Wine Cooler Repair in Colorado Springs

Wine keeps best at a temperature that doesn’t move. If your cooler has started to wander by a few degrees, or sounds louder than it did last year, have it looked at before a case of good bottles pays for it. We repair wine coolers and beverage centers — under-counter or freestanding, one zone or two — in homes across Colorado Springs, in Monument and around Fort Carson.

Garages, basements and dry air

• In the garage. Most wine coolers can cool but can’t heat. In an unheated garage on a January night, the cabinet falls below its setting along with the garage, and bottles can freeze and push their corks out. In July the same garage gets hot, and a small cooler — a thermoelectric one especially — can’t pull the temperature down. A cooler that only misbehaves in winter or in summer may be perfectly fine indoors.
• In a basement bar or a kitchen island. Built-in models breathe through the grille at the front. Freestanding ones need open space at the back and sides, and boxed into cabinetry they overheat — a common result of a remodel.
• Dry air. Colorado’s low humidity can dry corks out over time. Store bottles on their side so the wine keeps the cork moist, and keep the door seal in good shape.

Compressor or thermoelectric?

The technician first finds out how your cooler makes cold — the two designs break in different places.

• A compressor cooler is a small refrigerator. When it runs warm, look first at a dusty condenser, a dead fan or start relay, a sensor or the board; leaks and worn-out compressors happen, but less often.
• A thermoelectric cooler has no compressor at all: a Peltier chip pumps the heat out, with a small fan on each side. It’s quiet, but it can only get so far below the temperature of the room. When one stops cooling, the fix is usually a new fan or a new chip.

Other common repairs

• One zone warm, the other fine. The two zones are controlled separately, each with a sensor and usually a fan of its own, so a single failed part warms only one of them.
• Bottles freezing indoors. A sensor that reads wrong or a relay on the control board stuck closed.
• Frost on the back wall or water inside. Room air is getting in through a poor door seal, or the defrost water can’t reach the drain.
• Rattling or humming. Fan motors wear, compressor mounts loosen, and a cabinet that isn’t level buzzes. The shaking isn’t good for the wine either.

The technician names the price once the diagnostic is done, and nothing is repaired until you agree; see our prices page. Wine storage from Sub-Zero and Viking has its own pages, and a regular refrigerator is covered under refrigerator repair.