Basics of a Wine Cellar Cooling Unit Service Plan

This video tackles the basics of a service plan for wine cellar refrigeration systems. Arctic Metalworks follows a checklist of activities to perform when providing cooling equipment maintenance. 

Checklist of Things-to-Do in a Regular Cooling Unit Service Plan

Below is the transcript of the video:

Do we pay special attention to the fact that the wine is very corrosive and it has a great deal of acidic value that eats away the indoor unit. We like to put a activated charcoal inside the refrigerated home wine cellar if we can. That helps absorb the acidity that’s in the air and keeps it more alkaline, and extends the life of the equipment. That’s one thing we do that no one else does.

The condenser. It’s like a radiator that’s on the end outdoor unit. It has hands on them and it directs across these coils and removes the heat. As it takes it out of the refrigerated wine cellar, those coils will get dirty. We have to clean them with CO2. If we can, we’ll use water. And occasionally if they get oxidized, we’ll use a de-oxidation chemical cleaner on them. That will strip the oxidation off and get them be better again where they can flush heat more efficiently.

Dog hair. I’ve had a bit clogged up with dog hair. That’s quite common. Can be a real issue for maintenance. If you have a couple of big dogs and they’re on the side yard with that unit a lot. That will pick up a lot of hair very quickly.

Just to make sure that there’s a certain checkpoint that is completed. It’s just a little checkpoint of what we do on each maintenance. That’s the thing that needs to be covered each time to be thorough.

Usually about a hundred and thirty dollars. It varies on what they are and what we’ve got to expel to get the maintenance done. But a minimum charge for a simple on is a hundred and thirty dollars.

Me twice a year. I usually set them up in the calendar so they reoccur maybe twice a year. Once or twice a year. Some of them up to four times a year for places that are in burrow areas and they get a lot of airborne matter, debris, and stuff lying around. A little more than some.

If any wine cellar refrigeration units are near a dryer vents with a dryer discharge outside, they need to have it more often, because that dryer vent will clog up the equipment. I’ve had that happen many, many, many times. And I have one that we have to go four times a year because the dryer keeps plugging up the unit.

No additional maintenance needed for a directed system. You choose pretty much about the same. If they have it around a side yard and the gardeners are back there with their weed blowers and stuff, those things will get plugged up very quickly. The biggest shivers of compressors are gardeners with weed blowers. They’ll blow the leaves all over the condenser and it sticks to the condenser and chokes the air flow and the air cool. So they will just burn out. I’ve had that happen many times.

If you need help or have any questions about wine cellar cooling unit servicing and maintenance, you can reach us at (323) 825-9846.