Hello to everyone. Limited social life this past 10 months has given me ample time to experiment with TECs, Woodworking (including Building humidors) and finding a solution that I imagine many face when using a Wineador.
Using a wine cooler for cigar storage works well with some limitations. The biggest I think is temperature control. Wine coolers generally will only control temp up to 66 degrees or below. So the question is how to control temps above 66. And, if the temp gets below your set point, say 68, how does one heat back to 68? Also, as most know, temp control in a wine cooler is TEC solid state control And they are inefficient at that. If the ambient temperature gets too high, the controlled temp can only cool within a range of ambient.
Since I prefer my sticks at 68 degrees and 68 - 70 percent RH, I needed the ability to cool and heat my wineador. I accomplished this by building a temperature controller that I can set to any temperature desired.
I used an off the shelf controller with 2 embedded relays, 2 miniature power supply’s, switches, power lamps, fuses and line cord. The wineador actually plugs into the back of my controller and is controlled by the ‘cool’ relay. There is a 12v circuit using the other relay, 12v power supply 2 and a small lamp for the heat circuit. The lamp is connected via a small ribbon cable and sits on the bottom of the wineador. The off the shelf controller thermistor resides within the wineador as well. Main power, power supply 1 and power supply 2 all have an associated switch, fuse and power lamp.
The main internal controller has a cool and heat indicator that illuminates when heat or cooling are called for. This controller also has a digital readout in centigrade to display the current temperature. Another nice feature of this controller is you can set the cool/ heat temperature offset so the wineador isn’t constantly cycling between heating and cooling. The humidity seems to stay at a relatively stable 70%, but I keep a Cigar Oasis inside set to 68%.
All in all, took a while to work out the schematic, acquire the parts and assemble the unit. But it works great and my sticks are safe and aging beautifully. Now to see if I can figure out how to post pics with this thread! ??
