So after going to target and being disappointed in that the 28 bottle vinotemps were still 139.99 on "clearance". So my girl being the genius she is says go home and look on craigslist. Well an hour later last nigth I am the proud new owner of a 36 Bottle wine fridge for 100 bucks. It appears to be in great condition. The guy I bought it from lived in a big enough house that I believe him when he told me he out grew it quickly. I wish I could live in a house like his, but I digress.

The Wine fridge is a magic chef (http://www.mcappliance.com/products/...name=MCWC45MCG)

The only down side to this fridge is it does not have one of the nice digital thermometer on the front. It just has a dial for 1-7 (0 being off, 7 being constant on). I'm becoming concerned because in the instructions in says that its temperature range is from 36* to 59*. Should I be concerned about this? Looking at the vinotemps I see that it has a fan in the back of them, this fridge has a compressor that just cools the back wall. I am unsure if this will be ok.

I'm unsure since this is my first wine-o-dor. Also, what should I be looking into for Spanish cedar not sure if I should look into just shelves for singles and that will be enough to hold the humidity right. Or if I should be looking for Spanish cedar slats to hot glue to the inside walls.

Also i have heard of people using Oust fans for air movement. How hard are these to wire up and such. (I know i haven''t searched on this first and I should have sorry).

The only thing I have set so far is im guessing 2 lbs of heartfelt beads will be enough.

Thanks for the help :-)
[Reply]

Bad news.

The reason we all chose the Vinotemp is because is is NOT compressor driven, but Thermoelectric=heatsink and fan.
Compressor refrigerators suck humidity out of the air to cool=BAD for cigars.

You will be fighting a battle if you turn this thing on.
BUT, you could simply use this as insulated storage, make cedar trays and shelves and it becomes a regular cabinet humidor, just not cooled.

and BTW...I WISH I had bought my vinotemp for $139.99
[Reply]

2 pounds of beads should be fine. Only thing I would cation of (after looking at the manual) it doesn't look to be a thermoelectric fridge. If it has a condenser it may have big humidity swings when it turns on.
[Reply]

Many who use compressor type refrigerators will use an external temperature controller to increase the temp to 66f. This will reduce the amount of cycling and you will have fewer problems regulating Rh. Johnson Controllers makes a very good external controller. This combined with a couple of pounds of beads should be fine.

One thing to remember is that this time of year you probably wont even need to plug your unit into power. You have all winter to save up for the controller. :-)
[Reply]