wine coolerdor question. PLEASE HELP!

[King Cat]

Based on what I'm reading, it doesn't appear that you really need a thermoelectric cooler. If that's the case, then I'll probably opt for a MUCH bigger cooler (than the 28 bottle one I had my eyes on - which is thermoelectric). If I go with a 28 bottle model, I'll probably need three so I may just go for a 100 bottle bad boy. My current set up doesn't have a fan, which sounds like that could be an issue as well. At any rate, the Danby is going back to Best Buy, as soon as I find a replacement.

Goat Locker - what kind of thermostat did you add? Is this a fairly straight forward process and is it really necessary? As you can probably tell, my knowledge of these coolers is very little, but I'm learning thanks to you guys. Also, being that your home is already 70-75 degrees, obviously makes a big difference. My home has been around 79 degrees, which if it weren't for cigars, wouldn't be an issue because I find it very comfortable, especially with the ceiling fans that I've got in my home.

[Jason Love III]

Originally Posted by IHT

wow, i had a haier and never had a problem with any of the RH swings nor any water "pooling". must've been lucky.

I had a crappy experience with the wine-coolidor route and I just tell people to get the same unit IHT had. He never used a controller or anything - just kept at 65 degrees. No messing with any external controllers, none of that stuff - just beads and cool smokes. How easy is that? Good luck you guys!

[IHT]

Originally Posted by Jason Love III

I had a crappy experience with the wine-coolidor route and I just tell people to get the same unit IHT had. He never used a controller or anything - just kept at 65 degrees. No messing with any external controllers, none of that stuff - just beads and cool smokes. How easy is that? Good luck you guys!

no chit... i'm no electrician, all i did was follow the guidance of Edisonbird and then when DaveC showed his setups...

i mean, i got the Haier 32 bottle wine fridge, which goes up to 65*F. i had the climmax media already to keep humidity at 65% RH... i got the fan from radio shack, along with the AC/DC converter, and the digital timer from home depot/lowes. uh... okay, i had to jack with how long to run the fan and how often, but other than setting the temp for 65*F, i didnt' have to do a thing.

i never once had condensation on the INSIDE of my Haier. i would even reach back and touch the back wall of it, after reading on here all the problems people were having with their "magic chefs" and converted full size refridgerators, and nothing was ever "wet".

i didn't even worry about thermo-electric, electric-slide, electric-booguloo, etc.

ah well, guess i'm just lucky that way (as it sits in my garage not being used anymore).

maybe ppl are worried that a slight (and short) fluctuation in temp/humidity will ruin their cigars. hell, you can leave a cigar out of the humi for a few hours and it won't hurt a thing (unless it's in a rainstorm). i've taken cigars, put them in a zip-loc bag, gone to work all day, smoked it on the way home... uh.... NO PROBLEM.
i've taken 5 cigars in a zip-loc bag, stuck them in my wifes glovebox for a weekend trip to her parents house, pulled on out every so often to smoke, even had one 3 days later (after sitting in a glove box over Xmas weekend = very low temp and RH), it smoked great.

so, uh... a sudden dip in RH and Temp for 10-15 minutes probably won't have an impact on your cigars.

[guinsdan]

like west coast customs...

http://cgi.ebay.com/1950s-Retro-Liqu...QQcmdZViewItem

[Jason Love III]

Originally Posted by IHT

no chit... i'm no electrician, all i did was follow the guidance of Edisonbird and then when DaveC showed his setups...

i mean, i got the Haier 32 bottle wine fridge, which goes up to 65*F. i had the climmax media already to keep humidity at 65% RH... i got the fan from radio shack, along with the AC/DC converter, and the digital timer from home depot/lowes. uh... okay, i had to jack with how long to run the fan and how often, but other than setting the temp for 65*F, i didnt' have to do a thing.

i never once had condensation on the INSIDE of my Haier. i would even reach back and touch the back wall of it, after reading on here all the problems people were having with their "magic chefs" and converted full size refridgerators, and nothing was ever "wet".

i didn't even worry about thermo-electric, electric-slide, electric-booguloo, etc.

ah well, guess i'm just lucky that way (as it sits in my garage not being used anymore).

maybe ppl are worried that a slight (and short) fluctuation in temp/humidity will ruin their cigars. hell, you can leave a cigar out of the humi for a few hours and it won't hurt a thing (unless it's in a rainstorm). i've taken cigars, put them in a zip-loc bag, gone to work all day, smoked it on the way home... uh.... NO PROBLEM.
i've taken 5 cigars in a zip-loc bag, stuck them in my wifes glovebox for a weekend trip to her parents house, pulled on out every so often to smoke, even had one 3 days later (after sitting in a glove box over Xmas weekend = very low temp and RH), it smoked great.

so, uh... a sudden dip in RH and Temp for 10-15 minutes probably won't have an impact on your cigars.

Yeah, I quit worrying about all that and got a humidor made out of WOOD, LOL and got a window a/c unit. After my "excellent adventure" with that whole fiasco my attitude was "f-that $hit!" So I just tell people that wanna do the coolidor route to do a Haier like you got or get an a/c unit to cool the room. I still to this day don't know why my smokes got so f-ed up....

[IHT]

hell, even without A/C by my fridge-a-dor, they were fine. for a while, i had them sitting next to the dinning room window in the summer, didn't bother my smokes a bit...

ah well. good luck ppl.

[justinphilly]

so far so good on mine.. got the shelves built, lined the walls with cedar, got the polymers doing their thing, johnson controller maintaining temp..

next up, get some fans in there, then the ultimate test.....cigars!!

