I've noticed some labels becomming uneven and bubbly for lack of a better word. One of them came off pretty easily. Is this definately a humidity issue? I live in Houston so very hot outside and in the house during the day and notice the temp of the wine fridge will vary from 59 to 64. Will a small bowl of distilled water help with this? do I just need to turn the temp down further?
Any help insights would be appreciated. Thanks

Sounds like a too-high humidity issue, not too low. The labels might look like crap, but the wine should be fine. 64 won't hurt your wine one bit, but five-10 degrees lower will be optimal, so you might turn it lower.

With summer humidity, you might look into a new unit that regulates humidity, or offsite storage somewhere.

Some units will develop condensation if any bottles are touching the back of the unit.

I know Eurocave will do this. You might want to check on that....

If I see too much condensation in my Eurocave units, I know that I forgot to change the filter. Changing it does the trick.

quote:

Sounds like a too-high humidity issue, not too low.

Yep and I think it sounds like an insulation issue actually. Check the doors and stripping for air entry. Also, if you are opening it a lot or keeping it open for periods of time (adding bottles etc) during very hot days, condensation can happen very quickly.

Just our of curiosity, why does having the bottles touch the back of the unit cause more condensation to build up? I'm not an engineer and wasn't a physics major, so this is interesting to me. Thanks in advance! -mJ

condensation in these situations will be due to warm moist air outside the unit entering, then having the moisture condense in the cool/cold air of the unit. The cold air holds less moisture than the warm air. So turning the temperature down will only increase the amount of condensation.

If you are getting condensation you can do 1 of 2 things: decrease ambient humidity in your home or increase the temperature in your unit.

Regarding why a bottle touching the back wall will cause more build up:
think of a glass of ice water (or your favorite white wine) on a hot day. Lots of condensation will collect on the outside of the glass. In your cooling unit, the cooling coils/fins are along the back wall. This is where the 'cold' comes from and thus will be the coldest part of the unit. When a bottle touches the cold, back wall, the bottle will get colder than the air temperature. When this happens, your bottle will start to act like the glass of ice water and you will get condensation on the bottle. Now it won't be as severe as the ice water example, but it doesnt take much water over time to get a label to 'bubble' or peel up.