A wine cooler stopped working, and I took the back off, and found the boards.
I found and unplugged one lead of a thermoelectric device that converts heat to cool, or vice versa.
When I did, things started lighting up, as though it was turned on (but it wasn't cooling)..

I tested the ohms of the device, and it started at about 38, and began to drop slowly.
When I hooked it up to 12v, all I got was a repeating beep.

When I hooked the Pos. wire to Pos. on my meter, and neg. to neg., the meter also beeped (as though a direct short).

Is the device bad? (I found some on ebay pretty cheap, and I'm pretty sure I can put it all back together correctly.)

The wine coolers sell for anywhere from $50.00 up to $500.00, so if I can get it working, that would be cool.
(pun intended)
Thanks
Gary

 

The TEC should show a DC resistance of about 1 ohm. A value of 38 is too high for the module. What beeped on 12v?

In my opinion the TEC is possibly ok but places too great a load on the power supply. That's where the problem is. But are you saying that everything works fine as long as the TEC is not connected?

 

Testing a TEC is simple.
First of all, you want to derate the unit. For example, if the TEC is a 12V, 12W unit, derate it to 6V, 3W.
Use a fixed 6-9V power supply (or a current limited supply) and connect to the two leads of the TEC.
Very quickly (within a matter of seconds) one side should feel cool while the other side runs hot. Don't run this test for more than 10-20 seconds to avoid damaging the TEC.

 

A 5V supply from an old computer PSU works nicely for testing a 12V module. As noted, just a few seconds to feel cold on one side and hot on the other.

 

I have some old PC Power Supplys, and should be able to test it this weekend.
Thanks

 

If you haven't seen it yet, you may find this thread useful.