Lucifer's Wineador Adventure

[Lucifer Morningstar]

Hello!

So after much thought (over a year) I went and bought a wine cooler.
I bought a Cybercool 28 bottle. I'm not that big of a cigar smoker, so I think it will suit me for some time.

Initially, I was going to look locally for some kind of cabinet maker - and I messaged many carpenters, and cabinetmakers... none were interested at all - most never replied.
Sourcing Spanish Cedar was even harder! I did find one place, in another state that was getting some. Sure it was expensive, but that's the way it goes. Unfortunately, it being in another state makes it pointless buying it, unless of course, I plan to buy lots of it. Pricing was $5,500 per square metre. And my initial idea was 3 drawers 4 shelves.

So I messaged Forrest. I was suggested to try John at Johns Woodworks. His pricing was a bit more - but I have read how hard Forrest is to get a hold of, and how his production time leaves a lot to be desired. I'm used to paying more for quality products - so John was a clear choice. 2 drawers, 2 shelves - pricing is reasonable.

I paid John on the 1st of February, and the shipping time will be the end of February.

On to the wine cooler - upon receiving it I opened it all up. There was a bit of a plastic smell. I let it air for a few days.
Surprisingly by the end of the 1st day, it smelled of nothing. But I wasn't so sure. I cleaned it with baking soda and cold distilled water. Then I stuffed it with newspaper. After a few days with that - I let it run without anything in it. I then cleaned the baking soda powder off. It smelled of plastic still.

I put in a dish of baking soda, bicarbonate of soda, and 2 pieces of bamboo charcoal. Set a fan up on the bicarb soda dish and activated charcoal. The whole interior was covered in the bicarb. The next day I washed it. Then I left it in with the fan on the charcoal. A couple of days later the wine cooler smelled of charcoal. I let it open air for a few days.

Gosh, the plastic smell was stubborn. I had to bring the big guns out.
Washed it with Sunlight soap. A minor whiff of plastic was left after that.
Aired it for another day with charcoal in it.

Washed it a second time with Sunlight soap. Had it super sudsy. Rinsed it several times. Stuffed it with new newspaper - with wire shelves in - and 4 pieces of charcoal.

The plastic smell is finally gone.

 

After removing the newspaper mentioned above out (and shelves), I got my 2 pounds of beads, put them in their sacks, and charged them. Along with this, I placed 3 hygrometers (top, middle, bottom) on the back of the cooler attached with velcro. This is temporary and to make sure I can get the humidity right (without Boveda).



I'll monitor this over some time - probably a couple of weeks and record the data. Starting from tomorrow (I'll let it all rest overnight). Probably 4 times a day, I'll write down the recordings.

Currently, it doesn't look promising, but we'll see. I had a hard time charging the 2 smaller sacks... maybe it's because it's full to the brim. Not sure.

Edited February 4, 2017 by Lucifer Morningstar

[Lucifer Morningstar]

Temperature (from hygrometers) is holding at 19°C. I'm happy with that. Was fairly hot come the afternoon, and it staying at 19° is remarkable.

Updates
03/02/2017 Day 1 humidity:
Apparently, I over-filled them. I thought the humidity would lower overnight and, it didn't.
So I dried the beads by shoving them in the oven for an hour, and they were all white.
I sprayed each bag half a squirt, and the humidity was around 65% on the bottom (plus or minus 2%).
The top - was heaps low at 55%, so I sprayed the top bag fully once on each side and have set it there.

After about 15 minutes the top has risen to 60% and I will monitor for some more time.

The drain hole is left unplugged for now. I'm not going to do anything unless it definitely needs it. And the last thing I want is a pool of water down the bottom.
I also don't exactly want to place beads over the drain hole like some do. If I plug the hole I obviously will have to. I'm pretty firm on using distilled water as it is suggested by HFI themselves, and the stuff is like $10 for 15 litres. 

 

Humidity results can be viewed here (Google Sheets).

Update 04/02/2017
I bought another 3 pounds of beads from HFI. 
I unplugged the hole because water was there.

