--- title: "Wine Cellar Too Warm: Causes and Fixes" description: "A wine cellar too warm shows up slowly: the room smells of the house instead of cool stone, a bottle picked from a middle rack feels barely cooler than your…" url: "https://winecellarrepair.center/problems/cellar-too-warm/" --- # Wine Cellar Too Warm A wine cellar too warm shows up slowly: the room smells of the house instead of cool stone, a bottle picked from a middle rack feels barely cooler than your hand, and the wall thermometer has crept from the mid 50s into the 60s over a week. ## Collection first: cellar door shut, water near power left alone, breaker off from a dry panel Treat a warming cellar as urgent once the room is above the mid 60s and still climbing, because the collection is at stake, not the machine. Keep the door shut, move the bottles you would least like to lose to a cool dark corner, and book a visit before a hot week turns into lifted corks. ## What it usually means. A cellar cooling unit does two jobs at once: it pulls heat out of the room and it has to throw that heat somewhere else. A through-the-wall unit dumps it out of its back grille into the next room, a ducted unit sends it down a duct, and a split system carries it through copper lines to a condenser outdoors or in a utility space. When the cellar warms, either the unit has lost part of its cooling, the heat it throws off has nowhere to go, or the room itself is letting in more heat than the unit was sized for. That last case is common: a door without a proper seal, a gap in the vapor barrier behind the racking, a new glass wall or a summer that is hotter than the one the unit was chosen for. The collection is what is at stake. A few days near 65°F costs little, but weeks in the 70s age wine faster than intended, and a hot spell can lift corks, so a warming cellar is handled here as urgent. The 6 causes, cheapest first Answer these first 01 What does a thermometer read after an hour in a glass of water on a rack at mid height, rather than the display on the unit? 02 Is the unit running and blowing air that feels cool on the cellar side, or running without much difference at all? 03 Where does the exhaust go: a room next door, a closet, a garage, or a condenser outside, and how warm is that space today? 04 Has anything changed in the room lately, such as new racking against a wall, a glass panel, a door replaced or a gap opened for wiring? 05 Is it a through-the-wall, ducted, split or ceiling unit, and do you know the model number from its label? ## Check these before you book. Wine cellar too warm: 5 checks, and none of them costs anything. 01 Keep the cellar door shut; every trip inside lets warm house air across the racks, and a struggling unit may never win it back. 02 If the room passes about 70°F, carry the most valuable bottles to the coolest dark spot in the house, such as a basement corner or an interior closet away from appliances, and lay them on their sides. 03 Look at the exhaust side: make sure the grille in the next room is not blocked by boxes or a closed closet door, and that the space there is not baking. ### Also worth checking - Put a thermometer in a glass of water on a middle rack and read it after an hour, so we know the temperature of the wine and not of the air at the grille. - Note the make, the model number and the type of system: through the wall, ducted, split or ceiling mounted. ## The causes, cheapest first. 6 things wine cellar too warm turns out to be, from exhaust side too hot or boxed in to room gaining more heat than the unit can remove. [The cost guide](https://winecellarrepair.center/cost/) 1. 01 no repair ### Exhaust side too hot or boxed in A through-the-wall unit needs its hot side to breathe into a room at least as large as the cellar and cooler than the high 80s. Blowing into a closed closet or a hot garage, it recirculates its own heat and cools almost nothing. Clearing the space or opening a door there is the first test. No repair: check it yourself 2. 02 low to moderate ### Evaporator or condenser fan stopped Without the cellar-side fan, cold stays trapped in the coil; without the hot-side fan, the compressor overheats and cuts out. Either one leaves the room warming while the unit hums. [Fixed by cellar evaporator and condenser fan repair](https://winecellarrepair.center/services/cellar-evaporator-and-condenser-fan-repair/) 3. 