New in-wall Humidor setup

[superconductor71]

So, I had been outgrowing my wineador and had abandoned an earlier walk-in humidor project (for now) as a bit ambitious.

I had a space, in-wall, that used to house a reef tank in my finished basement.....That had been running for about 10+ years, but had become a monster to maintain and I finally took it out.  The space was 48x18x24 (size of the tank initially in the wall).  The back room was a small, unfinished area, initially space for a bathroom, so it's very consistent for RH and temperature.

My brother (a contractor) offered to begin a project to create an in-wall humidor in that space.  It's made of 100% spanish cedar, but has an additional front face of figured walnut.  The floor is actually covered by a small screen, as there is a drawer that is still part of the interior of the humidor at the bottom.

Humidity is provided on the inside by 2 Cigar Oasis Plus units that are connected to a Herpstat 2 controller.  A fairly decent sized fan is placed on the screened bottom, in the center, pointing upwards to provide airflow pulling from the bottom and up and around the unit.  This is also connected to the Herpstat 2 controller.  It can turn on based on sensed temperature, or (as I am doing) is set to turn on 1 once an hour for 10 minutes.

The Cigar Oasis Plus units, as I said, are also connected to the Herpstat controller.  If humidity ever drops below 65 RH, both units power on.  When desired humidity is reached, the power to both units is cut.  I should mention, I have done the cigar oasis mod, taking out the foam.  As of yet, after curing, the units have not powered on once, as humidity is still slowly lowering.  The temp and RH sensors on the Herpstat 2 unit are top notch.

All of these electronics are routed and mounted to the exterior of the back of the humidor.

An LED lighting dimmer is also included, with two very small LED strips on the top of the front.

The space was designed to hold 30+ boxes, but I think will hold a bit more.

So far i'm super thrilled with it.  Temp has been very steady at 70.2F

Here are a couple crappy iphone pics, I hope to take more and better ones soon.  Thanks for looking!

[Puros Y Vino]

Very nice! Much better than staring at fish. 

[superconductor71]

15 minutes ago, bundwallah said:

Very nice! Much better than staring at fish. 

Lol....agreed, and much less expensive (believe it or not), at least in maintenance and electricity costs.  The wife was thrilled with it.

[LordAnubis]

Great job

Is the door sliding glass doors? And two drawers at the bottom?

[superconductor71]

19 minutes ago, LordAnubis said:

Great job

Is the door sliding glass doors? And two drawers at the bottom?

Yes, thick sliding glass.

Yep, the 2 drawers come out as one unit though and they are part of the main unit, as the top of them is a screen.  So more space for either singles or additional boxes in there.  Again, all spanish cedar with the exception of the additional figured walnut face to it.

[Colt45]

[PigFish]

Very nice project. Congratulations.

Definitely an upgrade to a fish cage! -Piggy

[superconductor71]

4 minutes ago, PigFish said:

Very nice project. Congratulations.

Definitely an upgrade to a fish cage! -Piggy

I should state, that you had an indirect hand in this project, Piggy.  I sent him over to these forums to do his research prior to design and he read over your posts meticulously.  They were a great help to him.

He's an avid Herpetology guy, with an exotic collection....so as it turns out, the care of snakes requires very specific humidity/temperature requirements.  He was also able to integrate that knowledge into this.

And thanks, yes it's a GREAT upgrade to what was there!

[PigFish]

...glad to help. My time mentoring is never... well, hardly ever wasted. -Piggy

[Cerebrum]

Awesome! Really nice setup! 

[topdiesel]

What the heck...That is a great custom piece, and very clever use of the space.

[laficion]

Very smart looking setup indeed, Congratulation !!!!!.

Guy

[irratebass]

Very cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[strikethebox7]

Wow!!  That came out beautiful! Awesome way to display them with a fully functioning unit. Thats some skill!

[joeypots]

 verynice!

 

[Jeremy Festa]

Sweet

[Williamos]

Great custom job. Congratulations.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[demer]

Had 2 reef tanks at one time for 10 years. Can confirm huge pain in the ass and also the most expensive hobby by far you can ever get into.

[ThePolskiOgorki]

That's an amazing set up. Your bro does nice work. 

[superconductor71]

9 hours ago, ThePolskiOgorki said:

That's an amazing set up. Your bro does nice work. 

Much appreciated, i'll definitely pass that along.

I even enjoy going into the back room, looking at the entire exterior of the humidor as it's all in spanish cedar....great aroma and looks pretty to boot.

Although, not as pretty as other woods, which is why he used the figured walnut on the front exterior.

[Sunsmoke]

This is amazing, looks awesome.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[superconductor71]

As promised, here are a few pics from behind the scenes.  As you can see with the pic of the sensors (blue is RH, black is temp) they are set towards the top of the humidor, so the controller itself is set to 67% RH as opposed to 65%.  The numbers you see on the actual controller are the real time sensor readings, not the settings.

[Optic101]

Very nice, great job. ?

[backbone]

Amazing setup!

 

[Foxy73]

Really impressed by this setup. I'm hoping to do something similar in the future. If you don't mind me asking what's the ballpark cost you put into this project. Maybe I can convince the wife to let me do this too! Haha