Rh Problem Again!!

[jgrimball]

Okay so I moved my wine cooler humi to the new house. It was unplugged for about 45mins top! I set it all back up and the compressors kicks on and imediately start cooling this sucker down. Well about 5hrs later I check it and the hygro was reading 78%. I took out the additional pound of beads I added and left it over night. Next morning it still reads in the high 70's. I have now gotten it down to around 73%-75%. I left the door open today with fans running for about 30mins and dried out a pound of beads and put them in the bottom. What should I do? I had another hygrometer in my cigar box and it read 66% but the next day it also read 75%!!!!! Help, Any suggestions!!!!!!!

Well Grim, we have had a LOT of rain in last several days, so leaving door open actually probably actually raises the humidity!!! Refrigeration is suspose to lower humidity, so it might be that unit needs to run longer to pull more humidity out of inside. Put something inside to help absorb extra humidity while unit stabilizes itself? maybe paper towels?

I'm sure there are members out there who are more technical savvy than I am on humidors. I am only good at common sense and redneck engineering things. Good luck.

[IHT]

where's your hygrometer at IN the humidor?
coppertop has a problem with his being in the low 70s at the BOTTOM of the humidor, but right around 63-65 at the top.

if your hygrometer is in the middle and still reads that high... uh....
the only things i'd suggest doing are:
*wipe down the inside with a paper towel, try to get all the moisture out that you can that's just hanging out on the walls.
*turn off the fan that circulates the air. when i had a problem with too LOW of humidity, it was cuz my fan wasn't working. if you dont' have a fan.... i don't know what to tell you.

when i first set mine up, the humidity was way too high... come to find out, my digital hygrometers were phucked up.

Ninja had a good suggestion, if you can't get humidity down, and it is really a humidity problem, not a meter problem. Put salt in the bottom, like in a small, open top bowl. One use may be enough. Don't let it spill on smokes!

On a higher tech note, I have a small tin I use in my gun safe that is specifically made to remove humidity. When crystals inside turn red, it is full. Take it out, put in in toaster oven on low heat for about an hour, it's good as new. You probably can pick one of those up at Woods and Water.

[Jason Love III]

I dunno Grim. I never had that problem for some reason? My Temps were usually always equal, top and bottom, and the RH was usually a couple of points higher on the bottom, but never above 70 or so...Did you salt test your hygros??

[kansashat]

Yep. It's a wet time of year. Just about don't need any media at all. You might try some boil'n'bag rice.

[Nely]

Justin that sucks brother. I have been silently watching your tribulations with RH in that fridgeador, and I say silently because I don't have this type of set up, therefore I can't help. Make sure that your hygros are accurate like jmgcash3 suggested. The list below is a couple of things that I thought may help,(?) but you probably already tried this, here it is anyways:
-Make sure your beads have enough surface area to exchange humidity.
-make sure the coils are not frozen and condensation building up in the back wall.
-I think I read that you lined the walls w/spanish cedar, can they be saturated w/ humidity? maybe drying it out with a blow dryer will help bring back their buffing effect?
Did you get that other pound of beads you needed? If you didn't that may be a key factor. I also was curious as of why you put the hygrometer in a cigar box?

[Danimal]

Sounds like you're doing the right things as far as drying out the beads and such. Also try to lower your setpoint on your temp controller to decrease the humidity more and hopefully the beads will have some more time to take care of the discrepancy.

[Mr. White]

Yes it's been so humid lately that I open my cooler and the hygrometer stays about the same.

[jgrimball]

OKay guys thanks for all the input. I left the door open for about 45mins or so, and it started reading around 69-70%. I check it this morning and it still read 70% so I think I have it working right. I believe the problem was the Setpoint wad 70 degrees so the cooler would turn on and off pretty fast and the coils would not freeze they would just get extremely wet with condensation. I put the setpoint at 68 and now it all seems to be working fine. Hopefully it will continue to work fine! Now to answer some questions:

Originally Posted by IHT

where's your hygrometer at IN the humidor?

The wireless sensor is in the middle and I also have another digital one in a box.

Originally Posted by jmgcash3

Did you salt test your hygros??

They have been tested and are accurate.

Originally Posted by Nely

I also was curious as of why you put the hygrometer in a cigar box?

So I can see what the conditions are like inside the box, because outside the box it varies when the fans and cooler kick on. I believe inside the cigar box the RH is more stable.

Originally Posted by DKim81

Also try to lower your setpoint on your temp controller to decrease the humidity more and hopefully the beads will have some more time to take care of the discrepancy.

I think doing this and leaving the door open for a bit helped out!

Thanks for all the help and support guys!!! I will report back soon and post how my cooler is holding. As of now: 69%-70% [SIZE=1]stable I think[/SIZE]

[colgate]

The problem you'll have with a wineador is accepting there are pretty dramatic changes in RH if you use a johnson controller and try to regulate the temperature with the unit plugged in. Got one set up and well, it's been 6 months and the phucker needs more attention than a baby. My experience is the beads are better at giving up moisture than grabbing it from the air. So you dabble with ways to wet the beads without damaging them (gotta read Coppertop's explanation again). Then you work the controller set point up and down in relation to what the weather's doing. Of course you have a fan but the condensate still forms on the back wall giving the bottom of the humi that cold dank feel while the top is dry. Working with what seems like four variables is a challenge. For instance, outside temp goes up? Lower the Johnson. But that creates more condensate. But it also dries the air and lowers the ability of the air to hold moisture.

Oh well, at least my cigars seem to still smoke okay. But that's cuz I err towards the dry side. Good luck and smoke a lot of cigars from the windeador to make sure you know what's going on. That's the good part. You have to do perpetual inventory checks

Originally Posted by jgrimball

Okay so I moved my wine cooler humi to the new house. It was unplugged for about 45mins top! I set it all back up and the compressors kicks on and imediately start cooling this sucker down. Well about 5hrs later I check it and the hygro was reading 78%. I took out the additional pound of beads I added and left it over night. Next morning it still reads in the high 70's. I have now gotten it down to around 73%-75%. I left the door open today with fans running for about 30mins and dried out a pound of beads and put them in the bottom. What should I do? I had another hygrometer in my cigar box and it read 66% but the next day it also read 75%!!!!! Help, Any suggestions!!!!!!!

[jgrimball]

It happen again!!! 80% the condensation on the back wall is crazy!
How can I better control this?

[Jason Love III]

Sorry Justin, but I'm done with the wine cooler personally...I can tell you that I never had that much condensation. What temp do you have set to snap on at? Shut off? Depending on how hot it is in your place it might come on more in a shorter amount of time which can definitely cause more condensation (humidity fluctuations...) I just don't know what to tell you!? . Mine was just pretty solid...Sorry!

[SeanGAR]

Originally Posted by colgate

For instance, outside temp goes up? Lower the Johnson.

Man .... what a bummer, I just checked and mine's not adjustable ......

[Da Klugs]

Two words:

Air Conditioning. I set my office at 70 and bam. No problems.

Do you guys live on the beach in thatch huts or something?