03 low to moderate ### Coil iced over and blocking the air A coil covered in ice passes almost no air, so the cellar warms even though the unit runs cold. It usually traces back to a stalled fan, a setting too low or a short refrigerant charge. [Fixed by cellar coil icing and defrost repair](https://winecellarrepair.center/services/cellar-coil-icing-and-defrost-repair/) [See cellar cooling evaporator coil icing up](https://winecellarrepair.center/problems/evaporator-coil-icing-up/) 4. 04 moderate to highest ### Refrigerant charge low from a slow leak A leak at a brazed joint in the unit, or at a flare fitting on a split system's line set, lets the unit run for hours and deliver little. We find the leak before anyone adds refrigerant. [Fixed by cellar cooling leak search and recharge](https://winecellarrepair.center/services/cellar-refrigerant-leak-repair/) [On a split-system cellar cooling](https://winecellarrepair.center/types/split-system-cellar-cooling-repair/) 5. 05 highest ### Compressor not starting A failed start component or a worn compressor leaves the fans running with no cooling behind them. It is the largest repair on a cellar unit, and it is confirmed with measurements before any part is ordered. [Fixed by cellar compressor and sealed system repair](https://winecellarrepair.center/services/cellar-compressor-and-sealed-system-repair/) 6. 06 varies ### Room gaining more heat than the unit can remove Missing insulation, a torn vapor barrier, an interior door with no weatherstrip or a wall of glass adds heat the unit was never sized for. The machine may be healthy and simply outmatched; a load check of the room shows which. [Fixed by cellar cooling load and room check](https://winecellarrepair.center/services/cellar-cooling-load-and-room-check/) ## What else it could be. Most often confused with cellar cooling unit running constantly, then cellar cooling unit exhaust overheating. [All problems](https://winecellarrepair.center/problems/) Codes that come with it - [`E1` Breezaire · Temperature and alarms](https://winecellarrepair.center/error-codes/breezaire-e1/) - [`AL` Breezaire · Temperature and alarms](https://winecellarrepair.center/error-codes/breezaire-al/) - [`OH` Breezaire · Temperature and alarms](https://winecellarrepair.center/error-codes/breezaire-oh/) - [`Er` Breezaire · Sensors and probes](https://winecellarrepair.center/error-codes/breezaire-er/) - [`HI` Breezaire · Sensors and probes](https://winecellarrepair.center/error-codes/breezaire-hi/) - [`E1` CellarCool · Sensors and probes](https://winecellarrepair.center/error-codes/cellarcool-e1/) [20 more codes, by make](https://winecellarrepair.center/error-codes/) Also related - [**Cellar Cooling Unit Fan Not Running** 4 causes](https://winecellarrepair.center/problems/cellar-unit-fan-not-running/) ### Cellar Cooling Unit Running Constantly 5 causes ### Cellar Cooling Unit Exhaust Overheating 5 causes ### Cellar Cooling Evaporator Coil Icing Up 5 causes ## The makes it happens on. 7 makes on this site; wine cellar too warm can show up on any of them. Each mark opens that make's own page. [All 7 brands](https://winecellarrepair.center/brands/) ## Wine Cellar Too Warm, where we come out. 9 metros, each with its own page. 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A short stretch in the low to mid 60s rarely harms wine. Weeks in the 70s age it noticeably faster, and heat in the 80s can push corks and let wine weep past them, so a room heading that way is a reason to move the best bottles now. ### The unit runs all day but the cellar keeps warming. Is the unit too small? Sometimes, especially after a change to the room such as a glass wall or a new door. Just as often a healthy unit is choking on its own exhaust or a coil is iced. A visit measures the air on both sides and the room's heat gain before anyone talks about a larger unit. ### Can I open the cellar door to let the air conditioning in? Only as a short stopgap on a hot day, and only if the house is cooler than the cellar. House air is drier and carries more heat than it seems, so an open door usually does more harm than good over a day or two. ### Is a through-the-wall cellar unit worth fixing when it stops cooling? Usually, when the cause is a fan, a sensor or a controller, and those are the common ones. A failed compressor on an older unit is where the numbers need an honest look, and we lay them out after the diagnostic. --- **[Read on the site: Wine Cellar Too Warm: Causes and Fixes](https://winecellarrepair.center/problems/cellar-too-warm/)** **[Book a visit with WineCellarRepair.center](https://winecellarrepair.center/schedule/)**