wineador suggestions/advice

Brothers I'm looking for some thoughts on which wine cooler I should purchase. Some insight: I'm not going to be using the cooling aspect, its going in my basement which sits at 65 to 70 year round. Id like an 18 plus bottle capacity, definitely want a glass or see thru door. Definitely am LED light, though I can add more electronics myself if need be. I was thinking of trying to find a broken cooling unit one online, but I'm wary of craigslist in general. I'll be using litter pearls and wiring in 1 to 2 fans myself, so since I won't be running the thermo electric cooler condensation is not an issue, and truthfully I could even buy a compressor type unit. I just want the cheapest option, since I won't be using it for cooling. I already have a coolidor, I def want to go wine fridge as I think they look awesome. I'll be storing all boxes, so not many singles if they are they will be in boxes. I'll likely just be stacking boxes tetris style, but keeping it neat for air flow and organization, so I won't be building shelves likely. Anyone have any thoughts on the cheapest model I should look into? Thanks in advance, all ideas and suggestions appreciated.

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Gray4lines

Hmmmm.. Maybe a scratch and dent? Id check lowes/home depot for em. I have heard some horror stories on getting some to hold humidity, however I have no first hand experience. Seems like thered be a cheaper options out there for just "the look" since you dont need the temp/cooling feature. I was under the impression that the temp control was the big selling point of a wineador.

Vision

I have a Vinotemp 28 with about 3.5 LBS of kitty litter and about 8 or 9 Boveda to even out the RH. It stays at 69-71RH all day. I dont have my cedar shelves in as of yet... but once they are in, seasoned and filled it will hold RH longer and even more steady. I havent had to turn it on as of yet but research says it will hold at 67-69Deg with its max temp at 65. I love it and won't ever change.

blurr

I was looking at some of the 28 bottle sizes, man they get expensive. Found some lower quality, with bad reviews on the thermo unit lifespan only, but I'm not using that so no worries there. I'm thinking I'm going new air 28 or something similar. That plus an extra hygro combined can ship for like 230. Thinking this is what I'll go with. I'll be sure to post pics once all my Cubans and NCs are loaded in, probably take a few weeks to get everything going. IM not at all worried about humidity, as I use coolers that size with fans and litter pearls and they're flawless at 67 rh all day every day. This sealed should be the same. can't wait to get this built.

90+ Irishman

I just picked up this one myself last night and will be arriving Wednesday... http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001DEQJXE/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1366039475&sr=8-1&pi=SL75

catfishbluezz

My suggestion? 18 will be too small, save your money. 28 is a min really, mine is 24 and way to small. I could hold more in a 70qt cooler easy. There will be dead space and you need room for circulation. My guess is an 18 may hold 6-8 boxes. Mine holds 10-12 really...and fluctuates to much if its packed. Personally, I bought from Costco and will return it later this ear and get a 36-50 and build shelves. Shelves allow much greater use if space and humidification.

catfishbluezz

Oh...and humidification is much different then coolers imo... Took me a while to get it solid man. Circulation is key...

jliu

what is your budget? contingent upon that, I'm sure we can give you the best idea of what to aim for. I have a 28 bottle and have about 17 boxes in there right now. 17 boxes of 10 count boxes and 25 count boxes (not big cigars though)

blurr

I would like to keep it under 300 just for the unit, but it all depends on if thats even possible. I guess the largest size I can find and still keep it around $300-500

blurr

Also I see Home Depot has some listed online. I may look there since I have a home depot line of credit, that way I can splurge a little more than normal. They have a 35 bottle Danby there, hoping they can do ship to store so it can ship to my local Home Depot.

Lee.mcglynn

As the fish said go big!! I screwed up the first time and got a 16 bottle...way too small!! I got lucky and stumbled on a 36 bottle for free and it's ok for now but still have coolers to manage over flow lol

jliu

blurr:
Also I see Home Depot has some listed online. I may look there since I have a home depot line of credit, that way I can splurge a little more than normal. They have a 35 bottle Danby there, hoping they can do ship to store so it can ship to my local Home Depot.