[Jason Love III]

Originally Posted by justinphilly

so far so good on mine.. got the shelves built, lined the walls with cedar, got the polymers doing their thing, johnson controller maintaining temp..

next up, get some fans in there, then the ultimate test.....cigars!!

Good luck Justin, keep us updated man. I'm sure it'll turn out awesome for you....

[Mister Moo]

Originally Posted by justinphilly

so far so good on mine..next up, get some fans...

Check out Targets $5.99 Hawaiian Breeze fan. Good size, stout, cheap, quiet and your choice of oh-so-sweet designer colors. I got a red one to match my eyeballs.

[GOAT LOCKER]

Originally Posted by King Cat

Goat Locker - what kind of thermostat did you add? Is this a fairly straight forward process and is it really necessary?

I used the same controller as Mister Maduroo, the Johnston A419, from the same e-tailer. I got the prewired unit. You just plug the controller into an outlet and the fridge into the controller, then run the probe into the fridge. Easy as that. I used 120VAC vice 12VDC fans and wired them into the fridge, so I didn't have to mess with the 12V transformers. It really is pretty easy, but if you are not at least somewhat knowledgeable in how to wire something like this, get some help, or go with 12V fans.

Some higher end wine fridges have better thermostats and might not require another one. If the price difference was less than $100, I would have just gone with a different one.

Also, when I first got my fridge, it had a strong plastic smell. It sat in my bar for about 6 months and was cleaned with soap and water several times before I put cigars into it.

[King Cat]

Originally Posted by IHT

hell, even without A/C by my fridge-a-dor, they were fine. for a while, i had them sitting next to the dinning room window in the summer, didn't bother my smokes a bit...

ah well. good luck ppl.

That has to be taken into consideration when talking about how one person's wine coolidor does versus another person's wine coolidor - location!

For me, if I had mine sitting next to a window in the summer without the ac running in the cooler, the temerature would be close to 80. Hell, even in mid April, my non-temp. controlled humis are around 76 in the day (which is why I'm wanting to do something).

The more that I'm reading this thread, the more waffling I seem to do. The latest and probably end decision is to just invest my money in a nicer humi (cabinet that holds 3,000 smokes) and to put in a $130 ac unit in the window. Perhaps a few years from now the next purchase will be an aristocrat temp controlled humi, that is, when I can afford to throw down 3-4k on a humi. The day will come, but not quite yet.

[justinphilly]

Originally Posted by Mister MaDuroo

Check out Targets $5.99 Hawaiian Breeze fan. Good size, stout, cheap, quiet and your choice of oh-so-sweet designer colors. I got a red one to match my eyeballs.

bob staebell of aristocrat humidors actually put together an AWESOME fan package for me.. I got two 2 1/2 inch fans wired, power supply, and converter shipped for 30 bucks.. not a bad price, considering the fans are like 15 bucks each at Radio Shack..

Bob is a great guy, and an awesome asset to all cigar smokers, and collectors~!

[IHT]

Originally Posted by King Cat

The more that I'm reading this thread, the more waffling I seem to do. The latest and probably end decision is to just invest my money in a nicer humi (cabinet that holds 3,000 smokes) and to put in a $130 ac unit in the window. Perhaps a few years from now the next purchase will be an aristocrat temp controlled humi, that is, when I can afford to throw down 3-4k on a humi. The day will come, but not quite yet.

to be totally honest, if i were to know what i know now, and have to start all over again, i would buy a friggin HUGE wine-chiller, probably another Haier (or one that's temp goes up to 65*F).
i wouldn't get a wooden cabinet humi again. (unless i won a huge lotto and got a big ol' arlin liss (or another aristocrat) humi with built in cooling for nearly 10+ grand.

otherwise, i'd go with the Edison-a-dor again. i'd do it better than i did that last time by simply adding my own cedar shelves (that slide out)... that's all i'd change.

[King Cat]

Originally Posted by IHT

to be totally honest, if i were to know what i know now, and have to start all over again, i would buy a friggin HUGE wine-chiller, probably another Haier (or one that's temp goes up to 65*F).
i wouldn't get a wooden cabinet humi again. (unless i won a huge lotto and got a big ol' arlin liss (or another aristocrat) humi with built in cooling for nearly 10+ grand.

otherwise, i'd go with the Edison-a-dor again. i'd do it better than i did that last time by simply adding my own cedar shelves (that slide out)... that's all i'd change.

You know what I REALLY want, is to be able to buy a temp control unit to be able to put in a humidor cabinet. That way, I could buy a giant cabinet of my choice and then just install the cooling system, circumventing all of this wine cooler business!

A question for you guys: Is Magic Chef not a good brand of coolers? I thought I remember reading something negative about them. I saw a Magic Chef beverage cooler today at Home Depot for 300 bucks. I really like it and had the best design that I've seen so far of coolers, although no fan apparently so I would have to add one (it would probably hold 50 bottles and is about 5.4 cubic feet). It had a digital temp. display and control and it was advertised as being able to go up to 64 degrees.

Even if I didn't use it for a humidor, it would make a nice addition to my theater room. Then I could just stay in my room for hours w/o having to leave. A 120 " projector tv display on the wall, comfortable leather couch, great smokes and some ice cold beer - what else do you need? My wife would just love that.

[IHT]

Originally Posted by King Cat

I really like it and had the best design that I've seen so far of coolers, although no fan apparently so I would have to add one (it would probably hold 50 bottles and is about 5.4 cubic feet). It had a digital temp. display and control and it was advertised as being able to go up to 64 degrees.

my Haier was a 32 bottle chiller, which was around 4.8 cubic feet on the inside.