Boofer's Small Radient Style Fridge-Freezer Cheese Cave - Temp & Humidity Control

[Jessica_H]

Not wanting to hijack the hijacked thread but... 

I've been doing a bunch of searching / reading about humidity.  I've got my newly aquired wine cooler which I was going to make my cave...but I can't get the humidity higher than 66%.  I just have a dish of water at the bottom.  I did see the humidifier that someone posted about that takes a bottle of water and thought about grabbing one of those.

However, then I started to realize that all the cheeses I'm looking at doing (in the basic cheese kit from cheesemaking.com) are waxed.  So does that mean I have less to worry about for humidity?

Right now my "cave" is empty.  I just have one cheese right now and plan on making another this weekend.  If I start to put cheese in my cave will that change the humidity?  I didn't want to put my new baby Gouda (my current pride and joy) in an unstable cave environment...you never know how a young creature will turn out if it's in an unstable environment at an early age   Right now it's drying at 55% humdity and 55 degrees...and I have no cracks yet.  But I am concerned about cracks...

Eventually I'd like to branch out into more exotic cheeses with a natural rind or a mold cheese so eventually I'd like to get the humidity up where it should be.

[KosherBaker]

Hi Jessica.

Right now my "cave" is empty.  I just have one cheese right now and plan on making another this weekend.  If I start to put cheese in my cave will that change the humidity? 

It will not lower it, if this is what you are concerned about.

Eventually I'd like to branch out into more exotic cheeses with a natural rind or a mold cheese so eventually I'd like to get the humidity up where it should be.

Hmmmm. I thought Keith and Gianaclis answered this question rather well for you in your other thread. Using a towel/cloth dipped in vessel of water, as described by Gianaclis, is a very popular method among forum members to raise the cave humidity. Also, using plastic boxes with water vessels in them is a very popular method to achieve the desired humidity among forum members. Especially considering that for molded cheeses, blue (PR), white (PC) and orange (bL) you pretty much have to keep in its own container to prevent cross contamination.

[Jessica_H]

Sorry, I did read about the wet cloth. But I was under the impression you need a fan to make this work? My wine cooler doesn't have a fan.

[KosherBaker]

The fan makes it even more effective, but not everyone uses the fan. I would try it without the fan and see if the humidity gets to where you need it.
If not then other options may need to be pursued. I also seem to remember a discussion in this very forum about using a salt water solution to control humidity. If you do a search on salt in this forum you'll see the threads.

Sorry, I did read about the wet cloth. 

Ooooops. Rereading my post I see that it my have come off as critical. Sorry about that. What I meant to say was that there aren't better answers than those that were already given. Anyway Happy Cheese Making.

[Boofer]

Just to give you some more datapoints....

I have one cheese in my cave that is open...not sealed. Three and a half weeks in and it's showing 97% RH (pic). Nothing else in the cave is producing humidity/moisture. The cheeses in the door are all sealed. There are some additional cheeses in the bottom bin and just below the minicave, but they're all sealed as well. I keep the freezer compartment at the top dry as much as I can. It typically doesn't condense moisture very much. The sides of the cave are kept dry. So where's this moisture/humidity coming from that the sensor is showing? I haven't a clue. I try to regulate the environment within the minicave by keeping it dry and opening or closing the lid. That has worked fairly well for me.

I guess, bottom line, don't worry about it so much. Make some cheese...put it in your cave, and adjust as you encounter changes. 

Hey, who hijacked my thread?

-Boofer-

[steampwr8]

If your cave is like mine the drip tray under the freezer section is full of water. These units work by cooling the refrigerator section to the mid 30's. As they do so a layer of ice forms on the freon coils that make up the freezer section.

If you look at it those ridges in the freezer are the freon coils. Since we are keeping the cave at 55 degrees or warmer, we have infact made a dehumidifier and instead of freezing on the coils, mine rains in the tray. My tray is wet at all times and is working great for my Stilton and Asiago.

It was much too humid for some salamis and the cheddars etc before waxing.

[Boofer]

If your cave is like mine the drip tray under the freezer section is full of water. These units work by cooling the refrigerator section to the mid 30's. As they do so a layer of ice forms on the freon coils that make up the freezer section.

If you look at it those ridges in the freezer are the freon coils. Since we are keeping the cave at 55 degrees or warmer, we have infact made a dehumidifier and instead of freezing on the coils, mine rains in the tray. My tray is wet at all times and is working great for my Stilton and Asiago.

I believe I may have mentioned that the freezer compartment is kept dry. That includes the drip tray...dry. My cave is set at its lowest point. My Johnson controller cycles the fridge on but only so that it gets cool not cold...definitely not frozen. There is no layer of ice forming in my cave. No ice, no thaw, no condensation, no drip, especially now during the cooler winter months when the ambient air holds less moisture. I did have an accumulation of water in the tray in the summer. As it got wet, I sopped it up or removed the tray and dumped it. That's not a problem now though.

My cave doesn't get cooled down to the 30's. The controller maintains it between 48F and 58F.

-Boofer-

[Ibaketoo]

As this is on humidity I hope someone can help me as well, I have just put my first cheese into my cave, I have a frig with all wood shelves, a plastic bucket of water on the bottom, and I cannot get the humidity up!  Should I put a piece of cheese cloth in and wick up the water? If needed, what type of fan to push things around?  I'm also confused with the Johnson Control, my unheated and uninsulated stone and cement basement is too cold so the frig never runs at all!  I've just moved the frig to see if that helps...