El Presidente Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 I use a thermo electric 28 bottle wine fridge for the czar deck to hold 15 boxes of cigars for locals who are too lazy to go downstairs to the walk in humidor The Thermo Electric wine fridge with a sock of Mark Neffs (cigarmony.com) beads has worked flawlessly at keeping 16 degrees Celsius and 65% Relative humidity. At a total setup of $ 290 AUD it is to me a great option. Has anyone using a similar system had any problems or issues?
maverickdrinker Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 I have 2 of them. I don't plug them in and use beads for the humidity. Works easy peasy
CaptainQuintero Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 Love mine, 44 bottle Samsung one that I got half price from their seconds store because it had a scratch on the side! Super air tight and really well insulated. I grabbed 3lb of 65% beads off Rob last June and the thing has been as stable as a rock every day since. Don't even turn the thing on as I live in England The only downside is you end up filling them up too quickly!
strayvector Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 I have 2 of them. I don't plug them in and use beads for the humidity. Works easy peasy Same set up for me. I haven't plugged mine in for 2 years.
smll2 Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 I use two 28 count and three 18 count thermo units. I have had them since 2009. All the motors have crapped out on me so i don't plug them in anymore. I don't want to turn on the AC in the entire house during the summer months (southern cal) so I use a AC wall unit to keep the room with the Wineadors at 70 degrees. Humidity is steady in all wineadors in the 64% to 68% range. Heartfelt 65% beads in all. I recharge some of the beads no more than 4 times a year. The nice thing about not plugging them in is I never have a moisture/water buildup or mold problems people sometimes experience. I'd love to buy a large Aristocrat or Avallo....I just haven't been willing to pull the trigger yet. When I do the s..t will hit the fan LOL with Mrs Smll2. Tom
SurpriseMVP Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 I have a 32 & 16 bottle and have zero issues. I have to plug mine in due to my geographic location next to the sun. Spary the beads 2 or 3 times a year tops and no worries.
brutusthebuckeye Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 I have a 28 bottle Vinotemp ...65% beads ...unplug just in summer time ...3+ years not one problem....
csandbothe Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 When I saw the thread title, I thought you were going to list the downside. I went into panic mode, as I just finally got by thermoelectric cooler up and running.
Cohiba Stevie Posted July 24, 2012 Posted July 24, 2012 Im using marks beads also... I know that they are the same as heartfelts but they dont seem to go brown after a year or twos use. Loving them.
canadianbeaver Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 Love mine and my fuss patience and experience is minimum. But it is filled to the brink and I am getting a large standing humidor from LCDH shortly, thanks to you Rob.
mykeuva Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 Love mine and my fuss patience and experience is minimum. But it is filled to the brink and I am getting a large standing humidor from LCDH shortly, thanks to you Rob. Mine has been great for the last few years. Keeps temperature perfectly, but after I moved, I seem to have to replenish the beads more often. Don't know what it is, just having a problem maintaining humidity, even with plug sealed up.
CanuckSARTech Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 Im using marks beads also... I know that they are the same as heartfelts but they dont seem to go brown after a year or twos use. Loving them. I second this, big time. While there seems to be more that buy/use the Heartfelt versions (just a more known name maybe?), I find that Mark's RH Beads are just a better product, long term.
khamy Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 Well you know i went with this model as well on your recommendation and found the following great points: 1. it looks great and was at pleasant price point 2. i'm to lazy to take a flight up to brisbane everytime i want to raid your humidor. i have mine setup with 2 stockings of KL and a smaller cup of KL on the top shelf. Top half is consistently hitting 18degrees with 62% RH Bottom half about 69% RH (its an analogue hygrometer so probably a little off but i'm not far enough into my journey to see this as a big issue) Fridge is turned off at the moment but probably will turn it on when summer hits. Did find when i first got it, that giving it a quick wipe down with warm water/bit of bi-carb etc didnt really seem to get rid of the slight plastic smell, after about a week with empty cigar boxes in there to bring out the cedar aromas, dont think it really helped but shoved a few boxes of not so special stock in, after another week no strange plastic aroma's on the cigars so went ahead and shoved in the rest of the stock. Any additional aroma's will add 'character'. Oh and other downside is that additional storage space means additional hits to the hip pocket in the past few months. oh well, back to the instant noodles again, just like the old university days.
nikesupremedunk Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 i think they generally work well if your ambient temp isn't 90+. Also I think the bigger ones work better than the smaller ones that cost less. I really hate mine because it is more trouble than it's worth. I couldn't keep a steady RH w/ the fan running 90% of the time so I bought a tupperware to store inside. Now the cold air from the back is hitting the tupperware making the cigars inside damp. When I have room for a bigger wineador I'm going to buy a 28 count with custom cedar drawers. Do not buy 12 count Avanti.
