cabinet style humidor cooling

[poker]

With summer approching & a few folks asking about keeping their humidors at or below 70F in temperature, heres a list of possible solutions. Feel free to add your solutions or suggestions as well.

Other then keeping the room the humidor is in cooled, the only other option is to keep the humidor itself cool. Those lucky enough to have a basement need not worry about this heat issue as much as those of us without one.

After doing some reaserch on this, theres 2+ possible solutions (neither of which is very inexpensive).

An internal air conditioner style cooling system

or

A thermoelectric cooling system.

Cooling
http://www.vinotemp.com/
http://www.eurocave.com/site/pages/p...s/produits.php


Thermoelectric cooling
http://www.kryothermusa.com/Kryother...%20Devices.htm


I know Coleman once offered a thermoelectric cooling device in one of their cooolers & some have suggested buying the cooler just to rip out the cooling device and modify it to fit their humidors. So far I havent heard of anyone doing this personally though.


Another solution would be to buy a wine refrigerator simular to the picture below and changing out the thermostat to achieve a slightly higher temperature (65F-70F):





Any other solutions you have found would be a great addition to this thread.

[Jeff]

Great solutions. Thanks for sharing your wisdom. At some point, I have to convince the wife to let me convert a fridge.

[pinoyman]

Great post Poker!
Got a question, Wine Ref. do you need to replace the thermostat unit or you mean, adjusting it? sorry, not familliar with this.
Cayman summer can go up to 98F or higher, looks like a good idea instead of leaving the ac on all the time.



Muchas Gracias!

[RcktS4]

Nice post poker, thanks.
I am definitely going to have to look into changing out the thermostat on my Magic Chef wine chiller. It has extremely crappy temp control right now. Does anyone know what type of thermostats these things have? is it some kind of cheap thermocouple (my guess) that is readily swapped out, or can I get a totally separate thermometer/control unit for this puppy?

I know Goatlocker has the same chiller - maybe he's gotten around to making some more alterations.

[catfishm2]

Thanks Poker. Great information. I've been eyeing the wine refrigerator for some time now. But my question is, do you have to worry about condensation and if you do, how do you deal with it. My knowledge on this subject is severely limited.

[croatan]

Originally Posted by catfishm2

Thanks Poker. Great information. I've been eyeing the wine refrigerator for some time now. But my question is, do you have to worry about condensation and if you do, how do you deal with it. My knowledge on this subject is severely limited.

I've been using a wine regrigerator with just under a pound of beads from Viper in a bowl in the bottom of the unit. I've had no problems with condensation but I do open it regularly

[RcktS4]

Originally Posted by catfishm2

Thanks Poker. Great information. I've been eyeing the wine refrigerator for some time now. But my question is, do you have to worry about condensation and if you do, how do you deal with it. My knowledge on this subject is severely limited.

The only problem I have with condensation is when the condenser is actually running. Putting a small PC fan (you can get AC or DC fans - search for edison-a-dor for more info) aimed up along the condenser tubes in the back pretty well eliminates the problem. It is a pretty simple thing to wire the fan to the condenser, so the fan comes on when the condenser does, and voila!. It would be nice to be able to set the fan to stay on for ten minutes or so after the condenser shuts down. i think I may be doing a little research on this over the weekend, if I get time (like I need another project).

[poker]

Heres an example of the Coleman cooler with a thermoelectric cooler built in I mentioned earlier:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...149132204&rd=1

[poker]

Originally Posted by catfishm2

But my question is, do you have to worry about condensation and if you do, how do you deal with it. My knowledge on this subject is severely limited.

one of the guys that hangs with us on Saturday nights on the patio has his wine chiller modified with a new thermostat. I believe he has a tupperware container that holds a pound or so of the humidification beads directly under the refrigeration unit and any moisture condensated on the coils drops off into the bead container, thus recyling the humidity lost back into the enclosed environment.

Gee, I hope that made sense !

[refill]

Can you use a compact fridge? Is there major diffrences in the two?

[zemekone]

In riverside it can get up to 105 dergrees in the summmer. I run two a Avanti wine chiller http://www.vintagecellars.com/ViewPr...odcategoryID=7 with a pound of climaxx beads, spanish cedar shelves, and on the low setting my humidity is at 67% and on the low setting on the cooler its at 65 degrees.....

[poker]

Also lots of options as far as wine cooling units at Sams Club:


I like this unit for 462.00


http://www.samsclub.com/eclub/main_s...:-29762:732532


60 bottle capacity
Free-standing
Full view flush glass door design framed in black with silver trim
Heavy duty brushed metal handle
Automatic setting for red or white wines
Adjustable electronic thermostat can be set between 39 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit
Dual function LED readout to set temperature and to monitor internal temperature
Four deluxe chrome glide-out racks and seven chrome slide-out racks
Interior light
Dimensions: 50.4"H x 19.9"W x 21.7"D

[RPB67]

Thats some good info.

Thanks it is gonna start getting hot here as well

[Mr. White]

With a little work, you could use a peltier junction combined with a temp sensor...

http://www.electrokits.com/electroni...nctions/82.htm

[Franksmith]

Whew.... Jokieman, you got the right find there Bro.

Definitely going to be looking into a few of those. That, a thermostat and my already good RH control and I think I will have it set!

Thanks for the link