Support / Troubleshooting & Do-It-Yourself Repairs

Condensation Issues

Excess condensation occurs when the cellar is not well sealed and/or when the cooling unit is running a high percentage of the time, and can be a problem in warm, humid locales, especially during initial pulldown.

Please note that our cooling units were not designed to handle a constant flow of excess condensate. Over time, excess condensation will degrade the cooling unit's ability to cool the cellar, and shorten the expected useful life of the cooling unit. 

To address excess condensation issues, 

• If your unit has a condensate evaporator, make sure it is "on"
• Check the seal of the door, lights, or any other possible source of air that may be entering the cellar from the ambient environment
• If any walls or floor is concrete, make sure they are sealed
• If a vapor barrier was not used during the construction of the cellar, add a vapor barrier or closed-cell foam insulation in the walls
• Raise the temperature set-point to 60 degrees.
• Try to limit the number of times that the cellar door is opened

If your cooling unit is leaking water from somewhere other than the drain line, 

• Make sure that you have a trap in the drain line, like shown in our Owner's Manual
• Make sure that there are no obstructions in the drain line or drain pan.  If you've had water issues for some time, as evidenced by rust in the condensate, mold may have grown inside one of the 2 drain pans, or in the connection between the pans, and therefore the water is overflowing into the case of the cooling unit.  In this case, you'll need to remove the top case of the cooling unit and clean the drain pan with a water/bleach solution.
• Going forward, we recommend regularly using a product like our Evaporator Fresh (item #17984) to minimize or eliminate the growth of mold inside the cooling unit.

If you continue to have problems with excess condensation, please don't hesitate to contact CellarPro at 707.794.8000.