Wine and undercounter only
Sub-Zero Wine Storage and Undercounter Repair in West Los Angeles
01 Which unit is in the cabinet?
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Wine column Integrated, 18 to 30 inches wide, full height, panel on the front.
02 What is it doing?
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Full-height wine A stainless or overlay cabinet standing on the floor, glass door, kickplate below.
02 What is it doing?
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Undercounter wine A 24-inch wine unit under a worktop, wooden racks, glass door.
02 What is it doing?
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Beverage center or undercounter fridge A 24-inch refrigerator, drawer unit or beverage center in an island or bar run.
02 What is it doing?
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Ice machine A 15-inch undercounter machine with its own bin, water line and drain.
02 What is it doing?
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Outdoor unit A unit approved for outdoor use, in a built-in kitchen or a bar island.
02 What is it doing?
- Visit and diagnosis $89, taken off the repair
- Vans run 8am until 8pm, daily
- Line answered 24/7
Where we go
Three pockets, seven neighbourhoods
Four of these are named in this site's own coverage and three more sit alongside them. Nothing outside these seven is claimed.
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West Valley
Big houses with a separate bar, a wine wall and an outdoor run, working through triple-digit afternoons.
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The Wilshire corridor
Towers and condominiums where the wine column is integrated, the kitchen is compact and the building has rules.
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Silicon Beach
Townhouses and lofts with undercounter units in the island, a few blocks from air that eats grilles.
The catalogue
Two shelves, ten series
Sorted by how the unit is built into the room rather than by the year it was sold, because that is what decides how it is serviced.
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Wine Storage
Columns, full-height cabinets and the wine units that live under a counter — five series, split by how they are built into the room.
424 · 427 · 430 · UW-24 · 315W · IW-18 · IW-24 · IW-30 · IW-30R
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Undercounter Units
Refrigerators, drawers, beverage centers, combination units and ice machines that share one 24-inch opening and one grille at the floor.
UC-24R · UC-24RO · UC-24BG · UC-24C · UC-24CI · UC-15I · 315I · 315IP
Book a visit
Tell us what is in the cabinet
The model code off the rating plate, roughly how old it is, and what it is doing. That decides which parts ride along. The $89 visit covers the call-out and the full diagnosis, and it is taken off the repair.
Care handbook
Before the cabinetmaker closes it in
Three of the pages people send to their contractor. The rest of the handbook is a click further on.
Ventilation Clearances for Undercounter Units: What the Cabinet Must Leave Open
An undercounter unit breathes through its toe kick: air in at one side of the grille, warm air out at the other. Close that grille off with a continuous plinth and the compressor runs hot from the first week.
Cleaning the Condenser Behind the Toe Kick
Dust never announces itself. A condenser felted over with lint still looks like a condenser, and the cabinet in front of it goes on holding temperature for another season before it gives up. This is the one job on these machines an owner can properly do.
Recommissioning a Wine or Undercounter Unit After a Remodel
A unit that comes out for a remodel goes back into a different opening: new floor height, new returns, sometimes a plinth that was not there before. Much of what we are called out to afterwards starts in the weeks it spent standing somewhere else.
Reviews
What people called about
Sub-Zero refrigeration calls in Woodland Hills, Westwood, Venice and Playa Vista.
5.0/ 51,774 reviews
Townhouse kitchen where everything is panel-ready and nothing is easy to reach. The drain pump had failed and water sat in the bin. New pump, front back flush.
Sabino T.Playa Vista
Ice built along the back of the freezer column until the top basket would not move. The drain trough heater had failed. Thawed, replaced, drain slope checked.
Huxley B.Woodland Hills
Hillside dust gets everywhere out here, and our ice maker had slowed to a handful of cubes. Scale on the cutter grid and a tired water valve. Both dealt with, bin full by morning.
Nuria F.Woodland Hills
Why this shop
Written for people with a tape measure
Half of what goes wrong with a built-in Sub-Zero wine or undercounter unit was decided by the joinery around it, long before anybody rang a repair shop.
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We work from the install guide
Opening width, finished return, panel weight, door swing: they are published figures and we look them up rather than guessing. That is why a unit goes back into the hole it came out of without anybody planing a stile.
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Fronts come off and go back on
Custom panels, handles, kickplates and grilles are removed properly, set aside on cloth and refitted square. On a panel-ready unit the awkward part of the job is usually the joinery in front of the machine, not the machine.
