stefan's Wine Closet

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stefan
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stefan's Wine Closet

Post by stefan »

Lucie and I converted the closet in our TV room into a wine closet. This gives us storage for 390 bottles. Most importantly, I can keep this closet colder than my main wine room. Right now I have it at 55F.

The project was more complicated than I anticipated, requiring a plumber, an electrician, and a carpet layer in addition to the carpenter/contractor and his son who did most of the work. The CellarPro 1800 cooling unit draws air from a hallway and exhausts it into the attic. The plumber installed a pump to get rid of excess water from the dehumidification of the cellar. Probably that was not needed as the pump has yet to operate. We hear the unit operate when in the hallway, but it cannot be heard in the TV room because of the heavy insulation of the walls and door. I am happy with everything other than the cost.
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stefan
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Re: stefan's Wine Closet

Post by stefan »

Why do pictures appear upside down? Is there a way to turn them around? This one views correctly when I open it on my Mac but is upside down on BWE. I tried rotating it to be upside down on my Mac, saved it and uploaded that version to BWE, but that one also appears upside down.
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Blanquito
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Re: stefan's Wine Closet

Post by Blanquito »

I keep considering buying a Cellarpro, but the steep price tag makes me wait. I mean for nearly $2000 for a glorified A/C, this thing better make one hell of an espresso.

Is it awesome? Quiet, energy efficient, reliable, built to work longer than 5 years?
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Blanquito
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Re: stefan's Wine Closet

Post by Blanquito »

Congrats on the new wine closet.
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Jay Winton
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Re: stefan's Wine Closet

Post by Jay Winton »

very nice!
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AKR
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Re: stefan's Wine Closet

Post by AKR »

I've been mulling over doing something like that too. Nice project.
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JimHow
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Re: stefan's Wine Closet

Post by JimHow »

I'll try to fix the picture when I get back to the office.
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stefan
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Re: stefan's Wine Closet

Post by stefan »

The basic CellarPro 1800 is $1100, Patrick. It is good for spaces up to 200 cubic feet if the insulation is reasonable. It has a 5 year warranty.

The free standing AC that is in my wine room was less than half that, but it will not cool down to 55F. It works well set at 64F, which gives me cooling to 62F in part of the room, but I wanted some colder storage.
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Blanquito
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Re: stefan's Wine Closet

Post by Blanquito »

stefan wrote:The basic CellarPro 1800 is $1100, Patrick. It is good for spaces up to 200 cubic feet if the insulation is reasonable. It has a 5 year warranty.

The free standing AC that is in my wine room was less than half that, but it will not cool down to 55F. It works well set at 64F, which gives me cooling to 62F in part of the room, but I wanted some colder storage.
Ah, $1000 is much more reasonable. My cellar is ~525 cubic feet, so I checked and it looks like I'd need the $2500 Cellarpro version. I use a $330 Kenmore right now, and it works perfectly most of the time (keeping the cellar floor at 55 and the cellar ceiling at 59, I moved the thermometer cable outside of the device so that is chills lower), running the compressor and fan for only 10 minutes each hour or so. The ambient basement never gets higher than 77-78 degrees in the summer and is usually in the low 70s. Humidity never seems to drop below 50%, and is usually in 60-70%.

Sometimes however the Kenmore starts running for long periods (1 hour straight?) and it seems to stop cooling as much during these periods as well (maybe the coils are freezing up from running too low?), so I turn it off for an hour or two to reset which causes the cellar to warm up a degree or two (but no more, there's enough insulation and thermal mass that even if I leave the unit off overnight it is still 57 degrees on the cellar floor the next morning). I find this tedious and would rather the temp remained constant and perhaps it is wasting lots of energy when this happens, but ironically it happens less when it is really hot outside maybe cause it is less likely to freeze up.

So you can see my dilemma, I have a pretty good set up and it mostly keeps everything at the correct temperature. I'd rather a better device, but $2500 is hard to bite down on.