I decided to put the fan back on a timer (every 10 minutes into the hour for 10 minutes). This happened before 4:00PM.
Stays the same, until I decide to have the fan running 24/7
5:45PM 64/65/64 <- very happy with this result.
It fluctuates and mostly stays 65 in the middle of the cooler, top and bottom get lower.
But I keep monitoring it every 15 minutes until 6:30PM. 
I'll monitor it every 30 - 45 minutes starting at 8:30PM to see how it goes. I'll obviously stop at some stage because I do have to sleep.

I set the time on the timer to have the fan come on for 30 minutes every hour. As there is a maximum of 10 programs on the timer, the remaining (3) hours of the day has the fan come on for 1 hour.
I bought some flat USB extension cables and a better timer from Fleabay. Also, a laptop cooling pad, as the 120mm fan is a bit too low running. I might add an additional fan on the top of the cooler (with velcro!).

 

I'm not set on Heartfelt beads, and may very well fork out yet more money for HCM beads, as they apparently are superior - require no charging and come pre-charged at 65%.
Spoke with Mike at HCM at length. Had a lot of questions answered, too. I just don't want to spend more money on different beads when these seem to finally start working. I bought some more beads as I think I'll be needing them

 

Update 05/02/2017
Humidity results continue.
Apparently, according to my hygros - the humidity got up into the 90's and went as low as 40. Which annoys me.
I will probably need more beads to help with any crazy fluctuations. I may try active humidification.

Results are OK, I guess. I think bigger fans are needed, also on a timer... I have an idea of lining the gaps with some SC. Maybe a false bottom to stop any water collection messing with the humidity. It drains fairly quickly, and I see no need for plugging the hole just yet. If I do - it won't be a permanent plug until such a time as it is definitely proven that I will need to. 

Definitely an adventure. As always, thoughts, comments, suggestions, and advice is appreciated.

(Edit 5/02): Expanding on the false bottom, the bottom and middle RH's are usually a tad higher than the top. Due to the water collecting at the bottom. The false bottom may very well improve things. A false backing, or at least a somewhat covering (with room) for the cooling fan may very well help. I'd have to find something to use for both bits.

Plastics may be hard to find. Wood is out of the question for the bottom. A hole or cut-out would probably have to be used for the bottom for the water to go somewhere.
A water drainage cover could also prove useful with a false bottom (or bottom+backing both). The only idea I could see working is a shaped cover. Probably perspex (acrylic). Shaping it would be the hard bit. I'm crap when it comes to tools. 

Update 06/02/2017
Humidity results continue.
Seems to be settling down and more uniform. Once the cedar shelving/drawers come through I think it will be OK.
I'm thinking active humidification and beads as a safeguard.
I'm not too worried at this point - as if all else fails there is the option of the humidor in a wine cooler. I just need to be less of a perfectionist, as nothing will be perfect without spending thousands. 
Alternatively, I could just use it for wine and buy an actual wineador from a manufacturer such as Liebherr, or Eurocave.

OK, so it seems that the humidity is more uniform when the fans are running.
I'm quite happy with a lot of the results and have gone a bit lax on recording some of them.
With the shelving and drawers, I think the humidity readings will be more uniform, and less dramatically different. As right now - all that's in it is 3 wire shelves, 3 bags of beads, and a few of the small blue sticks of beads.

More beads are in the mail, HFI - the same, so that may make a difference. More beads = quicker recovery. Perhaps it may also mean better results.

I've made a fan mount with hot glue and screws. It's really janky as hell but it will do for the time being. Also a bit more permanent than paper clips bent into the holes. As the fans seem to be doing good work - I'm ready to step it up to better fans. Better fans will be from CoolerGuys over in the States. They come with brackets and what-not so I won't be exactly hitting against anything.

These will be bought at some stage late this month or early next month. I have some fridge aerators coming and they may very well be sufficient. 

