Among all the people who have a Vinotemp cellar, has anyone experienced some humidity problems? I can't get over 40% even with 2 bowls of water at the bottom... Thanks for any tips.
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Posts: 654 | Location: Chicago | Registered: Sep 05, 2006
Since no one else has chimed in... I can't speak specifically about the Vinotemps, but I have a Eurocave and it hovers consistently around 50% humidity (and that is with the built hygrometry). I have a bowl of water in the bottom as well. My understanding is that the level has quite a bit to do with the humidity of the room. I know my house where I have my cellar is quite dry. Most opinions seem to be that the most important factor in the storage is the constant temperature, not so much the humidity.
Posts: 18 | Location: McLean, VA | Registered: Jan 22, 2007
well the problem is that if your cellar is too dry then the corks of your bottles are eventually going to shrink leading your bottles to leak, oxidize... So maintaining a decent level of humidity is very important.
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Posts: 654 | Location: Chicago | Registered: Sep 05, 2006
Among all the people who have a Vinotemp cellar, has anyone experienced some humidity problems? I can't get over 40% even with 2 bowls of water at the bottom... Thanks for any tips.
How old is the unit? What is the ambient temp? Humidity usually works with temp. setting and ambient. What is the temp. setting?
If the unit has a freon leak, it will not increase the humidity.
There is no freon in the Vinotemp cellars, at least I don't think so. Unit is 4 months old and temp is set a 52. They say it is supposed to maitain humidity, well that's BS.
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Posts: 654 | Location: Chicago | Registered: Sep 05, 2006
My wine room has an 800 bottle capacity and the cinderblock walls are lined with 2 inches of foam. My unit manages to keep things cool enough but apparently the insulation is insufficient to keep the temps above 55 in winter. The temps hover between 53 and 56. Lower temps allow less humidity. If I could raise the temp a few degrees the humidity would rise also. My humidity is now 60 %, but only after open containers of water in strategic places. A nice trick is to take a 5 gallon bucket and half fill it with hot water from a tub faucet and place it on the floor. Your humidity will jump 4-5% and maintain for 24 hours. I do it every day in cold winter.
Dick
Posts: 2027 | Location: Delaware | Registered: Jun 21, 2002
Originally posted by french16: well the problem is that if your cellar is too dry then the corks of your bottles are eventually going to shrink leading your bottles to leak, oxidize... So maintaining a decent level of humidity is very important.
I don't know how true that it since the corks are kept wet if they are stored on their sides.
Posts: 316 | Location: Carlsbad, CA | Registered: Oct 18, 2001
Originally posted by french16: There is no freon in the Vinotemp cellars, at least I don't think so. Unit is 4 months old and temp is set a 52. They say it is supposed to maitain humidity, well that's BS.
what model do you have? is it a wine cellar or a portable wine chiller?
also pay attention to Mr. Cabernet's statement, i agree with him on that point.
I'm not very familiar with Vinotemp's Wine-Mate cooling units, but in our wine cabinets we've found that 1. raising the temperature and 2. reducing the cycle times by increasing the thermal mass inside the wine cabinet, results in increased humidity inside the cabinet. Good luck!
Le Cache Premium Wine Cabinets / www.LE-CACHE.com
Posts: 6 | Location: San Francisco | Registered: Feb 22, 2005
