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My Second Attempt at tthe GREATEST IDEA EVER!

B

bkc888

New Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2007
Messages
58
Summer is coming along and the fear of high temperature is on my mind. The cabinet humidor I have is the Tower of Power from here: http://www.cigarbid.com/auction/lot.cfm?lotID=429498


Thermoelectric Units are pretty expensive if one tries to buy them through sites on Google. So I thought of ripping out the TEC unit from a wine cooler such as this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-AVANTI-WCP8-8-BOTT...1QQcmdZViewItem

and mounting it on top of the humidor.

Luckily I found that wine cooler for $50 on craigslist. The seller scammed me though because it was broken! But luckily it was just the cold sink fan mount that broke...must have been dropped pretty hard for that to happen though...everything else seemed to be in great working order. The Peltier had no problems and etc.. etc... However, the cold sink fan seemed to be unbalanced as it produces a lot of vibrations! Can always order a new one from avanti parts.

Here is some crappy picture of me taking apart the cooler. Sorry that I couldn't be more detailed in the step by step:

This is what is seen after back cover which I EASILY removed:
S1030122.jpg


Heat sink with the control board:
S1030118.jpg


Cold Sink that is on the other side:
S1030120.jpg


This is whole board about 2.5 inches thick with insulating foam:
S1030119.jpg


Remote...it even shows the time!
S1030117.jpg


Temperature sensor...little to close to the Cold Sink i think...:
S1030125-1.jpg


The top of my cabinet has a hole...I have no idea why its there but it works out for me in mounting the TEC on top(BTW the hygrometer is off by -10):
S1030128.jpg



Inside the hole is a gap of around 3.5 inches. Perfect to fit the TEC!:
S1030129.jpg




There is an extra slot on the control board that was used to connect a light. I was thinking of using that slot to connect an extra fan. How would I find out what kind of connector that is...?:
S1030118-1.jpg


What do you guys think?

I need to make a cover for the Cold Side to concentrate the airflow more on the cold sink. I hope the stock fan can move the warm air in the humidor fast enough over the cold sink. If not does anyone have any helpful ideas?

I also know condensation will be an issue and I will prepare for a drip pathway...into my Cigar Oasis maybe? Wouldn't that be awesome haha.


Will begin cutting tomorrow and tell you how effective it is in cooling the cabinet :).
 
Cool,

I think you may have some success there. Not sure if you will get the whole thing cool or not but it will be a fun project.

Look here for your fan fan

I hear Avanti has very slow customer service. The fan is just slow speed DC fan, I just ordered two 25 cfm 80 mm fans from the above with a DC power spply for my wine cooler project, they are fast and not too expensive. Plus the fans are way quieter than the Avanti's stock fan. I can find the model # if you are interested, I think it was like $6.

cool idea.

see ya

Mike
 
How will you insure that the fins will not condense? Or is that a consideration?

Wilkey
 
Ginseng said:
How will you insure that the fins will not condense? Or is that a consideration?

Wilkey
Click to expand...


As long as I can move enough warm air that is inside the humidor over the cold sink it shouldn't be to bad. And if it is a problem... I was thinking of having a drip pathway into my Cigar Oasis :) or into a bowl.


AKmik said:
Cool,

I think you may have some success there. Not sure if you will get the whole thing cool or not but it will be a fun project.

Look here for your fan fan

I hear Avanti has very slow customer service. The fan is just slow speed DC fan, I just ordered two 25 cfm 80 mm fans from the above with a DC power spply for my wine cooler project, they are fast and not too expensive. Plus the fans are way quieter than the Avanti's stock fan. I can find the model # if you are interested, I think it was like $6.

cool idea.

see ya

Mike
Click to expand...

Yea I don't know how effective the TEC unit will be but there will be room for two TECs if one is not enough.

Wow that website looks awesome! If you still have the model number it would be appreciated. Thanks so much!
 
Bkc,

Here's the fan I bought Fan

I bought two of the 80mm fans and this power supply Power

With a splitter to run both fans, I plan on using a timex digital timer from Target which is $12. I have not picked up the timer yet but it is capable of 48 cycles in a 7 day period. I am planning on setting it to cycle for a few minutes every couple hours. Right now I am in the process of lining the wine cooler with cedar. I will post the complete set up with pics in a couple days if I can wrap it up before the stork arrives.

But a quick run down,It is a Vinotemp 28TEDS cooler, which holds 64f nice and steady, cedar lined and regulated by 1lb(for now) of 65%Heartfelt beads with the two circulation fans. I am still trying to decide on how many singles drawers I want.

I think the beads will be fine, here in my house in FL the cabinet is at 64f and 58%RH with nothing in it and it has been extremely stable for the last five days. Zero condensation and I have only seen a 2% swing in RH since I plugged it in, I think this is due to the unit cycling. All in all I think this set up will be perfect for my needs.

Let me know if you need more of the cooling info, I can e mail you my invoice for my whole set up if you want, I spent a total of $32.08 for the whole air circulation set up, plus shipping.

Another thing you should check, the controll board on the Avanti cooler I sent back had a slot for a fourth fan, that one could be plugged in along with the others to provide additional air movement without needing an additional DC power supply.

See ya
Mike
 
Will the TEC be totally contained in the Humi? If so it will not work correctly, you need to be able to exhaust the Warm air from the warm side in order to produce an equal but opposite effect on the cold side. If the warm side is enclosed in the Humi with the cold side they will cancel eachother out and condensation will be much more than your Oasis can handle.....
 
ddepaola said:
Will the TEC be totally contained in the Humi? If so it will not work correctly, you need to be able to exhaust the Warm air from the warm side in order to produce an equal but opposite effect on the cold side. If the warm side is enclosed in the Humi with the cold side they will cancel eachother out and condensation will be much more than your Oasis can handle.....
Click to expand...


Yea I am cutting a hole on top of the humidor. The foam that is already on there will insulate nicely.
 
You wouldn't want to drip into the oasis since the condensed water is not ideal, as opposed to distilled water.
 
Do all wine coolers use the TEC Peltier cooling system?
If so, I'm might get on off of craigslist too.

Steve
 
I have the same humidor that you do and just installed my second TEC into it and may need a third. Even running them all the time here in South Florida it still only stays around 72-74 at night and 75-77 in the day. My house goes from about 80 in the day to 75 at night unless its really cold out then the house goes to say 68.

I may end up with four of these damn things in there :(

In fact I just installed the second one yesterday and its not doing anything to help much. I noticed that on the temp controlled ones for sale they insulate them like a fridge. I see you and I have the same humidor. To tell you the truth it may take 4 or 5 TE devices to cool this cabnet unless we want to pay like 1500 bucks and get a huge TE pro made device. I have been taking my TE units from Coleman coolers. They are a good size and move lots of cold air.

But not having the humidor insulated is just making cooling it a nightmare. Also the tall narrow design of our humidors is the worst shape to try and do this.
 
Just to save you a bunch of time and pain. One of those isn’t going to do a thing. You need to insulate the back panel and use at least 3 of them. That’s what I did and we have the same unit. With three it’s just now starting to cool down. I will end up installing another two of them in a week for a total of 5. To see pics go here http://www.flickr.com/photos/23561842@N02/

Sorry for the buzz kill just trying to help you out.
 
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