Shake, Rattle and Spoil?

A few days ago I noticed for the first time that the wine racks in the general vicinity of my five-year-old Whisperkool are vibrating very slightly as is the wall behind them. I've never noticed this problem before, not even during the four-year life of the Whisperkool that preceded this one.

The vibrations are not as severe as the vibrations of a typical refriigerator but I'm concerned. I recall the conventional wisdom that says vibrations spoil wine -- e.g., "beware of storing wine under a staircase" -- but I've never seen any sort of studies in this regard. And I wonder if these vibrations are the my Whisperkool's way of telling me it's coming to the end of its lifespan.

Your thoughts on this?

A few days ago I noticed for the first time that the wine racks in the general vicinity of my five-year-old Whisperkool are vibrating very slightly as is the wall behind them. I've never noticed this problem before, not even during the four-year life of the Whisperkool that preceded this one.

The vibrations are not as severe as the vibrations of a typical refriigerator but I'm concerned. I recall the conventional wisdom that says vibrations spoil wine -- e.g., "beware of storing wine under a staircase" -- but I've never seen any sort of studies in this regard. And I wonder if these vibrations are the my Whisperkool's way of telling me it's coming to the end of its lifespan.

Your thoughts on this?

If the vibrations are a new thing, I'd certainly suspect that your Whisperkool may be reaching the time for a repair if not worse. OTOH, while I too have heard the proscription against vibrations, I think that that probably has to do mostly with the settling of sediment and not with the chemical reactions associated with the aging of wine.

Mark Lipton

Clint, Mike Bassman wrote a very useful discussion of these devices, with the help of a number of folks on WLDG. You can find a copy of the piece at http://www.wineloverspage.com/cellarbuy.shtml

The vibrations are probably bad news, but as long as the device holds temps, I wouldn't replace it -- unless I was concerned that energy consumption was climbing.

If you keep it, here's one useful suggestion; I've used the same solution with one of my filter pumps, but with one inch thick board insulation:

* What do they say about vibration?

(Gee, they all contend that they minimize it. Les Shih recommends: "if you live in a Pre-War (or a loft) building I would put neoprene pads underneath your unit in order to avoid vibration (prewar buildings rarely have pads underneath the hardwood floors) which might disturb your neighbors below...just call up Metropolitan Lumber and ask for neoprene pads for flooring underlayment. These tend to be the cheapest available and thicker in dimension, however you could also try asking for neoprene sheets for roofing if they don’t have the kind for flooring."

Clint, as Bob's post suggests, I'd look into putting pads under the unit. If that's not practical, how about putting pads under the individual bottles? I've done that for a few special bottles but not for any specific purpose other than the bottles were $1000 range.
Are you sure it's the unit and nothing else?

-- e.g., "beware of storing wine under a staircase" --

OK, how serious is this? That is exactly where mine is. It is a free standing passive system that does not touch any of the walls or stairs. It sits firmly on the concrete cellar floor. The stairway is 13 step, carpeted, and is used no more than once or twice a day.

Cheers, Carl

For clarification: mine is not a stand-alone unit. It's a temperature controlled cellar with a Whisperkool 3000 XL Series. Sorry if I misled anyone.