Boomer52
Good Friends, Good Cigars
Has this happened to anyone?
I use a Haier 18 bottle wine cooler for my cigar storage. I've had it for around 5 years without any problems. I use a salt tested and calibrated digital hygrometer to keep an eye on the humidity and 65% beads which keep things very stable.
Lately I noticed I was adding water a little more often. At first I attributed this to the warmer weather and just added water. It continued to get worse until I was adding water about every three days. My first thought was that the door seal had gone bad. I checked it and found the seal to be in good condition with no gaps or loose fitting areas. Still adding water every few days.
I started checking it every day and noticed that the condensation from the thermoelectric cooling unit, which is set up to drain back into the beads, was disappearing. The beads were dry where the condensation is supposed to run back in. I pulled the cooler away from the wall to check the back and found traces of water running down the back and some rusty spots. What was happening is every time the unit would turn on, the condensation was leaking out of the back of the unit. Just a drop or two each time it would come on, but enough to remove enough water in a few days to drop the humidity. Apparently, this has been going on for some time and getting progressively worse.
I pulled the thermoelectric cooling unit and found the seal between the unit and cooler body had deteriorated enough to allow condensation to run out of the back of the cooler. After cleaning everything, I used some silicon aquarium sealer to seal the unit in place. It’s now sitting in the garage waiting for the smell of the silicon to go away. Hopefully this will fix the problem. I will let you know in a few days.
On a positive note, it gave me the opportunity to clean all of the dust out of the cooling fans.
I use a Haier 18 bottle wine cooler for my cigar storage. I've had it for around 5 years without any problems. I use a salt tested and calibrated digital hygrometer to keep an eye on the humidity and 65% beads which keep things very stable.
Lately I noticed I was adding water a little more often. At first I attributed this to the warmer weather and just added water. It continued to get worse until I was adding water about every three days. My first thought was that the door seal had gone bad. I checked it and found the seal to be in good condition with no gaps or loose fitting areas. Still adding water every few days.
I started checking it every day and noticed that the condensation from the thermoelectric cooling unit, which is set up to drain back into the beads, was disappearing. The beads were dry where the condensation is supposed to run back in. I pulled the cooler away from the wall to check the back and found traces of water running down the back and some rusty spots. What was happening is every time the unit would turn on, the condensation was leaking out of the back of the unit. Just a drop or two each time it would come on, but enough to remove enough water in a few days to drop the humidity. Apparently, this has been going on for some time and getting progressively worse.
I pulled the thermoelectric cooling unit and found the seal between the unit and cooler body had deteriorated enough to allow condensation to run out of the back of the cooler. After cleaning everything, I used some silicon aquarium sealer to seal the unit in place. It’s now sitting in the garage waiting for the smell of the silicon to go away. Hopefully this will fix the problem. I will let you know in a few days.
On a positive note, it gave me the opportunity to clean all of the dust out of the cooling fans.