Thermoelectric is what you want. A condenser will do just that, condense the humidity back into water and possibly ruin some cigars when it drips off the condenser plate. I made that mistake and have since gone to a thermoelectric. I have not refilled the Cigar Oasis in probably 8 or 9 months. Its in my basement but it does run and keeps a consistent 63 to 65 degrees. One of the keys is also to have a temperature controller. It uses a probe to sense the temperature and them supplies power to the fridge when needed, bypassing the internal thermostat. If you didn't have that, it would run much more erratically with wide ranging temperatures. Its an old pic, but you get the idea.

Quagmire.. Now that's a word I never typed before.. First of all Welcome.. I see you and I are neighbors. On an unrelated note, that is a very nice collection of cigars you have. And a great set-up. What are you keeping in there ?

Thanks for the welcome and the compliment. That's an older picture of when I first set it up, but I've got everything from Alec Bradley to Zino. I've tried to purge a lot of the stuff I knew I'd never get to smoking and mostly have middle of the road premiums and quite a a few supers and sentimental stuff I never seem to have time to fully enjoy. So it sits there while I smoke my usual stuff. Where are you located in the area?

Quagmire.. PM sent..

madurofan:

Stoogee:

phobicsquirrel:

Aren't compressors a little un-reliable?.

a thermoelectric does not use a compressor compressors tend to dry the air out is my understanding and that is bad for wine as well as cigars since it can cause problems with the corks.

Thats my understanding as well but rusirius who is experienced in these matters(I believe he's an electrician?!?) seems to think otherwise. I just know that the thermo electric seems to be the consensus way to go.

Now I have a compressor driven wine fridge but I use it only for temperature control I place my humidors inside of the fridge. I have a 48 count wine fridge with a coolerdor and a desktop humi inside.

A compressor based unit will work just fine... PROVIDED you have an external control on the power tied to temperature... How do I know? Because that's exactly what mine is... An old fridge (full size) in the garage with a fan, light bulb, and the normal fridge element (i.e. compressor) installed... When the temp get's above 70 the fridge comes on (for just a second) and cools it back down... If it get's below 70 then bulb comes on for just a second and warms it back up... In reality neither one runs very often unless it's opened...

Speaking of opening... I also have a timer that only allows the compressor to run for about 45 seconds a shot max and then waits 5 minutes before allowing it to run again... This is in case I'd open it on a really hot day... Keeps the compressor from running long enough to get too cold and start condensing...

In my personal opinion, I don't see how thermoelectric can be any better... With everything I know about electricity and physics (no Maddy, I'm actually in the I.T. field, but do have a pretty extensive background in electrical engineering and physics) I just can't see why there would be any difference between the two...

EXCEPT of course that a peltier typically doesn't generate as much of a temperature difference across it's plates as a condensor unit can... Nor can it do so nearly as fast... So without precise controls, yes, it's entirely possible you could ruin a batch of cigars... So in that sense it's probably a better choice simply because it's much more forgiving...

There's one other advantage I can think of as well... I don't know if the wine fridges are already set up like this or not, but it doesn't sound like it...

You could very easily set up a set of thermometers and tie them to a relay... A "high" and "low" as it were... You could then set the high at 71 and low at 69.. In this way the relay could be used to reverse polarity across the peltier... In other words, providing both warmth or cooling depending on which was needed in one simple unit...

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Luko:

Just keep in mind if you do, you're pissing off a dude who shaves with a sword.

Welcome back, Shirley.

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