Porch Dweller's Wineador Progress

[Porch Dweller]

I decided that the heat and humidity here on the Gulf Coast warranted a little more protection for my smokes than just my humidors. As it's a few years before I'll be making the jump to an Aristocrat, I decided on a wineador.

I went with an 18-bottle NewAir. Why not 24? Because with all that extra space I'd be too tempted to fill it up.

I received the fridge a couple of days ago and gave it a wipe-down inside. Then I left the door open and kept a fan blowing into it overnight. In the morning, the "plasticy" smell was gone. I then put some electrical tape over the condensation drain hole as recommended by others here.

I'd ordered 1.5 lbs of HF beads and made a mistake - I should have just put them straight into the wineador along with a hygrometer, left them for a few hours, and seen where I needed to adjust from there. Instead, I partially wet them with some distilled water, let them sit for a bit, then put them in the wineador. They were WAY too saturated; the humidity shot up to 83%. I had to use a blow dryer to get rid of the excess.

I just now got the beads back in the wineador and plugged it in, temperature set at 65*. Cedar drawers have been ordered from cheaphumidors.com. Once I get them I'll post an update. Stay tuned...