Good Value? Wine Cooler and Cigar Humidor.

[El Presidente]

I was asked this morning if this was good value. I have no idea. However I suspect if you have a smallish collection, are not OCD and enjoy a glass of wine or 6....it could be a go. Sorry Piggy  

The biggest complaint I see on this unit is that they can't get humidity above 66%......which is about spot on for Cuban cigars. 

If you have any experience with the unit or others similar, post here as I will direct the member to this thread. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B78IJTM/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01B78IJTM&linkCode=as2&tag=hotnewprod-20&linkId=52353026c65e9469b62244c6a798fc25

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LordAnubis]

There’s nothing wrong with it for what it is. It’s interesting seeing them already converted for humidor use. It’s probably not great for a hot house in Aus. If you already have air conditioning at home in Aus then sure it’ll work.


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[Dmpotocek]

I have this setup. When I bought it, I told my wife that she could use one half for her wine, and I’d keep cigars in the other half.
I think we both knew that this was how it was going to end up.
That being said, it works well enough for me. It keeps pretty stable temp/rh. It’s built well and the shelving is good quality.


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[El Presidente]

...I am sure that you paid for "her half" one way or the other 

[canadianbeaver]

I love this set up. Works for me.

You do not have to buy the most expensive, although I did at first.

You can get any shape or size that is right for you, even the mini one like the size of a big microwave oven. And if you change your mind, move it somewhere and fill it with cold beer.

Small hydromters tell you if all is right and nice glasses of water fix it. Or take the advice of other brothers here. All good.

Cheers!

CB

 

[PigFish]

... this thread is useless without data logs!!! (read with levity!)

-Piggy

[Romka]

I bought a new 40 bottles winedor yesterday to keep my cigars cool. It has the same enclosure with Newair CC-300 but with compressor cooling instead of TE. I ran it empty last night and measured T and RH with a sensorpush bluetooth sensor. I set it to 18C which is the max thermostat setting in our living room where ambients are 60% RH and 23C temp. Cooling kicks in at 20C and stops at 16C. Wine cooler has an air duct on backwall with louvers at low level and a fan at high, so it is how the damn thing circulates air inside. Interesting thing is that when the cooling cycle starts, RH inside rapidly drops to 40% and then slowly rises upto 90% during idle period. I placed the sensors on the front, next to glass door. This swing might be due to poor adaptation of sensors to rapidly changing conditions -I have two electronic sensors, one cheap Chinese and one Swiss made- however, sudden drops in RH is also a fact due to the condensation on heat exchanger. Only solution I could imagine was to place my boxes into a tupper, then the oscillation inside the tupper dropped to +/-1% RH and +/- 0.7C between cooling and idle periods. I guess it is much lower inside the dressboxes as wood smooths out the cooling more. Due to the front glass door and looks in the livingroom, I seem to -and my other half really- hate to see tupperware behind the tinted glass. I am planning to make wooden drawers inside, however I am not sure if they will dampen the abtrupt changes in temp and RH since they won't be airtight like a tupper. This evening I will load more non-cigar stuff into the cooler and see if increasing the thermal mass and inertia inside will help. 

Has anyone experienced a similiar problem? How do you solve the problem of such sudden and abtrupt changes in RH during cooling cycle? Under the current conditions, it is a mass massacre to place any open sticks or even dress boxes into the damn thing.

[LordAnubis]

That my friend is physics. You can’t get around it. Adding more mass as you call it may help a smidgen, but not much. It’s not your solution. You’re trying to precisely control something that is a design flaw in the system you have.

 

You have three options.

 

Drop your rooms air conditioner down to 18 degrees and keep the room at that temp.

 

Throw boxes of cigars in there and let it be. Live with the fluctuations. As you correctly conclude the fluctuations of rh/temp inside a cigar box is small, but still present during a cooling cycle. You can further dampen this a bit by putting all boxes into zip lock bags. This is my method of storage. I do this. And have long ago forgotten about the fluctuations in my system.

 

Last option. Buy an active humidifier, dehumidifier, and heater, and use electrical know how and programming wizzadry to hook all four (the cooling components you already have) to work in unison to maintain perfection.

 

 

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[Romka]

@LordAnubis

Thanks a lot. Hearing from someone who passed the same path before makes it easier to face the reality and accept what is available as it is. I will go with the second option as you have been doing. Tomorrow, I will measure the fluctuations inside a cigar box in a ziplock. If I feel necessary, I might later add wooden drawers to dampen the RH+T curves at the cost of poor air circulation inside. 

The best thing as you propose seems to forget fluctuations and enjoy the stuff inside. 

[Rocketman64]

To alleviate your consternations, I can make time in my schedule to provide quality assurance services.  Just ship me samples on regular basis for some very thorough destructive testing. Pro bono service of course. 

Always happy to help. 

[Romka]

@Rocketman64

I will make sure I stash a few when and if I come to NJ, my friend. Wifey will be busy with shopping anyway.