Question for Wine-ador owners

[James4226c]

I was searching the forums and couldn't find any info on my question so this is a two part question.

First, has the following question been brought up before; if so just say yes and DONT tell me where so I can learn to search better.

My Main question: I want to do a condensation reroute seen here link
but on Heartfelt it says "anything other than distilled water will ultimately ruin the beads. All the impurities in tap water will be drawn in by the beads and remain there. Ultimately the beads will get plugged up and not work anymore."

Are there any impurities in the condensation water that will ruin the beads?

 

[klipsch]

My experience...has been that if you don't have too drastic a difference in ambient and interior temps, you won't see alot of condensation. My weight room hits 90 degrees when the AC isn't on. This is where I primarily had my EdgeStar when I set it up. I was getting puddles of condensation at the bottom of the unit, and eventually moved it to my bedroom which gets no warmer than maybe 78 degrees. Condensation problem solved...at least in my instance.
Let me touch on something else I experienced with large differences in ambient and interior temps. First...rerouting any condensation to the beads isn't going to hurt. The moisture is coming from an environment that's humidity is created from distilled water. So the condensation is basically going to be identical to the environment it's created in. The bigger problem is going to be maintaining RH%. My experience was that when I was trying to keep the cooler at 70 degrees in a 90 degree room...it was constantly cycling. I did maintain the 70 temp, but also produced a lot of condensation which was rerouted back to beads at the bottom of the cooler, AND because the fan was running constantly...the RH% wouldn't come up above something like 55% with more than a pound of 65% beads in the cooler. Once I moved the cooler to my bedroom...the cooler hasn't risen above 68 degrees and holds steady at 64% - 66% RH. Hope that helps...

 

[vinnyvega]

My experience...has been that if you don't have too drastic a difference in ambient and interior temps, you won't see alot of condensation. My weight room hits 90 degrees when the AC isn't on. This is where I primarily had my EdgeStar when I set it up. I was getting puddles of condensation at the bottom of the unit, and eventually moved it to my bedroom which gets no warmer than maybe 78 degrees. Condensation problem solved...at least in my instance.
Let me touch on something else I experienced with large differences in ambient and interior temps. First...rerouting any condensation to the beads isn't going to hurt. The moisture is coming from an environment that's humidity is created from distilled water. So the condensation is basically going to be identical to the environment it's created in. The bigger problem is going to be maintaining RH%. My experience was that when I was trying to keep the cooler at 70 degrees in a 90 degree room...it was constantly cycling. I did maintain the 70 temp, but also produced a lot of condensation which was rerouted back to beads at the bottom of the cooler, AND because the fan was running constantly...the RH% wouldn't come up above something like 55% with more than a pound of 65% beads in the cooler. Once I moved the cooler to my bedroom...the cooler hasn't risen above 68 degrees and holds steady at 64% - 66% RH. Hope that helps...

Good info here! And I thought that only happened to me. I wish this was posted a year and a half ago. It would have saved me a lot of, "WTF am I doing wrong?"

Good chit Walt!!

 

[Goldie]

I just looked in my Vino on Tuesday and saw two drops of condensation running down the back of the unit. The ambient temp in my bedroom where the Vino sits fluctuates quite a bit because our house faces East, so when the sun comes up, we get every single ray of sunlight beating down on the front of our house. So I try to keep the Vino around 68, and unfortunately even with the AC running, our bedroom can still hit 82 on a hot day.

I'm not sure if I will start to see more condensation, as I just added another half pound of 65% beads, so I will need to keep an eye on it for sure. I don't want a tropical rain forest ecosystem going on. But I have seen only those two small drops of condensation. I'm no scientist, but I would think that the condensation would be alright, if it has impurities, I wouldn't imagine that it would be anything like what you get from the tap. But, I would wait for someone a little more educated on science/chemistry to chime in. Blindedbyscience might be a good contact. He's a smart cat from what I have read of his in depth posts.

Either way, good luck with your cool-a-dor. For me, it was a great solution for storage.

EDIT- I accidentally typed that I keep the Vino at 78, rather than 68.

 

[James4226c]

...First...rerouting any condensation to the beads isn't going to hurt. The moisture is coming from an environment that's humidity is created from distilled water. So the condensation is basically going to be identical to the environment it's created in...

Thats what I was thinking, but I just wanted confirmation from someone who has been doing it for a while.

My Vino sits in my bedroom where there is no direct sunlight and on a good day ranges from 70 in the morning then about 75+ at the hottest part of the day. but on a bad day its 2-3 degrees warmer. just got my vino to have 65-67 24/7. Looking at my makeshift reroute system I got about 1.5 tsp of condensation after 24 hours

 

[wkoti]

Take a 100qt cooler, fill it with water, throw your cigars in. Put it in the garage, whenever anyone asks for clarification on your technique, AVOID the question with hostility. Remember the number one rule of dealing, don't smoke your own stuff! :whistling:

/Adding no useful information to this thread :laugh:

 

[Chemyst]

Condensation is distilled water. The only impurities could be from the
surface the condensation forms on. If you wipe down the surface once
or twice, it should remove most impurities. Than a reroute of the
condensate into your beads, should cause zero problems.

Actually, I've found that Klipsch's advice is how my setup works.
I don't get condensation. When the house temp gets up to 75, or
so, I turn on the Vino and rh stays nice and constant all summer
long. It's humid here on the East Coast in the summer, but the
beads buffer rh well, and the Vino holds 67 Degrees like a dream.
We keep the house A/C at 77 deg.

My Hygroset reads 68/68 right now. I haven't touched the setup in weeks,
even to add water. Using 70% beads.

I love my VinoTemp 28TEDS!

Chemyst