Dimmers Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 The Thermo Electric wine fridge with a sock of Mark Neffs (cigarmony.com) beads has worked flawlessly at keeping 16 degrees Celsius and 65% Relative humidity. Have you tested it as yet in a Brisbane summer Rob (ie any condensation issues) ? Ive got a new similar setup and thats what im wary of.
sblevit Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 I have one that I keep my NCs in. I used to use hearfelt beads, but found that they smelled badly after a while and they did not keep humidity for very long. I now have switched to a single Xicar crystal humidifier for a 250 ct humidor and it has worked perfectly. I don't think I have added PG solution in months.
CaptainQuintero Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 I have one that I keep my NCs in. I used to use hearfelt beads, but found that they smelled badly after a while and they did not keep humidity for very long. I now have switched to a single Xicar crystal humidifier for a 250 ct humidor and it has worked perfectly. I don't think I have added PG solution in months. The PG could be the issue, only use distilled water with beads (Not even de-ionized) otherwise they can get clogged up and fail
smll2 Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 I have one that I keep my NCs in. I used to use hearfelt beads, but found that they smelled badly after a while and they did not keep humidity for very long. I now have switched to a single Xicar crystal humidifier for a 250 ct humidor and it has worked perfectly. I don't think I have added PG solution in months. My heartfelt beads have been awesome for me the past three years. No smell and they work as advertised. Can't imagine what i would do without em. I'm sure cigarmony has great beads too..given the testimonials by Rob and others.
sblevit Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 The PG could be the issue, only use distilled water with beads (Not even de-ionized) otherwise they can get clogged up and fail Only used distilled water with the beads. PG with the Xicar crystal. The beads worked ok, they just had a chemical smell and did not hold humidity as well as the crystal.
CaptainQuintero Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 Ah right. Maybe just a bad batch? I guess it must happen with beads just like everything else.
Coolio Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 I've got exactly the same fridge and set up as the one on the Czars deck (but not the same collection inside unfortunately!), and mine is working brilliantly at 65% and 17deg. It took a week or so for the 8oz of beads to get the RH down to 65%, but they appear to be doing their job now. I think I put too much water on them to start with, but dried them out, reinserted and Bob's your uncle a week later. I'm hopefull that over the Brisbane summer I can keep the humidity constantly at 65%, but I am expecting a higher temp (my house gets a bit warm!).
Croz71 Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 I started with a thermo fridge but with summer in Perth I couldn't get it down below 75f and that was with the thing running all the time. I ended up with a compressor fridge after reading the greats posts on here. They are a bit more work to setup but by the end of last summer I had it keeping 68f +/- .5f and humidity at 63-65% Have you used it through a Brisbane summer yet Prez?
PigFish Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 ... I never heard of such a thing!!!! -LOL Converting wine coolers is my gig. I am a storage (use slang term for prostitute here). I am not a fan of TE coolers and prefer the compressor variety but I say whatever works for you is what is important. I am building some new systems based on programable logic controllers that I am hoping will be top in their class systems right now. I just bought me a pile of new parts and the next few weeks at Piggy Labs is gonna' be pretty interesting! I have had some controls breakthroughs that should allow me to control just about everything that pushes air and water vapor around in a humidor and not break the bank. I am all jacked up about it. My new system will feature complete "healthy" cigar life cycle functionality. It will cool when hot, hydrate when dry, dehydrate when wet, and heat when too cool. I have been having an interesting time in development, but paper goes to reality really soon (hopefully). The data logger is the final arbiter! If she says it works... well, it works!!! Cheers! -the Pig
Croz71 Posted July 25, 2012 Posted July 25, 2012 Piggy, your posts helped me so much with my build Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. If you are ever in Perth Western Australia I would love to repay you with some drinks and cigars
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now