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Wineador humidity spiking

xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402 ✭
in Cigar 101
I recently bought a 28-count wineador, put in a hyrda humidifier, 2 lbs of beads in the bottom, and some fans that run continuously - and my humidity won't come down from 80% RH (have 4 hygro's inside, all salt-tested last week).

I've no idea where this humidity is even coming from - the drain is plugged, and I have beads where the water should run, but I've yet to seen ANY water from this thing at all. It holds great temp at 65F, but the humidity is driving me nuts and I'm afraid to load it up with anything.

Any idea's on what's going wrong?

Comments

  • DiamondogDiamondog Posts: 4,171 ✭✭
    I thought I read about some condensation build up in the bottom of these things??? There is a thread here somewhere, I'm sure of it...
  • xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402 ✭
    But that's the funny thing; I have the water slide drain into beads, yet the entire time I've been running this thing, I've never seen a single drop of water from it; I'm beginning to think it's pooling somewhere else in the unit and I may have to open it up and take a look
  • xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402 ✭
    Well, I took out the humidifier, turned the thing off and the RH still kept going up - so I opened up the back of it, took the cooling unit off and found a pool of water back there!!

    Turns out the seal wasn't seated properly, so the water never drained the way it was supposed to; so I put it back in, and will restart it in a bit after the water has dried out. I'm hoping that it was just an improperly seated seal, instead of a faulty seal.
  • xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402 ✭
    Well, the seal was only part of the problem; seems there was a lip just below the cooling sink that caused the water to roll the wrong way. So what I did was open up the back, take the cooling unit off, and file that lip down a good bit. It looks like it should work now - the seal has been properly seated, and I've filed it down so the water will run the right way.

    I've started it up, and so far, it looks like it's working; water is draining properly into the beads like it should and humidity is in the low 60's, instead of high 80's like it was; it's not spiking anymore and looks to have leveled off properly. In a few weeks or a month, I'll open it back up and double check everything.

  • laker1963laker1963 Posts: 5,046
    xmacro:
    Well, the seal was only part of the problem; seems there was a lip just below the cooling sink that caused the water to roll the wrong way. So what I did was open up the back, take the cooling unit off, and file that lip down a good bit. It looks like it should work now - the seal has been properly seated, and I've filed it down so the water will run the right way.

    I've started it up, and so far, it looks like it's working; water is draining properly into the beads like it should and humidity is in the low 60's, instead of high 80's like it was; it's not spiking anymore and looks to have leveled off properly. In a few weeks or a month, I'll open it back up and double check everything.

    I'm not sure I understand something Macro. Does your compressor drain onto your beads?

    I was just wondering if you think this may lead to too much water being put into the beads? Will the amount of water drained to the beads change as the outside humidity does and the cooler has to work harder?

    Maybe I am just missing something??
  • xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402 ✭
    laker1963:
    xmacro:
    Well, the seal was only part of the problem; seems there was a lip just below the cooling sink that caused the water to roll the wrong way. So what I did was open up the back, take the cooling unit off, and file that lip down a good bit. It looks like it should work now - the seal has been properly seated, and I've filed it down so the water will run the right way.

    I've started it up, and so far, it looks like it's working; water is draining properly into the beads like it should and humidity is in the low 60's, instead of high 80's like it was; it's not spiking anymore and looks to have leveled off properly. In a few weeks or a month, I'll open it back up and double check everything.

    I'm not sure I understand something Macro. Does your compressor drain onto your beads?

    I was just wondering if you think this may lead to too much water being put into the beads? Will the amount of water drained to the beads change as the outside humidity does and the cooler has to work harder?

    Maybe I am just missing something??
    No, the problem was two fold - the seal around the compressor wasn't seated and there was a lip that prevented the water from draining the right way. The result was that instead of draining down a slope into my beads, it was instead flowing out the back and dripping onto the electronics in the back of the unit.

    Because there was a lip, the water wasn't flowing the right way; because the seal was faulty, it wasn't stopping the water from dripping down the back.

    Not sure if I answered your question, but it seems the reason my humidity was spiking was because water was pooling below the compressor, and sometimes just dripping out the back.
  • laker1963laker1963 Posts: 5,046
    xmacro:
    laker1963:
    xmacro:
    Well, the seal was only part of the problem; seems there was a lip just below the cooling sink that caused the water to roll the wrong way. So what I did was open up the back, take the cooling unit off, and file that lip down a good bit. It looks like it should work now - the seal has been properly seated, and I've filed it down so the water will run the right way.

    I've started it up, and so far, it looks like it's working; water is draining properly into the beads like it should and humidity is in the low 60's, instead of high 80's like it was; it's not spiking anymore and looks to have leveled off properly. In a few weeks or a month, I'll open it back up and double check everything.

    I'm not sure I understand something Macro. Does your compressor drain onto your beads?

    I was just wondering if you think this may lead to too much water being put into the beads? Will the amount of water drained to the beads change as the outside humidity does and the cooler has to work harder?

    Maybe I am just missing something??
    No, the problem was two fold - the seal around the compressor wasn't seated and there was a lip that prevented the water from draining the right way. The result was that instead of draining down a slope into my beads, it was instead flowing out the back and dripping onto the electronics in the back of the unit.

    Because there was a lip, the water wasn't flowing the right way; because the seal was faulty, it wasn't stopping the water from dripping down the back.

    Not sure if I answered your question, but it seems the reason my humidity was spiking was because water was pooling below the compressor, and sometimes just dripping out the back.
    OK I got that part, and I read about your filing and such.

