Wine-adoor water evaporator

[Tom]

I have a 28 bottle Avanti thermoelectric wine chiller. In the back of the unit, there is a water reservoir/evaporator tray for water sucked out of the chiller. Has anyone ever tried rerouting the drain line feeding this tray back into their chiller? Perhaps directly to the wine-ador's humidifier? As I am getting this chiller set up and seasoned, the amount of water going into this tray has me wondering if I'll ever be able to hold RH in the mid 60s when the chiller will be running most of the time in the heat of the summer as room temps will get into the 80s.

I think I understand that the RH will be easier to control after the Avanti is full of cigar boxes, has a Spanish cedar shelf or two in place, and has enough beads/kitty litter to keep things stable. Still, the water I am seeing in the unit's tray is remarkable for it's amount and speed of accumulation. The room that is is located in has a RH reading of 55% now.

I am thinking this would be a great way to keep the humidity up when we are gone for a week or two at a time in the summer and the house's A/Cs are shut off or set at 90. Suppose I could add pounds and pounds of beads/KL, but would like to try this if feasible. Actually, if possible, it would be handy at any time since our temperatures swing wildly at any time.

Have any of you brothers tried this? Heard of someone doing it?

TIA

 

[Hardcore]

I have the same exact unit & don't have this issue. My tray is empty & dry. There is a tiny, a few drops if that, next to the vent. But that is all. I run a Cigar Oasis & have a pound of beads & have no rh issues at all.

 

[dpmrpa]

Joe is that the drain he is talking about. Doesn't that have to be blocked some way

 

[Hardcore]

Yes it is. You can use beads to take care of that or even plug the hole. I occasionally get a drop or two as I said, but it's no big deal at all.

 

[Tom]

Well, I have to say that it never occurred to me to do something simple like just plugging the hole. doh! Just want to check the insides of the chilling unit to make sure a build up of water is not going to short out anything first. A simple, elegant solution. Thanks for pointing this out.

The last two mornings, the tray has had a little more than a quarter of an inch of water in it. That water has to be coming from inside of the cooler... the beads, kitty litter, and now enough cigar boxes to fill it up. This morning the temp/humidity was 66/66, about as close to perfect as I can hope to get. The water accumulation is not a problem now. My question was more about later in the summer when the house is hot and I am not here to keep humidifiers topped off with distilled water. I'm thinking the smaller the footprint of my humidifiers, the more room I have for cigars.

 

[Electric Sheep]

Tom, I plugged the drain hole in mine wineador with black electrical tape. Unfortunately, in the heat of the summer when the cooler runs a lot, it *DOES* create quite a bit of condensation, enough to pool up in the bottom rear of the unit. Basically, the water you're seeing collect in the tray will just collect inside.

Because of that, I don't put cigars directly on the bottom of the cooler; instead I put the bottom shelf on the lowest rung:

It's not in the photo, but I have a 1lb bag of beads that I toss down on the bottom. Every week or so, I check the bottom to see if there's any water collected, and if there is I just wipe it up with a paper towel.

 

[Danilo]

Duane, You have the most organized wineador I've seen so far.

 

[dpmrpa]

Tom, I plugged the drain hole in mine wineador with black electrical tape. Unfortunately, in the heat of the summer when the cooler runs a lot, it *DOES* create quite a bit of condensation, enough to pool up in the bottom rear of the unit. Basically, the water you're seeing collect in the tray will just collect inside.

Because of that, I don't put cigars directly on the bottom of the cooler; instead I put the bottom shelf on the lowest rung:

It's not in the photo, but I have a 1lb bag of beads that I toss down on the bottom. Every week or so, I check the bottom to see if there's any water collected, and if there is I just wipe it up with a paper towel.

Duane I am in the market for one of these. Do u keep loose sticks in there also. Can you keep loose sticks in cedar boxes and not worry about getting spanish cedar shelves. Is that a fan or a humidying device?

 

[Tom]

Tom, I plugged the drain hole in mine wineador with black electrical tape. Unfortunately, in the heat of the summer when the cooler runs a lot, it *DOES* create quite a bit of condensation, enough to pool up in the bottom rear of the unit. Basically, the water you're seeing collect in the tray will just collect inside.

Because of that, I don't put cigars directly on the bottom of the cooler; instead I put the bottom shelf on the lowest rung:

Duane and others, great information. Thanks. I'll do the same.

BTW, did you notice the high on Wednesday was 101 degrees just west of town? It was 95 here.

 

[BrooksW]

Duane and others, great information. Thanks. I'll do the same.

BTW, did you notice the high on Wednesday was 101 degrees just west of town? It was 95 here.

Yep, I did notice that (I was outside working that day!)...

I just bought a third vino, and I do the same as above, just tape up the hole, and throw some beads in the back of the cooler to catch any condesation that comes down...

In the Texas heat, a wine cooler is almost a Must

~brooks

 

[Danilo]

Duane I am in the market for one of these. Do u keep loose sticks in there also. Can you keep loose sticks in cedar boxes and not worry about getting spanish cedar shelves. Is that a fan or a humidying device?

Dennis- That looks to be one of the oust fans he has in there (do not put the fragrance in... unless you want forest meadow flavored sticks)

You could certainly keep loose sticks in a random cigar box, but from what I see, people prefer to have a drawer for loose ones, and mostly full boxes kept together.

 

[Hardcore]

Dennis, Danilo was correct that is an Oust fan. You can use empty boxes for singals or get a drawer. I did both. If you need empties let me know. I have some extras you can have. Give me a call if I don't see you tonight & I'll help you plan this out.

 

[Electric Sheep]

Yup, that's an Oust fan you see in my photo.

Here's another pic with some boxes pulled out:

You can see that my Cigar Oasis is in the back, behind the Oust fan.

Oh and yes--those three Fuente boxes in the middle are my "loose sticks" boxes. I'd love to have a singles drawer instead, but can't swing the money.

 

[Danilo]

And you can see 7 coffins in the top right hand corner as well.


I see you put something on top of the standard wire rack instead of replacing them... are those Spanish cedar sheets that you cut to just fit over the rack?

 

[Electric Sheep]

They're actually wide planks of 1/8" spanish cedar glued together to form sheets. Gives me something *FLAT* to put boxes on without the expense of the full 1/4" thick shelves.

I think I've got $24 bucks total in those sheets.

 

[Hardcore]

Tom I noticed that as the weather has been getting warmer I did have a tiny bit of water in this tray. I took out the boxes & saw that it was from condensation from the cooling unit in the back of the Avanti. I took about an eighth of a pound of 65 rh beads in the back where the condisation was at now the beads seem to be picking up the extra moister. It will also keep recirculating the rh back into you unit instead of loosing it out the back. Hope that this helps out some.

 

[Tom]

Thanks Hardcore. I've raised my boxes off the bottom and put some KL beads down there. Taped off the drain hose and all seems to be doing well so far. We haven't come close to the heat of the summer yet. August should be a good test.