Hello everyone!
I'm an amateur with no engineering experience just trying to fix home appliances so I apologize for any foolish mistakes in my descriptions..
I purchased a thermoelectric cooler from a thrift store by Wine Enthusiast which is a dual fridge design with 2 thermoelectric coolers in series on both sides. Initially worked fine, but quickly one side stopped working. The broken side was receiving power when i checked with my volt meter however the circuit board had a light that was off. It was not cooling and the fans were off. The power was going to the fans just fine so I initially thought the motors went out (there is a fan next to the heat sink and one in front). I noticed that when I removed the power to the thermoelectric cooler the power to the fans went on so I had a feeling the cooler went out. I purchased some thermoelectric coolers online and spliced them in using butt connectors, added new thermopaste to the heat sinks and turned the power back on and initially nothing happened. Oddly enough when I unplugged the power to the thermoelectric coolers and replugged it with the power on, everything miraculously worked. Now whenever I unplug the darn thing, I have to go back to the circuit board and unplug/replug the power to the coolers and it works just fine. Seems to get down to an appropriate temp that suffices for cooling my red wines, but I'm curious if I'm doing something wrong? Everyone says on the forums that replacing the board would be best but those are so expensive. Any thoughts? Would really appreciate it!
Thanks!
Jake

 

Welcome to AAC!

With any repair request, the first thing you need to do is post the make and model of the unit.
We have had a lot of successful repairs of wine coolers so you have come to the right place. Can you post photos of the power units? Post photos of both if they are not the same.

 

Welcome to AAC!

With any repair request, the first thing you need to do is post the make and model of the unit.
We have had a lot of successful repairs of wine coolers so you have come to the right place. Can you post photos of the power units? Post photos of both if they are not the same.

Awesome thanks for the guidance!
I have attached the specs and the two circuit boards which are identical, the left board I have a pic pointing out the plug that needs to be unplugged and replugged the unit to work after power is installed

 

On the two bottom corners of the PSU boards, there are two numbers, FX100--- and PCB---.
Can you post a photo at an angle that clearly reveals these numbers?
Thanks.

 

The obvious work-around, of course, is to just add a switch in series with the board to turn it off and on after it's plugged back in.
It could be a momentary-off type switch so it would never be left accidentally off.

 

Sounds like the PSU doesn't start correctly when "too much" load is connected. Does the "old" thermoelectric cooling unit work if the "delayed attach" scheme is applied?
As seen too often, some Al caps are mounted (too) close to the heat sinks. So it might be an educated guess that one or both lost some capacitance, resulting in the bad startup behavior. Being an E/E I'd start with measuring the voltages on primary and secondary points, comparing the values between "it's stuck" and "it's working". Also comparing between the two (more or less identical) halves of the whole unit.
But be aware that the primary has potentially lethal voltages > 100 V! So: DO NOT TOUCH!

 

On the two bottom corners of the PSU boards, there are two numbers, FX100--- and PCB---.
Can you post a photo at an angle that clearly reveals these numbers?
Thanks.

 

The obvious work-around, of course, is to just add a switch in series with the board to turn it off and on after it's plugged back in.
It could be a momentary-off type switch so it would never be left accidentally off.

So when I unplug and replug it, it’s not going back to normal. The fans that blow air into the heat sinks are now a little bit slower as well so I’m not sure if the cooling units that are in series with them is siphoning too much power from them?

 

Is it possible I didn’t add enough paste to the plates when I put the units in? And it’s losing too much energy?