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Thermoelectric Wine Cooler-dor

Just got the Johnson Control unit.
Planning on using it with a small chest freezer, I saw here for under $200.00, instead of a wine cooler.
That way when I save up enough I can buy a nice temp contolled furniture unit, and use the freezer for food.
But I do have to buy a house first ! DAMN !
 
centurycigar said:
Just got the Johnson Control unit.
Planning on using it with a small chest freezer, I saw here for under $200.00, instead of a wine cooler.
That way when I save up enough I can buy a nice temp contolled furniture unit, and use the freezer for food.
But I do have to buy a house first ! DAMN !
Click to expand...

I'm also going the Johnson route, I can't get the wine cooler to get above 60 consistently nor do I want to try to tear the thing apart and fail. Plus, I think that the way that my particular cooler is designed is that there isn't really a thermostat so much as it's just 'min', 'med' and 'max' and what those temperatures end up being is relative to the outside environment. So, yeh, the Johnson unit.
 
Just picked up my Avanti 28 today. I cleaned it out and began preperations for cigars. I will post what temp and rh I am getting. I live in phoenix so hopefully I won't have to do too much to get 65 degrees temp.
 
azksig said:
Just picked up my Avanti 28 today. I cleaned it out and began preperations for cigars. I will post what temp and rh I am getting. I live in phoenix so hopefully I won't have to do too much to get 65 degrees temp.
Click to expand...

If your room ambient temperature is over 75, you shouldn't have a problem. When room is about 70, it stabilizes at 60, and each increase seems to increase the temperature in the unit.

One recommendation: get more beads than you think you need, the thermoelectric unit, when you set it to min, is pretty much on all the time, blowing in air from the outside (not a lot of air, but nonetheless). I have 3 4oz tubes of beads, a touch over the recommended, and when the thermoelectric is on during the day, I need to add a small bowl of distilled water to keep the thing level at 65%. I assume that by setting it to max (getting the Peltier surface much cooler, it doesn't increase fan speed or the duration that the fan is on) with a Johnson control unit, I'll be able to remove the water dish and it'll keep stable. Also, watch for sitting water on the bottom of the unit, it happens to mine a little, nothing to worry about, just keep your boxes elevated about 1cm.
 
ThankYouForNotSmoking said:
azksig said:
Just picked up my Avanti 28 today. I cleaned it out and began preperations for cigars. I will post what temp and rh I am getting. I live in phoenix so hopefully I won't have to do too much to get 65 degrees temp.
Click to expand...

If your room ambient temperature is over 75, you shouldn't have a problem. When room is about 70, it stabilizes at 60, and each increase seems to increase the temperature in the unit.

One recommendation: get more beads than you think you need, the thermoelectric unit, when you set it to min, is pretty much on all the time, blowing in air from the outside (not a lot of air, but nonetheless). I have 3 4oz tubes of beads, a touch over the recommended, and when the thermoelectric is on during the day, I need to add a small bowl of distilled water to keep the thing level at 65%. I assume that by setting it to max (getting the Peltier surface much cooler, it doesn't increase fan speed or the duration that the fan is on) with a Johnson control unit, I'll be able to remove the water dish and it'll keep stable. Also, watch for sitting water on the bottom of the unit, it happens to mine a little, nothing to worry about, just keep your boxes elevated about 1cm.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip. Depending on what setting I use I can keep it right on 66 or 68 degrees, which is perfect. I just put my beads in a couple of hours ago and right now it's at 56 and climbing. I almost ordered a controller since my temp was at 61.9 but then I remembered I had it on the high setting like the book suggested to start with. Thank god...saved myself some $$. I think I will add some more beads like you mentioned. As of now it looks like it's going to work out great!
 
So my unit came a few days ago, but the problem I'm currently having is that for some reason, the humidity level is going a little berserk. It fluctuates down to 55% and up to 68% with 65% beads and a small dish of distilled water in it. The unit turns on and off fairly often, which I expected, but what is truly odd for me, is that when I had the unit running continuously, it stabilized at 65% - running all the time, now, with it turning on and off it goes down to 55%. The Avanti unit apparently draws air in from outside to cooler, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, it seems for stability sakes the unit would want to recirculate already cooler air from the inside of the unit. I'm going to try to play around a bit more to stabilize the humidity a little more, and I'm considering ordering more beads to just buffer a bit better. Any recommendations?
 
