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Circulation fans

Gator

Gator

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2005
Messages
2,173
I have noticed some dry wrappers, yet my calibrated hygrometer holds steady 65-67%. I think the problem i have is circulation, so are they small battery powered circulation fans? I also plan to add more beads in different locations in my coolidors. thanks
Frank
 
Hurts me deeply to help a Gator...lol! Oust fan, available at Target, Wally World, etc....just don't put the smelly stuff in it. They work great.


edited for spelling
 
Jack Straw said:
Hurts me deeply to help a Gator...lol! Oust fan, available at Target, Wally World, etc....just don't put the smelly stuff in it. They work great.
Click to expand...


I agree 100% with this. I went without for a long time and when I finally purchased a couple they worked out perfectly... They cycle on for 5min and then off for 15min and repeat... battery life is excellent as well...
 
I was thinking about this as well, and thought that someone out there has enough of a grasp on electronics that they could come up with a cpu fan that cycles and runs off a watch style battery. Come on, someone out there could do it.

Tim
 
Small computer fans rigged to a 24/7 timer works great. I'm sure the oust fan will work but on 5 mins and off 10 means you'll be pushing air around your humidor 8 hours a day. Thats a lot of air being pushed over your cigars IMO. The 24 hour timer I use allows me to set it to come on any 10 minute period of the day. I have it come on once every 6 hours for a 10 minute cycle and has worked like a charm for me.
 
What is the theory, exactly for using circulation fans? Is it humidity non-uniformity in the storage vessel? Considering that the more humid is the air, the less dense it is (and thus has a tendency to rise) I suppose a fan might make sense. I've found that in my 48 qt coolers, the humidity varies less than 1% from the top to the bottom. That's for 1 foot of depth. This suggests to me that this should not be a significant mechanism for having dry cigars here and supple cigars there.

Frank, is there a pattern to where you are finding the well and the poorly humidified cigars? Are you sure that it is an issue of humidity?

Wilkey
 
Ginseng said:
What is the theory, exactly for using circulation fans? Is it humidity non-uniformity in the storage vessel? Considering that the more humid is the air, the less dense it is (and thus has a tendency to rise) I suppose a fan might make sense. I've found that in my 48 qt coolers, the humidity varies less than 1% from the top to the bottom. That's for 1 foot of depth. This suggests to me that this should not be a significant mechanism for having dry cigars here and supple cigars there.

Frank, is there a pattern to where you are finding the well and the poorly humidified cigars? Are you sure that it is an issue of humidity?

Wilkey
Click to expand...

Pretty much. Before I put a computer fan in the Vino-Dor the difference between the top and bottom ranged as much as 5%. With the fans it is 1-2%.
 
sinnyc said:
Ginseng said:
What is the theory, exactly for using circulation fans? Is it humidity non-uniformity in the storage vessel? Considering that the more humid is the air, the less dense it is (and thus has a tendency to rise) I suppose a fan might make sense. I've found that in my 48 qt coolers, the humidity varies less than 1% from the top to the bottom. That's for 1 foot of depth. This suggests to me that this should not be a significant mechanism for having dry cigars here and supple cigars there.

Frank, is there a pattern to where you are finding the well and the poorly humidified cigars? Are you sure that it is an issue of humidity?

Wilkey
Click to expand...

Pretty much. Before I put a computer fan in the Vino-Dor the difference between the top and bottom ranged as much as 5%. With the fans it is 1-2%.
Click to expand...
5% wetter at the top?

Wilkey
 
Ginseng said:
sinnyc said:
Ginseng said:
What is the theory, exactly for using circulation fans? Is it humidity non-uniformity in the storage vessel? Considering that the more humid is the air, the less dense it is (and thus has a tendency to rise) I suppose a fan might make sense. I've found that in my 48 qt coolers, the humidity varies less than 1% from the top to the bottom. That's for 1 foot of depth. This suggests to me that this should not be a significant mechanism for having dry cigars here and supple cigars there.

Frank, is there a pattern to where you are finding the well and the poorly humidified cigars? Are you sure that it is an issue of humidity?

Wilkey
Click to expand...

