A Question Concerning Cave Temperature...

[Likesspace]

Hi guys...
I use a couple of small wine coolers to age my cheese and this year I've noticed a problem with one of them.
Last year I was able to set the thermostat to where my temperature was a fairly consistant 52 - 54 degrees. Maybe not ideal, but not bad.
This year I seem to be either stuck with 43-45 degrees or nothing, meaning that if I turn the thermostate dial down (to obtain a higher temp) the compressor shuts off and the fridge gets up to the 62 degree range.
There seems to be a problem with the temperature dial not making small enough adjustments. As I said, it's either on and holding the fridge at a cold temp or off and not running at all.
I know that I could buy an external thermostat to hook up to the fridge but I'm trying not to spend any more money than I have to this year.
So, here's my question: Would I be better off aging my cheese at 43 - 45 degrees or would I be okay aging it at 62 degrees? I know that neither temperature is ideal but which would you choose?
Every cheese in this cave will be either a cheddar, Parmesan or Gouda.
Thanks in advance,

Dave

[DeejayDebi]

I would go with the cooler side. It will slow down the aging some but at 62 your going to be fighting molds and bacteria like crazy! Do you have an external controler or is this just the built in thermostat?

[Alex]

I agree with Debi, I would go to the lower too.

[Likesspace]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies..
Well last night (seeing as how I'm a party animal on Friday nights) I decided to figure out a solution to this problem.
First of all, I stacked the two fridges one on top of the other. Now the stacking of the fridges has nothing to do with my solution other than the fact that it moved the offending fridge away from a heat vent that was blowing right on the compressor.
After doing that I did notice an improvement in the temp within the fridge but it was still not what I wanted.
I then began making minute adjustments to the thermostat control and did not see any improvement at all.
Well as a last ditch effort I decided to replace the batteries in my digital thermometer that I keep within the fridge. I did NOT do this as a result of deep pondering but instead because the display looked a little bit dim. Well guess what.....
As soon as I replaced the batteries the temperature began to climb and finally settled at 52 degrees and 83% humidity. Now that is something I can live with. :-)
So, it just goes to show that checking the simple things first can save a lot of worry and time. It took about 10 seconds to change the batteries and about 3 hours to fiddle with everything else. I can really be dense at times.
As I said though, thanks for the replies. I'm just happy that I got it figured out.

Dave

[DeejayDebi]

That's why I keep one digital and one analog in each of my caves. I guess I still don't REALLY trust digital thermometers. When I cook I also have a draw full of dial thermometers and 1 digital.