WhisperKOOL SC 4000i Wine Cooling Unit

I have a professionally designed and built wine cellar that is about 900 square feet. The cooling system needed a repair and I determined that purchasing a new unit was more economical than repairing an older unit. After what I thought was thorough research, I decided to purchase a Whisperkool 4000. I used their website Wizard to spec the unit and purchased the next size up. The unit arrived in late June 2017 and was easy to install and began working without a problem. In early July, however, the alarm sounded to tell me that the wine was above the 55 degree set point. I ran through the troubleshooting and found no answers so I contacted the manufacturer, Vinotheque, and was immediately contacted by a “Senior Customer Service Specialist.” The specialist was super nice and I believed that my problem would be corrected. What followed was a series of laborious “testing” procedures that I had to perform myself and then send in the results. I also had to take pictures of the unit, the cellar, the exhaust area and send them in as well. I was repeatedly informed that the unit was functioning perfectly. The Specialist informed me that I needed to cut apart the area of the wine racking above and in front of the unit to increase the airflow. When I replied that the old unit worked perfectly in that space for 8 years, I was told the changes needed to be made in order to comply with installation instructions. While it truly pained me to see the wine racks sawed apart, I did as instructed. By now, fall had arrived and the unit kept the temperature at 55. As soon as the snow melted, the alarm sounded again. I circled back to the Specialist and was again required to run tests and submit the results. Apparently, the tests no longer supported her story of proper functioning and the explanation was now “premature unit failure due to improper installation.” I had my wine cellar cut apart in order to “properly install” the unit and I was now being told that the installation was improper! I have never dealt with a company that labored so hard to avoid a warranty claim. I even offered to purchase a larger unit as long as I was provided a full credit for the price of the defective unit. The company refused and wanted to pro rate the warranty despite the fact that I initiated a warranty claim within two weeks of installing the unit. I was forced to purchase a replacement unit from another manufacturer and filed a lawsuit against Vinotheque. I am a lawyer and I am fortunate to have money to deal with this issue. It is not about the money. It is about a company cheating consumers and failing to abide by consumer protection laws. Eventually, the owner of the company got involved and initially acted like he wanted to remedy the situation. He too, however, refused to accept any financial responsibility for my troubles and ultimately wrote me a letter, Tim Robbins "firing" me as his customer and sending a refund for the purchase price only. I tried to remain reasonable but this Company care less about me as a customer. I won my lawsuit and recovered almost 10 times the original purchase price thanks to Vinotheque's violations of consumer protection laws. PLEASE do yourself a favor and do not buy anything from Vinotheque and no Whisperkool products. The products are inferior and the company provides absolutely no warranty and no customer service. Do not be fooled by their fancy website and their flowery language and product representations. None of it is true. SPEND YOUR MONEY ELSEWHERE OR YOU WILL BE SORRY. Please contact me directly if you want more details or if you are considering a purchase.

I came back to update my review.My design calculations were wrong. If you have a space with a lot of glass I strongly suggest you use the WhisperKool calculation tool. Do not use the SF or CF estimation tools if you do you Cooler will be too small.After I did my calculations I found I had to add another cooler even though my original guesstimate had a safety factor of 3. Take the time to do a detailed calculation or hire an engineer for special situations.With two coolers my cellar works great never exceeding 56 Degrees with the added safety factor of having a backup unit if one fails.Updated April 2018I made a call to customer service regarding my cooler. My cooler was purchased from amazon and drop shipped by WhisperKool. The representative stated he would send me some information which I have yet to receive. That is the reason for my review.My cooler was installed two weeks ago and has yet to reach the desired temperature of 56 degrees. The lowest temperature I have reached is 58 degrees.My cellar is 273 Cu Ft. it is rated for 1000 cu ft.my cellar has two large triple glazed sliding glass doors. The U factor for these doors is equal to an insulated wood stud wall. I called WhisperKOOL during the design process explaining my design factors. The representative I talked with suggested I upsize my unit to the next size.As you can see to be safe I upsized my unit two sizes.We are located in Oxnard. The ambient temperature has not climbed out of the seventies since the cooler was installed. I have noticed that my cooler has produced more condensation than my last cooler in Pasadena. Obviously we do have higher humidity due to our close proximity to the Ocean. The manufacturer has refused to help me determine why my WhisperKOOL SC 4000i Wine Cellar Cooling Unit (up to 1000 cu ft.) is not cooling properly.I have already taken one measure. I noticed the room was overheating slightly. I installed a vent in the ceiling to make sure the cooler was not short circuiting. To no avail?

Built a brand new insulation Wine cellar and decided to install my own cooling system. Read the reviews and did not believe the bad reviews. Well, Guess what 2 1/2 years later. Was working great for the first year plus, then started not keeping the temp and letting it rest and even put a fan over the vent. Did not help. Will just purchase a ductless air will be cheaper and easier and a 5yr warranty. Don't waste your time on this unless you want to throw away money for 2 years.

Easy to assemble and install. Works great. this is a replacement for my 1999 WHISPERKOOL 4250, MUCH IMPROVED.Instructions were not as detailed as I thought they needed to be, caused user to make decisions without directionsWoild have prefered drain tube be routed on the inside of unit. Out side drain makes for an ugly installation.

This was a replacement unit, and it works noticeably better than the previous model installed about 5 years ago. Quiet, easy to install, turns on and off at reasonable intervals (about 30 minutes is typical in our case), and keeps our 8 foot by 20 foot cellar uniform in temperature within about 3 degrees from the far end to the cooler end. Humidity control appears to be working well also. At least the amount of water condensed and collected on the outside is noticeably more than before.

This is my second WhisperKool in 6 years. Simply breaks down shortly after the 2 year limited warranty mark. Very unreliable, poorly made product. I had this product professionally installed and was well vented. Do not recommend at all.

This unit fit into the same spot that my 4200 was. uses less energy and cools better. I think this is a great value for the cost.

Very good unit. Make sure your wine cellar is propertly built .