Frigidaire wine cooler not holding temperature

What to do in the next ten minutes

Note the temperature last thing at night and again at four in the afternoon; the difference is the diagnosis. Then look at how the cabinet is installed — is there a vent grille at the front, and is there any gap at the back? A unit pushed into a cabinet opening with no airflow will do this with nothing whatever wrong inside it.

Why installation is the first question

These cabinets move heat from inside to outside, and they need somewhere to put it. Built-in models vent forward through a grille at the base; freestanding ones vent at the back and need a gap. Fitting a freestanding cabinet flush into a cabinet run is a common and understandable mistake, and it produces exactly this complaint — the machine runs continuously, the compartment sits a few degrees high, and every part inside tests perfectly.

What temperature these cabinets can actually hold

A single-zone beverage cabinet in a room at 80°F will typically hold in the mid-forties Fahrenheit, and the specification assumes an ambient rather cooler than a Miami kitchen in August. Where somebody is trying to hold cellar temperature for long-term storage, the honest answer is sometimes that the cabinet is not the wrong one but the room is — and that is a conversation worth having before money is spent on parts.