Anyway, if the extra beads don't do much I will most likely keep the beads and buy an active humidifier - the Cigar Oasis Plus. There're some troubling reports of mould, but there's also a bunch of success reports. I think with extra beads and an active humidifier it should at least help prevent mould. I will be inspecting things on a regular schedule. I'd also like to be able to leave things weeks and not worry about humidity problems. Besides that - @PigFish uses active humidifiers.

I will keep monitoring but on a less frequent schedule. I will pick it back up again when the shelves come. I will also report back when some things arrive and will post any results. 

For now - I will leave it as-is. I'll be fiddling in the next few days wiping it down with distilled water and rubbing alcohol. Vinegar and distilled water, etc. There's a really stubborn plastic smell that came back. I want it gone for good.

[PigFish]

... the type of bead that you are using is not the problem!

-Piggy

[Lucifer Morningstar]

3 hours ago, PigFish said:

... the type of bead that you are using is not the problem!

-Piggy

 

 

What is the problem?

I'm sure I'm not the only one wanting to know what the problem truly is.

[PigFish]

On 2/2/2017 at 0:38 AM, Lucifer Morningstar said:

I'm not set on Heartfelt beads, and may very well fork out yet more money for HCM beads, as they apparently are superior - require no charging and come pre-charged at 65%.
Spoke with Mike at HCM at length. Had a lot of questions answered, too. I just don't want to spend more money on different beads when these seem to finally start working. I bought some more beads as I think I'll be needing them

... base on this, and what you wrote me in a PM, I though that my reply was more than helpful.

If you were thinking that tossing your existing desiccant buffer, and simply replacing it with that made by another maker based on a sales pitch, I would have thought that which I posted was very helpful indeed. It won't solve your problem! It will just waste your money... Helpful? I think so!

Frankly, sometimes I can spend a lot of time assessing humidor problems and bringing them to a personal level and other times I cannot. Telling me, "(I) am not much help," is not really the way to motivate me to help you! I don't often take bait...

You have several problems, one, first and foremost I will complement you on. You are looking for problems, and finding them! Yep, that's right... When you actually take the time that you have to taken to analyze a controlled humidor, an act very few people will actually take on, you will likely find them! Them being problems. I only got where I am now by having the same attitude.

The rest of the problems are far more complex. First, you are attempting to address an active cooler dehydration issue with an uncontrolled passive desiccant buffer. People all over this site and other places will swear to the fact that their coolers, just like yours, work.... But guess what? You just found out that they don't. At least not to 'your' expectations. And that is one of the problems. One of expectations and proof. Others can feel free to chime in here and tell me I am wrong, yet your post has been up for awhile and none of them seem to jumping in to say that this, what you are seeing here, 'really is working,' and you just need to lower the bar and accept it.

Engineering and the separation of humidor space from wet, dry, cold space is another issue. Without this separation, your project will never likely work (based on my assessment of working and my opinion). Is that what you wanted to hear?

My previous simple and straight forward answer is based on answering these types of questions on the forum for a very long time now. Frankly, most people don't really want to know what their problems (really) are, so unless they ask I typically will address only small specific issues that I feel like addressing. Just like I did here for you.

If you are willing to hear more on why this does not work, let me know and I will consider it when I have the time. Just post it here... There is no reason to PM me. I like to write to benefit the most people and that makes the threads a better place to communicate.

I am not going to write a new tutorial on building a controlled humidor. You tell me what is not working, or not acceptable to you and I will, if I can give you some possible solutions. Fair enough?

This is a data log I pulled from a humidor a day or so ago. This is a fully active humidor based off of a wine cooler. It is not a wine cooler with 10lbs of passive desiccant in it. It is a complex, engineered and controlled machine built for producing a cigar microclimate.

If you were under the impression that buying a TE wine cooler, putting a few shelves in it and a few pounds of desiccant makes it a humidor, then you should ask those who promote such opinions to prove their system's performance and show you how it is done. For the record, I don't build systems based on the theories that you and others are attempting. I don't think they work! No, I have looked for the problems and proved to myself that they don't work... to my level of expectation.

