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A thermometer on a rack in a wine cellar reading warm, the cooling unit's grille above it.

What the room and the unit are telling you

Common problems
guides.

What it means when the cellar will not come down to 55°F, water runs down the wall below the unit, the evaporator turns white with ice, or the cooling never seems to rest.

(844) 398-5977

Mon–Sat, 8am–8pm

  • Three guides
  • Read before you book
  • Says where to stop

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Common problems,
guide by guide.

This section covers the three complaints that bring most wine cellar owners to us: a room that will not stay at 55°F, water where it should not be, and a coil that turns into a block of ice. Each guide starts from what you can see or measure in the cellar and the room next to it, and works back toward the part or the building detail responsible.

All 18 guides
Rough fieldstone walls and walnut racking full of bottles in a home wine cellar, a through-the-wall cooling unit's grille set high on the far wall just under the ceiling, and a hand holding a slim probe thermometer in the cold air leaving it.
6-minute read

Why the cellar will not hold 55°F: the room, the exhaust side or the unit

A quick air test at both grilles shows whether the unit is cooling at all; after that the exhaust room, the door, the vapor barrier and the unit's size each tell their own story.

Inside a plaster-walled wine cellar, the underside of a through-the-wall cooling unit high near the ceiling, a clear drain tube leaving it and a towel spread across the tile below one falling drop, wood racks of bottles to one side.
5-minute read

Why the cellar unit drips water, and which side of the wall it lands on

Water on the cellar floor, down the exhaust-side wall or from a ceiling unit points to different parts of the drain path, and much of it starts with humid air leaking into the room.

A close view through the cellar-side grille of a wine cellar cooling unit, white ice packed between the aluminum fins of its coil, with a corner of wood racking and bottles softly out of focus behind.
5-minute read

Why the evaporator ices over, and what the ice pattern reveals

Frost that clears in a defrost cycle is routine; ice that stays points to airflow, a cold exhaust room or a low charge, and how far it climbs the coil helps say which.

What the room and the unit are telling you.

A cellar cooling unit is only half of a system. The other half is the room: its insulation and vapor barrier, a door that seals on all four sides, and a space on the exhaust side that can absorb the heat. Many visits end with the unit working exactly as designed and the room letting in heat or moisture faster than it can be removed, so every guide here gives the room the same attention as the machine.

The guides cover all four kinds of cellar cooling we repair: self-contained units through the wall, ducted self-contained units, split systems with the condenser outdoors or in a mechanical room, and ceiling-mounted evaporators. Where a cause sits in a different place on each design, the guide says so rather than treating every unit as a box in a wall.

Facts that come from a maker's manual are named and linked at the foot of each guide, with the sections they support. Where the makers disagree, as they do on something as basic as whether the unit should share a GFCI outlet, the guides report both positions and send you to your own manual rather than picking a side.

Not sure where to start?

The short answerWhy the cellar will not hold 55°F: the room, the exhaust side or the unit

A wine cellar cooling unit not cooling is often a unit that works but cannot keep up: the exhaust side breathes air above about 85°F, the door leaks, the room lacks a vapor barrier, or the unit was undersized.

The short answerWhy the cellar unit drips water, and which side of the wall it lands on

A wine cellar cooling unit leaking water is usually making more condensate than its drain path can move: a clogged or kinked drain line, a unit tilted the wrong way, an iced coil melting all at once, or humid air leaking in around the door or through a missing vapor barrier.

The short answerWhy the evaporator ices over, and what the ice pattern reveals

A wine cellar cooling unit freezing up is usually starved of air across the cellar-side coil, running with an exhaust room colder than the maker allows, or short of refrigerant.

When reading
is not enough.

If the checks in these guides did not settle it, the visit picks up from there, stop by stop.

What repairs cost
  1. 01The room and the unit, both measured
  2. 02The cause and the figure, before any work
  3. 03Common cellar parts in the van
  4. 04The cellar heading back to 55°F

The problems
these answer.

Each has a page of its own, with 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 ducted wine cellar with a white supply grille in the wood-paneled ceiling above tall racks of unlabeled bottles, a small wall clock with a plain face on the end panel and a faint shimmer of cool air below the grille. Problem

Cellar Cooling Unit Running Constantly

5 causes, cheapest first

 A narrow storage closet with its door wide open, the louvered exhaust grille of a through-the-wall cellar cooling unit set into its back wall, stacked cardboard boxes pressed close in front of the grille and a faint heat shimmer in the air. Problem

Cellar Cooling Unit Exhaust Overheating

5 causes, cheapest first

 A ceiling-mounted cellar cooling unit set into the wooden ceiling of a wine cellar, its slotted grille seen from below with a still fan blade visible in the shadow behind, rows of unlabeled bottles in racks along the walls below it. Problem

Cellar Cooling Unit Fan Not Running

4 causes, cheapest first
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 about
common problems.

Which of these problems puts the wine at risk fastest?
A cellar that is warming, because heat reaches the bottles steadily whatever the cause. Keep the cellar door shut, read the temperature in a water-filled bottle, and if that reading climbs beyond roughly 70°F, relocate the bottles that matter most to an interior closet, out of the sun and away from anything that runs warm.
Can a warm cellar and a leaking unit have the same cause?
Often. Humid air leaking in through a poor door seal or a torn vapor barrier makes the unit run longer and pulls extra water out of the air, so the room warms and the drain overflows together. Sealing the room frequently cures both at once.
Do these guides apply to a cellar built decades ago?
Yes. Older cellars tend to show the same problems sooner, because door seals flatten, drain lines scale up and plastic vapor barriers get cut when wiring or lighting is added. The checks are the same; expect to find more of them.
What if the cause is the room rather than the unit?
Then the fix is a building one: weather stripping, a sealed penetration, insulation, or a vent for the exhaust space. We will say so after a diagnostic visit rather than replace parts that are working.

The other
sections.

Split by what you are trying to find out rather than by which part of the appliance it concerns.

All guides
A hand pressing a key on a small cellar cooling controller beside the cellar door, the display dark.
Checks an owner can make in the cellar

Troubleshooting

A soft brush cleaning the dusty condenser grille of a cellar cooling unit on its exhaust side, the unit switched off.
Habits that keep the unit off our schedule

Maintenance and prevention

Bottles laid in cardboard cases on a cool basement floor outside a warm wine cellar.
The bottles first, then the wiring and the floor

The collection, power and water

A through-the-wall cellar unit and a slim split evaporator shown on two cellar walls side by side.
Which system suits the room, and keep or replace

Choosing and comparing

Rigid foam insulation and a plastic vapor barrier sheet on the framed walls of an unfinished wine cellar.
The room, the opening, the door and where the heat goes

Installation and setup

Not sure which section?

Start from your question

The four questions most visits start with, each with the guide that answers it.

18 guidesWhere to start Where to start

Back to your everyday

Let’s get your wine cellar cooling unit working again.

Three short steps online, or one call. Tell us what you are seeing and pick a window that works.

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