Seemingly circulation issues with Whynter CHC-251S

[BasicTek]

Hi all,

I very new to the game and I've gone through quite a bit of "learning experiences" getting and storing cigars. Long story short by the end of the year I will need to store about 1000 cigars. About 400 of them (mostly Dominican) will be in 2 desktop humidors and tuppador, they seem fine with boveda 69% holding humidity around 67/68%

I'm having issues with my new coolador (I have 2 but the 2nd is still seasoning) Ultimately these will be storing all my CC's and higher end NC's.

The 251 in this post was seasoned with boveda 84, and was holding humidity fine. I then added some cedar trays to help organize the incoming volume (by default the whynter comes with 2 drawers and 4 shelves) and that's when the troubles began. I had to season the trays, and then since they've been in the whynter I've been having humidity and temp issues. I currently have 250-300 cigars in there now, both drawers and all trays are pretty much full (stacked two high). I have 18 boveda 65% packets spread throughout the coolador. Using a variety of calibrated hydrometers/thermostats I see the temp vary from 65 - 72 and humidity vary by 58% to 65%. It seems that even though the circulation fan is running it's not moving the air around enough. I would say the unit is currently filled to 70%- 75% capacity which I read was optimum with humidors. I will be putting the other one in action but have 250 cigars on the way so it will be full too pretty quick.

Has anyone else noticed this type of circulation issue, I'm wondering if any of these things might help.

• possibly drilling holes in the cedar (particularly my new trays as they have slots but they are small) to provide more breathing would help?
• Could the 18 boveda packets be blocking the air passage ways? I'm not sure the best way to disperse these? I currently have them spread out 2-3 per shelf. Boveda's are new and plenty full of moisture.
• would hf beads be any better? How could I disperse them any more effectively?

Does anyone else have any experience using these things? I'm pretty sure the unit is functioning properly as any hydrometer/thermostat places near the fan shows the temp and humidity exactly where it was before I filled it up. I can upload pics if that helps. I just reorganized it last night and will see what affect it has, currently 4 hydrometers and 3 thermostats in there.

Thanks in advance for any help

 

[jvd1230]

Before you put the cigars in, did you season the trays as you added them to the coolidor?

 

[BasicTek]

Before you put the cigars in, did you season the trays as you added them to the coolidor?

Originally no, but I saw that pull down the humidity and took them all out and seasoned them in a large ziplock baggy with the boveda 84's. That seemed to be ok (humidity was 62-64) until I started filling them up

 

[jvd1230]

Could you post a picture of the shelves/trays bottoms so I can see how big the slats are?

 

[Tacket]

I run mine unplugged. In my case the fans kept things less consistent. If you’ve got Boveda spread everywhere, seems like the need for air circulation, as it pertains to RH, is not necessary.

I use three 320g 58% packs and currently read 60% at the bottom and 62% at the top.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BasicTek]

Could you post a picture of the shelves/trays bottoms so I can see how big the slats are?

I can get a pic at lunch but here's the link to what I bought


I'm pretty sure they are clogging up the air passages at least somewhat.

@Tacket My indoor temp is 75 - 77 depending on what room, this is constant in FL with central AC, so I really need the coolidor to cool.

 

[jvd1230]

Making more holes couldnt hurt, thats not quite as many as I would have. How much space is there between drawers?

 

[jasonatjl]

I also run mine unplugged, stays around 65-70 for the most part all year.

If it was me, I’d pull out all of the cigars, put them in a tupperdore, season the wino to your desired RH with the trays installed, and then slowly add smokes (50 or so at a time) and let the wino adjust. Adding 200-300 smokes can definitely throw your RH.

 

[jvd1230]

For me when I added my cigars to my CC300 I added the singles first in the drawer like 20 sticks at a time. Boxes last since I figured the singles would have the most impact.

 

[Boudie]

Are you only using the cooling fan that came with the unit or did you add additional fans? Anything you add (cigars, trays etc) to the unit will affect humidity levels for possibly weeks at a time, temperature should just be a temporary thing. Just for clarification you are saying the temperature of the unit varies that greatly, not the temperature between the top and bottom inside the unit.

If your entire unit is that unstable make sure it's not sitting in front of a sunny window or heating vent. Try throwing a blanket over the unit, making sure not to cover the heat exhaust ports, just to see if it's an insulation problem.

