Wineador Build

[mjdx88]

Well being locked up has forced me to focus on projects around the house that I never really had time for. One of these said projects is to convert my failed wine fridge to a humi. This has been sitting for at least 2 years now.

I ordered 1/2 lb of heartfelt beads, some spanish cedar planks to be used to cover up the back of the fridge and shelves. Also, I grabbed a spanish cedar tray to throw in as well, I only have about 20 singles at the moment so this is perfect. I’ll be re-using my hygroset hygrometer from my desk top humi. I’m opting not to use a fan as I’ll spread the beads evenly between the top and bottom shelves. I feel like I am missing something on this build but can’t put my finger on it.

Aesthetically, I‘m thinking about using cigar bands with epoxy / resin to cover up the front glass, but I’m not sure I have enough for this task. I’ll see in the next day or so once I have flattened all of my bands.

The goal of this build is to keep it cheap, if it fails I’ll be ordering a cooler. The beads and cedar are of no loss since they could be re-use. Outside of those items I haven’t really invested anything into the build.

Thoughts or suggestions?

[icehog3]

Member CigarNut has a website for humidity beads (that I like even better than Heartfelt). You can use his resources to see what quantity of beads are recommended for a unit of your size (phrasing). Not sure if 1/2 pound is adequate or not.

http://www.cigarbeads.com/

[mosesbotbol]

I'd leave the glass alone.

Use this for reading the humidity and temperature. Really slick and accurate.

https://www.sensorpush.com/products/ht1

https://www.sensorpush.com/assets/DSC_8363-2-sillo-sm-4d2e0a0b245b5d94e7c216a4d50bc727dacc660d11cb48db39 fad48e774c73d5.jpg

[Porch Dweller]

Will you be plugging it in for temperature control? If so (and if you weren't already aware) many wine fridges default to their coldest setting if power is lost to them. So if you lose power during a storm or something, you'll need to readjust your temp setting.

[mjdx88]

Thank you for the input guys.

Icehog- I completely forgot about cigarnuts beads. I remember not being super thrilled with heartfelt last time I used them but I also assumed I messed up along the way. If I find I’m not happy with them this go around I’ll be switching to cigar beads. In general I assume an active humidifier would be over kill, the unit is only 1.5 cu ft.

Mosesbotbol- thanks for the insight, I saw something like sensorpush on amazon and was a bit skeptical. I’ll consider getting this as typically I do not smoke or open my humi past late September or early October and some times forget to check the humidity until April or May when I start smoking again.bThankfully I have never dropped below 59RH so no major issues, if fact if anything I had a mold issue with 74 RH one year.

Porch Deweller - Thankfully this unit is dead, it’s hard to tell from the pic but I remove the compressor and I sealed it up with some glass and silicone. Part of the reason why the unit died was from a power outage not realizing it reset to 50 degrees in one of the warmer parts of the house so it ran hard for days. Since the fridge failed, it has since been moved to the basement along with my desktop where the house is much cooler and lower humidity during the summer.