Lowering Humidity in Wineador

[Evangundy]

Hey Guys,

I have a vino 28 with humidity holding around 72-74. I want it at 65, so I have 3lbs of heartfelt 65 beads in there (all recently dried out in the oven) and some boveda pack, but nothing is bringing it down. The humidity outside is high 50's and low 60's, so ambient temp and humidity are not a problem. Any suggestions? It has a drawer made from cedar and 3 boxes of cigars in it right now.

[Evangundy]

The drawer and boxes have been in there for a couple weeks, so I would have thought they would have settled by now into the 65%...

[esse]

keep the door open for a while? Maybe an hour at a time?

[Drguano]

Have you checked your hygrometer?

[Jason55555]

I would take the boveda pack out and just put the beads in there and let the wine fridge adapt the beads should suck in the extra humidity also try throw some ceder into it from old cigar boxes to help speed it up.

[Orion21]

What temp are you setting the fridge at? I discovered the lower I set the temp the higher the Rh% would rise -- not drastically, but from 63-65 (at 66F) to 65-67 (at 63F). Try increasing the temperature to the high setting of 66F and put in some old dry cigar boxes to help absorb the Rh. You may also find that the Rh stays higher because your cigars are at 72-74 and the moisture bleeds out of them much more slowly than we have patience for. Be patient.

[CaptainQuintero]

Dont open the door for two weeks, beads need some serious love time to get into the zone, opening the door changes everything and they have to start to adapt again.

[brazoseagle]

X2 - Take the Boveda pack out!

Are you certain you are charging your beads correctly?

Are you positive your unit is sealed good?

What is the ambient temperature of the room the unit is in?

If you have more cedar or even empty boxes, put them in. Open space is a killer.

If you need a quick fix to lower humidity, 1) take the cedar out and let it dry, and then put it back in - it will soak up extra moisture 2) go to Home Depot or Lowes and get a jar of Damprid, 3) Easiest and cheapest if you have kids. - put a clean un-used diaper in your humidor for 24 hours, then remove.

In my opinion, even with open space, you should be maintaining your ideal humidity with 3lbs. of beads, once the Boveda packs are removed, they work against each other. That is to say if your unit doesn't have any leaks, your beads are being charged correctly, and the room your unit is in is not too hot causing the unit to run more than it should.

[Orion21]

Just as an FYI, your Vintotemp has dimensions of 18 1/4"W x 20 7/8"D x 29 1/4"H and I have a 16 bottle Haier with dimensions of 17-1/8 X 18-7/8 X 20-1/8 and I use 1 lb of beads -- nothing else. It's not the amount of beads it's getting the environment to equilibrium. I'm sure Piggy could explain in MUCH more detail

[PigFish]

Just as an FYI, your Vintotemp has dimensions of 18 1/4"W x 20 7/8"D x 29 1/4"H and I have a 16 bottle Haier with dimensions of 17-1/8 X 18-7/8 X 20-1/8 and I use 1 lb of beads -- nothing else. It's not the amount of beads it's getting the environment to equilibrium. I'm sure Piggy could explain in MUCH more detail

-BINGO!

I could write a book on this and don't have time today mate.

How do your cigars smoke? Are they wet or dry? Or are some wet and some dry???

How do you know your hygrometer is working? They are only good for telling you that things have changed, not if your cigars are wet or dry! You do that by taste, over time.

Let me know and we will work on some solutions together. -Piggy

[Evangundy]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the replies... Let me answer some of your questions:

The hygrometers are good, I have a boveda humidity test that all of them have been through and read 75%. After that I put them in another bag with a 69% boveda, just to make sure, and they read correctly, so I am sure it's not the hygrometers.

The temp stays at 66, the highest it will go, and stays there. The ambient temp is fluctuates a little, but I have never seen the temp inside fall below 65 or above 66, so I think that is good.

Ambient humidity is usually low 50's or mid 60's, so I would think it would only help my problem if it was leaking a little, so I don't think the problem is there.

I have taken out the Boveda packs, thanks for that tip!

I have 4-5 cedar boxes and a cedar shelf in the unit, which is a couple more boxes than I had prior to this post, so we'll see if that works.

I had over charged my beads before, which is why I baked them. Now, I am not sure what would be best if I am trying to lower the RH. Should I dry them completely or just use the 1 oz per 1 lbs it suggests?

I have a fan in the unit as well, which I thought would lower the RH at first, from what I have read, but it has actually no difference accept maybe 1% lower.

I have never had a problem with the way my cigars smoke. If anything a little on the dry side, but I like that better anyways.

Again, this is a new unit, so maybe more time is needed. The beads have been in there for about a week, but there has been absolutely no change, which is why the post was put up... I'll keep you guys informed and try some of the other tricks offered here this week.

[Julesgf]

The diapers / nappys is a great tip!

hadn't occurred to me they would be full of desiccant

[Evangundy]

Ok, I have placed a diaper in there for a day or two. It did bring the RH down a percentage or two, but that's it.

Any other suggestions?

