Wine Cooler as Humi
- Thread starter Mindflux
- Start date
Ashcan Bill
West Coast Gorilla
Same here. I've never experienced condensation with either of mine. I suspect it depends to at least some degree on the ambient conditions of where you happen to live. Some people seem to have problems, some don't.
Thermoelectric is the way to go. I use a Cigar Oasis and beads in mine. I put the satchel of beads right next to the drain hole to soak up any possible excess moisture. Just smoked a cigar that has been in there, no cello, since January. Smoked like a dream. :ss I would say try putting some dry beads in there if you have a T/E model, and if you have a compressor model, check out ebay for a thermoelectric. I got a Avanti 28 bottle on a scratch and dent sale for $89.
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adsantos13
SilverBack
I have a TE unit and had to sop up the water every other day or so. This was due to my apartment's ambient temp's getting up into the high 90's during the day and me not being able to justify the cost of running an air conditioner in there 24-7 (my wife and I are not home for extended periods of time during the summer).
I tried re-directing the condensation to beads and also, to floral foam. The beads were saturated in a day or so and after a week or two were reduced to muck. The floral foam developed a bit of mold after a couple days and I quickly took it out.
So, I guess what Im saying is that if you have abnormally high temps you're going to have a condensation problem in your unit, TE or compressor. The only solution is to sop up and recharge the beads every couple days. This will keep your RH where you want it, but of course is a pain cause you can't leave the unit alone when you go away, etc.
Finally, you can put a window air conditioning unit in the window of the room you're wine cooler resides in, but or course and at least for me, this defeats the purpose of buying the thing in the first place. I could just leave a maintenance free coleman in an air conditioned room 24-7.
I tried re-directing the condensation to beads and also, to floral foam. The beads were saturated in a day or so and after a week or two were reduced to muck. The floral foam developed a bit of mold after a couple days and I quickly took it out.
So, I guess what Im saying is that if you have abnormally high temps you're going to have a condensation problem in your unit, TE or compressor. The only solution is to sop up and recharge the beads every couple days. This will keep your RH where you want it, but of course is a pain cause you can't leave the unit alone when you go away, etc.
Finally, you can put a window air conditioning unit in the window of the room you're wine cooler resides in, but or course and at least for me, this defeats the purpose of buying the thing in the first place. I could just leave a maintenance free coleman in an air conditioned room 24-7.
Thanks for that. The apartment t-stat is at 75 or so during the day and 72 or so when we are home. However, even at 72 the hygrometer in my old humidor would read closer to 80.
I'll keep experimenting. Maybe I could use a anti-microbial sponge or something? would that develop mold since it's supposed to be resistant to stuff like that?
I'll keep experimenting. Maybe I could use a anti-microbial sponge or something? would that develop mold since it's supposed to be resistant to stuff like that?
stogie_kanobie_one
SilverBack
Is yours thermostatically controlled? I had a Danby that I finally noticed long ago was generating a lot of condensation on the rear cooling plate. Putting it on a temperature controller solved the problem. There is hardly ever any condensation on it now.
For my Cabinet in which I have a peltier. LOTS of condensation. I just place a dish under it. It needs to be emptied every 4 days or so since it will have a good 2 inches of water in it. The humidity in there is perfect at 65 despite the additional water dish due to the peltier effect. That additional water pooling is a non-issue in my case. Don't know what law is at work there but I use a monster closet humidifier and about a pound of beads for the balancing act. All I know is it has worked for months.... and I'm scared to muck with it now.
- Long as the condensation is not mucking with your RH or in danger of getting on your cigars or cigar boxes... no worries.
- If there is danger there I'd recommend seeing how a temp controller helps you. It will cycle the unit on for briefer periods of time once you reach you desired temperature and thereby really limiting the condensation.
For my Cabinet in which I have a peltier. LOTS of condensation. I just place a dish under it. It needs to be emptied every 4 days or so since it will have a good 2 inches of water in it. The humidity in there is perfect at 65 despite the additional water dish due to the peltier effect. That additional water pooling is a non-issue in my case. Don't know what law is at work there but I use a monster closet humidifier and about a pound of beads for the balancing act. All I know is it has worked for months.... and I'm scared to muck with it now.
- Long as the condensation is not mucking with your RH or in danger of getting on your cigars or cigar boxes... no worries.
- If there is danger there I'd recommend seeing how a temp controller helps you. It will cycle the unit on for briefer periods of time once you reach you desired temperature and thereby really limiting the condensation.
The condensation isn't mucking with humidity as far as I now. However I'm currently losing 1% RH per day without a shallow pan of water in the humidor to rehydrate my beads.
I think that pooling condensation is my 1% per day. if I could recycle it into the beads maybe it wouldn't be an issue.