The most help I can be to you here and now is to break the news to you... Unless you are happy with the results you see now, you will not likely be happy with this project. The project is doing as well as the tools (the engineering and controls) you gave it to work with. We all settle somewhere.

Cheers! -Piggy

[Lucifer Morningstar]

59 minutes ago, PigFish said:

You are looking for problems, and finding them!

It's what I do. I'm a perfectionist in everything.

59 minutes ago, PigFish said:

First, you are attempting to address an active cooler dehydration issue with an uncontrolled passive desiccant buffer.

I could go with active humidification. But judging by past posts by yourself I'd also need some sort of dehumidification. There's really no way to win.

59 minutes ago, PigFish said:

But guess what? You just found out that they don't.

Mine doesn't work the way I want it to (yet)

59 minutes ago, PigFish said:

But guess what? You just found out that they don't.

There's plenty of people who have managed to get a wine cooler working with 65% RH with beads. Or even active humidification without mould (and no dehumidification).

59 minutes ago, PigFish said:

Without this separation, your project will never likely work (based on my assessment of working and my opinion). 

That statement does my head in. I find engineering hard to understand. John also had a hard time trying to get the correct measurements from me (patience of a saint). I'm not good with that sort of stuff, so layman's terms (for lack of better words) are needed when explaining technical things relating to this project.

59 minutes ago, PigFish said:

Is that what you wanted to hear?

Didn't understand it.

59 minutes ago, PigFish said:

If you are willing to hear more on why this does not work, let me know and I will consider it when I have the time. Just post it here...

Well considering the tutorial did my head in, I'd like to know why it does not work, and possible solutions on how to fix it - in idiot terms.

Assuming some extra beads in the mail won't work, I'll try a few different things. If all fails - humidor in a wine cooler!

Edited February 5, 2017 by Lucifer Morningstar
Clarification

[PigFish]

Sealed boxes in the wine cooler is an idea that does work!

5 minutes ago, Lucifer Morningstar said:

There's plenty of people who have managed to get a wine cooler working with 65% RH with beads. Or even active humidification without mould (and no dehumidification).

Hopefully one will come to your aid here!

-Piggy

[Lucifer Morningstar]

The second post has been edited for today's results (today isn't over, though).
I will keep my thoughts and results in the original 2 posts, while also replying in subsequent posts.

36 minutes ago, PigFish said:

Hopefully one will come to your aid here!

Indeed, always appreciated.

[Blazer]

While Piggy likes to tell everyone he is the smartest person in the room, unfortunately he usually is. That being said for us lower intellect, knuckle draggers I haven't found much of his engineering jargon helpful, though appreciate his efforts to try sorting out the issues for newbies with wineadors. Like you, I purchased a wineador with the hope of achieving the mythical "Rock Solid 65/65" storage environment espoused here and on every other cigar forum on the net, with little to no luck. I get pretty close in the winter when I am able to unplug the unit, but as soon as the weather turns warm and I plug the unit in I am fighting the temp/RH from top to bottom of the unit until I unplug it again. As piggy mentions, its an imperfect system and you have to come to grips with that fact. I've also heard that 2 lbs of the mythical beads will ensure your perfect 65/65, I tried them and found no better rh maintenance than with my $7 bag of kitty litter. I'm afraid its mostly trial and error based on your environment and set up. I've stopped stressing about it, do to the best I can and enjoy my cigars. Best of luck achieving nirvana.

[Lucifer Morningstar]

Second post updated with more results and musings. I may be able to achieve "close to nirvana" or at least a stable environment with fewer fluctuations, with some ideas I'm throwing out there such as active humidification with beads, etc.

As always, comments, suggestions, and advice - always appreciated. 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

Having done some more note taking and readings, it appears that there is a good humidity loss when the cooling happens - no surprise.

I've repositioned the 3 120mm fans, put one up the top of the cooler (on the roof of it) with velcro, and 2 down the bottom - it made little difference.
I now only have 2 - 1 on the roof - 1 down the bottom. I think I need either more powerful fans, or simply more fans (2 on the roof, 2 down bottom). Maybe 1 on each side - not sure.