[brazoseagle]

Take your beads out and leave door open until it reaches desired rh, put beads back in completely dry, no charge of water. Or go to hone depot and get a $5.00 jar of damprid.

[PigFish]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the replies... Let me answer some of your questions:

The hygrometers are good, I have a boveda humidity test that all of them have been through and read 75%. After that I put them in another bag with a 69% boveda, just to make sure, and they read correctly, so I am sure it's not the hygrometers.

The temp stays at 66, the highest it will go, and stays there. The ambient temp is fluctuates a little, but I have never seen the temp inside fall below 65 or above 66, so I think that is good.

Ambient humidity is usually low 50's or mid 60's, so I would think it would only help my problem if it was leaking a little, so I don't think the problem is there.

I have taken out the Boveda packs, thanks for that tip!

I have 4-5 cedar boxes and a cedar shelf in the unit, which is a couple more boxes than I had prior to this post, so we'll see if that works.

I had over charged my beads before, which is why I baked them. Now, I am not sure what would be best if I am trying to lower the RH. Should I dry them completely or just use the 1 oz per 1 lbs it suggests?

I have a fan in the unit as well, which I thought would lower the RH at first, from what I have read, but it has actually no difference accept maybe 1% lower.

I have never had a problem with the way my cigars smoke. If anything a little on the dry side, but I like that better anyways.

Again, this is a new unit, so maybe more time is needed. The beads have been in there for about a week, but there has been absolutely no change, which is why the post was put up... I'll keep you guys informed and try some of the other tricks offered here this week.

Everything is in how the cigars smoke. If you like them where they are smoking why do you want to change them?

Take one of your hygrometers and put it in a box of your "just right" cigars. What does it read in there?

To dry out your humidor, since your ambient outside is low, just leave the blasted door open! This is not going to hurt anything.

If you don't like the simple ideas, go buy an ice bag or freeze some water in a bag. Place the bag in a bowl and point the fan at it. Every 30 minutes or so wipe the condensation that collects on the bag off the bag. The easiest way to remove excess tumidity is to use refrigeration but you must remove the condensation or it will just end up as water vapor again.

It takes time to dry out a humidor with 30 or 40 boxes of cigars at a higher than desired EQRH. Unless you take drastic measures, it could take weeks or months. If you think the cigars are right but the boxes are soaked, remove the cigars and put them back, you could even put them in bags and leave the boxes out in the 50-60 RH air to dry. If your outside ambient is low, you should not have this problem unless you put way too much water in there in the first place.

I am adding a picture to show how well a refrigerator scrubs water vapor. This is a cycle test and has no real value to you except that it demonstrates how fast an evap. coil will remove water from air. If you catch the water and do not reintroduce it into your system it will dry, but it might take some time.

I may post some additional evidence of this if I have some additional time tomorrow.

Best of luck. -Piggy

[Miner]

I have a 24 bottle wine fridge for my smokes. Sits at 65. A couple of weeks after I got it I read somewhere that the drain hole should be plugged. So I did and the humidity shot up to 75. I immediately unblocked the hole and it settled back to 65. I only keep boxes in the fridge with a tray of cat litter crystals oh and a bottle of Grange! The room humidity is low maybe 40.

Cheers

[Guest rob]

Ray,

I'm not sure if I'm interpreting your results accurately.... but why does the humididty drop before the temp goes down???

[PigFish]

Ray,

I'm not sure if I'm interpreting your results accurately.... but why does the humididty drop before the temp goes down???

I am smiling!!!

There is nothing to interpret my friend, this is why I use a data logger. What do your eyes tell you is happening? Forget what you believe should be happening and tell me what you see happening. I will answer you but I would love to read my above post again and figure it out. Anyone want to hazard an answer. After taking to dozens of folks about humidor psychrometry I know many of you know the answer.

Here is a hint. Relative humidity is the result of two factors which can cause one very common phenomenon. Here is one that should give it away. Why are there 3 lines on the graph?

I'll be back!

[Evangundy]

So, what I am seeing is humidity is more in connection with dew point than temperature.

[PigFish]

So, what I am seeing is humidity is more in connection with dew point than temperature.

I don't know if I am reading you correctly... but not really. Dew point is a function of the other two. So dew point is important, and it is important here, but why?

Why is the humidity dropping?

While it seems like I am effin' with you guys I am not. What I am trying to show you is that your mind represents a perfect world. Once you know psychrometry one may think it is easy as pie until you deal with the real world of sealed environments in equilibrium. Every variable affects other variables when you are dealing with RH because RH is dependent on energy (heat). Just when you think it is gonna' work just fine you run into a wall called dew point!

So what is happening?

-Piggy

[Evangundy]

You might have to spell it Out for me... I see the temperature is constant, but the humidity and the dew point fluctuate at the same time. Since dew point is a result of the other two, and the temp remains constant, I don't see why the humidity is fluctuating. Unless there is another variable not shown.

[Evangundy]

Ok, I just reread your post. You're talking about taking the evaporated water out of the environment instead of leaving it to fall back into the cycle. Right?