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My wine cooler stopped cooling. The light comes on so I know it is getting power. I took it apart and I believe that it is a bad thermostat. I removed the temp control mechanism and bypassed it by jumping the Black and Blue wires. The fan and compressor started working. I wanted to be sure that this means that it is the thermostat or could it be something else? Thanks
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I think it's safe to assume you have correctly diagnosed the problem, give APPros a call to correctly identify the control and get a replacement... cheers, kooler
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Dear JH,
Whatever happened with your u-line wine fridge? Was it the thermostat? I have a similar problem, only the light comes on when opening the door. I unscrewed the rear panel and could not make any progress disassembling the compressor in order to try powering it up.
I talked with a Uline repair person who indicated that it would be a better value to purchase a whole new cooler! He said it would not be worth paying him to fix it.
What do you think? Seems like a pretty expensive wine cooler to be breaking down anyways. Did you get yours working? Thanks, Dan
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Hi Dan: I had the same conversation with a repair guy...and I was thinking that he was crazy especially since in my case, it was a high end unit (~$2800) Kitchenaid. One day it was working fine…next not working at all….Light worked…so I knew it was getting power…but no cooling. I'm not sure how mechanically inclined you are… but I would rate this repair about a 4 on a 1 - 10 scale. Just for reference I’m a 16+ year IT management consultant… It is a simple repair but you will be working in tight spaces and will need to be able to follow the temp coil under the fridge...around the back… and into the cooling compartment which required me to also dismantle the back and inside back of the unit. It was the thermostat in my case. This is how I isolated the issue: I pulled out the fridge, unplugged it, and dismantled the front under cover so that I could expose the thermostat of the unit. I bypassed the thermostat by taking the wire leads off of the thermo control. (The thermostat is the piece with the cooling adjustment dial.) Plugging it back in, I touched the two wires together. When I did this, I could hear the compressor kick on. So, I was able to isolate the issue to the thermostat. I bought one online (about $70) from a Kitchenaid parts dealer. I was also able to see a good parts diagram that helped the disassembly process. I waited until the new part came in to match it, bigger issue… so that I would not forget where all of the screws went and the path along which the temp sensor wire followed. The part was basically a dial with a long whip. Like I said it was not that difficult...it was just working in tight spaces and figuring out what needed to be disassembled to get to the items that needed to be exposed to get the old parts out... Mine has been running worry free since the repair and it was much better than spending $2000+ on a new unit. Just a side note, this also gave me the courage to fix my dishwasher door hinge when it broke about a month later...the repair guy wanted $180 just to show up...I fixed it with a $12.50 repair kit (online) and ½ hour of my time;-). Let me know if you run into any issues. Cheers! Jason Originally Posted by: DJDoc  Dear JH,
Whatever happened with your u-line wine fridge? Was it the thermostat? I have a similar problem, only the light comes on when opening the door. I unscrewed the rear panel and could not make any progress disassembling the compressor in order to try powering it up.
I talked with a Uline repair person who indicated that it would be a better value to purchase a whole new cooler! He said it would not be worth paying him to fix it.
What do you think? Seems like a pretty expensive wine cooler to be breaking down anyways. Did you get yours working? Thanks, Dan
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Rank: Member
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Joined: 8/12/2009(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: jhsneed Hi Dan:
I had the same conversation with a repair guy...and I was thinking that he was crazy especially since in my case, it was a high end unit (~$2800) Kitchenaid. One day it was working fine…next not working at all….Light worked…so I knew it was getting power…but no cooling.
I'm not sure how mechanically inclined you are… but I would rate this repair about a 4 on a 1 - 10 scale. Just for reference I’m a 16+ year IT management consultant… It is a simple repair but you will be working in tight spaces and will need to be able to follow the temp coil under the fridge...around the back… and into the cooling compartment which required me to also dismantle the back and inside back of the unit.
It was the thermostat in my case. This is how I isolated the issue: I pulled out the fridge, unplugged it, and dismantled the front under cover so that I could expose the thermostat of the unit. I bypassed the thermostat by taking the wire leads off of the thermo control. (The thermostat is the piece with the cooling adjustment dial.) Plugging it back in, I touched the two wires together. When I did this, I could hear the compressor kick on. So, I was able to isolate the issue to the thermostat. I bought one online (about $70) from a Kitchenaid parts dealer. I was also able to see a good parts diagram that helped the disassembly process.
I waited until the new part came in to match it, bigger issue… so that I would not forget where all of the screws went and the path along which the temp sensor wire followed. The part was basically a dial with a long whip.
Like I said it was not that difficult...it was just working in tight spaces and figuring out what needed to be disassembled to get to the items that needed to be exposed to get the old parts out...
Mine has been running worry free since the repair and it was much better than spending $2000+ on a new unit. Just a side note, this also gave me the courage to fix my dishwasher door hinge when it broke about a month later...the repair guy wanted $180 just to show up...I fixed it with a $12.50 repair kit (online) and ½ hour of my time;-). Let me know if you run into any issues.
Cheers!
Jason Hi Jason! We have ordered a new thermostat, thanks to your help! My problem now is how to install the long wire with the pig tail end. It looks like I need to remove the interior shelf to get at the panel at the back to remove both the old temperature sensor and install the new one. How do I remove the shelf. Also I noticed the compressor seems to be running very hot. Thanks for you help!! Mike
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Hi Mike:
This is actually the easy part....;-) On mine… I had to remove all of the shelves (5) which slid out just like my kitchen cabinet drawers. Next I removed 4 screws that held on the cooling coil assembly (Big white smooth flat piece with raised ridges running through it.). Once the screws were removed, I carefully lifted the cooling coil assembly/panel until I could see the old whip and pig tail. (Sorry I am going on memory here…) I believe that there was another screw that held the end in place that I had to remove and then reattach to the new whip once inserted through the back and snaked into place. Really I remember this taking only about 10 minutes to do start to finish. I reused all of the “filler” stuff to reseal the new whip in place.
As far as the compressor running hot…I really don’t know…my compressor does get pretty warm. The only thing that I would even know to comment upon is that some units are not really meant to be “built in” and are not front vented. Not sure in your case. They are usually less expensive than the true “built ins” for that reason. I have friends who have purchased those types and they do well but I have heard that they do not last because they overheat…all I know…
Hope this helps.
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Rank: Member
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Thank you so much for your help! Will give it a try tonight!!
Mike
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This was the perfect forum. I have the same Kitchenaid Wine Cooler that for no apparent reason just stopped cooling. Si I followed the above advice, bypassed the thermostat, and BINGO the compressor started right up. I ordered and received a new thermostat from AppliancePartsPros.com and installed it yesterday in 45 minutes. The cooler is working perfectly and at a cost of approximately $60.00. If you have a screwdriver and a small socket set then the rest is easy.
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