Compressor was starting and stopping every thirty seconds. He measured the start relay and the overload and both were bad. Replaced them together, checked the current draw after, and showed me the reading.
Service area · San Mateo County
Wine cooler repair in Portola Valley
Portola Valley is hillside houses with a lot of glass and a lot of afternoon sun, and that combination shows up in wine cooler behaviour more than anywhere else on the Peninsula.
$89 service call · waived when the repair is booked
- ZIP codes
- 94028
- County
- San Mateo County
- Service call
- $89, waived when the repair is booked
01 On the ground
Wine coolers in Portola Valley
A cabinet in a room with a large west-facing window has a heat load nobody accounted for. It holds its number overnight and loses two or three degrees every afternoon, then recovers. Customers describe it as intermittent, which sends people looking for electrical faults. It is thermal, it is repeatable, and it is measurable with a probe and a note of the time.
The houses here also tend to have wine storage integrated into a single architectural cabinet run, often with the unit tight to a wall or a corner. Getting a column out on rails without touching the cabinetry is part of the job and we plan for it before we start.
02 Pattern
What we find here
- Solar gain on the cabinet run
- Overnight stable, afternoon drift, repeatable. Thermal, not electrical.
- Tight architectural installs
- Access has to be planned. Pulling a column without damaging cabinetry is a two-person job.
- Damper faults on dual-zone cabinets
- Both zones lock together. Defined part, defined repair.
- Condenser fouling in houses with dogs and open doors
- Hillside houses live with the doors open. The coil collects everything that comes in.
03 Coverage
Portola Valley and around it
Neighbourhoods
- Ladera
- Westridge
- Blue Oaks
- Portola Valley Ranch
- Brookside Park
- Los Trancos Woods
Nearby
- Woodside
- Menlo Park
- Atherton
- Palo Alto
- Los Altos
- Redwood City
04 Straight answers
Portola Valley questions
Do you cover all of Portola Valley?
Yes — Ladera, Westridge, Blue Oaks, Portola Valley Ranch and the rest of 94028. Portola Valley sits in San Mateo County and is part of our normal Bay Area coverage.
What should I have ready when I call?
The model number from the plate inside the door, what the panel is set to, what the panel reads, and what a thermometer on the middle shelf reads after a few hours. Those four things name the likely fault before we arrive.
What does a visit to Portola Valley cost?
$89 for the service call, which covers coming out and diagnosing the fault by measurement. It is waived when you book the repair with us.
Book a visit
Wine cooler trouble in Portola Valley?
Model, what the panel says, and what a thermometer on the shelf says. That is usually enough to know what we are walking into.
07 Customer notes
What people say
Gurgling and clicking loud enough to be a nuisance in an open-plan kitchen. He identified the clicking as normal refrigerant flow and the gurgle as an over-filled charge from a previous repair by someone else. Recovered and recharged to spec. Almost silent now.
Small thermoelectric unit in the dining room that stopped cooling entirely. He was honest that on that size of unit the Peltier module and the power supply cost most of what the cooler is worth, and walked me through what a compressor unit would do differently. No pressure either way. I appreciated being told the truth.