Wineador - top level humidity issues. Everywhere else - fine.

[Lucifer Morningstar]

Hey folks.

My wineador setup:
Cybercool 28 bottle TE.
3-4 pounds of Heartfelt 65% beads.
4 120mm fans down the bottom.
4 120mm fans up the top.
The fans run for 15 minutes on, 30 minutes off. Also tried 15 minutes every hour. No matter how often they run - top remains fairly stable.
2 SC shelves & 2 SC drawers by John.
About 6 packs of Boveda 65%.
Cigar Oasis Plus. Removed foam for Beads.
1 pound of kitty litter up the back of the cooler over the drain hole.

The Wine cooler is controlled using an Inkbird, it turns the unit on/off, it also turns the humidifier on/off. Beads alone, unfortunately, don't keep the humidity up - hence the Oasis. Beads are more for catching excess and as a help to the Oasis unit.
It's set to 19°C and 65% RH.
The bottom, middle, and upper middle are all in the 60 - 67% range - which is fine.
The top, however, is always 70% or more. I'm not a fan of that.

I've tried re-arranging beads, hoping dry beads could get the humidity up the top down. Tried putting all beads in 1 drawer. That doesn't work. So I'm at a loss. I did wait 2 days for any beads to reach any sort of equilibrium. I didn't expect instant results - hence I waited.
It's only the top level. Everything else is fine for me. I know 70% RH isn't harmful, but I'd like it down to 65%. The beads that aren't dry are fine - they don't need spritzing very often.
The shelves/drawers are well prepared. They were wiped down multiple times. I had Boveda seasoning packs with them for well over 4 months. So that's out of the picture.
I also had the shelves/drawers sitting for about 2 weeks with nothing, so they're not releasing humidity, either.

Basically, the top is too high for my liking. Every other level is fine.

At a loss for what to do.
Does anyone have any ideas?

Links to my accessories:
120mm fans (generic)
Kitty litter - generic silica, unscented.
Cybercool 28 bottle.
Cigar Oasis Plus
Beads - Heartfelt. 65%
Shelves
Inkbird IHC-230

 

[Boudie]

I find in my NewAir that I need to pull the shelves away from the back of the unit a bit to get decent circulation. I use slot fans attached with Velcro to the back of the unit. This helps but for some reason I have yet to see a perfectly consistent humidity range across the entire unit. You may want to rotate the shelves once in a while

Good luck

 

[Lok17]

With all those fans, i cant help but wonder if one or more of your hydrometers is off/needs to be calibrated

 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

I find in my NewAir that I need to pull the shelves away from the back of the unit a bit to get decent circulation. I use slot fans attached with Velcro to the back of the unit. This helps but for some reason I have yet to see a perfectly consistent humidity range across the entire unit. You may want to rotate the shelves once in a while

Good luck

The shelves in my cooler don't come near enough to the back. I actually tried rotating shelves and oddly enough, it didn't work either.
I'll see what I can do about some fans on the back wall.

With all those fans, i cant help but wonder if one or more of your hydrometers is off/needs to be calibrated

I put a freshly calibrated hygrometer in the same place and it reports the same (plus or minus 1).
All hygrometers were calibrated in March this year. With fresh batteries too.

The wineador itself is pretty empty, I only have the 1 box in there at present. The rest is just beads.
Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/woQgs

Thanks for the help thus far.

 

[Boudie]

I think you have a bigger "not enough cigars" problem then you do a humidity problem!! Fill that baby up!!

 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

I think you have a bigger "not enough cigars" problem then you do a humidity problem!! Fill that baby up!!

Taxes in Australia are so high. But I'm getting there, slowly but surely.

 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

I think ducting is going to be needed.
I'll have one duct moving air from the bottom to the top, and one duct from bottom to the middle.
This should be made out of PVC Piping. I'll have to go to a hardware store and I'll figure something out.

I've got some 80mm fans coming. It seems there's bugger all air being moved from the bottom to the shelves. So hoping the fans at the back (bottom) with assistance of the 80mm fans can at least move some air around.

Will see what can be done.

 

[Burnaz16]

I think you have a bigger "not enough cigars" problem then you do a humidity problem!! Fill that baby up!!

I agree, you may be better off adding in some cigars and seeing how things stabilize afterward. Is the box you have in their sealed (i.e., in shrink wrap), unwrapped, or an open box? Where is the box located? If down below or in the middle, try putting it up top, or taking the cigars out and placing them on the top shelf and then filling in the rest with cigars

 

[Boudie]

You may want to also check how your temperature changes when the fans are running,

 

[irratebass]

This is just an FYI, now a lot of people have problems with this guy, so hold your judgment, but listen to what he says regarding different humidity fluctuations. I have "the tower of power" and its not consistent from top to bottom either, so I have just started rotating shelves.


Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[bostoneo]

With my 28 bottle winador I put all the humidifying agents on the top rack. I use a few of those crystal jars I had from before the wineador and some boveda throughout (69% tho). Since humid air tends to be heavier and its on the top, get no issues with flux in RH. Did you plug any drain holes? I know my NewAir had one in the back center that I just put tape over to prevent it from leaking RH and it stayed rock solid after that.

 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

I agree, you may be better off adding in some cigars and seeing how things stabilize afterward. Is the box you have in their sealed (i.e., in shrink wrap), unwrapped, or an open box? Where is the box located? If down below or in the middle, try putting it up top, or taking the cigars out and placing them on the top shelf and then filling in the rest with cigars

Probably a good idea. Alas, my budget for hobbies is not thousands per month. Literally would need $800/mo for 1 box a month.

You may want to also check how your temperature changes when the fans are running,

It does not rise much (under 1°C). The fans are really low power as they run off USB. The USB hubs in turn are connected using a Y splitter (2 USB into 1) which further reduces the power.

With my 28 bottle winador I put all the humidifying agents on the top rack. I use a few of those crystal jars I had from before the wineador and some boveda throughout (69% tho). Since humid air tends to be heavier and its on the top, get no issues with flux in RH. Did you plug any drain holes? I know my NewAir had one in the back center that I just put tape over to prevent it from leaking RH and it stayed rock solid after that.

I've not yet plugged the drain hole. I did have KL soaking up water with the hole plugged. Since removing the KL humidity has somewhat stabilised. I say somewhat because it's better than it was.

I've bought 20 Boveda packs, and 2 more fans (small ones) to stick on the back of the cooler. Ducting may happen.
I've noticed when charging the HF beads the shelves with charged beads have high humidity, but bugger all happens on the higher shelves - no airflow!
My only solution idea would be some sort of low powered fan like an Oust, on each shelf - pushing air up. Oust are hard to find but fridge fans aren't. Ducting would make things easier.

Anyway, project is fun. Cigars are on a shelf with 65% persistent humidity so I'm happy about that bit.

 

[Boudie]

800 bucks a box I would be fanatical about taking care of them!!

 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

800 bucks a box I would be fanatical about taking care of them!!

That's on the cheaper side.

Anyway, the shelf its on is 65% every time I've looked.

 

[Burnaz16]

That's on the cheaper side.

Anyway, the shelf its on is 65% every time I've looked.

Jesus what the hell are you smokin over there!?

 

[mitetak]

You have fans already - are they working against each other? how do you have them pointed (you said top bottom? but are they laid out so the air / humidity circulates)

 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

You have fans already - are they working against each other? how do you have them pointed (you said top bottom? but are they laid out so the air / humidity circulates)

They're elevated from the bottom of the cooler / top of the cooler.
The fans are just 120mm USB powered fans. I connect them up to a USB hub inside the cooler, and connect the 2 USB hubs up to a Y-Splitter that converts 2 USB into 1 - as such only 1 USB cable comes out the wineador. That cable is then connected to a USB wall thing (like a phone charger). Phone charger is then connected to a timer.

Pointed them straight up / straight down, nothing fancy.

The air moves, just not past the shelving/drawers. As such I will probably need to duct them. Mainly because the shelves don't have enough holes, or perhaps the fans aren't powerful enough.

 

[PamunkeyHub]

You don't have enough airflow, otherwise the rH would be equalized. Also, consumer grade hydrometers aren't necessarily accurate... more of a guide. You also have multiple humidification sources that may be competing with one another.

I'd suggest choosing one humidification source and aiming two fans down in the back of the cooler and two fans up in the front of the cooler running 24/7. This should keep the rH equalized. Are you on FOH?

I have a 50-bottle wine cooler with four fans running 24/7, one fan for the active humidifier, and one large fan that runs during cooling or de-humidifying cycles. rH is stable throughout the cooler.

 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

...aiming two fans down in the back of the cooler and two fans up in the front of the cooler running 24/7. This should keep the rH equalized.

Could you please elaborate on that? I don't quite understand.
The first one - 2 fans down the back? Do you mean stick some fans on the back of the cooler aimed down, or up?
Secondly - stick fans on the inside of the door?

 

[PamunkeyHub]

Could you please elaborate on that? I don't quite understand.
The first one - 2 fans down the back? Do you mean stick some fans on the back of the cooler aimed down, or up?
Secondly - stick fans on the inside of the door?

Yes, that's the basic idea. Obviously, I cannot see your cooler, so conditions on the ground may require alternative engineering, but the basic idea is to have the fans working together and not working against each other.

I suggested blowing down in the back of the cooler and up in the front, but you can switch this around depending on where you can easily mount your fans. Duct work could help if the fans alone cannot push enough air.