I think that pooling condensation is my 1% per day. if I could recycle it into the beads maybe it wouldn't be an issue.
adsantos13
SilverBack
I forgot to mention that I had a temp. controller and a computer fan installed inside...
Anti Microbial sponges: I tried that as well. They worked well in terms of catching the condenstion and never developed any mold, but would not put the RH back into the air fast enough. I had a computer fan that I modded nearby them as well to try to slow down the process as well. I still needed to recharge the beads even with them in there (since I had to recharge, I would wring them out).
Let me just reiterate that I was able to achieve the desired range I wanted, but ditched the wine cooler only because it required too much maintenance for my particular situation...as Stogie said above, as long as your RH is fine and you dont mind some maintenance and you keep your cigars safely away from the water, the condensation won't hurt anything...
Anti Microbial sponges: I tried that as well. They worked well in terms of catching the condenstion and never developed any mold, but would not put the RH back into the air fast enough. I had a computer fan that I modded nearby them as well to try to slow down the process as well. I still needed to recharge the beads even with them in there (since I had to recharge, I would wring them out).
Let me just reiterate that I was able to achieve the desired range I wanted, but ditched the wine cooler only because it required too much maintenance for my particular situation...as Stogie said above, as long as your RH is fine and you dont mind some maintenance and you keep your cigars safely away from the water, the condensation won't hurt anything...
My biggest concern is that if I leave for more than 5 days my humidity will fall below the comfortable thresh hold. The condensation can likely be fixed with some ingenuity
adsantos13
SilverBack
This is exactly the same problem I had, and also the reason I no longer use the cooler. I think you can find a solution though, as your ambient temp is much much lower than mine was. Its probably just a matter of tinkering until you get it perfect. As stated before, my problem was a bit unique in that my apartment is an absolute inferno in terms of temps in the warm weather.
Do you have a temp controller? If so, try making the temp differential larger or shorter. I found either larger differentials and super short differentials worked best.
Mess with everything: fans, fan placement, diff. controller temps and differentials, until you get it right...
justinphilly
All You Can Eat
i suggested the same thing.. get the controller, set it to 70,or even 69, problems stop.
How did it go? I'm having the same issue. Have a Johnson Controls 419 Digi Controller coming next week. I'm not having alot of pooling just that my Avanti stays on the the RH is always in the low 50's, when i turn it off it goes up to 65% within 20-30 minutes.
Mister Moo
The Pinnacle of Style
Mine will drip some modest amount of condensate when the compressor kicks on.
After some fiddling I finally worked it out. I hung a lightweight piece of polyester microfiber fabric over the cooling coils. The fabric accepts water mechanically (fast) but does not actually absorb it into the fiber; it releases the water as humidity pretty quickly after the cooling cycle is over.
I also put a poly bar towel on the drip try beneath the coils; whatever lands there may be damp from time to time but it never gets "wet' or shows a sign of mold - this after more than a year.
After some fiddling I finally worked it out. I hung a lightweight piece of polyester microfiber fabric over the cooling coils. The fabric accepts water mechanically (fast) but does not actually absorb it into the fiber; it releases the water as humidity pretty quickly after the cooling cycle is over.
I also put a poly bar towel on the drip try beneath the coils; whatever lands there may be damp from time to time but it never gets "wet' or shows a sign of mold - this after more than a year.
I run both of mine at 66 degrees and the room temp is about 76 degrees (compresser type) and haven't had any problems with condensation once they got down to the set temp. In the winter I have to put a dish of water in to keep the RH up as they are in the same room with the wood stove and hey... winter in NY. In the summer I have to add a container of Damp-Rid to keep the RH down ... summer in NY. This is with about a pound and a half of beads in each and a fan running 24/7.
But as for your current problem, if you have condensation dripping down the back, and need a dish of water to keep the RH up then I would get a container to put in the back to catch the drips with some water already in it.
Should keep your RH up and take care of the condensation, and at that temp and RH mold won't be a problem.
Side note: If you ever use Damp-Rid in a humi be carefull what you put it in. As a test I put some in a bathroom sized dixecup and set it on my work bench in the garage (made from a piece of countertop)... seemed fine 24 hours later so I did the same in 3 humi's. After about a week water started to leak through the cup on to the work bench and you probably don't want that happening in your humi. Strange thing is when I wiped up the water off the work bench it left an amazing shine!
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I had the same problem until I started using a Cigar Oasis in conjunction with the beads. Now my shiz is perfect. WI is pretty similar to MI climate wise, I would definitely recommend a Oasis. Having all 4 seasons will make your RH fluctuate ALOT. In the winter, before I turned the heat on, my RH would be in the low 60s. Once the heat came on, RH would drop into the high 40s and stay there. Now with the Oasis it's almost perfect all the time, even with room temperature changes my fridge never deviates more than a few degrees and a few % humidity.