My new Wine-Cooler

[Chemyst]

I use 1.25 pounds of beads in my 28 bottle Vino.
I put 1/2 pound in a shallow tray at the top and another
1/2 pound in a shallowtray on the bottom. The extra 1/4 lb.
is in some tubes inside the 2 large drawers I got from ChasDen
on CigarAsylum.com .(he probably posts here, too, but I
don't know his moniker)

My rh is very stable @ 67%.
In the humid summer I don't have to add water, but in
the dry winter I add water as the hygrometer indicates a need;
maybe once every 10 days. The Vino door seals very well, and
I sealed the bottom drain hole with duct tape. I never get
condensation inside the unit. As a matter of fact, I unplug
the Vino in the winter, and it stays at room temp, which I
keep at 70F for that room.

Once you get it working, you'll love your Wine-idor!

Chemyst

 

[flamchop]

I have the exact same unit and I can tell you that using 1.5 lbs. of beads or *more* will help. Remember that it doesn't hurt to use more beads. As long as you are wetting a portion and keeping another portion dry... they won't "over" humidify.. just regulate better.

I use 1.5 lbs. of beads split up into .5 lb. sacks from Heartfelt. One on the bottom, on on the middle shelf, and one on the top shelf. I have it full of boxes, but also have two cedar singles trays and two cedar shelves.

There is a slight difference in RH from bottom to top, but nothing that bothers any of my smokes. I'd say it runs from about 64% to 68% depending.

When in doubt... add beads! And as others have said... empty boxes will help.

 

[wkoti]

Humidity falls, we started with beads on the bottom of our vinos and couldn't keep the RH stable. We put them on a shelf on the very top of the vino, the whole vino is stable and consistent... :whistling:

 

[investandprosper]

I noticed the same thing with my 18 bottle, I had the beads in the bottom and the RH would jump between 60-65%, but would slowly drop as the beads got too saturated from condensation (I had the condensation funneled to the bowl in the bottom). I just rearranged it, put the bowl at the top, with a tube in the middle and a bag at the bottom, along with beads in the little reservoir, to catch any condensation coming down. Hopefully it stabilizes, I have a pound and a half of beads.

One issue I noticed was that the two tubes of beads I had in the middle would always dry out, and the beads in the bottom would become too saturated ... I guess because of too much condensation?

 

[jepe]

I ordered 1 more pound of beads so now I have spread around the cooler 2 pounds of beads.I tried to rearrange the beads but no luck with raising the RH.
As my understanding,the problem with wine coolers is the way they work,
its hard to maintain a high RH when my outside RH is high.
They dry the air inside the cooler.

There's nothing I can do about it,I think 2 pounds of beads is enough.
The RH will stay at 58% max.

I need to respray my beads every day,they get dry so quickly.
The only solution I can think of is an active humidifier,still considering it...