When my unit was empty, I remember having issues with the RH as well but as I began filling up the unit the RH stabalized. Now that it's jamm packed with boxes the RH doesn't vary more than +/- 1% in a month.

:cool:
 
NorCalCigarLover said:
When my unit was empty, I remember having issues with the RH as well but as I began filling up the unit the RH stabalized. Now that it's jamm packed with boxes the RH doesn't vary more than +/- 1% in a month.

:cool:
Click to expand...

Just the answer I was looking for, also, you might be able to answer this:

The control unit comes with a long copper capillary tube, can this be stretched out outside the fridge and not affect its reading? The instructions that come with that thing don't mention anything to say 'no' but I thought that having too much exposed to external air would make the temperature readings funny. How do you have your unit set up?

And for those wondering, for the time being, I put some of those Fuente/Boveda humipacks in each box to help stabilize the individual boxes.
 
ThankYouForNotSmoking said:
NorCalCigarLover said:
When my unit was empty, I remember having issues with the RH as well but as I began filling up the unit the RH stabalized. Now that it's jamm packed with boxes the RH doesn't vary more than +/- 1% in a month.

:cool:
Click to expand...

Just the answer I was looking for, also, you might be able to answer this:

The control unit comes with a long copper capillary tube, can this be stretched out outside the fridge and not affect its reading? The instructions that come with that thing don't mention anything to say 'no' but I thought that having too much exposed to external air would make the temperature readings funny. How do you have your unit set up?

And for those wondering, for the time being, I put some of those Fuente/Boveda humipacks in each box to help stabilize the individual boxes.
Click to expand...

The copper wire should not affect the temperature reading. Glancing at the spec sheet it works solely by the expansion of a gas in the probe whick is somehow relayed down the wire.
If needed I will examine the literature later for you.

-Rob
 
ThankYouForNotSmoking said:
NorCalCigarLover said:
I don't have any copper tubing to deal with as I'm not using the control unit.

:cool:
Click to expand...

I'm not quite as brave as you are...

Any other thermostat hacking coward know the answer to the copper tubing question?
Click to expand...

I'm an Electrician, I can tell you the sensor is in the bulb of the thermocouple. IOW's, having all the copper inside the or outside the cooler shouldn't make a difference. However, there is going to be a +/- a % of the thermocouple, you have to take that factor into consideration when you set your RH point.. If you set your RH at 65 % and the control has a 5% +/- using 5% on both ( -61.75% ) - (+ 68.25%) this is the fluctuation. Hopefully Vipers beads will help keep the swing under control..
In your instructions it should tell you how accurate the thermostat is.
I hope I understood your question correctly and I didn't confuse you anymore?
Frank
 
Fpkjr said:
ThankYouForNotSmoking said:
NorCalCigarLover said:
I don't have any copper tubing to deal with as I'm not using the control unit.

:cool:
Click to expand...

I'm not quite as brave as you are...

Any other thermostat hacking coward know the answer to the copper tubing question?
Click to expand...

I'm an Electrician, I can tell you the sensor is in the bulb of the thermocouple. IOW's, having all the copper inside the or outside the cooler shouldn't make a difference. However, there is going to be a +/- a % of the thermocouple, you have to take that factor into consideration when you set your RH point.. If you set your RH at 65 % and the control has a 5% +/- using 5% on both ( -61.75% ) - (+ 68.25%) this is the fluctuation. Hopefully Vipers beads will help keep the swing under control..
In your instructions it should tell you how accurate the thermostat is.
I hope I understood your question correctly and I didn't confuse you anymore?
Frank
Click to expand...

All is good, thanks. I think it just needs to fill up to balance out, like NorCalCigar said, kind of like a desktop humidor does.
 
After I filled mine up with boxes it has stabalized at 68 degrees temp/65 degrees hum. This is without any controls so I am very happy.
 
azksig said:
After I filled mine up with boxes it has stabalized at 68 degrees temp/65 degrees hum. This is without any controls so I am very happy.
Click to expand...

That is pretty amazing, without controls mine would stabilize at around 60-62 degrees F - mine hasn't really stabilized yet but it's getting a lot better at about 3/4 full (how I wish all those boxes were full of cigars).
 
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