Anyway, more beads are arriving. I was hoping they'd come this week - but no luck. I'll experiment with more beads - and hoping for quick recovery when it's cooling. I can't explain the high humidity at all. The beads seem to be drying really quickly. I'm going to try active humidification. I also have a shopping list for digital RH and temperature controlling which is plug-and-play - which makes things heaps easy for me.

I also think instead of a timer - use a repeat cycle timer. Essentially it would be running for x minutes, and off for x minutes. Timers only have a set number of programs, so it limits me a fair bit.

The humidity system is not known yet - but most likely Cigar Oasis, the Plus model. I will modify it and remove the foam and use SAP, according to a guide found on another forum. I've avoided florist foam thus far, and I see no reason to use it now. This coupled with the beads should help somewhat. I will store singles in the drawers and shelves, whilst keeping any boxes in the boxes. The Oasis will NOT be blowing directly on anything.

Tupperware is still not out of the question. Before I go that route, I want to try and make this work. Acceptable levels for me would be 60 - 69 RH, no more, no less.

As always, comments, suggestions, and advice - always appreciated. 

[LordAnubis]

Ok let me try and explain this.

Your fridge is a cycle. It has moisture in the air inside (currently its empty so only the air matters). That moisture is there because of the temperature of the air. As the air heats up, the cooler kicks in. When the cooler kicks in, water condenses on the cooling plate. Where does this water come from? The air. End result, after the cooler has turned on you have less water in the air than you did before.

Here's the thing. How fast do you think the beads can put moisture back into the air? Instantly? You'd be kidding yourself. Just cos you have a fridge full of beads doesn't mean it will immediately add moisture to the air. How fast does your fridge kick into a cooling cycle? probably 2 or 3 times an hour. Will the beads keep up? Probably not. That right there is your problem.

Will active humidification help you? Probably. Will it be the answer to rock steady humidity? No.

Most people use a fridge, and leave it unplugged. Its basically a big box, nothing more.

I have a fridge that i leave on (compressor). In summer it gets hot in my house. fridge turns on and off, humidity in the fridge goes up and down with a few bovedas and beads in it. All my cigar boxes are in ziplock bags. Inside the box the humidty does fluctuate one or 2 percent, but i'm fine with that. In winter the fridge may turn on once in a week. Humidty is steady as a rock. I know my system is not perfect. I know everyone else's systems are not perfect. Do i care? Not one bit. Do i like how my cigars smoke? Absolutely. Is that all that matters to me? Yes.

If you seek perfection... beads, cheap off the shelf hygrometers, cheap temperature gauges and beads are not what you seek.

[LordAnubis]

On 05/02/2017 at 2:14 AM, PigFish said:

Hey mate... can you show me a graph at a short time interval of this? It looks like there two or three rh spikes within a temperature spike? Is that just a humidifier working to add humidity, then stopping, and the dehumidifier dropping it down to a range?

[TheMonk]

5 hours ago, LordAnubis said:

Ok let me try and explain this.

Your fridge is a cycle. It has moisture in the air inside (currently its empty so only the air matters). That moisture is there because of the temperature of the air. As the air heats up, the cooler kicks in. When the cooler kicks in, water condenses on the cooling plate. Where does this water come from? The air. End result, after the cooler has turned on you have less water in the air than you did before.

Here's the thing. How fast do you think the beads can put moisture back into the air? Instantly? You'd be kidding yourself. Just cos you have a fridge full of beads doesn't mean it will immediately add moisture to the air. How fast does your fridge kick into a cooling cycle? probably 2 or 3 times an hour. Will the beads keep up? Probably not. That right there is your problem.

Will active humidification help you? Probably. Will it be the answer to rock steady humidity? No.

Most people use a fridge, and leave it unplugged. Its basically a big box, nothing more.

