Wine fridge move

Just spent the day relocating my 500 bottle fridge from a room on the main floor to a room downstairs. I should have taken photos, but was too busy working all day and now my back is a bit fatigued.

Started out this morning, by unloading the cellar, and taking it all via milk crate down stairs 9-12 bott. at a time, then back up the stairs to reload. Standing each shelf’s grouped bottles up with the shelf name via alphanumeric codes on painters tape across the top of each group for easy re-stocking once the cellar was in place. Removed cooling unit and kept it on plane until re-installed. Removed doors and wrapped the cellar. Built a ramp on the staircase using plywood sheathing cut to size and some old carpet for friction for sliding it down the stairs on its side, with a flat dolly at the bottom Used an old garden house as a strong but slightly flexible guide rope from the top of the stairs to control the slide down the ramp (appliance dolly or stairclimber wouldn’t have allowed it to fit).
Wife & 17 year old son provided plenty of help and sarcastic commentary while moving the cellar down the stairs.

Once down and back up on the feet, the reload was pretty quick and start-up was painless.
Should run less in the half basement than the previous location and the former room looks immense now.

Took a few weeks to decide my best course of action - Proper planning prevents poor performance.

It’s a good idea to wait 24hrs before restarting unit after moving, to allow refrigerant to settle.

+1

I remember moving all of my wine from one offsite storage to another about 10 minutes away. I did it in a single trip and had a thought that made my palms sweat… “all of this wine I’m transporting is worth way more money than the car I’m driving”.

And much much harder to replace than the car you were driving.

I moved about 300 bottles over 4 hours away a few cases at a time. Seemed like it would never end, but it did.

If that’s the extent of the damage…
[dance-clap.gif]
Well done!

Clearly a well-thought-out plan. I would have had to hire 3 guys and it still wouldn’t have gone as well. But my back wouldn’t be tired. [cheers.gif]

Couple years ago moved 600+ bottles from our old house to where we are now, about 6 cases at a time over several weeks. To this day I still count the number of steps into our basement, since I could not easily see over the box for the last step.

500 / 12 = 41 & 2/3rds round trips
500 / 9 = 55 & 5/9ths round trips

Moral of the story: Never run the numbers on a wine project beforehand, or else the looming enormity of it will discourage you from ever undertaking the project in the first place.

Always plunge in head-first, completely naive as to the ultimate consequences of your decision.

It’s actually to ensure the oil is in the right place, rather than the refrigerant. Older systems can allow the oil to creep into the coils if tilted in a certain way.

On more modern designs, its an unnecessary precaution. If the unit was transferred level as OP says, there will be no issue at all.

Yes, it’s the oil in the compressor. Also, Eurocave states a 48 hour waiting period.

Appreciate the math, to be a bit more correct, CT said I had about 410 or so in there, due to mostly burgundy or german shaped bottles. A few random bottles got in there without CT entry as well, so maybe 413-415 tops.
Thankfully the rest of my cellar was already in my basement cellar which will never be moved by me, apart from deliveries in and one-at-a-time bottle consumption out.
If we ever move, which I hope we don’t - I will hire help and play logistics manager. Far too many trips to contemplate at any age, especially since it would be carrying the cumulative load up, not down the stairs.

Re the colling unit and letting it sit. Refrigerant wouldn’t have been disturbed much. I removed the unit and set it down carefully, never tipping it at all.
Basement is cool and it was a cool day here, so the cellar got down to 56 within 20 minutes last night. No issues and the removal allowed me to really get at the fins with the dyson and compressed air. With luck, I’ve added some lifespan to it.