The Prep
Over the summer I got a broken wine cooler. Before I put it in my car and hauled it away, I looked it over to see if the door seals were good and the interior structures had no cracks or damage. It’s scratched up and there seems to be cat hair all over it, but it looks good for an incubator build. And in the back of my car it goes!
So when I was ready to build, the first thing I did was remove the wire wine shelving racks and wiped down the entire wine cooler w/ bleach cleaning wipes and I aired it out for a like a day w/ the wine cooler door open.
Next I removed the broken cooling components and unnecessary weight of the wine cooler. I used a socket wrench and then a hand wrench for the hard-to-reach places. This wine cooler required a 3/4” socket and 10mm wrench to unbolt the compressor.
Put on your safety glasses and work gloves.
At this point the compressor is still connected to the wire cooler via copper tubing for the cooling system. I made sure that the compressor was safe and that the refrigerant had been removed before gutting the wine cooler. I used a Dremel rotary tool to cut the copper tubing. Wow those sparks really fly! Cut as close to the wall as possible.
This wine cooler also has an interior cooling panel and overhead thermostat and light.
I unscrewed and removed both components. (I also disconnected and removed the overhead thermostat and light.)
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