Here I come Wine Cooler-ador!

[Jwrussell]

Hehehehehehehehheheh...HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH....HEHEHEHEHEH!!!

Best approximation of evil laugh I can do. ; )

Floated the idea by the wife today and got the go ahead to ask for one for birthday or Christmas, which really means I got the permission to get one and actually have it in the house somewhere. LOL

Any recommendations of which to go for or of where to buy? The ones I just saw at target were Haier (sp?) 20 bottle and noted thermo-electric cooling along with up to 65 degrees on the temp control. Seems just about perfect. Approx. $200...

Thoughts and suggestions? I've got plenty of time before this is a go, but it can't hurt doing my research early. : )

 

[Wasch_24]

Totally awesome bro!

That should work out nicely in the steamy Florida summer.

 

[RonC]

I would say use some Heartfelt beads. Depending on how much it runs, a circulation fan will help with the accumulation of condensation on rear wall.

 

[Jwrussell]

As I understand it you can go crazy with it or you can keep it pretty simple. Simple=turn it on, throw in the cigars, throw in a bunch of beads, and have fun. Or you can work out some cedar shelves, cedar lining, fans, all kinds of stuff.

Anyone here have one running? Question, Any reason you wouldn't want to keep a top shelf intact for wine (other than the space issue of course LOL)?

 

[solomr2]

JW - welcome to the club.

Forget the top shelf for wine idea; you'll fill the sucker up with smokes in no time - trust me on that one.

I've done a lot of write-ups on my Haier conversion. I would direct you over to the CW Cedar room first and do a search on Haier and Solomr2, you should be able to find wiring details for a fan, and other useful info for converting the Haier to a suitable environment for cigars.

The short and skinny is you will need to ditch the contoured shelves and get plain old stainless or vinyl coated shelves for from Home Depot. Next, get a fan in there to move the air around and equalize the temps and RH - I used a Radio Shack 32CFM computer fan, AC (no need to transformer). Beads are helpful too, but since you're in a hot climate you will need more than just beads for the summer time heat. The trouble is the heat causes the fridge to run frequently, which tends to take a lot of RH out of the air. I rigged a container so the condesnation dripping off the cooling element gets trapped inside the fridge, and then when it collects more than an inch of water it automatically overflows out to the drip tray. I also use some polymer crystals spread out throughout the interior in tupperware. The polymer crystals hold a lot of water, and they work very well, much faster than the beads and also much cheaper.

If you want to get fancy you can try lining the sides, ceiling and floor with cedar. I think it helps a little to counteract the RH bounce. Plan on keeping your cigars in their boxes, closed, this too helps even out the RH.

Good luck.

 

[Jwrussell]

Had a feeling I'd get a response from you! I've read your writeups before but will have to revisit them. Unfortunately, not having the top rack for wine is probably not an option as that was the first question the wife asked. "Well, can we at least keep one shelf for wine?" Of course, since neither of us drink wine much at all it may not take too long for that top shelf to simply disappear. :twisted:

I had figured I'd need something else in there besides the beads for humidification, just that they would help to even things out. Those polymer crystals are probably a great idea, cheap too (if you go the Waly-World route).

I hate playing with electricity so I hope the wiring thing is not to big of a deal. Any thing important on where you put the fan? Top facing down, vice versa, whatever?

With as much time as I have before this happens, I may get in touch with Viper or one of the other handy folks around and see if they can fashion some shelves of cedar for me...not going to go the trouble of lining though.

 

[solomr2]

I have my fan laying flat on the middle shelf, blowing upward, next to the sidewall, about half-way between front and back. You will need to experiment with position a bit. If you put it too close to the coils you get a much more magnified RH affect, both up and down. Wiring is easy, but you do need to splice the wire into the electral somewhere, so you just have to be a little careful not to short anything out.