Pretty much. Before I put a computer fan in the Vino-Dor the difference between the top and bottom ranged as much as 5%. With the fans it is 1-2%.
Click to expand...
5% wetter at the top?

Wilkey
Click to expand...

That has been my experience. I dumped the fans, though, and just store my Pepins on the bottom where the humidity hovers around 60% and store everything else above where the range is between that and the 65% at the top.
 
I have the same experience, Wilkey. I use the Vinotemp and I have 65 beads at the bottom of the unit. Before I added the fan to circulate air upwards, I had a variation of a MINUMUM of 5%. All the cigars on the top shelf were crispy while the bottom being supple. All of my experiences have been that the wetter air settles at the bottom, FWIW.

P.S. this is even buffered with all of the sticks in boxes. The fan I've added has REALLY made a difference as far as keeping things even and consistent. I did find, also, that the OUST fan SUCKED. It moved about as much air as your breath when you exhale. I ended up hard wiring an IFAN to a simple timer and run in for 30 minutes about every 3 or 4 hours. Works like a charm.
 
Ginseng said:
snip> I've found that in my 48 qt coolers, the humidity varies less than 1% from the top to the bottom. That's for 1 foot of depth. <snip

Wilkey
Click to expand...

One more thing Wilkey...this is also true with my wineodor...there is little to no variation until it reaches 2 feet in depth. I am meticulous and use 3 or 4 calibrated hygros. Only the top 6 inches or so is drastically different, the bottom 20 inches is consistent.
 
MX said:
I was thinking about this as well, and thought that someone out there has enough of a grasp on electronics that they could come up with a cpu fan that cycles and runs off a watch style battery. Come on, someone out there could do it.

Tim
Click to expand...
Can't do it for the cost of an Oust fan.

PC fans are +12V so it'll take enough watch batteries to generate +12. You could "undervolt" the fan, but it'll run slow and perhaps not start predictably with a lower voltage. Then, you need a timer; you could go the "nice" route and use a small uController or the "quick and dirty" analog route and use a good old 555 timer IC and a handful of passive components, but you have to power the timer, put the timer parts on something, enclose the circuit board and batteries, etc.

....did I mention you can't do it for the cost of an Oust fan..??... :laugh:

Regards - B.B.S.

Edit - typos.....
 
rectifythis said:
Ginseng said:
snip> I've found that in my 48 qt coolers, the humidity varies less than 1% from the top to the bottom. That's for 1 foot of depth. <snip

Wilkey
Click to expand...

One more thing Wilkey...this is also true with my wineodor...there is little to no variation until it reaches 2 feet in depth. I am meticulous and use 3 or 4 calibrated hygros. Only the top 6 inches or so is drastically different, the bottom 20 inches is consistent.
Click to expand...

Do you use a fan in your Wine-o-dor?
 
HERE is the fan I used in my wineodor. Fan was on sale for $1 at Wally World (normally $5), old adjustable voltage wall wart I had around the house (free but you could get one for $10-20?) and a timer I had ($10 if you had to buy). I had all this laying around so it was free. That Ifan moves ALOT of air!
 
Just to be clear, my humidity is lower at the BOTTOM of the humidor. I'm using 2lbs of 65% beads evenly disbursed throughout the unit.

I no longer use the cooling feature essentially making my wine fridge a very fancy looking cooler. When I did use the cooling, the condensation created by the fridge would cause the humidity in the lower part of the fridge to increase. I found this was due to the increased cooling in the bottom third of the fridge creating a greater amount of condensation in that area. I ran a fan while using the cooling to even out the readings.

Since I stopped using the cooling, the humidity has acted as I described earlier. 60-62% in the bottom third and 64-65% up top. I could even it out, I suppose, but I've just learned to deal with it. It's really quite stable in regards to fluctuations. Each and every time I check the properly calibrated gauges, they're exactly the same as they always are. It's really solid.

Right now, the basement (where the unit is located) is sitting right at about 25% humidity and the humi is the same as always. Of course, I don't open it very much, so that helps.
 
Interesting. That makes sense. Now that you say that, I realize that the lower 20 inches of my unit is where the physical condensation is always cycling. The top 6 inches is above the cooling unit, and above all condensation. The top 6 inches is also where I had issues.
 
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