Aristocrat \"Acceptable Ranges\" ?

[KB24]

I want my temp and humidity to be around 65/65 in my humidor. I just changed the ranges and wanted to just know what everyone else's ranges are. I set my low temp and 63, high temp at 67, low humidity at 63 and high humidity at 66.

For those of you with an Arisotcrat, does this mean when the temp gets above 67 the AC will come on and when the humidity gets below 63 the water unit will come on? I take it that low temp and high humidity settings are just there as a warning bc nothing internal can be done to change those. Hope this makes sense.

[El Presidente]

Top as I would like you to get some good advice :-)

[cohiba]

Whatever you low temp is....the unit will try to keep. If it is at 63 then at 64 the AC unit comes on. Humidity......you set for the high 65% then at 64% the water units fan comes on. It would be advisable to set the low humidity for something like 30%, set the high at what you want it to be. Set the temp high for like 99, set the low to be what you want 63.

Hope this is understandable. I have mine at 65 degrees and 65% humidity. However like i mentioned to you before you will see some spikes from time to time. I keep my office ac set on 73. My humi is set for 65 so the difference does create some problems during the summer months, my humidity climbs then i add beads to mantain what i want. However during the winter i keep the heater at around 65 degrees so when we are gone the office stays the same as the humi, and the humidity maintains itself at 65%.

Kind of confusing i guess, but the set and forget is actually set and watch and add beads as needed during various seasons. Ijust got off the phone with Bob Stabell last week concerned my control unit needed calibrating, the humidity got to 71% with no water in the tank. This happened after adding new stock a month ago. He agrees that various time and seasons react differently due to ambient temps. So watch and see what happens.

Hope this helped

[El Presidente]

As an aside I don't really believe there is a true "set and forget" system in existence. Humidity and temp control is obviously a big concern of our operations and we run high standard equipment. However from experience I still check readings daily. The climate control systems still need "tweaking" at different times of year when the rains or dry months arrive.

[Matthew]

» I take it that low temp and high humidity settings are

» just there as a warning bc nothing internal can be done to change those.

Correct. Just my two cents, but I'd be a lot more tolerant with temp and set it to 70 so that you are not wrecking havoc with humidity swings.

[Claudius]

» As an aside I don't really believe there is a true "set and forget" system

» in existence. Humidity and temp control is obviously a big concern of our

» operations and we run high standard equipment. However from experience I

» still check readings daily. The climate control systems still need

» "tweaking" at different times of year when the rains or dry months arrive.

From all the threads I've read about this, the problem seems to be the lack of heating and dehumidification in these cabinets. It's pretty obvious that if you want to be able to control the climate, you have to be able to dehumidify and heat in addition to humidify and cool in case the surrounding climate is too humid or too cold. There are, of course, ways of controlling such additionnal devices.

You can probably do without heating if the cabinet or walk-in is in your house. In my walk-in, I set the A/C to dehumidify to avoid high humidity in the summer. If my A/C didnt have dehumidification, I'd need a dehumidifier or my RH would be in the high 70s or 80s.

Yes, you can install a dehumidifier in a cigar cabinet and yes, you can electronically control it. Yes, that would be OTT and that's why people use beads. But the Chinese yoghurt pot thing with LCD they call "Set and Forget" is certainly not what the name suggests unless you live in a very dry climate.

[KB24]

Thanks for the responses. I got the temp set for 65 and it has maintained 65/66 since I set it that way a couple days ago. I have the humidity set also at 65 but am having a hard time getting it down from the 74 its at. I have beads but they have been drying out bc I added too much water too them. I will add them later today about 80% of them will be white and not clear and let's see what we get.

-Patrick

p.s. I thought for sure when I cooled the unit down it would drop the humidity but apparently not.

[Grasso]

» p.s. I thought for sure when I cooled the unit down it would drop the

» humidity but apparently not.

Cooling a closed volume of air will increase the relative humidity. Long story short: As temperature goes down - air can't hold as much moisture. This means the RH (how much moisture is in the air / how much moisture the air can hold) goes up.

I think people generally associate lower humidity with colder temperatures because in their homes in the winters - the opposite effect happens. Heaters increase the temperature of the air, which means that it has the potential to hold more moisture. Since no water vapor is added, the RH drops.

[KB24]

» » p.s. I thought for sure when I cooled the unit down it would drop the

» » humidity but apparently not.

»

» Cooling a closed volume of air will increase the relative humidity. Long

» story short: As temperature goes down - air can't hold as much moisture.

» This means the RH (how much moisture is in the air / how much moisture the

» air can hold) goes up.

»

» I think people generally associate lower humidity with colder temperatures

» because in their homes in the winters - the opposite effect happens.

» Heaters increase the temperature of the air, which means that it has the

» potential to hold more moisture. Since no water vapor is added, the RH

» drops.

Interesting point. I guess I was thinking about when I had a wine fridge as my humidor and I would plug it in in the summer time and the temp would drop down to like 50 deg or so and the humidity would then drop even lower. I just added the beads so we'll see what happens. Have a nice day everyone!

[Grasso]

» Interesting point. I guess I was thinking about when I had a wine fridge

» as my humidor and I would plug it in in the summer time and the temp would

» drop down to like 50 deg or so and the humidity would then drop even lower.

Ah, that's another story. I bet that wine fridge was one with a compressor - which removes moisture from the air as it cools it. :-)

[ucla695]

I have my hi/low temps set at 66/64 so that it cycles on when it hits 66 and then cools the cabinet until it reaches 64. As far as the humidity setting, I stopped using the reservoir/wick system years ago. I use beads now and find that they maintain the RH better during the warmer months, which is pretty much most of the year in SoCal. It’s easy during winter too. I just spray down the beads every month or so and I’m good. Very little fuss.

» » p.s. I thought for sure when I cooled the unit down it would drop the

» » humidity but apparently not.

»

» Cooling a closed volume of air will increase the relative humidity. Long

» story short: As temperature goes down - air can't hold as much moisture.

» This means the RH (how much moisture is in the air / how much moisture the

» air can hold) goes up.

I've experienced this too and have found it might take a week or two to equilibrate.

[KB24]

I have also unplugged my reservoir system. It was giving off too much unwanted humidity.

[KB24]

I actually went today to Lowe's and purchased some DampRid to help bring down the humidity. I am stable at 65deg but the humidity has been in the 74 range for 4 days now. We'll see how this DampRid works.

[cohiba]

Ok i was having this problem as mentioned above. Make sure your beads are dry....so they can absorb. Also its been 2 days since i raised the temp to 68 from 65 and the humidity has droped from 72 to 67 and falling more each day. Also i have added about 4 pounds of DRY beads, i normally keep 2-3 pounds in the humidor. Note i live in Santa Cruz, only during the winter do i need to add water to the reservoir.

Kinda strange but its what it is.