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Electrical ? about a wine fridge

22jdub

22jdub

New Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Messages
75
Location
Southern Michigan
I have this wine fridge. I really don't need the cooling feature. It holds pretty stead at 70 degrees and when I do try to use it at the highest setting, it just tends to bring the humidity level down 5-6 points. What I would like to do is try to take the back panel off and disconnect the cooling unit so that I can plug it in and still use the display light. Anyone electrical gurus out there done something similar to this? Thanks!
 
22jdub said:
I have this wine fridge. I really don't need the cooling feature. It holds pretty stead at 70 degrees and when I do try to use it at the highest setting, it just tends to bring the humidity level down 5-6 points. What I would like to do is try to take the back panel off and disconnect the cooling unit so that I can plug it in and still use the display light. Anyone electrical gurus out there done something similar to this? Thanks!
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I have the same problem, I want to disconnect my cooling unit too and just me able to use the light feature and temperature settings!
 
You should be able to open the back of the unit and either disconnect the power at the cooling motor, or the thermostat relay. You just need to trace the wires from the cooling unit to the relay and disconnect them. After disconnecting the wires you should cover them with a wire nut or something like that so nothing shorts out.

Then there will be no power going to the cooling motor, and you should still have the ability to use the internal lights. If you are planning on having the internal lights on all the time, I would suggest getting LED lights for the inside of the unit. The LED lights will generate very little (if any) heat, were a regular bulb will generate a lot of unwanted heat.
 
2K6TBSS said:
You should be able to open the back of the unit and either disconnect the power at the cooling motor, or the thermostat relay. You just need to trace the wires from the cooling unit to the relay and disconnect them. After disconnecting the wires you should cover them with a wire nut or something like that so nothing shorts out.

Then there will be no power going to the cooling motor, and you should still have the ability to use the internal lights. If you are planning on having the internal lights on all the time, I would suggest getting LED lights for the inside of the unit. The LED lights will generate very little (if any) heat, were a regular bulb will generate a lot of unwanted heat.
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Thanks!
 
Most wine fridges have pelt (Peltier) coolers, which are solid state equivalents to the usual compressor / coil system most people are familiar with.

My guess is that you could open the thing up and pretty easily find a relatively big module, likely with a fan on it. It should have only two wires....pull either one, cooler won't run. There might be more than one pelt module, disconnect them all.

Or, just get some LED lights like the computer mod guys use, and a small 12V power supply. That's probably what I'd look into.....
 
That's kind of what I figured, I'm going to dig into it this weekend. I'll make sure its an led as well. Should have my shelves from Forest soon, I want to be able to show them off. Thanks for the input!
 
22jdub said:
That's kind of what I figured, I'm going to dig into it this weekend. I'll make sure its an led as well. Should have my shelves from Forest soon, I want to be able to show them off. Thanks for the input!
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Dude, so I went to my fridge and unplugged all the cables from the compressor that went to the relay. When I plugged it in everything works but the compressor is not running. Hopefully everything stays the same temperature. I will let yall know tomorrow.

edit: I think I hear something that is circulating air, what is that? What ever it is it might generate a little heat. I might unplug whatever it is if the temperature goes up while I am at work.
 
It is likely the fan. I think mine has one separate from the cooler. This is good for spreading the humidity evenly, I think.
 
[quote name='Smokin'Sims' timestamp='1329262310' post='1077657']
It is likely the fan. I think mine has one separate from the cooler. This is good for spreading the humidity evenly, I think.
[/quote]
yeah idk, I can't unplug the fans with out unplugging the display -.-
 
22jdub said:
Sweet, let me know. Is your interior light an LED or traditional?
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It has this weird bulb, it emits a purple blue light, not LED though. Might see if I can fend an led bulb for it.
 
Well looked at my wine fridge this morning and at its still heating up a bit.. -.- It is currently 76/75 (it has two different sections) I guess I'm throwing in the towel. I cannot figure out how to disconnect those fans without disconnecting the light and displays. -.-
ITS THE PTC HEATER -.- I'm going to try and remove it when I get home from school today.
 
I just decided not to use the light that came with the cooler at all. I just ordered http://www.superbrig...WFLB.htm#photos and am going to use them as my lighting source.

The package I created was 2 of the light strands (WFLB-CW24), 1 power supply (CPS-12VDC-24W), and 1 pigtail adapter (CPS-PT). It was like $45 shipped to my house USPS Priority mail. I should get the lights this weekend, and will be installing them on Tuesday (going to be gone for the weekend).
 
CBoukal said:
2K6TBSS said:
I just decided not to use the light that came with the cooler at all. I just ordered http://www.superbrig...WFLB.htm#photos and am going to use them as my lighting source.
Click to expand...

Those are sweet!! I am think of 4 or 5 places in my house I would love to mount those. Maybe under the kitchen cabinets even...
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There are all kinds of things you could do with those lights...That site even has can light bulbs that have ~130 LEDs in it that give off a ton of light, and don't use a lot of energy...
 
2K6TBSS said:
I just decided not to use the light that came with the cooler at all. I just ordered http://www.superbrig...WFLB.htm#photos and am going to use them as my lighting source.

The package I created was 2 of the light strands (WFLB-CW24), 1 power supply (CPS-12VDC-24W), and 1 pigtail adapter (CPS-PT). It was like $45 shipped to my house USPS Priority mail. I should get the lights this weekend, and will be installing them on Tuesday (going to be gone for the weekend).
Click to expand...

Will you be mounting the power supply inside the wind fridge?
 
22jdub said:
2K6TBSS said:
I just decided not to use the light that came with the cooler at all. I just ordered http://www.superbrig...WFLB.htm#photos and am going to use them as my lighting source.

The package I created was 2 of the light strands (WFLB-CW24), 1 power supply (CPS-12VDC-24W), and 1 pigtail adapter (CPS-PT). It was like $45 shipped to my house USPS Priority mail. I should get the lights this weekend, and will be installing them on Tuesday (going to be gone for the weekend).
Click to expand...

Will you be mounting the power supply inside the wind fridge?
Click to expand...

The "power supply" is actually just a transformer with about 6ft of cord. I will be drilling a very small hole in the back of the unit (for the wire) and make all the connections inside the unit. The power supply will be plugged into the wall.
 
I got the LED strips today, and decided to install them before leaving for the weekend!

Here is where I installed the LED strips at. I tapped into the existing on/off toggle switch (on the side of the thermostat housing) to be able to turn the LEDs on/off without having to plug/unplug the transformer.
IMAG0101.jpg


Here they are on! Really bad, but it's from my cell...
IMAG0102.jpg


Here is it with the door closed and an empty box in it..
IMAG0105.jpg


I will get a couple more pics uploaded when I get the cooler in it's home and pulgged in.
 
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