My cheese cave humidity improver

[Alex]

Eric,
John is right, if you have a forced air fridge then the air is dehumidified. Since this was my problem too, I adjusted my humidifier almost to maximum and connected it through a timer, 15 minutes ON, 30 minutes OFF, around the clock. This method improved the humidity control.

Riha and others,
You may check the humidity meter calibration by putting a very saturated cloth on the meter's sensing opening for 1-3 hours. The reading is the equivalent to 100%.
 

[memkuk]

Riha, my hygrometer is analogue and it is inside the fridge all the time. The thing (humidity/temperature meter) is a whopping 5 inches in diameter, so I think it might be more intended as an ornament to hang on the wall, than to measure humidity accurately.

Alex, txs for the tip. I did the test with the saturated cloth. The humidity doesn't even reach 90%. So time to invest in a new and better one.

[Alex]

Eric,

That doesn't mean that the meter doesn't reach the 100%, it means that the calibration is very poor. At about 90% shown, is your 100%. The problem is that the you can not be sure that if you divide the 90 in 100 units, the scale will be still linear.

[memkuk]

Alex, guess what? When I took the hygro/thermometer out of the fridge and wanted to give it to my wife, I noticed that there were 2 holes in the back. Inside there were 2 potentiometer like screws to calibrate both the hygrometer and thermometer. I knew the thermometer was measuring correctly, because I compared it with a digital one I have. As far as the hygrometer is concerned, I followed your advice, wrapped it in a soaked piece of cloth and after waiting long enough, I cranked it up to 100%. So txs again for the calibration suggestion.

[Alex]

Lucky you Eric ,

In mine I didn't find potentiometers, the inside looks like some encapsulated chip. Nothing adjustable .

[farmsteader]

we have a self defrost type refridge, do we need to put up Cheese cloth in this one? also where do you fiind those Vac bags, one of the companies went out of business, I guess we will have to buy a control device for temp, and a Hydrometer. THanks

[Cheese Head]

Hi farmsteader, welcome to the forum!

Most fridge's thermostats will not allow them to run warm enough for a cheese cave thus many people buy an external thermostat controller. You will have very low humidity if your fridge is forced air, these types have an external evaporation tray underneath. If low humidity you will have to add it or use plastic boxes and crack the lid to release excess humidity. That's what I've been using for the last year and I finally ordered a ultrasonic humidifier that I am going to put inside. Some info on hygrometers here, I find that if condensation inside my box then too much humidity, no condensation then too little. I don't like vacuum bag sealing and am still trying to work with natural rinds for my pressed cheeses.

[vogironface]

Boofer,

I have the same device to measure humidity that you do.  Mine tells me that the cave is about 95% humid all the time and I don't have any water in it, just a few drying cheeses.  That seems real high to me.  Do you find your device to be accurate?

[vogironface]

Boofer,

I just ran across your post discussing thermometer and hygrometer #3.  The one I am referencing in my above is the one pictured in this post.

[Boofer]

Ben - If you're referring to the La Crosse Thermometer/Hygrometer, I've had one sensor in the cave measuring around 90%RH for most of the time with a temp around 54-57 F. The cheeses in there are waxed or vacuum-sealed and there is no added moisture such as a rag hung across the fans. The fans run continuously to circulate the air inside anyway. I have to periodically wipe the walls down to clear the moisture and any mold that starts to show. I wipe with paper towels and then sweep with a Clorox antibacterial towelette.

I have a second sensor placed outside in the weather as a sanity check. It has been cold and rainy for the past couple weeks here in the Pacific Northwest. Even when the temp is low and it is raining, the sensor measures around 94%RH  . Hello?! It's raining...shouldn't it be reading around 99%RH? 

So there it is. I think after playing around with these things for a while, I am convinced it's not that far off from using a Ouija board. If you put them all side by side, they would all register something different. I know because I put the three of them that I have side by side and none of the temps or RH readings matched. Now I'm strictly talking about the lower end devices. I would expect that if you ponied up the cash for a several hundred dollar unit, you might expect to get tighter performance. But then, who's going to do that for what we use these things for? Not this cheeser.

Right now while I type this my cave out in the garage is measuring 55.9F/88%RH on the La Crosse weather station in front of me. When I push the button to check readings outside: 41.9F/82%RH. The deck outside is wet from the rain. 11:20PM.

Hope that gives you some more data to ponder...  .

-Boofer-

[bigfish_oz]

Has anyone tried using one of these ultrasonic misters?

http://www.mainlandmart.com/foggers.html

Would probably need some sort of a timer, connected...

[Alex]

Yes, I use an ultrasonic humidifier. It has a knob to adjust the mist intensity, in addition to that, I've connected it through a timer with working cycle of 15 min ON and 30 min OFF. I used the adjustment knob to get the desired humidity monitored by a humidity meter.

[simoncnx]

I finally solved my low humidity problem, after unsuccessfully trying the computer fan approach, described in this thread: the humidity in my dedicated small refrigerator did not go much higher than 73% at a temperature of 12 Celsius, which was too low for my Camembert. The outside humidity (here in the tropics) is around 85%.
Yesterday I found this little gadget (see pic): it's an ionizer/humidifier, which fits nicely into the door tray of the fridge. No noise at all and the humidity now goes to 90%.
Price 1,500.= Thai Baht, about 45.= US$. Quite expensive maybe, but worthwhile in my case.

Eric,I bought the exact same humidier from ebay   cost me 886 baht
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120517009890&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
works really well

[sominus]

I was thinking of using one of these ( http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/1UHG3?Pid=search ) and drilling a hole into the side of my refrigerator to pump in humidifier "vapor"...  Right now my fridge/cave has vacuum-sealed cheeses, but to do brie and camambert (among others) properly I've got to boost the humidity at times.

Thoughts?

[sominus]

So I picked up one of these: http://tinyurl.com/23tnh8g at Walgreen's... It fit very nicely in my "tall dorm fridge" cave.  I will attach it to one of these ( http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/1UHG3 ) to finish the job... Voila!  Humidty problems solved.