wine coolerdor question. PLEASE HELP!

[justinphilly]

i have gotten some great advice from members here, and other places as well..

Another question, some people swear that u can only use a "thermo-electric" wine cooler, as opposed to the "compressor" type cooler.. Does anyone know for sure if it REALLY matters?

[Altaslim]

It matters. The compressor models mess with the Rh in the box. TE units do not use compression and are able to keep a much more stable Rh. If you're the kind of person who stresses about Rh, do yourself a favor and go for the TE.

[justinphilly]

thats what i have been hearing... but after looking for a while it seems that Thermo-electric units are generally the smaller ones.. i heard that the 28 bottle one is the biggest around..

any links anyone>?

[Altaslim]

The 28 bottle is the largest I found. FWIW, they are stackable.

[adamh_25_]

you could always use a fridge....or one of them sweet, huge, chest deepfreezers. You know...the ones that you can put like 3 people in. That should hold 2 or 3 cigars. . I'd probably pass out if i saw one(...or more) of those beasts full.
Adam

[cquon]

Been looking around at upright freezers myself.

[King Cat]

Yeah, but I assume freezers and fridges aren't thermoelectric, thus creating big RH swings. I just bought a wine cooler that isn't thermoelectric and in the two days I've had it, I've seen first hand how big the humidity swing can be. Everytime I turn it on and let it run for 10 minutes or so (enough to get the temp down to 70), the RH drops in the low 40's and then takes a good bit of time before stabalizing at 65-70 again. I'm planning on returning this sucker, but am not sure what to do at this point.

On a slightly different topic...

I understand what controllers do (for the most part). However, what I'm wondering is whether they have anything to do with minimizing the Humidity swing. What I don't understand is that I've read other people's posts which state that they have a controller that turns their cooler on for only a minute or two just a few times a day and the humidity doesn't drop much. How is that possible? I've have to turn mine on manually every couple of hours for a good 10-15 minutes, and then watch the RH drop down to 40-43.

[Mister Moo]

Is a peltier cooler so precise as to grossly affect the rh swings of the 15-20% I experience with a compressor based cooler running with a 24/7 fan? I dunno - never monitored the rh in a large peltier cooler - but it probably would be more stable. I think a peltier cooler would also have a longer service life, but here I guess.

King Cat - the rh inside boxes in my Haier-49 stays +/- 1% all the time. Temp also hangs at +/- 1-degree unless the whole house cools down (like on winter nights). Since I keep only boxes - no shelves - improved precision doesn't much count. FWIW, I reduced rh recovery times by affixing some 100% polyester fabric to the cooling platen. It wicks moisture fast when it cools down and, with a small circulating fan, it releases it fast as it warms. The fabric on the cooling platen has eliminated water pooling entirely. I plugged the drain after the poly went on and there is zero water accumulation; keeping an eye out for mildew but don't expect any.

[kvm]

What I did with my Haier was seal the cooling unit off from the storage area.
I used a piece of the plastic corner guard stuff you would use on an outside corner of a wallpapered wall and made a frame the size of the back of the storage area, then used double sided tape to fasten a piece of very thin plastic membrane to it ( plastic drop cloth ) to create kind of a window. I then went around the outside edge with some vinyl foam self stick weather stripping to get a good tight fit. It completely seals off the storage area but still allows it to cool . I used one of the johnson temp controllers and had a fan running 24/7 to keep the temp the same at the top and bottom. the temp stays within a couple of degrees and no rh swing at all.
It only costs a couple of bucks do ( with the exception of the temp controller) and can be done in about an hour. My goal is to take it a step further and line it with SC and have a true temp controlled humi.

[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.

[chip]

I have a 28 bottle peltier unit. The temp controller keeps more precise control, so the unit cycles more often but runs for less time per cycle. This keeps the humidity swings down. I have mine set to turn on at 65 and off at 63, with the probe in the middle I have about a 4 degree swing from top to bottom. I have 2 lbs of 65% beads, and the humidity stays fairly stable, however without a fan it does settle to around 68 on the bottom and around 62 on the top.
This is close enough for me, as I tend to move sticks into a desktop for a couple of weeks before smoking them. I keep the desktop around 63%, with mostly dry 65% beads it works out that way and I am happy with the way my cigars smoke.
The ambient temp in my house will run 78 all summer (Texas heat), so the peltier unit is for long term storage concerns. All in all, a fairly cheap way to store about 400 smokes without worrying about the heat.

[GOAT LOCKER]

I use a magic chef 52 bottle compressor model along with a couple pounds of beads and two 80mm fans (one runs continuously, the other runs when the compressor is on.

The RH drops 5% - 10% when the compressor is on. I don't care about this, as all my smokes are in boxes. 2 minutes after the comressor stops, the rh is back at 65%. I tried putting my wireless sensor inside an SLB and as expected, there is no change in rh.

I use an external thermostat designed for brewing, so my compressor is never on for more than 1 minute.

The final test is how they smoke, and cigars from my fridgador are smokin' great. IMHO, if you keep your cigar boxes closed, the compressor vs peltier is a non-issue.

[King Cat]

I guess what I don't get is how your cooler can get back down to the desired temp. so quickly - one minute?

The Danby cooler that I bought at BestBuy takes a good 15 minutes to drop about 5 degrees. This is all based on the two digital hygrometers that I have inside the cooler (one on the top shelf and one on the bottom shelf).

[Mister Moo]

Originally Posted by King Cat

I guess what I don't get is how your cooler can get back down to the desired temp. so quickly - one minute?

The Danby cooler that I bought at BestBuy takes a good 15 minutes to drop about 5 degrees. This is all based on the two digital hygrometers that I have inside the cooler (one on the top shelf and one on the bottom shelf).

In my case the +/- 1-degree (which the refridge cycling about 3-minutes, a few times/hour) is courtesy the Johnson A419 controller, prewired and ready to rock and roll from Zymico and the use of a $5.99 mini fan from Target.

[GOAT LOCKER]

Originally Posted by King Cat

I guess what I don't get is how your cooler can get back down to the desired temp. so quickly - one minute?

The Danby cooler that I bought at BestBuy takes a good 15 minutes to drop about 5 degrees. This is all based on the two digital hygrometers that I have inside the cooler (one on the top shelf and one on the bottom shelf).

OK, my compressor just kicked on. On time was 81 seconds. Guess that's over a minute. My thermostat is set up for a delta of 3 degrees, but the temp usually drops another couple degrees after the compressor cycles off for a total swing of about 5 degrees. RH drop on this last cycle was 4%.

Never dealt with danby. Also, my fridge is in an air conditioned house that is typically 70-75 degrees. Other things like thermostat accuracy, probe placement, compressor size, how full the fridge is and air flow all have an impact on how long the compressor will run. Before I added the new thermostat, mine would turn on at about 70 and go down into the low 50's before shutting off. This took maybe 10 minutes and by this time, the condensation on the cooling plate was frozen!