    My question would be, are you not worried that the amount of water going from the compressor to the beads will be too much? Or how are you regulating the amount of water going to the beads.

    As I understand them, these beads can be overchrged, and then your humidity regulation will go out the window won't it?
  • xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402 ✭
    Ah, now I got ya - not really worried because I have the water draining into a tub with 2lbs of conservagel beads in it. If it all drains properly, I could have a problem with too-charged beads, but 1) that'll take awhile with 2lbs, and 2) I can just take out half the beads, let them dry, them put them back in and mix them in with the charged ones.

    So overall, I'm not too worried about it; so long as I check it once every few weeks, there shouldn't be any problem. Hope that answered your question
  • laker1963laker1963 Posts: 5,046
    xmacro:
    Ah, now I got ya - not really worried because I have the water draining into a tub with 2lbs of conservagel beads in it. If it all drains properly, I could have a problem with too-charged beads, but 1) that'll take awhile with 2lbs, and 2) I can just take out half the beads, let them dry, them put them back in and mix them in with the charged ones.

    So overall, I'm not too worried about it; so long as I check it once every few weeks, there shouldn't be any problem. Hope that answered your question
    Gotcha. I was just wondering about this never ending drip of water going into your beads and oversaturating them on you. Hope this works for you, keep us posted, this is interesting.
  • xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402 ✭
    Well, here's a brain twister - I set this wineador at 66, and the RH won't move from 70%, up or down, even with 2lbs of beads in the bottom and 3 small, 1" fans blowing continuously. I set it to 54, and the RH drops to 60%, which is right where I want it (I like it low, and then use beads/humidifier to perk it up; makes it easier to control than trying to get it down).

    So a question for those BOTL's more knowledable than me - it's generally agreed that 65F is the ideal temp, but what's the lowest I can get away with?

    I'm assuming the colder air won't hold as much moisture, which is why the RH dropped (I'm REALLY hoping it's that, and not water dripping out the wrong way again), so I need to know how low I can go to control the RH, since 2lbs of beads in the bottom doesn't seem to be doing much.
  • skweekzskweekz Posts: 2,279 ✭✭✭
    What conservagel beads did you get, the 65% or 70%? I'm guessing that the beads and the wineador will each try to "override" the other. (i.e. 70% beads trying to hold 70%rH while the wineador is trying to be at 66.) I assume it'd come down to which one can be more "powerful" than the other. Theoretically, 65% beads and having your wineador set at 66 (not sure what all settings there are) should have things running perfectly at or near the 65% mark.

    Just my two cents....
  • laker1963laker1963 Posts: 5,046
    xmacro:
    Well, here's a brain twister - I set this wineador at 66, and the RH won't move from 70%, up or down, even with 2lbs of beads in the bottom and 3 small, 1" fans blowing continuously. I set it to 54, and the RH drops to 60%, which is right where I want it (I like it low, and then use beads/humidifier to perk it up; makes it easier to control than trying to get it down).

    So a question for those BOTL's more knowledable than me - it's generally agreed that 65F is the ideal temp, but what's the lowest I can get away with?

    I'm assuming the colder air won't hold as much moisture, which is why the RH dropped (I'm REALLY hoping it's that, and not water dripping out the wrong way again), so I need to know how low I can go to control the RH, since 2lbs of beads in the bottom doesn't seem to be doing much.
    The two settings you used here are quite far apart IMO. If you use something between the 54 and 66 how does that affect the RH.
    I would assume that the humidity control is not calibrated very well with the dial. but if you can figure out where the dial needs to go for the RH to stabilize at the point you are comfortable at... Then you can just mark the dial or keep a mental note, however I would not be surprised if "the mark" changes during the winter.
    I keep my coolerdor down to as close to 65 as I can keep it. I have tried keeping a smaller humi as low as 60% but found that a fair number of sticks were having wrapper issues or splitting when smoking them. Once I bumped it up a couple of points I was OK again. So I would guess you would be OK as low as 62 or 63 but much lower and those wrapper problems might start happening to you too.
  • xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402 ✭
    laker1963:
    The two settings you used here are quite far apart IMO. If you use something between the 54 and 66 how does that affect the RH.
    I would assume that the humidity control is not calibrated very well with the dial. but if you can figure out where the dial needs to go for the RH to stabilize at the point you are comfortable at... Then you can just mark the dial or keep a mental note, however I would not be surprised if "the mark" changes during the winter.
    I keep my coolerdor down to as close to 65 as I can keep it. I have tried keeping a smaller humi as low as 60% but found that a fair number of sticks were having wrapper issues or splitting when smoking them. Once I bumped it up a couple of points I was OK again. So I would guess you would be OK as low as 62 or 63 but much lower and those wrapper problems might start happening to you too.
    Much appreciated!! I've got 3 xikar hygro's inside, and all three say that the temp is at 66 when the external dial says 66, so it's actually pretty accurate.

    Think I'm gonna take your advice and drop the temp down to 65 or maybe 64 in a week or two, after my sticks normalize with the current RH and once the fluctuations stop, so I can be sure the RH will be steady.
    skweekz:
    What conservagel beads did you get, the 65% or 70%? I'm guessing that the beads and the wineador will each try to "override" the other. (i.e. 70% beads trying to hold 70%rH while the wineador is trying to be at 66.) I assume it'd come down to which one can be more "powerful" than the other. Theoretically, 65% beads and having your wineador set at 66 (not sure what all settings there are) should have things running perfectly at or near the 65% mark.

    Just my two cents....
    I'm running 65% beads, but 66F in temp; for some reason, they don't seem to be doing much :/

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