I have a fridge that i leave on (compressor). In summer it gets hot in my house. fridge turns on and off, humidity in the fridge goes up and down with a few bovedas and beads in it. All my cigar boxes are in ziplock bags. Inside the box the humidty does fluctuate one or 2 percent, but i'm fine with that. In winter the fridge may turn on once in a week. Humidty is steady as a rock. I know my system is not perfect. I know everyone else's systems are not perfect. Do i care? Not one bit. Do i like how my cigars smoke? Absolutely. Is that all that matters to me? Yes.

If you seek perfection... beads, cheap off the shelf hygrometers, cheap temperature gauges and beads are not what you seek.

 

My solution is very similar to yours, with the exception that it doesn't get too hot in the Summer in the part of the house I keep my wineador. I've had it for over 6 months now, and haven't had the need to recharge or dry my beads once, and not a drop of water from the condensation plate either. Considering all my cigars are in wooden boxes (and ziplock bags is the next step), I'm extremely happy with my solution.

I'm now a firm believer that the brand and specs of the wineador can make a huge difference when it comes to maintain RH and temperature. That being said, I have 5 pounds of beads, a dozen or so large Boveda packs, and a tray with around 15 pounds of KL on the bottom. 

[PigFish]

2 hours ago, LordAnubis said:

Hey mate... can you show me a graph at a short time interval of this? It looks like there two or three rh spikes within a temperature spike? Is that just a humidifier working to add humidity, then stopping, and the dehumidifier dropping it down to a range?

... yes I will cut you out some detail.

This too is a basically empty humidor. Not totally, because every time I have space, I move something (usually to send a cigar to someone) and get too lazy to put it back. This box now has about 6 boxes of cigars in it.

What you see is a compromise setting! Like I said we all compromise. I can tweak the differential logic down to a few thousandths, and get very little in the way of repetitive waves. The problem with this, is that I have concerns about how it will work out when the temperature rises (the ambient). You see this is a totally new design, and I always test them. This cooler may be different, and maybe I can make the change and yet still get adequate dehydration when hot and full.

So what are you looking at? These are dehydration cycles... Many of my critics tend to refuse proof of the need for dehydration cycles, yet they cannot refute them. They post me a picture of a hygrometer on a wood surface showing their 'perfect humidor.' I am afraid that always gives me a chuckle!!!

The free water here, not as much from the humidifier, but it does contribute, as the 'wet space' will never rest. Free water in a sealed vessel means a destiny (theoretical) of 100rH. All closed humidors that don't bleed water into the ambient (air exchange and diffusion loss), will only be kept in check with cooling cycles (by accident) or a deliberate dehydration cycle. End of argument, no debate, this is proof! No amount of 'witchcraft' will change this fact!

So the question for me is this. Do I continue on this path and use physics as my aid, or do I engineer and make 'micro valves' or servo controlled ducts to seal the spaces??? I will likely do just that for myself, but I always have to ask (myself) how much someone will pay for something? And my experience is that most are very happy with far cruder humidors than I make now!

Let me show you some waves!

Cheers! -Ray

[PigFish]

... more charts!

I will look for a chart showing some logic changes...

Cheers! -R

[ncardw]

Just some advice, this is what I did. Waited for my shelves to come in from John then put some distilled water in to season the wood which only took a week, then added kitty litter, about 1.5 pounds. I didn't spray any water in until after I saw what my humidity would be and then added a little water as needed. Now I know that isn't exactly a scientific way of doing it but it has worked for me. My wineador is steady at 64%. The only time it really changes is when I add a fresh box of smokes. Hope that helps. Also want to add that if you want it done the right way use @PigFish  I haven't ever had any discussions with him but I've been lurking here a long time and he's awesome at this

Nick

[Lucifer Morningstar]

Hi.

Yep, I've pretty much resigned to waiting for the shelving to come before I try and fix the fluctuations.
I wanted to at least get it stable enough so I could store some boxes before the shelves/drawers came from John. Alas, I cannot - it fluctuates too much for my liking.
So it's turned off, and the beads are out in the open, drying. 

Will update when the shelves come, or sooner if I do anything.