You won't get much with 300 bucks unforutnately. My Vinotemp costed me mid 400s. I say go with your line of credit if you can and get something at a bare minimum 28 bottle unit. If you want to ensure all your cigars get the best environment, go even bigger than that.

blurr

I'm looking at a Danby, 35 bottle unit at HD for like $230. Free shipping so it seems extremely low cost. Thats a pretty good size for my needs. It may fill eventually, in fact i probably could fill it, but thats enough to keep me happy for awhile. Maybe...

ehehat

Is there a difference between a wine chiller and regular small refrigerator for humidor conversion? It seems a fridge could be had for much cheaper. What would the cubic ft capacity be for, say, a 36 bottle wine chiller? EDIT: seems I've answered my own question. These refrigerators have a cap temp of 50 degrees. Way too cold to store cigars...right?

catfishbluezz

Eric, those are compressor cooled, which is not recommended. However, I have two buddies that use compressor wineador but use electronic humidifiers in them to hold rh. They actually have the best setups IMO, but it takes a bit more work and funds.

blurr

Well I put in my order, decided on a 35 bottle wine cooler. I think it was 3 days to process about 3 to 5 to ship, so hopefully within 2 weeks I'll have received it, have it cleaned and de-scented, and have any updates/mods finished and ready for some cedar. I'll keep everyone updated with pics.

Gray4lines

Looking forward to how it turns out!

catfishbluezz

Grab some KL as well and look for recepticals once you get it.

blurr

catfishbluezz:
Grab some KL as well and look for recepticals once you get it.

Already switched to litter pearls 6 months ago. I have like 5 pounds left, I'll just get more if needed and I'll never switch back to expensive beads. My beads were fine, just bought 1 pound for like 25 bucks, so after 3 years when I needed more I grabbed like 6 pounds of litter for like 10 bucks. Receptacles I already have a few ideas. Just deciding what kind of wiring and electrical mods I want. Probably just have to decide when it gets here.

catfishbluezz

Honestly, I'd look for a couple fans. Circulation is the biggest pain in the rear, and you could easily cut the plugs off, run them through the runoff, the put the plugs back on and plug them into a timer on the wall. That's what i will do when I go bigger. I've also found I got more stability with KL in the middle and higher, not on the bottom. I bought little hooks and hang the beads in nylons, plus have them on a shelf.

blurr

catfishbluezz:
Honestly, I'd look for a couple fans. Circulation is the biggest pain in the rear, and you could easily cut the plugs off, run them through the runoff, the put the plugs back on and plug them into a timer on the wall. That's what i will do when I go bigger. I've also found I got more stability with KL in the middle and higher, not on the bottom. I bought little hooks and hang the beads in nylons, plus have them on a shelf.

thanks for the advice. I'm planning on getting into the wiring and electronics to be able to set the fans to run a few times per day, with the aid of a digital timer on the fan. I'm installing a small computer fan also, Voltage and current will be determined after testing. Its a condenser unit so I'll be disabling the condenser allowing lights and my fan units to run on the 120 wall outlet with adapters. Lots of fun work in the future, I'll be sure to include pics and my work progress. Hey 4 years in electro mechanical engineering at Penn state should be worth something right? Nah I can handle this, and I'll love the work.

blurr

Well when my son and I arrived home after work we had a huge box on our back porch...sweet. ill get some starting pics up tonight. Trying to keep a 2.5 yr old out and occupied means I barely got it opened much less start on mods etc. Like it for the cheap price though. Lots of room and lots of work to get it exactly how I want it. Ill try to keep an ongoing update of my steps etc. Contacted forrest about 3 cedar shelves so 1st I need to get dimensions to him and an order placed. Racks are flat and will do for now, only 2 or so required for me to last until my cedar gets here. Here's the starting pic.

Gray4lines

blurr:
Well when my son and I arrived home after work we had a huge box on our back porch...sweet. ill get some starting pics up tonight. Trying to keep a 2.5 yr old out and occupied means I barely got it opened much less start on mods etc. Like it for the cheap price though. Lots of room and lots of work to get it exactly how I want it. Ill try to keep an ongoing update of my steps etc. Contacted forrest about 3 cedar shelves so 1st I need to get dimensions to him and an order placed. Racks are flat and will do for now, only 2 or so required for me to last until my cedar gets here. Here's the starting pic.

