New Cooling Unit

I thought I'd share this experience.

I had a Koolspace Midikool (circa 1997) that died last Fall. I think the controller unit was damaged by a power surge because if I unplugged it and plugged it back in one out of 20 times it worked fine - and the cooling was just fine.

Anyway, I contacted the manufacturer and, of course, their new units aren't the same size. I then looked around at other cooling units but came back to the original manfacturer because (1) they offered me a large repeat customer discount and (2) the size of the new opening wasn't much different than what I had.

Anyway, after a lot of carpentry I have the new unit in and its working great. Its called KoolR Plus. Anyone have one?

I do have one question - if I can get a spare for the same discounted price is there any issue if I don't use the spare for 5-10 years? Is there any loss of cooling if you leave it unopened for ten years?

http://www.wineracking.com/koolr.html

this looks like a Koolspace unit, but mine is an older unit and my experience may not count. The website looks like they've made improvements.
Nonetheless, my experience is these leak coolant pretty quickly. I don't know if you let it sit that it would leak.

How much did you pay?

They gave me the $595 model for $350.

An air conditioner, like a car, relies on periodic lubrication of various parts and seals that happens when it's operated. You'd really be better off running the backup unit a few minutes a month, instead of letting it sit indefinitely. At least, that's how I understand it.

I'm with Walt. Use it or lose it.

John

I'm with Walt too. Years ago,when AC in a car was just an option, I recall that the manual for my car said to run the AC a few minutes every month, even in winter. This was to lube the compressor.

Thanks all!!

Of course my fear is that in ten years the new cooling unit will die and the new unit will be a different size again. I custom built the winecellar in 1997 and it was a pain in the butt last week adjusting the size of the custom built opening for the new cooling unit. My cellar is built on one end of a finished family room so I needed to do a good job of finish carpentry on the warm side of the cellar. The new opening/hole really won't easily accommodate another retrofit.

[David M. Bueker]

If the new unit dies...move.

I put the same or very similar unit into a large cabinet cellar last year - replaced a Vintage Keeper cooling unit that had not worked since before I was given the cellar. Also had a fair bit of cutting to do, and the instructions were more for installing into a room wall, so I was off on my own for a bit. On the plus side, it works well.