lines where they enter the house are all worth photographing and mentioning when you book a visit.

Source: WhisperKool — Ceiling Mount H.E. owner's manual — Exterior-grade door with weather stripping on four sides and a sweep; yearly corrosion check and monthly debris clearing at the outdoor condenser; technician service of the condensing unit; Wine Guardian — Ducted split installation, operation and maintenance manual — Monthly checks for noise and short-cycling (more than eight starts an hour); yearly checks of insulation, fasteners, gaskets, ducts, wiring and cords

Keep a one-page record

Note the date, the controller setting, the thermometer and hygrometer readings, the run times, what you cleaned and anything that looked worse than last year. A page like that turns a vague sense that the cellar feels warmer into evidence, and a technician who sees it can skip half the questions on arrival.

Over a few years the record becomes the best guide to wine cellar cooling maintenance for your own room, because it shows which jobs actually changed something and which season tends to bring trouble.

  • Date and outside weather.
  • Controller setting, thermometer and hygrometer readings.
  • Compressor starts and run lengths over the timed hours.
  • What was cleaned, replaced or found worn.

Step
by step.

Five steps, in the order worth doing them.

01

Test the door

Paper strip at the top, sides and latch edge; check the bottom sweep and the latch.

02

Place the instruments

Thermometer in a water bottle on a middle rack, hygrometer away from the supply air, for at least a day.

03

Time the runs

Record compressor starts and stops over a few hours and compare with last year.

04

Clean coil, filter and drain

Follow the maker's steps for your layout, then check that water still reaches the drain.

05

Inspect cords, ducts and the outdoor unit

Look without opening panels, and write down anything new.

A couple lifting a bottle from a lit stone-walled wine cellar, the cooling unit's grille high on the far wall
For the heart of your home.

Questions
owners ask.

Why spring rather than fall?
Summer is when the exhaust side runs hottest and the unit works hardest. Finding a weak fan or a dusty coil in April leaves time to fix it before the cellar depends on it most.
Do I need a technician for a yearly visit?
Not for a healthy through-the-wall or ducted unit whose owner does these checks. WhisperKool does ask for an HVAC-R technician to service the condensing unit of its split systems, so owners of those should plan on one.
How accurate does a home thermometer need to be?
Accurate to about a degree is enough. Check it first in a glass of ice water, where it should read close to 32°F, so you know its offset before comparing it with the controller.
The humidity reads high. Is that the cooling unit?
It can be, but a leaking room is more common. Air entering around the door or through gaps brings moisture the unit has to condense. Seal the room first, then look at the unit's settings or its humidity control.

The problems
behind it.

Each has a page of its own: what it usually means and the causes in the order worth checking.

All 17 problems
A small stone-walled wine cellar with dark wooden racks full of unlabeled bottles lying on their sides, a through-the-wall cooling unit grille set high on the far wall and a round dial thermometer standing in a glass of water on a tasting shelf in front. The collection is exposed

Wine Cellar Too Warm

6 causes, cheapest first

 A small analog hygrometer hanging on the end of a wooden wine rack in a cellar, its needle low on an dial, unlabeled bottles with dull dry-looking capsules lying in the rack beside it and a plastered wall behind. Problem

Wine Cellar Humidity Too Low

4 causes, cheapest first

 The lower corner of a wine cellar where a wooden rack post meets a plastered wall, fine pale spots of mold on the wood grain and darker specks along the plaster, unlabeled bottles resting in the rack slots. Problem

Wine Cellar Humidity Too High or Mold

5 causes, cheapest first

 A compact wine cellar with a through-the-wall cooling unit grille high on a painted wall and a small round temperature sensor mounted on a rack post just below it, unlabeled bottles lying in wooden racks. Problem

Cellar Cooling Unit Short Cycling

5 causes, cheapest first

 The exhaust side of a through-the-wall cellar cooling unit in a finished family room, its louvered grille set into a painted wall above a low bookshelf, a closed glass-paneled door to the lit wine cellar beside it showing racks of unlabeled bottles. Problem

Cellar Cooling Unit Loud or Vibrating

5 causes, cheapest first

When it needs
a technician.

The repairs on the right are where this guide ends when the checks do not settle it.

Cellar cooling load and room check

Measuring the cellar as the cooling unit sees it: insulation, vapor barrier, door, glass and the heat load, to show whether the unit can ever keep up.

Cellar controller and sensor repair

Getting the controller, its display and its probes to read the cellar truthfully and call for cooling at the right time.

Cellar humidity control repair

Bringing a wine cellar back into its humidity window, roughly 50 to 70 percent, by fixing the humidifier, the fan settings, the drain or the room.

Wine cellar cooling diagnostic visit

A visit that reads the cellar, the room the heat goes to and the cooling unit itself, and ends with one named cause, whether it is a part or the room.

More in
maintenance and prevention.

The routines that spare a cellar cooling unit, from brushing the condenser and cleaning the filters to keeping the condensate line clear and walking the room once a year for new gaps and heat.

The whole section
Habits that keep the unit off our schedule

Cleaning the condenser coil and filters of a cellar unit

Where the hot coil sits on each layout, the makers' three-month to yearly intervals, the tools that are enough and the cleaning habits that crush fins.

 Habits that keep the unit off our schedule

Keeping the condensate line clear, from drip pan to drain

Traps, gravity lines and ceiling pumps, how each one blocks, the monthly and yearly checks, and what to do first when water reaches anything electrical.

 Guides

All 18 guides

Six sections, by what you are trying to find out.

Back to your everyday

Read it and still not sure?

Book with what you checked and the model number, and the technician starts where the guide stopped.

Schedule a repair Call (844) 398-5977
(844) 398-5977 Schedule a repair