Driving me crazy

[investandprosper]

I've researched, and experimented, but cannot figure this out for the life of me. In my 18 bottle Vinotemp, I keep some beads in a tupperware dish at the bottom with the condensation routed into it in order to recycle the moisture within the vino. The problem is that the condensation pools in that bottom dish. If I keep those beads lightly hydrated, the RH will sit between 60-61%. I want it slightly higher, so I added more beads in two 4oz Heartfelt tubes on the shelves. These beads dry out after 24 hours, which become condensation, which pools in the bottom dish.

I've tried more beads on each shelf, more beads in the bottom dish, beads in a dish at the top, everything I can think of, but I always have the same result of distilled water pooling in the bottom dish. I'm at my wit's end! It seems that the beads aren't re-absorbing the moisture, it just pools in the bottom. ???


Edit: I'm trying a dish with more surface area in the bottom to see if I get a different result.

 

[B.HOBS]

How often does your Vinotemp run and what are your ambient temps? The fan is moving the air around the cold block, which condenses the humid air and create the condensation drip. If your humi circulates way too often, there is a chance that it would not have the opportunity to maintain a balance between humidity/temp, because the air is being stripped of humidity before it can be redistributed into the air by the beads. Its sorta like trying to bail water out of a boat with a teaspoon, in theory.

I had the same issue as you with my original vinotemp. They say humidity rises, but in practice, this was not the case. Which explained the dryer upper part of the humidor. Cold air falls, so I think that negates the humid air rising for whatever reason. I installed an 80mm PC fan hardwired into the PCB in the back, as well as a Johnson Inline temp controller. This allowed me to up the baseline temps and tolerance for the unit to kick into circulation, as well as circulating the air within the humidor whenever it turned on. These mods made all the difference for me, so it could help for you!

Send me a PM if you want some info. Good luck!

 

[4cbln3]

When I did have my vinos running, I had the same problem John. Albeit, I had the compressor types and I ended up selling them on craigslust.
B. Hobs has the setup I did, triple PC fans on a timer and a Johnson temp controller placed in the middle of the vino. The Oust fans didn't move enough air.
Since we can't change the temp where we live, this is what I did. Get a rectangle tupperware dish about the width of the vino, place a plastic grid in the bottom, drop the bags of beads on top. Let the condensation drip through the beads to the container. When saturated, move the bottom beads to the top and the drier beads to the bottom. Rotate as necessary.

You can try removing the bagged beads on the bottom, just leave the container open to catch condensation and throw it away when necessary. The beads will absorb moisture since it's in the air anyways.
It makes for more maintenance on your part, but since you work from home, you can monitor more closely than I could.

pics.

Notice I started to get some mold on the beads, threw those away and started to leave the beads out of the tray, I believe impurities got in the water from constant box shuffling and such.

 

[investandprosper]

Thank you guys, so much. I have two oust fans in there, and they hardly move any air at all. I'll try your suggestions, thanks gents :thumbs:

 

[jepe]

I suffered from the same problem with my wine-cooler.
If the outside TEMP is high then the cooler will work non-stop
in order to try and reduce the TEMP inside it.
The cooler produce dry air and it causes the RH to drop,
at first it was stuck on 58%-59% in my cooler.

Right now,I have hydra humidifier +2 pounds of 65% beads in the cooler,I also installed a PC fan
which help circulate the RH.
I also stacked the cooler with more boxes,even empty ones.

As of now,the TEMP inside is 22C and the RH is 63%-65%.
That all I think I can do,its the way those coolers work,if the outside TEMP & RH is high you will have trouble in keeping a good RH inside.
I try not to worry about it too much,I believe that 60%+ is fine.

Hope that help a bit.

 

[grateful1]

I suffered from the same problem with my wine-cooler.
If the outside TEMP is high then the cooler will work non-stop
in order to try and reduce the TEMP inside it.
The cooler produce dry air and it causes the RH to drop,
at first it was stuck on 58%-59% in my cooler.

Right now,I have hydra humidifier +2 pounds of 65% beads in the cooler,I also installed a PC fan
which help circulate the RH.
I also stacked the cooler with more boxes,even empty ones.

As of now,the TEMP inside is 22C and the RH is 63%-65%.
That all I think I can do,its the way those coolers work,if the outside TEMP & RH is high you will have trouble in keeping a good RH inside.
I try not to worry about it too much,I believe that 60%+ is fine.

Hope that help a bit.

Ding ding ding!

That's exactly what it sounds like should be happening.

Is there anyway to change the set point with those units?

 

[jepe]

There's a minimum and maximum,its not very accurate.
The thermoelectric wine cooler can only try and reduce the temp by maximum of 13C from
the outside TEMP.
For example,my outside TEMP now is 30C ,I can set the cooler to 12C but it doesn't mean it
will get there,it will be stuck on 19C-21C and will work all the time to try and get to 12C.
Therefore,if it works all the time and bringing dry air inside you will have hard time to maintain a good RH level.

If the outside TEMP isn't high all the time,you can buy a timer which will turn on the cooler every couple of hours in order to keep a low TEMP.

Here,its really hot almost all year long so I have to turn the the cooler on all the time,if not the inside will rise up to 30C and we wouldn't want that,do we?