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One family of machines
Wine columns, full-height wine cabinets, undercounter refrigerators, beverage centers and undercounter ice machines. Everything on the van is for that, because nothing else gets booked into the diary.
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A figure before the work
The $89 visit covers the call-out and the diagnosis and is taken off the repair. Between the two you get a named fault and a firm price, and nothing is ordered until you have agreed to it.
Repairs
Four ways in, all of them refrigeration
Each of these pages is written around units that sit under a counter or in a cabinet opening. Cooking equipment is another brand and another trade, and this shop does not touch it.
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Refrigerator Repair
Undercounter refrigerators, refrigerator drawers and beverage centers set into an island, a bar run or an outdoor kitchen — diagnosed and repaired in the opening they were built into.
- Cabinet drifting warm every afternoon and pulling back overnight
- Compressor loud enough to hear from the next room with the door shut
- Water standing in the base of the cabinet below the lowest shelf
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Freezer Repair
The freezer half of a combination undercounter, and the freezer drawer under a wine or beverage unit: frost, drainage and a drawer that has iced itself shut.
- Ice welding a drawer to its runners so it has to be forced
- Meltwater tracking down the liner after every defrost
- Frost back across the wall within a week of being cleared
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Ice Maker Repair
Undercounter ice machines end to end: the supply line, the fall on the drain, scale in the reservoir, and a harvest that has stopped letting go of the slab.
- Bin filling far slower than it did in the winter
- Cubes coming out white and mushy rather than clear and hard
- Water standing in the bin instead of running away
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Wine Cooler Repair
Wine columns, full-height cabinets and undercounter wine units: two zones that no longer hold apart, condensation on the glass, racks, lighting and the machine compartment behind the grille.
- Upper and lower zones settling on the same figure whatever you set
- Condensation forming on the inside face of the glass door
- A cabinet that never gets down to the number on the display
Common questions
Questions worth asking before you book
If yours is not here, the phone is the shortest route to an answer — and it is answered 24/7.
(310) 919-2538Where do I find the model code on a wine or undercounter unit?
On a rating plate, and the plate moves about by model. On most wine cabinets it is on the underside of the top wall or under the control panel; on a 430 it is inside the door near the top hinge, and on an undercounter ice machine it sits in the upper left corner of the storage bin. Read the code out and we will know which machine we are coming to.
What does the visit cost before anything is repaired?
The call-out is $89 and it buys the journey plus a complete diagnosis. Approve the repair and that $89 comes off the bill. You hear a firm figure for your own unit, not a band, before a single part is unwrapped or fitted.
Will the unit have to come out of the island to be worked on?
Often not. Grille off, kickplate off and a good deal is reachable from the front, which is how these machines were designed to be serviced. Where the unit genuinely has to come forward, the door panel and handle come off first and the surrounding cabinetry is covered before anything moves.
There is condensation on the inside of the glass door. Is that a fault?
It is worth looking at. Moist room air is getting in, or the humidity control is not keeping up with it. The door seal, the latch and how squarely the door sits come first, then the drain path. Glass doors near the coast collect this far more often than valley kitchens do.
What kinds of wine equipment does this site cover?
The self-contained cabinet, in all its shapes: integrated wine columns, full-height cabinets, undercounter wine units and beverage centers — anything with its own compressor behind its own grille, running off a wall socket. A walk-in room cooled by ducted or split plant is a different kind of equipment. Ring (310) 919-2538, say which you have, and you will be told on the call.
Is a twenty-year-old undercounter unit worth repairing?
Usually, and for one unglamorous reason: the cabinet was built into the room, and the room was built around it. A fan motor, a sensor, a gasket or a control board is a modest job next to opening up a run of cabinetry to fit a modern unit of a different size.
What a visit looks like
Airway first, readings second, parts third
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The code, then the symptom
Read the model code off the rating plate and say what the unit is doing. Those two things together decide which parts travel and how long to book, which is why the call is worth two minutes rather than twenty seconds.
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The opening, then the machine
The grille comes off and the airway gets checked before anything is metered, because a blocked toe kick imitates half the faults on the list. Then temperatures, fan current, door closure and the control side, in that order.
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Back in square, and running
The part goes in, the panel and grille go back on straight, and the unit is brought down to temperature while somebody is still there to watch the numbers settle. You see the readings before the van leaves.