Looks nice! can't wait to see it full

blurr

Finally had a few hours to clean everything thoroughly with light dish soap, and loaded up a ton of newspaper and a bin of baking soda to remove smells. Didn't have much plastic smell anyways, think this had been sitting in the home depot warehouse for awhile. Took an hour to understand the wiring, what's controlling what and I'm set now. I can easily wire in my fan assembly and run a timer with a few 5 minute cycles per day. Compressor is disabled for now, but I've researched and realized I can overcome condensation if I ever need to use the cooling aspect by cycling short compressor times with an electronic temperature controller and a well placed thermocouple, along with a cooling sink covering the extreme temperature changes the evaporator causes. Why people go thermoelectric I don't know, maybe its easier, but the price for condenser units is unbelievable. More pics when my build continues and my shelves arrive.

blurr

Part 1 of order, Amazon split this order in 2 shipments, go figure. Leviton digital timer to be used to control the computer fans. Or control any 120 AC device I want to plug into it. You can use this to control a power strip for example. Any devices plugged into that would be on and off at whatever intervals you choose. It allows up to 50 on/off events per day, can be set weekdays, weekend, daily, backup battery in case of power loss to preserve settings and program info. These are available with 2 outlets for a bit more cash, but 1 was good for my needs. For now I'll just be plugging in the scavenged 12 volt adapter I found from an old device, (be sure to verify the rated output current is safe for your device) which I'm going to use to power the computer fans, or maybe hit radio shack for a 12vdc power supply adapter (120ac to 12 volt dc) to make things look clean. Cost for the Leviton digital timer was $20, fans were like $6 for a 2~pack.

catfishbluezz

i highly recommend going with an electronic humidifier with compressor units. Most believe it will dry out your cigars. I have two buddies with compressor units, and the fluctuation was a big deal, from 40-70 in no time. By adding in electronic humidifiers with 2lbs beads, the recovery time was much better with less fluctuation.

blurr

Yeah if I ever decide to turn on the cooling or compressor, I'm pretty certain I would go with an active/passive system. Meaning a hydra or oasis combined with litter pearls on every shelf. Plus fans. For now its just litter pearls and fans, and it'll be staying in a 68deg room year round. But who knows I could buy a new house or whatever, so I have the option of using it. Plus compressor units don't crap out every 12 to 24 months like thermo. Which is easy enough to replace a thermoelectric cooling unit but most people throw them out without realizing it could be fixed.

catfishbluezz

blurr:
Yeah if I ever decide to turn on the cooling or compressor, I'm pretty certain I would go with an active/passive system. Meaning a hydra or oasis combined with litter pearls on every shelf. Plus fans. For now its just litter pearls and fans, and it'll be staying in a 68deg room year round. But who knows I could buy a new house or whatever, so I have the option of using it. Plus compressor units don't crap out every 12 to 24 months like thermo. Which is easy enough to replace a thermoelectric cooling unit but most people throw them out without realizing it could be fixed.

Precisely why I bought from Costco, so I could return it lifetime. Thermo's are notorious for going out. I will probably go compressor with my next, knowing it will take a $150 investment in the electronic unit.

blurr

Yeah my thoughts exactly. These units aren't that hard to figure out, with a little techno know how and some understanding of thermodynamics you get much more room and space for boxes for much less cost. A thermo unit this size would have easily cost me $400 to $500, and the thermo cooling unit would need to be replaced in 3 years max. Most likely 2 years max. This makes me think college dorm mini fridges, which are super cheap for the cubic storage area. No snazzy glass see thru door, but tons of room and dirty cheap prices. Or a used broken down full size fridge, for huge collections, replace the compressor or evaporator or condensor for a hundred bucks or less, maximum storage. Just a thought. more updates and filing this pics to come next week.

blurr

My fans came today. Have to build a fixture to mount them to, and get some resistors to split the current because these are very low current. I think 70mA. So I'll just run a resistor in parallel to the fans to split the largest chunk of current thru the resistor, keeping the tiny 70 mA thru the fans (they're wired in parallel to each other, in case one breaks the other keeps running as opposed to series wiring where t hey both go down if 1 breaks).

blurr

These are all being wired out thru the drain plug. One other plus on condensor units, the drain plug dripsdrips straight to a removable drip plate, just sitting above the compressor outside rear. Guess the simple logic is the heat from the compressor will warm up the drop plate and evaporate the condensation drips into the outside ambient environment. Taking that plate off, wiring my electronics thru the drain hole, then sealing the wires and hole with some silicone on each end.