I decided that the heat and humidity here on the Gulf Coast warranted a little more protection for my smokes than just my humidors. As it's a few years before I'll be making the jump to an Aristocrat, I decided on a wineador.

I went with an 18-bottle NewAir. Why not 24? Because with all that extra space I'd be too tempted to fill it up. :-)

I received the fridge a couple of days ago and gave it a wipe-down inside. Then I left the door open and kept a fan blowing into it overnight. In the morning, the "plasticy" smell was gone. I then put some electrical tape over the condensation drain hole as recommended by others here.

I'd ordered 1.5 lbs of HF beads and made a mistake - I should have just put them straight into the wineador along with a hygrometer, left them for a few hours, and seen where I needed to adjust from there. Instead, I partially wet them with some distilled water, let them sit for a bit, then put them in the wineador. They were WAY too saturated; the humidity shot up to 83%. I had to use a blow dryer to get rid of the excess.

I just now got the beads back in the wineador and plugged it in, temperature set at 65*. Cedar drawers have been ordered from cheaphumidors.com. Once I get them I'll post an update. Stay tuned...



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looks good so far James....have fun with this project and use it as a learning experience for when you buy the 28-bottle :-) :-)
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Yeah, I'm in denial about the fact that I'm :-) :-)
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its a fun ride :-)

i started small think i wouldn't fill up a 6-bottle, bought a 16-bottle two weeks later, again thinking i wouldn't fill it up....three weeks later i bought the 28-bottle.
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Good luck with the build buddy.
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Very cool!
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Nice can't wait to see the build
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Nice! You will love it.
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Nice. I grew concerned with the heat in my apartment and got a wine fridge a couple months ago. I actually just stuck my 2 desktop humidors and 3 medium size Tupperwares directly into the fridge. It would definitely be nicer to have the fridge work as a humidor itself, but I was too lazy to try and figure out how to make that happen.
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It's not very labor intensive and there are quite a few threads on here that lay out the process. For me, I'm making the move to a wineador simply for piece of mind.
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Looks awesome, and mighty empty. You're a brave man.
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LOL! I guess I should have noted that once it's ready, it will be filled with my existing stock. I forget that you've got to watch your step around here. :-)
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Nice James, I think these are so cool looking as well as functional. I also think it's funny you believe the 16 bottle will prevent you from buying too much......good luck with that. :-)
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LOL! Yeah, space limitations hasn't kept me from buying more cigars than I have space for now, why would it with the wineador? :-)
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Awesome James, looks good! I am finally in the rh adjusting stage waiting on stuff to settle for mine!
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Nice, James. You're on your way. How're your numbers? If they're bouncing around, get some empty cedar boxes in there to help level her out. Also, you might want to stick a tiny fan in there at some point. Are you having any issues with condensation?

Looking forward to watching your project unfold. :-)
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I've got a few empty boxes in there now to help stabilize the RH. The shelves should be here tomorrow so they'll help get me where I need to be.

I plan on having a hygrometer at the top and at the bottom. If I notice a difference of more than two or three in the RH I'm going to look into getting a small computer fan to put in the bottom. My preferred method would be to have it on a timer, running about 10-15 minutes every two hours or so.

No condensation so far.

Here it is with the only empty boxes I had on hand inside it:

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RH has been right around 70 for 24 hours. After I get the shelves in it tomorrow I'll give it another 24 hours to see if I need to adjust the beads.
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Hi Porch !
I just got a Haier model HVW18 last weekend. I did not want to go to wineador so fast, but it was a display unit and practically free. It is absolutely pristine with excellent seal. But it needed service from apparently running constantly on display. So it appears a thermostat circuit error was it's demise. I cleaned the external heat sinks ( no compressor) and I already had new PC fans on hand to replace the dead ones yesterday.

I could likely have replaced the thermostat control board but instead I just " dumbed it down" .
So I'll be interested in what type of timer you use, so I can run a similar cycle.
:-)
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I don't have a circuit diagram. But, you may need that circuit board to power the cooling modules.
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:-)

I sincerely wish I knew what you guys are talking about. I'm sure I'd have a better job today. Instead, I went to art school. What was I thinking?! Ugh. My old man was right! :-)

This is why I use an Oust fan. It's got an on/off switch, runs on one "D" battery, automatically toggles on/off every now and again, is perfectly silent, and I think I picked it up for $8 about seven or so years ago.

It still works great and keeps my cigars resting comfortably. :-)
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