Cigar Weekly

althekillr · 09-27-2004, 08:08 PM

I have a sunbeam fridgeador from home depot, as well as a radio shack hygrometer with 3 sensors. I finally came to the conclusion that in my wine fridge you cannot control the ambient (outside the cigar boxes) humidty, but what really counts was the humidity inside the cigar boxes. I ran a bunch of tests with a bunch of variables.

1. always had one control sensor in the ambient environement

2. put one sensor in a dress box
3. put one sensor in a unvarnished cab
4. put one sensor in a varnished cab.

I ran experiements 3-4 times each with the following differences

a. with a standard ziploc bag
b. double bagged ziploc bags
c. with the thicker walled freezer bags.

quick summary on the results is in a standars ziploc bag, the humidity inside the dress box would fluctuate along with the ambient rh, but not as much. When the humidity dropped from 66-51, the humidity inside the dress box, inside the ziploc bag, would drop from 66-59. This within a half hour period. I was supriesed at how permeable the ziploc bag was toward humidity. I think Prflani covered this in a previous post where he said standard ziploc bags were almost useless, which I didn't belive at the time, but can now see. When I double bagged the dress boxes, there was almost no fluctation in humidity inside the dress box. I also found the freezer bags are almost as effective as double bagging the regular bags.

oh and I did modify my fridge a bit.
Thanks to moondoggie helping me, I wired my 2 30 cfm fans, into the compressor, so they wouldl only kick on when the compressor kicked on. I also attached a thin piece of blue insualtion material to the back of the fridge where the cold plate was, to make the temp changes more gradual, and hopefully less condensation, which did help alot. a continuing project, but a bit closer.

09-27-2004, 08:08 PM	#1
althekillr Club Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Cancuuuuuuuuun Posts: 1,506	Experiments with Fridgeador I have a sunbeam fridgeador from home depot, as well as a radio shack hygrometer with 3 sensors. I finally came to the conclusion that in my wine fridge you cannot control the ambient (outside the cigar boxes) humidty, but what really counts was the humidity inside the cigar boxes. I ran a bunch of tests with a bunch of variables. 1. always had one control sensor in the ambient environement 2. put one sensor in a dress box 3. put one sensor in a unvarnished cab 4. put one sensor in a varnished cab. I ran experiements 3-4 times each with the following differences a. with a standard ziploc bag b. double bagged ziploc bags c. with the thicker walled freezer bags. quick summary on the results is in a standars ziploc bag, the humidity inside the dress box would fluctuate along with the ambient rh, but not as much. When the humidity dropped from 66-51, the humidity inside the dress box, inside the ziploc bag, would drop from 66-59. This within a half hour period. I was supriesed at how permeable the ziploc bag was toward humidity. I think Prflani covered this in a previous post where he said standard ziploc bags were almost useless, which I didn't belive at the time, but can now see. When I double bagged the dress boxes, there was almost no fluctation in humidity inside the dress box. I also found the freezer bags are almost as effective as double bagging the regular bags. oh and I did modify my fridge a bit. Thanks to moondoggie helping me, I wired my 2 30 cfm fans, into the compressor, so they wouldl only kick on when the compressor kicked on. I also attached a thin piece of blue insualtion material to the back of the fridge where the cold plate was, to make the temp changes more gradual, and hopefully less condensation, which did help alot. a continuing project, but a bit closer.