If you have that great a variance inside the unit you need to add internal fans and open up a pathway for the air to circulate through the unit.

 

[BasicTek]

I didn't add the 300 at once it's been over maybe 3-4 weeks. I tried cutting slots or drilling holes in the cedar trays and just destroyed 2 trays so I only have 3 left. guess that solves part of the problem lol.

There's no sun or anything outside affecting the unit. As you can see below in this particular shot the 2 top hydrometers are showing 70% humidity (since the reorg) and the top thermometer is showing 65 while the bottom 2 are showing 70 degrees and 60 humidity. Those two are only a shelf apart and if exchanged they change to the opposite reading. After breaking the 2 trays and reorging it again the humidity seems to be between 62% and 66% now and temp between 66 and 68

Probably need to look at some trays that aren't as intrusive to the circulation, maybe even the factory drawers even though they are charging $30 a piece for em.

 

[BasicTek]

After a couple more reorgs I have got the humidity between 62% and 66% for every shelf except the bottom. The temp is between 66 and 68 except the bottom. On the bottom it's 70 and 59% (with 3 65% boveda's down there currently) and about 50 cigars in a tray. I ordered a cheap battery fan I should have tomorrow to see if that helps.

Whynter support says to remove some cigars and trays and test if that fixes it. They also recommend leaving the cigars bare on the shelves to promote better circulation. I'm a little perturbed they advertise this as a 400 storage and that's their solution when I don't even have 300 (mostly corona sized) in there currently.

I've moved everything around several times and the biggest problem is always the bottom so I don't think it's the stock so much as a circulation issue. I really don't understand why adding more boveda's to the bottom doesn't affect it either...

I've ordered some of the factory drawers because I can store about 120 - 150 corona sized cigars in each of them

 

[redneck_toy]

Mine's unplugged as well. Have a dozen 60gram 65% boveda in there, and its rock solid. 64-67%
My $.02, don't overthink it. Bovedas do exactly what they say they'll do (RH wise) sounds like you have enough in there to work correctly. System needs to balance out. I'd load it up, and check the bovedas every so often. Cigars are way more resilient than a lot of people believe. Besides, if they are ROTT, guaranteed they're too wet anyway.
FWIW, I havent calibrated my hygro in a long time. No need to with Bovedas. They're that dependable, IMO.

 

[BasicTek]

After the reorg I'm seeing between 60%-65% humidity consistently , most temps are at 67-68, 70 on the bottom. I bought a cheap battery fan to see if moving the air around makes a difference. It actually may work out in my favor that I can move drawers around to the more/less humidification areas depending on the cigars in that drawer (for instance newer cigars that appear to moist would be better at 60 anyway. The good part is almost everything I have been smoking out of this humidor is excellent so despite the varied readings it's ultimately doing what it's supposed to.

I also brought my 2nd coolador online (after 1 week seasoning 84 and 1 week at 65%), this is the smaller 250 count one, and I'm seeing the same things where the bottom shelf seems to run slightly lower humidity and higher temp, and that's empty with 8 boveda 65%, so I'm guessing this is just a dynamic of a cooler. As long as the humidity stays over 60 I guess it should be fine, especially since these will primarily house CC's

FYI whynter support told me that the 400 quantity they advertise is based on 20 ring size, so basically I was told I can store 400 cigarettes or small cigarillos but not 400 corona sized cigars.

 

[Boudie]

It is a cigar cooler and they are using cigarette sizes to estimate storage capacity? Not really a lie but not faithfully representing the product for sure.

 

[BasicTek]

It is a cigar cooler and they are using cigarette sizes to estimate storage capacity? Not really a lie but not faithfully representing the product for sure.

I looked through the manual and on a few sites where the cooler is sold and couldn't find anything that showed 20 ring size, I think the support rep was "blowing smoke" pardon the pun, to make excuses as to why the unit isn't circulating properly.

I do think the cheap trays I bought are blocking a lot of air, I have the actual drawers on order. I think as they fit better they will improve things too, and like my last post it's not that bad 60-65...

 

[Boudie]

You can try to respace the slats in the old trays, especially if you just plan on tossing them. Nothing to lose