Convert pantry to wine storage

[sammy_h]

I'm contemplating turning the bottom of our kitchen pantry cupboard into a wine storage area. This cupboard is fairly central in the house, so temperature fluctuation is minimised.

However, the cupboard is constantly being opened and closed.

My thinking is to create an insulated insert that fits into the bottom of the cupboard, complete with its own doors so that it is independently sealed from the rest of the cupboard.

The area is reasonably large at 870 x 560 x 700, so I figure I could fit about 60-80 bottles in there.

My plan is to build a double walled insert, possibly with insulated doors as well, but i'm wondering what the best thing would be for insulation?

Obviously the thicker the insulation, the less space I have for wine.

Sam

[HappyHammer]

Sam,

The two important elements you're trying to control are temperature and humidity. Are you looking to lay bottles down for any length of time, ie years? If so how will you achieve an even 15-16 degrees C with minimal fluctuation. Humidity needs to be somewhere in the middle not to dry as it will dry the corks and not too wet as this may cause mould on the corks.

If you drink your vino within six months of it arriving you won't need to be quite as fussy.

HH.

[OBBob]

There are a lot of wine fridges available that you could build in ... may be over budget though??

eg - http://www.andico.com.au/html/liebhe...bherrhome.html

[HappyHammer]

I've had two of these wine fridges. The first one was built into my kitchen in Sydney and cost about $600 and held about 60 bottles. The one I have now is in the cupboard under the stairs cost $800 and holds about 80 bottles. I bought both of them from Harvey Norman so you can get them cheaper than the ones in the link above.

HH.

[sammy_h]

Yeah, this is not for long-term storage.

Wine doesn't hang around too long in our house

This is mostly to minimise the highs-and-lows that occur in situations like 35°C days when the cupboard is opened and closed a bunch of times during the day.

Sam

[HappyHammer]

Should be right with your current approach then Sam. I'd suggest less shelves rather than more as you'll get more wine in if you stack the bottles directly on each other, within reason of course.

Wow I just checked out the price of wine fridges on the net and they seem to have gone up dramatically since I bought mine.

Here's the cheapest I found.

HH.

[HappyHammer]

As far as the insulation goes you could re-cycle some polystyrene and fill the gaps with a spray foam insulator.

HH.

[SilentButDeadly]

Sammy.....have a yarn to a local mob that make coolrooms. You'll probably find they can supply aluminium/foam core pieces from their off cut pile.....which is where I get mine.

A word of warning for those who have the so called wine fridges. Some recent work by Choice and others have found they typically don't store the wine at the temperatures they say they do or with the stability that they claim they can either....but the killer was that they often are far more expensive to run than a similar sized (and in some cases far bigger) fridge. As a result of one survey, Choice awarded a 2007 Shonky Award to a couple of brands of wine fridge.

Besides you can build a perfectly good wine storage fridge from a Tucker Box style freezer with a conversion unit on the compressor (plans are in Silicon Chip magazine or a kit is available from Jaycar - although kit needs some changes to ensure budget running)....

[Cliff Rogers]

.... a Tucker Box style freezer with a conversion unit on the compressor (plans are in Silicon Chip magazine or a kit is available from Jaycar - although kit needs some changes to ensure budget running)....

I think I have that kit, what are the changes?
I haven't built mine yet 'cos the big old freezer I have died.

[sammy_h]

If you're looking for a temperature controller for a fridge then I heartily recommend the Fridgemate.

http://www.mashmaster.com/p/365439/f...oller-kit.html

I have one of these for my beer brewing operations.

[Cliff Rogers]

Good one sammy.

The temp diff of 1°C may be a tad high for a cellar controller but good enough for short temp cellaring in a fridge/freezer set up.

[BrissyBrew]

Good one sammy.

The temp diff of 1°C may be a tad high for a cellar controller but good enough for short temp cellaring in a fridge/freezer set up.

General disclaimer, I am the director of MashMaster Pty Ltd, hence your welcome to make of my opinion as you wish.

I have had clients use these units to control a number of large chest freezers to store wine, we are talking about 1000s of bottles. If the probe is suspended in the air and a small fan is used to circulate the air inside the "freezer" the temperature of the wine inside the bottles varies less than 0.5*C once they stablise. If using a temperature controlled freezer that does not have humdity control I strongly suggest you wrap each bottle in cling wrap to ensure that the cork does not dry out, it helps keep the lables in good condition.

[Cliff Rogers]

G'day.

Thanks for responding.

I have fiddled with electronics for several years trying to get a good stable temp controller for a wine cellar & I understand that it is not easy to produce a commercial, affordable product.

Interesting to see your recommendations on the sensor.
One product that was (maybe still is) available a while back had the sensor in a dummy bottle. That would have slowed the reaction of the controller causing it to over shoot the set point badly.

The project I was working on used a programmable micro controller to modify & steady the rate of change as the PV (Process Variable) approached the SP (set point).
The way it did that with only on/off control of a compressor was to run it for shorter bursts & leave it off longer times closer to the SP & it has a delay built in before it can run the compressor from first power up & after any cooling cycle.

The project had just reached testing stages & the chest freezer I had for the job passed away.