Wine Cooler temp settings

[Nathan]

For those of you with a wine cooler and a A419 temp controller I was just wondering what you guys set it at. I have mine to kick in at 70 then off at 60. What do you guys do?

Also for people setting one up watch out! I have a big A/C fan in there and was wiping down the inside to get rid of humidity and got my middle finger caught in the intake part of the fan. Wow that hurt! It cracked my nail in half and gave me a nice sized gash, now I have to type without using my middle finger!

[Jason Love III]

This is from a previous thread....

Re: Wine Coolidor Time!!!!

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Hey Grim - I coded my Set-Point at 72 degrees.

I have two thermos/hygros in the cooler and they both usually read the same temp/humidity at the top and bottom. When I put the temp sensor in the cooler it reads 2 degrees warmer. I set the differential at 2, because after the cooler shuts off from the cooling, the temp drops in the cooler 2 or more so degrees. So, if it cuts on at 70 degrees in my cooler, it will shut off at 68 and with the fan running will drop to around 66-65 or so. Also, the humidity drops bigtime (sometimes 20+) as the cooling comes on, and I want to keep a somewhat steady range. When I got home from work yesterday it read 69 degrees/ 69 humidity (65% beads). Not bad since I had the house a/c basically shut off. It was 80 degrees in the house. (I'm going to let the house suffer during the days and sleep good at night at 74 or so...) This morning after the 2nd night I checked it and it was reading 69 degrees/70 humidity. I'll probably make some fan adjustments, but I smoked a Cuesta-Ray and it was great, so....I'll post some other comments as they come to me...It's a cool setup!

[jgrimball]

I am still messing with my temp and RH. It seems I am getting a lot of condensation because the cooler isnt staying on long enough.
I have mine set at 68 now with a diff of 5. Hopefully this will help out my RH problems. Any ideas guys! This thing worked like a charm for a while then all of a sudden the RH started to rise.

I also got my finger caught in the fan one day! That little suckers hurt!!!

[IHT]

my Haier goes up to 65*F, so i just set it at that, dont' have to worry about "another" temp controller when my wine "cooler" already cools it...

maybe i'm lucky and got the right kind?

[Nathan]

Man this is driving me nuts. I can't get the humity levels stabil. It swings from 45% to 85%. I have a fan in there, a pound of beads. Any other suggestions? It is empty right now, do you think I should just put my cigars in and see if it stabilises it some?

[Jason Love III]

Originally Posted by Nathan

Man this is driving me nuts. I can't get the humity levels stabil. It swings from 45% to 85%. I have a fan in there, a pound of beads. Any other suggestions? It is empty right now, do you think I should just put my cigars in and see if it stabilises it some?

Something I was telling Grim earlier was that once I had the beads in my cooler it was pretty much 66% RH. I put all my cigar boxes in and let 'er rip. What I noticed was that if the fan was kept running during the cool cycle and even a few minutes afterwards, the RH will go from 66 - 46 - 75% or so, and then it will always stabilize at 65-66% or so. I'd put the empty cigar boxes in and see what happens....

[Nathan]

The only problem is that all of my boxes have cigars in them! *Gasp* Think I should put the boxes cigars and all in there? Or should I empty out the boxes and leave the cigars just sitting without cedar in the coolider (the humi I am trying to replace)?

[Danimal]

I only give it a one degree differential to keep the humidity stable otherwise the cooling will drop my humidity way low. My digital hygometer and my Johnson controller read differently (maybe because of the placement in the cooler), but I have it set to cut in at 72 degrees... but my hygrometer will be in the 66 - 68 degree range.

[Danimal]

You'll notice that putting in your boxes will dip your humidity even lower at times because they will want to absorb some moisture first (if they're not seasoned or have been sitting out for awhile). Don't get discouraged, spray your beads some more and it should stabilize.

[Nathan]

Jmgcash3 suggested that I just put the boxes with the cigars in and see if it stabilizes it at all. I am going to give that a try tonight. Wish me luck.

Also doesn't putting it at the 1 degree differential cause it to turn on and off alot causing alot of stress?

[The Rev]

I think JMGCASH made a excellent point about the big drop sequence. I have seen that same phenomena with my wine cooler. I really suggest getting your cigars in there and up the beads. I have to use a special combo of beads and dehumidifier packs to help my beads. The more the merrier on the beads and I have found that the sways lessen. I am not speaking from years of experience, I just worked out my own probs a few days ago and now I have a consistent 67-68 Rh. I did it by upping the beads and because the climate here is so humid, I put in two dehumidifier elements to help the beads. I wish I could have gotten a thermoelectric unit, but there you have it.

[jgrimball]

Originally Posted by The Rev

I think JMGCASH made a excellent point about the big drop sequence. I have seen that same phenomena with my wine cooler. I really suggest getting your cigars in there and up the beads. I have to use a special combo of beads and dehumidifier packs to help my beads. The more the merrier on the beads and I have found that the sways lessen. I am not speaking from years of experience, I just worked out my own probs a few days ago and now I have a consistent 67-68 Rh. I did it by upping the beads and because the climate here is so humid, I put in two dehumidifier elements to help the beads. I wish I could have gotten a thermoelectric unit, but there you have it.

dehumidifier elements. What kind and where can I get some?