Highend wineador retrofit.

[manelson05]

I am currently migrating from an aristocrat end table that is temperature controlled to a nice Vinothique brand oak and cedar wine fridge (gifted to me) that is not used which triples my capacity and provides a more stable environment ( not circulating and trying to cool ambient temperature like my aristocrat does)

New Cabinet :

64” tall x 26” wide and 24” deep

Lined with cedar and insulated with a very sturdy heavy duty magnetic rubber gasket seal on the door.

Slat racks made of either cedar or oak, robust construction.

The evaporative compressor unit is in the back facing the outside (serviceable without removing a box), there is a condensation coil in the back of the cabinet that you can see when you open the door. This condensation coil stick out about .75” and is covered by a ceramic coated piece of steel to protect the coil. On the back of the unit on the outside is a cooling grid like you would find on a refrigerator.

With only the cooling unit running the cabinet partially full sits at 50-52 RH. All of my cigars that are in that unit are sealed in bags and or containers currently.

My desire is to add a humidification system and maintain 62-65RH year round if possible. Where I live it can get humid however even during the heavy rains we had a month ago the RH did not raise at all. When the unit runs the ceramic coated steel has a faint coating of moisture on it (rubbing finger across the cover you get some moisture), condensation this no doubt has to be helping keep the RH stable. I have considered one of Bob Stabells humidification systems with two large tanks to only keep partially full with one located at the bottom or one at the bottom, perhaps both towards the middle? Perhaps I only need one large one?

Given your expertise (PigFish; I’m hoping you will read this sir) would you suggest I move forward with this approach and set the RH on the humidification system at 60 RH then let it set for a week to see how it reacts then uncase all my cigars and measure the RH for a few days off that before making .25 -.5 RH increases until I reach 63 - 65 RH?

I thank you all for your assistance in my growth transition.

Mark

[PigFish]

Mark, while your question appears to you to be general, it is in fact a specific engineering solution that you request. I am alway happy to help as you probably know, but you WILL LIKELY have problems and issues going forward that require specific engineering solutions to solve. While I don't mind doing this work 'pro-bono' when I have the time, I don't have the time today...

I will try to take a little time here and give you some general comments and potential solutions that might help you along.

Pictures speak a thousand words. While my reading comprehension is quite good, without seeing what is being discussed, you should realize that I may not be understanding what you are writing! I prefer to see what you are looking at to give advice.

Insulation is an important part of these designs. Well insulated products are best. If you have a product that is well insulated (as you say) then that is a large part of the stability battle. As a retrofitter (of wine coolers) a large part of the battle is that of space and budget verses insulation. Insulation should not be overlooked and the more the better!

64" tall is a tall unit. This is at least a potential problem if you are looking for stability. A quick run over your unit with an infrared thermometer will show you that in your typical room there may be a 2 degree spread just from the stratification of the air inside or outside. With a tall humidor, you will get tall humidor problems.

Since convection is your problem here, you will need (or should consider) the use of a ducted system that constantly relocates air and the water in it. This is done by using ducts and fans to create an ever present high/low pressure differential causing the air and the water suspended in it to be in constant motion.

The stability of the system will largely be controlled by how often the cooler runs and how well you control it. I use a precision controller for this and integrate specific design components to keep what I call cold/dry/wet spaces. These (this) space is controlled separately from the cooler to aid in the stability of my designs. I am the only humidor maker that does this. It is likely because I am the only humidor maker that judges his own performance throughly via an intensive empirical data logging trial method.

Large tank humidifiers is not a descriptor that I understand! A large tank only means that you have a means to store a lot of water! If you local reservoir held 1 million acre feet of water and the city used a 4" pipe to supply that water to 1 million people, you would see that the capacity of the reservior is not the problem!

If you are not planning on capturing the water condensate, that is a huge POTENTIAL problem. Running the system you will find that the cooler strips water as you supply it. That is okay, but where does the stripped water go? That is the problem. That water must be returned your you system or you had better just hook your system up to a spigot and have a mop sink below it! Depending on how much it runs, it can go through a lot of water.

Frankly, I can go on and on with this but I cannot afford to rewrite so many of my lessons.

Here are some approaches to solutions for you, so I can move on. First, post some pictures so I can see what you have, or email them to me. My email is in my profile. If I am giving general advice, I would prefer that you post them so that others can benefit, and even join the conversation. That fits the profile of the board.

Next, you have to pic a route. You can wait for me to cover some issues or you can throw your money at products. Usually people throw their money at products, fail, and then ask for help... You are ahead of the curve here! You can post up 1 or 2 questions at a time and if I can get to them I will. I cannot read a few paragraphs and design your system however, I don't posses the time for that today.

You can generate a specific problem and I will try to help you solve it. But again, I cannot afford the time to work through all the knowledge in my head and spit it out on the forum, one thread at a time. It is impossible!

Lastly, you can engage me (pay me) to tackle one or more engineering issues specific to your humidor and make parts for you. This is commercial in nature and it will have to be taken off line, unless you might think it fun to put my design prowess to the test in front of the community. The commercial aspect of that would have to handled between the two of us personally.

Like Bob I use specific engineered solutions to fix problems. I just don't advertise them on a website. I am a one man shop that does this for the hell of it and not for a living. The difference lies in that I don't wish to have people blindly buy products via a guess, click and buy method. While click and buy is fast and easy, losing money on stuff that does not work also therefore becomes fast and easy.

On the board I try to help people, not generate business. I help them first and if they like what I talk about sometimes we become partners in a project. As stated, usually I take on 1 or 2 issues, but it is impossible for me tackle such a large task on line.

Lastly. This is not to say that throwing money at your project won't work to your satisfaction. Your satisfaction is unknown to me. The bar for my satisfaction is rather high. I know what it takes to get there, the years of work and knowledge gained by my testing. I doubt that one will get there by buying random products and tossing them into a box.

If you have a budget and a goal, we should talk more. On line or off, but if becomes commercial in nature then we have to take it off Rob's space. The project in plain view might be fun, but that is many potential steps away. Don't be rushed to make this work, or you will likely waste your money. Take it a step at a time and I will give you what help I can when I can. I hope I have helped!!!

Cheers! -Piggy