Bart's New Vinotemp Project

[Bartolomeo]

Pic of the Oasis and fan



Bottom view of the set up



Starting the whole process over again



Threw some beads in to start the process but the rest of the beads are in the Tupperware with the smokes, resting until Vino is up and fully functional



Last picture for now, will post more soon after I throw the smokes in there

[bvilchez]

Looking good, lookin good

[Mirrorlure7m]

Please keep Us updated ....

[Bartolomeo]

Update on Humidor:

Had the RH and Temp levels where I wanted them but had a issue with the condensation occuring, so I wanted to fix that issue and move forward. Here are some random pics and comments

-My goal is to have all of my crap on the floor to be below the second notch up, so I can put my shelves in when they are ready, so basically nothing above that height is my plan, so far so good

-I have about 3.5 lbs of beads in the humi spread out in bags, Overkill I know, but it will keep the RH more stable when opening/closing the humi

-I have 4 different brands of Hygrometers but all are accurate so I cant complain



I use to get that fine dust from the beads so I came up with a solution that works for me. I take the beads and put them in a strainer to shake out the excess small particles which helps reduce the fine dust you some time see in your humidor. You lose about 1-2% but not a big deal when you have no more dust


Pic of the leftovers in the sink


Some humidity sheets I got from Heartfelt, I was originally going to use it to suck the excess condensation but dont like that idea now b/c of possible mildew/mold problems down the road


Bought a thin, rubber cutting board @ Walmart to shape a funnel to drain the excess condensation down the middle of the exisitng channel, used Black duct tape to help. Its important when you do this, to keep the original ridges along the side of the channel so the condensation doesnt spill on either side. The White cutting board was an exact shape of the channel to help out.


Bought a butter dish to collect the condensation as an experiement. I dried my 65% beads completely White so they could suck up all of the moisture. The cutting board drains into the butter dish, I use a stick or a pen to move the beads around once in a while to make sure all moisture in the dish is equal. I then moved my fan to blow on the channel and bead dish to help dry it out, this has helped immensely. I like this dish b/c its clear and I can see whats going on, I have a bigger one but its White.

[Bartolomeo]

Fan on top of beads blowing down on bead dish, I need to rework this to clean it up a little bit

[Bartolomeo]

Cutting board I used b/c I couldnt find any of the binder page dividers others here use


Dymo Letra Label maker I use to band all of my singles along with the Heartfelt bands

[Bartolomeo]

Waiting for their new mansion to be ready




Beads before I put the fan on them

Looks great, when are you adding the sticks?

[kelmac07]

Waiting to see it full of sticks!!

[Bartolomeo]

Here is an update on my humi:

-My Vino ideal range is 62-65%RH and 65-67* Temp, currently I am achieving this since 95% of my smokes are CC and I have found they like a lower RH than the NC

-I have a fan blowing up @ the front glass of the Vino and a fan on the top shelf blowing towards the front glass for great airflow, I have found the added airflow benefits my Vino rather than just using the original fan the Vino came with

-I have farted around with this Vino the last couple of weeks and definitely overanalyzed everything ol: but got it where I want/need it for my evergrowing stash

-I put a board in front of the Vino fan to help spread the air out a little more and really like this idea, this will allow me to put boxes directly in front/top/bottom of the fan and not have to worry about it. There is enough room between the board and fan as well. The middle section of the fan sucks air in where the four sides blow the cool air out, learned that as well. Also with the board, I am able to push the Vino metal shelf all of the way back, so I am not eliminating any room using the board

-I took the Heartfelt beads out of my condensation tray b/c it would be non distilled water accumulating in there and making a mess, this way I just dump it every couple of days/weeks depending on how much is in there

-The fans and Vino are plugged into an surge protector, which is plugged into the Ranco temp controller, so all three run at the same time and no need for a timer for the two fans

-I am waiting on shelves/drawers so will use boxes and cedar trays for now

-I replaced my Oasis sponge with water beads

-I will post pics of the smokes very soon

-I tried the following scenarios with no luck......unplugged w/ no fan, unplugged w/ fan, plugged w/ no fan, plugged w/ fan.........This is located in my office on the second floor in my NC home, it does get hot here but the room temp avg is about 73* during day and 71* at night in the Summer

-I left the hole at the bottom of the Vino open, to let the Vino "breathe" if you will

-It looks messy right now but it will be cleaned up when the shelves/drawers get here

-Again, I overanalyzed everything but it works correctly and thats what was most important to me

Thanks,

Bart

[Bartolomeo]

[Bartolomeo]

[captain53]

Welcome to the vino-sicko club with the rest of us!

[Ferrari5180]

Nice job! Keep up the good work. It is looking really nice.

[s15driftking]

while i can appreciate the "want" to do something new... i fail to see why you are going through such a hassle/process to perfect a system that is nearly flawless from the get-go. I bought a vino, got soem trays from Chasen, and stuck a cigar oasis in it... And its worked PERFECTLY without any issues... again, im nto here to criticize... im just wondering why you would spend all that time and money chopping up and modifying your vino so that at the end of the say it humidifies cigars.... like mine does.

[gettysburgfreak]

man that is one high tech vino. I just put simple cedar shelves in mine with half a pound of beads and its a rock at 70% in my basement.

[Bartolomeo]

I tried the simple and regular routes, they didnt work thus is why i had to alter the Vino a little bit to get the ideal conditions. Not everybody can plug and play and it works out of the box, it all depends on your conditions. I appreciate all of the feedback

Bart

[Bartolomeo]

These are some pics from a "friend" and some cigars he has in his Vino......

Bart

[Bartolomeo]

[Bartolomeo]

Well, its been a long journey but here are some pics of my Vino with new Chasden shelves and drawers along with my new cigars. There is a glass top to these cedar lined drawers that maintains the temp and RH nicely and prevents sudden spikes when opening and closing the Vinotemp

Enjoy!

Bart




Singles Drawer with HDM, Monte and Boli