Shocking, my wife seems averse to me putting a 2x300 bottle units in our open kitchen. “They are so lovely,” I say; “Like coffins,” she says.
So we have this walk-in closet off of our family/TV room, which is adjacent to our kitchen. Just went in there. It is loaded with kids’ toys. Like 12 years of kids’ toys. As I’m kicking his butt off to college in May, seems like I need to clear out that closet, too.
The closet is large, 6.5 feet by 16 feet. Has an A/C register, but no return.
Would this large closet work for the location of the wine fridge units? I know open space and circulation is better, and that you cannot put them in a small closet - I tried that once years ago, the unit never shut off, then died - but this is a decent sized space.
Thoughts?
PS. Yes, I know, ideally I’d build that space into a wine room. Have thought about it many times. But, we are not long for this house.
Why not? Seems big enough for 2 medium sized units. If you’re at all concerned about air movement have an HVAC guy install a return high on one of the walls & tap into the existing HVAC somewhere out of site. Couldn’t be too difficult or expensive to do.
Thanks, Chris. I thought about the return line as well. The problem is that the main room, off of which this closet is located, is the end of the supply line, and it is a cathedral ceiling. The duct work is tricky and adding a return line would be a major issue. I wonder if there is an individual exhaust fan concept that I can incorporate.
And to the boys above, you know the old saying, the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. . Though, my kid ain’t cheap.
The space is large enough if you keep the door open the airflow should be good. If frequently leaving the door open isn’t something you want to do then how about some sort of slatted door?
They come in hundreds of styles and unless you go hog wild are going to be a lot cheaper than HVAC work.
I’m not an expert on anything, much less HVAC, but I’m thinking an orientation of vent>fridges>door should keep cool air flowing from the vent to the fridge then warm air out the door.
Another thought would be to remove the closet doors altogether, maybe adding some trim around the opening so it looks good. This would then require a decent looking cabinet, but my Le Cache passed the wife test. http://www.lecachewinecabinets.com/ It’s in a hallway off the family room.
On the other hand, slatted doors might help reduce the sound from the unit, but if you go that route try to put in doors that go most of the full height of the closet. Warm air will tend to rise up to the ceiling and some units pull their cooling air from the top, so you want to make sure that air is circulated.
As others have said, modifying or eliminating the door is probably the easiest solution. The supply diffuser is useless if air can’t leave the space. Often doors are undercut to allow the air to leave under the door. Ideally you would want the return as high as possible in this case.
If the house AC does a reasonable job of keeping the space relatively cool, I would think you would be OK with the wine fridges. Otherwise, is there a way to vent their exhaust out of that space? The issue with keeping a fridge in a small closed space is that it generates more heat exhaust than internal cooling, so eventually the space will warm up, the heat leakage back into the fridge keeps it constantly running. At some point it can’t keep up with the cooling, and eventually will fail if running constantly.
Just keep in mind that if you leave the door open, the sound of the units could be loud. I have a 400 bottle unit with a CellarPro 1800XT and it is pretty loud. Too loud to be in a family or living room.
. Though, my kid ain’t cheap.