Benty Posted March 21, 2012 Posted March 21, 2012 Hi Everyone, I recently set up my first wineador and although it took a bit of time and research I finally got there. I replaced the original wooden shelves with custom built spansih cedar draws and trays about 1 month ago and everything seemed to be going really well. However, the other day I noticed that there is a chemical reaction taking place between the water and the plastic that it comes in contact with. The plastic is literally being eaten away. I use distilled water and have 2 x 2oz and 1 x 8oz HCM Cigar Bead Bags and a Cigar Oasis regulating the humidity. I've contacted the wine fridge supplier and showed them the pictures and they haven't seen anything like this before. As I'm clueless to what might be causing this chemical reaction I'm hoping someone in the cigar community might be able to shed some light. If not then I hope this at least serves as a 'things to watch out for' when building a wineador. Thanks for reading!
Munts Posted March 21, 2012 Posted March 21, 2012 Are you actually using distilled water or are you using deionised water??
Benty Posted March 21, 2012 Author Posted March 21, 2012 Are you actually using distilled water or are you using deionised water?? Good question, I'm using Demineralised water (Deionised water). My understanding is that 'Demineralised water' is a general term referring to all water that has been stripped of its minerals and that 'Distillation' is just one method of doing this?? I didn't realise there was a difference until now...not exactly sure what this means for my wineador though?
brazoseagle Posted March 21, 2012 Posted March 21, 2012 I don't have a real answer for you, but I have seen this before, but I've ONLY seen it inside wineadors/wine fridges, that have wine in it. That has been the common patteren everytime I've seen it, wine bottles are present. On a side note, the temperature ideal for cigars and the temp ideal for wine are very far apart, I don't see how you could effectively store wine and cigars together? Cigars - 63F-65F Red Wine - 50F-55F
Munts Posted March 21, 2012 Posted March 21, 2012 Sorry i did mean to say demineralised water and not deionised water. The reason i ask is because demineralised water can be corrosive. Demineralised water can be a scavenger. It picks-up trace impurities very readily. I would suggest changing the water to distilled water.
Benty Posted March 22, 2012 Author Posted March 22, 2012 I don't have a real answer for you, but I have seen this before, but I've ONLY seen it inside wineadors/wine fridges, that have wine in it. That has been the common patteren everytime I've seen it, wine bottles are present. On a side note, the temperature ideal for cigars and the temp ideal for wine are very far apart, I don't see how you could effectively store wine and cigars together? Cigars - 63F-65F Red Wine - 50F-55F That is an interesting observation, thanks for that. I'll try changing to distilled water as per Munts's suggestion first and if that fails I'll take the wine out. Thanks Brazoseagle Yes, you're right about the wine if it were being stored for aging purposes. However, I'm just keeping the wine in there for serving purposes (ideal serving temp for red wine being ~ 60F-65F). I rotate through those bottles every month or so.
Benty Posted March 22, 2012 Author Posted March 22, 2012 Sorry i did mean to say demineralised water and not deionised water. The reason i ask is because demineralised water can be corrosive. Demineralised water can be a scavenger. It picks-up trace impurities very readily. I would suggest changing the water to distilled water. Thanks Munts, good advice. I'll make the change and see what happens. Cheers
PigFish Posted March 25, 2012 Posted March 25, 2012 I am back at guessing but here is my take on what is happening here. Plastics are very susceptible to solvents and heat. This looks like a solvent problem or a heat problem. If I had to guess I would say that your humidor runs a lot. So much so that perhaps the adhesive that bonds the cooling plate to the heating side is melting and actually dripping inside the cooler and dissolving the plastic. Peltier coolers are not magic. The energy drawn out of the cooling plate side is dissipated on the heating plate side. I would check the heating side while the cooler is running and see if the cooling fan (located outside the box) is running when the unit is on. If the outside fan is not running the Peltier device will commonly emit heat from both sides of the plate to displace the energy that it consumes or the outside plate may be overheating. This is a wildass guess but with so little to go on, it is the best I can muster! Just my 2 cts! -Piggy
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