[dominattorney]

This makes my head spin. I use a 40 bottle wine cooler, unplugged, with a cigar oasis excel plus. It works for me. Fill that sucker about 4 times a year, and I keep a few 69 dried boveda packs in there in case it gets over humidified if the temperature rises. It may cost more money to just keep the ambient temperature in the room at 69 degrees, but it's way less of a headache. Plus, I keep the unit in my office so my boss has to pick up the tab. 

 I don't want to see a graph of the rh fluctuations. It would just cause me to worry and ultimately spend more money.

[Lucifer Morningstar]

With the extra beads, the fluctuations are actually a lot less.

For now, though - waiting for the shelving and drawers.

[Lucifer Morningstar]

So I bought a Cigar Oasis Plus. With the plus unit at the bottom - the humidity was really good except for the top - however, very minor fluctuations.
I decided to season 2 of the SC racks I bought ages ago, and re-season one of my humidor racks. I placed all 3 in the wineador and the cigar oasis in the middle.
To be honest - I'm really happy with the results. I'm still fiddling a bit here and there, but ultimately, it's good enough to the point I've placed a few sticks in there.

When the drawers and shelves come from John, it will most likely be much better than it is now. So in the end, it has come together quite nicely.
Each drawer and shelf will have Boveda packs, but they most likely won't be needed. 

I'll update if anything new pops up. 
Thanks to everyone for their comments, suggestions, and advice.

[Lucifer Morningstar]

I must say the John Nelson experience is amazing. He messaged me earlier today and said "I will probably be able to ship by the end of the week." which is always good news when things are ahead of schedule.

In other news, I now have 2 fans up top and 2 fans down bottom - both 120mm. I also put 2 Camco fridge aerators in the middle. The middle fans are really quite underpowered, so it's more of a "keeping airflow" consistent kind of thing. The humidity is holding a steady 64 - 67 throughout the fridge so I am happy with these results. The Oasis has to be set in the 60 - 62 region in order for humidity to not spike - despite the Oasis being calibrated. I'm tinkering with the positioning of it at the moment.

I put some hygrometers on the front of my trays to see any different results - these are usually +2 or -2 difference from the back of the fridge. Despite all my hygrometers being calibrated for 48+ hours the cold temperature does something to them. Anyway, results are good - once the SC shelving and drawers come I am sure the results will be even better.

I'll update if anything new pops up. 
Thanks to everyone for their comments, suggestions, and advice.

[Blazer]

John's customer service is second to none! 

[Lucifer Morningstar]

Hello.

The 2 shelves and drawers from John arrived. I would post pictures - but they're wrapped in glad-wrap with Boveda seasoning packs.
Seeing as I have a few sticks in the cooler I didn't want to mess it all up with seasoning kits. I figured glad wrap is the next best thing. I also did this with some SC racks you can buy all over the place. This will take 14 days apparently. The foam on the dividers isn't exactly stuck on much, and easily comes off. So I'll have to do something about that. Maybe super glue or something like that to make sure it stays on. 

I cut into the side of the wine cooler with my knife when removing the peg things. It's really unfortunate, but I sealed it up with some silicone. Looks ugly but will be hidden. Besides - the cooler was under $200 so I wasn't expecting metal-hard plastics.

 

After the seasoning is done - just because they were in glad-wrap I'll stick them in the wine cooler and put some distilled water dishes, and sponges on each rack to make sure they're fully hydrated. The sticks should be smoked by then. Plus the Oasis can go up to 85% so that will help.

In the meantime, I was reading humidity - it's settled down now that I put some SC racks in there. So all is fine and dandy. The Inkbird thing is quite nice. I still can't get the Cigar Oasis fully "right" as I have to set it to around 64% to have it 65% top, middle, and bottom. 

 

Anyway, I'm quite happy and pleased with what I did, considering the costs. I haven't got "Nirvana" but I am damn close. There's very little in terms of fluctuations. Maybe 1 or 2% over the day. As my readings are all in the 63 - 66% when I have looked.