Sorry for the thread drift, but I'd be curious what you guys think...
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stefan
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Re: stefan's Wine Closet

Post by stefan »

I am amazed that your Kenmore will keep the temperature that low without freezing up all the time. My freeze proof Piguano(?) nevertheless froze up when I tried to run it a couple of degrees colder. My wine room is about twice as big as yours, but I don't know whether that makes any difference.

Have you thought about installing a timer so that your unit would shut down for a couple of hours every night? I considered trying that, but because of my age I want my younger wine to be stored at higher than traditional cellar temperature. I have enough space in my new closet for wines I want to keep below 60F.
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DavidG
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Re: stefan's Wine Closet

Post by DavidG »

Stefan - very nice!
Blanquito - sometimes the enemy of good is better. If it aint broke...
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Blanquito
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Re: stefan's Wine Closet

Post by Blanquito »

stefan wrote:I am amazed that your Kenmore will keep the temperature that low without freezing up all the time. My freeze proof Piguano(?) nevertheless froze up when I tried to run it a couple of degrees colder. My wine room is about twice as big as yours, but I don't know whether that makes any difference.

Yeah, when it works, it works surprisingly well. In the heat of July when the basement is in the high 70's some days, the Kenmore actually gets the floor to 54 and the ceiling to 57 and it doesn't freeze up! This is my 3rd season using this Kenmore and it seems like it is freezing up more though, running the fan without any cooling.
stefan wrote:Have you thought about installing a timer so that your unit would shut down for a couple of hours every night?
This is a great idea, I will try it.
stefan wrote:I considered trying that, but because of my age I want my younger wine to be stored at higher than traditional cellar temperature. I have enough space in my new closet for wines I want to keep below 60F.
I guess I need a smaller, colder area to deep freeze my already mature wines and champagne, maybe something around 50F. I've considered getting a 200-300 bottle cabinet for this purpose.
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Nicklasss
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Re: stefan's Wine Closet

Post by Nicklasss »

Very nice stefan.

Myself, I've been resisting and did not buy any wine cooler, controlled température wine furniture or install a wine room. My wine is in a closet, on the wall on the north, with 60 % natural humidity in the summer and 16 Celsius, and 40 % humidity in the winter and 13 Celsius.

I always thought that would be ok for 10-20 years max, for a good bottle that can age. And I prefer to buy 2000$ of wine, and Loose 5-7 % of it, than a wine furniture. I'm not convinced the wine furniture would make a différence that much. But if you want to keep bottles over 20 years, I guess you need something better.

Nic
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RDD
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Re: stefan's Wine Closet

Post by RDD »

Nicklasss wrote:Very nice stefan.

Myself, I've been resisting and did not buy any wine cooler, controlled température wine furniture or install a wine room. My wine is in a closet, on the wall on the north, with 60 % natural humidity in the summer and 16 Celsius, and 40 % humidity in the winter and 13 Celsius.

I always thought that would be ok for 10-20 years max, for a good bottle that can age. And I prefer to buy 2000$ of wine, and Loose 5-7 % of it, than a wine furniture. I'm not convinced the wine furniture would make a différence that much. But if you want to keep bottles over 20 years, I guess you need something better.

Nic
If you use the traditional English model of buying two cases and selling one in the future to pay for the other, a cellar provides excellent provenance.
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Blanquito
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Re: stefan's Wine Closet

Post by Blanquito »

Nicklasss wrote:Very nice stefan.

Myself, I've been resisting and did not buy any wine cooler, controlled température wine furniture or install a wine room. My wine is in a closet, on the wall on the north, with 60 % natural humidity in the summer and 16 Celsius, and 40 % humidity in the winter and 13 Celsius.

I always thought that would be ok for 10-20 years max, for a good bottle that can age. And I prefer to buy 2000$ of wine, and Loose 5-7 % of it, than a wine furniture. I'm not convinced the wine furniture would make a différence that much. But if you want to keep bottles over 20 years, I guess you need something better.

Nic
That is one cold closet. Who needs a chiller when it never gets about 16C? A nice perk of living north of the (US) border.
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