Cheap wine fridge humidity fluctuation

[Anonymous]

I picked up a Hisense wine fridge at Good Guys the other week. Holds a nice 13 deg C very steadily - and at $600 for approx 60 bottles, not bad price wise. I ran my datalogger in it to check its temp, and was surprised at the oscillating humidity reading - seems to average around the 70%, but saw tooths around it - presumably something to do with the compressor cycling of the machine.....

Is this bad??
Hopefully this image link will work......

cheers, Lee

oh well - can't post an image..... trust me, the humidity graph is a regular saw tooth, varying from about 60%-80% with a period of about 1hr.
Moderators - I promise I'm not a bot!

[Luke W]

Lee,

I think the humidity is OK at anything between 50 - 70% and your temp is fine (is it 13degrees throughout the fridge?) - now all you have to worry about are light and vibration - if you don't have problems with those, you'll probably do OK.

Best of luck

Luke

[Anonymous]

Temp is steady at 13 deg C, vibration? - nothing visible, and it is very quiet. Will post the image when I'm security cleared....

[Red Bigot]

Temp is steady at 13 deg C, vibration? - nothing visible, and it is very quiet. Will post the image when I'm security cleared....

You've got your 5 posts now, should be able to post the link.

Re Humidity, anything over 50% is fine unless you are cellaring cork-sealed wines for more than 10 years. And it's (largely) irrelevant if you are storing screwcap-sealed bottles, other than if it's too high the labels may go mouldy.

[Anonymous]

Nope.... didn't work again - I think I'm on my weeks probation still..... I guess I'll have to wait before I start trying to peddle viagra samples!

[Red Bigot]

Nope.... didn't work again - I think I'm on my weeks probation still..... I guess I'll have to wait before I start trying to peddle viagra samples!

And start all over again. I suggest you read the sticky at the top of this forum and pick a different name that won't get caught up when Gavin is bulk deleting spammer registrations.

[Lee]

I'm back.... this is just an innocous reply to boost my number, lest I be culled again.....

[Lee]

Here is the datalogger output - the regularity of the humidity fluctuation is very obvious....

[TORB]

Is it raining or snowing in your fridge?

120% humidity!

As Brian says, I would not worry about it unless you are storing cork sealed wines that are very delicate for very long periods of time. Wine is a lot more robust than we give it credit for and can take a fair amount of abuse before it has an impact on the wine.

[Red Bigot]

Maybe your humidity sensor is not working properly? That saw-tooth sine wave is just too regular.

[GraemeG]

Although everyone understandably gets worked up about fluctuating temperatures, I've never read anything to suggest there's any problem with variations in humidity - especially as it's between 60-80%.

I wouldn't stress about it. At $10/bottle storage, it must be about the best value on the Oz market, surely? Presuming it's reliable, of course.
cheers,
Graeme

[winetastic]

I wouldn't stress about it. At $10/bottle storage, it must be about the best value on the Oz market, surely?

Kitchener cabinets drop in at $11-12 for bulk storage... so you are probably correct.

[Lee]

The datalogger doesn't do the same thing in other areas - so I think it is something to do with the compressor cycles of the fridge?

I'm not overly worried about it, just curious - I'll do it again soon and see.....

Had my Fondis C18 delivered yesterday anyway, to go in my as yet unbuilt cellar (construction to begin in ernest this weekend), so the cheap wine fridge will become inside pre-consumption storage only... Will post some construction pics if people are interested.

The Hisense fridge is advertised as 66 bottles, but must be for skinny Chinese bottles, as you can't get 6 across any shelf, of any 750mL bottle. Fits 5 shiraz type and a sticky OK though. Fatter pinot bottles are a VERY tight (label tearing) squeeze, and forget about champagne. Buyer beware
Total storage would be about 55 skinny bottles, and 10 or so half bottles I'd say.

[Paullie]

Lee, yes these fluctuations are due to the compressor turning on and off.

When I had a wine fridge I observed the same thing with a data logger like yours.

I even see it in my below ground cellar when the aircon comes on now as well.

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[timo]

I found this conversation helpful when shopping for a wine fridge over the past few weeks, but wanted to give an update.

I bought a Hisense 66 bottle fridge from Good Guys ($650), and it holds 66 bottles no problem. The original post was a couple of years ago, so I don't know if they have changed the fridge or not, but by simply slotting the bottles alternatively forward and back it resolves the width issue. I can comfortably fit normal size bottles (Chardonnay, Shiraz etc) 6 across.

The original post mentions an issue with height, which is still the case. Some of the larger bottles are a slightly tight fit (label rubbing), but only one of my 50 bottles was too big to fit. Plus champagne bottles. But I resolved this by adjusting the height of one row (easy), which has reduced capacity by 6 bottles but comfortably fits champagne etc 6 across.

For a cheap fridge, I am pretty impressed with the look, it's pretty classy looking (except for the Hisense logo!!), and is really quiet. Actually it's silent except when cooling (e.g. after loading more wine in with the door open).

I haven't done temperature or humidity tests, but from those above I think it will be fine.

Tim

[xsorxpire]

I wouldn't stress about it. At $10/bottle storage, it must be about the best value on the Oz market, surely?

Kitchener cabinets drop in at $11-12 for bulk storage... so you are probably correct.

I have a Kitchener CT.
The fridge is set at 9 degrees.
This gives me a temp of 12 degrees in the bottom and between 18 and twenty in the top.

A little disapointing really.