Using a mini-fridge (with thermostat controller) as a cellar

griffonwing · May 17, 2016

So. A thermostat controller that goes between the outlet and the fridge plug. Thermostat goes in the fridge. Once the thermometer gets above 67, fridge comes on. This will keep the inside at a perfect cellar temperature.
Now, what about the humidity. Would the minifridge create water vapor? Would I have to have moisture containers in the cellar at all times to remove it? Would this be a viable solution to keeping a stable cellar in an otherwise too-warm environment?

madmurdoc · May 17, 2016

I don't think a mini fridge would be necessary unless you live in kuwait or something. A dark room temp cabinet should do fine i think.

griffonwing · May 17, 2016

I currently live in a room with a sun-facing wall. It gets decently warm in my room. I will soon be living in an RV that I will be remodeling and renovating. I think, for my tobacco's sake, that I get something that will at least maintain their temp, apart from sealing them in a cooler and burying them in a hole in the ground.

madmurdoc · May 17, 2016

I would do some searching online abiut if it's a good way to store it. I faintly remember reading somewhere that storing tobacco in a fridge is bad but i cant be 100 percent sure at this hour. Better to be safe than lose all your Nightcap. From what i can recall it dries tobacco out for some reason or something.

madmurdoc · May 17, 2016

Dug this up.
Storing your Nightcap

griffonwing · May 17, 2016

I saw that thread before. However, fridge temperatures are constantly between 37 and 41 degrees. This is way too cold for tobacco. Room temperature is between 68 and 72. My normal room temperature in my room is about 80 in the summer. This is way too hot for tobacco.
This fridge will be completely cleaned from all previous aromas, and will only be a tobacco cellar set at 67 degrees. Basically making my cellar at a consistent temperature slightly cooler than typical room.
My questions is about the humidity. Would a 67 degree fridge be suitable, or would it imitate its normal cousins in humidity?

madmurdoc · May 17, 2016

I assume that as soon as it kicks on it would be just like any other fridge. It might dry it out or might not depending on how long its on i guess. Hard to say. Ive never done anything like it.

cosmicfolklore · May 17, 2016

Mini-fridge... you won't be able to get much more than 5 lbs in there. That's not really even a year's worth.

foolwiththefez · May 17, 2016

Before investing too much in this set-up, I'd say take a cooler (even a cheap stryo foam one) and put a thermometer in it that records high and low temps. Place the cooler in your desired spot and check the high/low temps for a day or two. You might find a decent cooler is all you need.

griffonwing · May 17, 2016

Yeah, my searches have shown nothing regard this topic. I have seen wine-fridge-as-cellar topics, but not this. Thanks for your input, madmurdoc. I may call up an appliance service business and get their input.

griffonwing · May 17, 2016

Cosmic. I have a decent sized mini fridge. Its a half-fridge, actually. No freezer compartment. It should hold all of my cellar, and more for later.

Fool. Its been my experience that the inside of a cooler will acclimate to the outside temperature if there is nothing inside the cooler to maintain the cooler temp. That might work if I constantly add a small dry-ice block ti the cellar every so often, but I dont know how often I would have to watch it.

bigpond · May 17, 2016

Give it a test run with some paper inside and see if it comes out moist after a couple of days, or better yet, use some tobacco you don't care about. My suspicion is that humidity won't be an issue.
I use a similar setup for home-brew and haven't noticed any moisture issues, but I'm usually around 50f.

cosmicfolklore · May 17, 2016

Before I had my room built, I had stacks of those free coolers you get when you buy ice. They were stacked to the ceiling, and I barely had 50lbs. I would do a test run with your tobacco to see if it all fits in this fridge. I now have 135 lbs and I am constantly compacting the way I stack them to get them all into the shelves that I had built, which is an entire built-in wall system.

derfatdutchman · May 17, 2016

If you where going to store cigars in the unit I would suggest using Heartfelt Beads to control the relative humidity in the unit. The problem is you don't need 60 to 70% RH, you'll want it closer to the average RH for your area.

madmurdoc · May 17, 2016

Before I had my room built, I had stacks of those free coolers you get when you buy ice. They were stacked to the ceiling, and I barely had 50lbs. I would do a test run with your tobacco to see if it all fits in this fridge. I now have 135 lbs and I am constantly compacting the way I stack them to get them all into the shelves that I had built, which is an entire built-in wall system.

When are you hosting the smoke-in at the FDA HQ?

Using a mini-fridge (with thermostat controller) as a cellar

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