Wineador help

[Farringtonr]

I have a 18 bottle new air that I got off Craig's list. It's 8 months old the previous owner said and they used it for wine( go figure). Do u think I should air it out or do the scrub down method. It really doesn't smell like plastic that bad. Also I'm getting my drawers from Forrest in the next 2 weeks. What's the best way to season them? I have 2 pounds of 70% heartfelt beads should i just put them in there and let it sit for a few weeks?

 

[Donk]

I would go ahead and clean it out real well, who know what happened in there. Then when you get you rackes from Forrest, wipe them down with distilled water leaving them rather damp put them all in the wine cooler and add your beads. Leave them for several days let them aclimate to the humidity then add cigars or boxes. 2 pounds of beads is going to prob be to much, I only used about 1.5lbs in my 28 bottle wine cooler.

remember remove as much open airspace as possible. Buy empty boxes from your B&M or see if they have a bunch of cedar blocks that come in boxes, something to get rid of large amounts of open airspace. It will help keep your wine cooler's humidity more stable.

lastly buy some kind of fan setup like 30MM cpu fans to circulate air, also will help keep humidity levels stable.

 

[mdwest]

donks comments are spot on...

it doesnt hurt to scrub down the cooler and then let it air dry.. even if you dont smell anything.. you dont know what was in there previously.. or what might be lingering that youre not picking up... baking soda and elbow grease are cheap... boxes of cigars arent...

agree with comments on seasoning the trays and taking up as much air space as possible in the cooler as well...

 

[Farringtonr]

Ok cool. I need to buy some cigar boxes then cause I only have about 40 cigars and just starting my collection.

 

[JLB]

You can never have too many beads.........

 

[justbrew77]

You can never have too many beads.........

I agree, the more beads you have the faster your wineador will recover after opening. If the RH goes up to high remove some of the beads and let them dry out, once they are dry you can put them back in. The easiest way I've found to wet your beads depending on how you store them is a spray bottle of distilled water, a couple of sprays and you should be good for a while depending on your seal. Like everyone said just use baking soda and water no chemicals. Good luck they work great.

 

[Farringtonr]

Do u guys like the wipe down method for the shelves

 

[justbrew77]

I wiped mine down just enough to get the dust off them using a lint free towel. I put a bowl of distiller water in with and let it sit for a week or so that seemed to work well, they absorbed a lot of the water.

 

[MoJo]

Do u guys like the wipe down method for the shelves

I personally do not like that method. After paying all the money for custom shelves/drawers I prefer to season them the longer/safer (imo) way. I wet a few very cheap sponges with distilled water and put them on a plate or plastic bag of some sort and let them sit with the door close. I also monitor the humidity (so I don't get a humidity spike after seasoning) and wait for it to stabilize with my beads before I put my cigars in.

However, I do spray the shelves with compressed air to help get rid of the saw dust and gently wipe off all the excess saw dust that are on the shelves when they come in

 

[justbrew77]

The sponge method works great too. If you use the sponge method make sure you get sponges without cleaner already on them. you don't want your shelves soaking that in.

 

[Andyman]

I got my setup from Forrest. I wiped my draws down several times lightly and put a bowl of distilled water in for a couple of days... They did absorb a lot of water..I added my heartfelt beads after one day (3 pounds) you can never have enough beads..the rest is history everything is great.. I put two pounds on the bottom and one pound up top.