Temperature Controlled Wine Coolers

[mark]

I’m toying with the idea of buying a small wine cooler similar to this.

With a temperature range of 7 -18 C they seem almost perfect for a controlled winter cooling and spring warming. An 18 degree Celsius setting would also be very handy during the hottest days of the summer. It’s much cheaper than air conditioning and avoids knocking holes through the wall. I reckon I could stack 5 - 6 good sized tuppaware containers in a small cooler like that if the shelves were removable – perfect for terrestrial and small semi – aquatic species.

I’m trying to figure out the pros and cons of such a cooler. My main concern would be ventilation. I’m guessing the air doesn’t get refreshed unless you open the door. Anyone have any thoughts or experience of such a cooler?

 

[coen]

I would say ventilation could pose a problem. What are the pros above a common freezer?

 

[jennifer]

Being cold blooded, sals don't really use much oxygen, so my hunch is that if you opened the door at least daily they'd be fine. But if it were me, I'd like to see some approximate calculation before I'd take the chance. Any physicists here?

 

[andy]

I have a large wine cooler that i use on hot summers days. I open the door each day to let in fresh air and it's fine. I do worry though about the vibrations the compressor causes each time it switches on, which in the summer is every few minutes.
I did look into the silent type wine coolers but they're big money!

 

[samuel]

about air, if you don't mind drilling a hole inside you could use an air pump, thats what i was going to do, and just seal it with silicone so the air would only flow to the inside, but you have to disarm some parts to do this, not sure if would work but those where my plans with my dad's cooler

 

[mark]

I hadn’t thought about the compressor noise/vibration, Andy. Does yours create much heat?

I think they are generally fan assisted to keep the temperature constant throughout. This would help circulate the air but not refresh it. I’d prefer not to drill holes into it. I suspect there would be enough oxygen in a cooler that size to last a few days, maybe longer – but it would be good to be sure.

Coen – the main advantage is the temperature range, much greater than your average fridge. This can be set to the temperature you require between 7-18C.

 

[andy]

Hi Mark, the compressor does get kinda warm in the summer yes....it's has to turn on very often to maintain the cool temps. These things are good in theory and great if you have to cool down animals in heatwaves, but there's just something about them i don't like...i only use mine for the animals as a last resort really. I think it stresses the animals out being in it....just my two cents worth.

 

[samuel]

mark as andy sayd his cooler is not the silence type, my dads bearly make a noise, even less than the fridge, so i think if you're buying a new one it wont make noise or at least shouldn't

 

[alan]

The usual advice with fridges is to make a small gap in the door seal at the bottom to let CO2 (heavier than air) out.
CO2 poisoning will kill animals long before oxygen deprivation.

 

[andy]

No, mine was brand new last summer and cost £200. When i was looking to buy one of these i did some research first and found that the silent ones (in this country at least) cost an absolute fortune.

 

[jonathan]

the specs say 840mm * 500mm * 548mm = 230L of interior volume. Assuming you use less than 80L for tanks and such, that leaves 150L of air inside.
150L or 6.7 moles of air has 1.4 moles or 45g of oxygen. For comparison, a 20L tank of water at normal pressure and 15C will have about 0.2g of oxygen dissolved in it (source). so I would guess 10-20% of the available oxygen would last your critters quite a long time, however I couldn't guess oxygen consumption or metabolism rates to within even an order of magnitude.

 

[mark]

Thanks for those calculations Jonathan. Alan, the cooler will be fan assisted inside so CO2 sitting heavy in the bottom shouldn’t be an issue - unless the fans run infrequently. I think the safest option is to modify it with an element of ventilation. The door looks to be glass and could potentially be drilled for an air line in, obviously the more ventilation the less efficient the cooler will be.

I think I’ll bite the bullet and buy one. They’re not that expensive and if it turns out to be unsuitable at least I’ll have somewhere to cool my wine

 

[coen]

That looks like very handy 'gadget'. May I ask how much a winecooler generally costs?

Me and my girlfriend will be moving to a house soon, so we need to buy these things anyway

 

[jameswei]

What kind of setup does a person make for a wine cooler?

 

[travis]

I bought a wine cooler on sale at Home Depot for around $150. It has about a 50 bottle capacity, but I'm not sure how that translates to salamanders ;-) I haven't used it a whole lot, but did keep some Plethodon and Desmognathus in it for about a month. They did fine and I only opened the door every several days, and mine doesn't have a fan or any ventilation. The highest I can regulate the temperature is around 60 F. I think it would be a good tool for winter cooling, or temporary housing during summer heat for those without air-conditioning.