Heartfelt bead humidity question.

Okay, so I just finished with my wineador build. Edgestar 28, with 6 cedar trays (w/ divider). I have 1lb. of 65% heartfeld beads at the very top, and 1lb. of the same at the very bottom. All six of my trays are pretty much full +/- a few. I have a small cigar box at the top. The vino is turned on, and maintains a 61F temp.

I also have an oust fan on the bottom pointed up. I just put the beads in there two days ago. I also, just finished calibrating two hydrometers with the boveda calibration kit. (hydrometers are the rectangle ones from heartfelts' website.)

The top hydrometer is reading a steady 73%.
The bottom is reading 68%.

My questions are:

1.) What do I need to do to get down to 65%?

I read alot of you guys said it put out 65% right out of the bag.

2.) Am I doing something wrong?

[jluck]

Give it a week. If its still high leave the door open for a couple hours.(if the room RH is lower that is)

Originally Posted by jluck

Give it a week. If its still high leave the door open for a couple hours.(if the room RH is lower that is)

Alright. I'm new to the whole beads thing. So I wanted to catch a problem I may be doing as soon as possible. I will heed you advice.

[Stinky]

Knowing you calibrated both hydrometers . . . switch them . . . first label them A (for the top hydrometer) and B (for the bottom hydrometer). Put "A" in the bottom location and put "B" in the top location. Wait 24 hours without opening the door. This is just a test to confirm your readings top & bottom. And, it rules-out a possible hydrometer malfunction.

Next:
Call (contact) David at Heartfelt Industries. He's a wiz at these things!

Be sure to mention the temperature you keep inside. 61-F seems cool for cigars. Remember; humidity is 'relative' to temperature.

Originally Posted by Stinky

Knowing you calibrated both hydrometers . . . switch them . . . first label them A (for the top hydrometer) and B (for the bottom hydrometer). Put "A" in the bottom location and put "B" in the top location. Wait 24 hours without opening the door. This is just a test to confirm your readings top & bottom. And, it rules-out a possible hydrometer malfunction.

Next:
Call (contact) David at Heartfelt Industries. He's a wiz at these things!

Be sure to mention the temperature you keep inside. 61-F seems cool for cigars. Remember; humidity is 'relative' to temperature.

I switched them this morning. Same results. As far as temp goes, it's either 61 (on) or 73-74 (turned off). So I went with 61 with the hope to get down to 65% humidity. It's an Edgestar 28, so If any one has any ideas to get the temp up, be my guest..

[CigarNut]

What is the ambient temperature in the room where the Edgestar is located?

use a Johnson temperature controller. set your temp at 69 degrees. you will see your problem improve.

[jluck]

Edgestar's don't have a temp control?

i think its warmest setting is 65%. the independent temp controller allows you to keep it at 69-70 degrees. that warmer temp means that the cooling will run a lot less, and your relative humidity will be lower.

Originally Posted by jluck

Edgestar's don't have a temp control?

It's cold or colder. I have it set as far left (cold) as It can. It reads 62f-63f.

Originally Posted by RonC

use a Johnson temperature controller. set your temp at 69 degrees. you will see your problem improve.

I was really hoping I wouldn't have to go that route. I'm afraid it will just cut off and on constantly.. I read on another forum, that a couple of people thought that it caused theirs to screw up due to not enough cool down time between?

Originally Posted by CigarNut

What is the ambient temperature in the room where the Edgestar is located?

70F

Originally Posted by us_soldier1989

I was really hoping I wouldn't have to go that route. I'm afraid it will just cut off and on constantly.. I read on another forum, that a couple of people thought that it caused theirs to screw up due to not enough cool down time between?

its going to run a lot less. and you will have smaller temperature swings, which will improve your high humidity levels

Originally Posted by RonC

its going to run a lot less. and you will have smaller temperature swings, which will improve your high humidity levels

Alright, which model do you recommend?

[CigarNut]

Originally Posted by us_soldier1989

70F

It's interesting the the temperature inside the Edgestar is higher than the ambient temperature. That is unusual. Even so the temps are not unsafe.

Ron is right -- temperature swings will cause swings in RH and will make it more difficult to reach an equilibrium. In the interim, either leave the Edgestar on or off, but not both. Try to achieve an equibrium in that state. It can be done, but it will take some time.

The thing to remember is the RH drops as temperature increases.

Alright. Thanks for the help! I'm just going to keep it off and see where that goes. It's sitting at 64F right now.. with 75% hum.

[Zanaspus]

My thought: you're in Georgia, and I'm guessing the heat is not currently needed. I'm betting it's an ambient humidity issue. In a month or two when you turn on the AC, all your problems should resolve.

[dwoodward]

This may sound like a silly question, but did you hydrate your beads too much? I know on the bag of heartfelt beads it says to add water before use... However, my beads came with like 90% of the beads already clear. Just something to think about. Only 70% of them are supposed to be clear, it sounds to me like one of your bags has too much moisture in it and can't remove any moisture from the air like it's supposed to do.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by us_soldier1989

Alright. Thanks for the help! I'm just going to keep it off and see where that goes. It's sitting at 64F right now.. with 75% hum.

Andrew, the humidity is going to spike immediately after you shut her down, it's all the water tied up on the evaporator that's getting pushed back into the system.
When you look at your (plugged in and running) vino, the RH is going to spike in both directions. In order to see what's really going on, you have to wait. Not hours, but days.
Things will all settle out.
Then, you have to check your hygrometer periodically and record the readings. You're shooting for a net aggregate reading. Meaning if you take a reading every hour of the day and divide them by 24, what is it now?
You can also check your beads by throwing them in a ziplock with a hygrometer to see where they're at.
Someone mentioned over-wetting them. That can happen.
But where you are now, you just need to wait. Leave the machine off and see where you are in a week. Then two weeks. If everything is cool at that point, there ya go. I think you'll be fine.

I was pretty sure I over sprayed them. (yes, I sprayed with DW). But, I dried them out with a hairdryer on a low setting for a few minutes. I think that made the fix as far as being to wet. I also left the door open for 2 hours earlier. When I check the readings just for the heck of it, they both stated 65% at 70F. Just closed the door, with dryer beads. Hopefully I'm on the right track now.