twenty5
BoM 11/09, 4/10 BoY '10
Thanks to FunkeJJ (bombed me with a wine cooler!) I now get to move out of my coolidor into a wineador! I figure I might as well do a little how-to as I do the conversion to help people that have or will have the same questions I had.
First, you are going to have to decided on a wine cooler. The most popular manufactures used in wineadors are Vinotemp (http://vinotemp.com/ ), Edgestar (http://edgestar.com/ ) and Avanti (http://www.avantiproducts.com/ ). All three companies make comparable wine coolers in several different sizes. When choosing, the most important option is cooling type; standard (compressor type, think refrigerator or freezer) or thermoelectric, the latter being the choice of cigar enthusiasts. Normal refrigerated units will actually draw the moisture out of your cigars, thermoelectric units prevent this from happening. The most popular size cooler seems to be the 28 bottle unit although they range in size from small 12 units up to units that hold several hundred.
For this project, I have the Avanti 28 bottle unit (model #: EWC280B) thanks to FunkeJJ.
Exterior Pic
Interior Pic
Shelves out
Temp Control (Low - High)
Drain hole (S-type drain)
Rear of unit
Drain hole / Drain pan
The first thing that you should do is to clean the cooler up a bit. A solution of warm water and a small amount of a mild soap should do the trick. Mine was used when I got it so there was no strong plastic smell, just a little dusty. If you get one brand new and it has a slight smell to it, just leave the door on it open for a couple of days.
The next step is not exactly necessary but it is a good option to think about when planning your build. As you can see, the only real temperature settings on this are cold or colder, there is no definitive temperature settings (65F etc.). Because of this, I decided to get an external temperature controller. An ETC basically allows power to flow to something (wine cooler) when a certain set point is reached. After doing the research I would recommend them to anyone that has a wine cooler for 2 main reasons. First of all, that is what they were designed to do, they are exact. Set it to turn on at 70 degrees and it turns on at 70. Set it to turn off at 65 and it does just that. Easy. The other reason is most wine coolers run 24/7/365, imagine the power you are saving by it turning on just to cool it to a set point.
After looking into different manufactures and hearing different recommendations I decided to go with a Ranco unit ( http://www.rancoetc.com ) more specifically this one: prewired.
ETC (Gray wire - temp sensor, Green wires - power in / power out)
ETC Control box
When looking at my options of how to run wiring etc. the most sensible way, I decided, was through the drain hole..
First, you are going to have to decided on a wine cooler. The most popular manufactures used in wineadors are Vinotemp (http://vinotemp.com/ ), Edgestar (http://edgestar.com/ ) and Avanti (http://www.avantiproducts.com/ ). All three companies make comparable wine coolers in several different sizes. When choosing, the most important option is cooling type; standard (compressor type, think refrigerator or freezer) or thermoelectric, the latter being the choice of cigar enthusiasts. Normal refrigerated units will actually draw the moisture out of your cigars, thermoelectric units prevent this from happening. The most popular size cooler seems to be the 28 bottle unit although they range in size from small 12 units up to units that hold several hundred.
For this project, I have the Avanti 28 bottle unit (model #: EWC280B) thanks to FunkeJJ.
Exterior Pic
Interior Pic
Shelves out
Temp Control (Low - High)
Drain hole (S-type drain)
Rear of unit
Drain hole / Drain pan
The first thing that you should do is to clean the cooler up a bit. A solution of warm water and a small amount of a mild soap should do the trick. Mine was used when I got it so there was no strong plastic smell, just a little dusty. If you get one brand new and it has a slight smell to it, just leave the door on it open for a couple of days.
The next step is not exactly necessary but it is a good option to think about when planning your build. As you can see, the only real temperature settings on this are cold or colder, there is no definitive temperature settings (65F etc.). Because of this, I decided to get an external temperature controller. An ETC basically allows power to flow to something (wine cooler) when a certain set point is reached. After doing the research I would recommend them to anyone that has a wine cooler for 2 main reasons. First of all, that is what they were designed to do, they are exact. Set it to turn on at 70 degrees and it turns on at 70. Set it to turn off at 65 and it does just that. Easy. The other reason is most wine coolers run 24/7/365, imagine the power you are saving by it turning on just to cool it to a set point.
After looking into different manufactures and hearing different recommendations I decided to go with a Ranco unit ( http://www.rancoetc.com ) more specifically this one: prewired.
ETC (Gray wire - temp sensor, Green wires - power in / power out)
ETC Control box
When looking at my options of how to run wiring etc. the most sensible way, I decided, was through the drain hole..
