For those of you with home cellars in a desert or arid climate, how do you maintain the humidity in your cellar? I remember Chris Kravitz recommending against the add-on humidifiers for Wine Guardian (for example) and was wondering if any of you have used them, or do you use a different type of humidifier, or the “wet towel method,” or what?
Thanks in advance and cheers,
Jeremy
Some would say that a humidifier is utterly unnecessary in any case.
Yes, I’m aware of those claims. I’m wanting to know of those in arid climates who have cellars what if any they have done to manage humidity, and how they rate those approaches.
I have a cheap humidifier (the kind with the rotating plate that basically spits mist into the air) that I use in the winter to maintain humidity (in Washington DC of all places). I have it on a timer so it runs only about 10% of the time. Does just fine - it takes a little calibration through trial and error to determine how often to run it.
When I lived in Colorado, which is super dry, I always ran a humidifier. The kind with wicks is best as it does not leave white dust and does not add heat. Basically is a small evaporative cooler but the amt of cooling is trivial. Search for “evaporative humidifier” on Amazon. I had a Vornado. The wicks needs to be cleaned/replaced as water deposits form and make them hard over time.
I’ve used other methods but this was really the most reliable. You do need to add water by hand so I’d get a two water reservoir model.
I use a humidifier in the winter when the dry forced air heat in our house can drop the humidity in the cellar below 40% during a cold winter stretch in Toronto. It is a simple cool mist humidifier with a humidistat (TaoTronics TT-AH019). It does get white dust on the bottles, but it’s easy to wipe off.
Similar to John S, I also live in Colorado where it’s super dry. I recently refinished my cellar (pictures in a different thread somewhere) with a redundant plastic vapor barrier and double foiled lined foam board insulation. I still add humidity via two methods: bucket and towel as described by Dr. Gold and ultrasonic humidifier. Ultrasonic humidifier does not add heat to the cellar, it has two large tanks which I fill about every 4 or 5 days, and doesn’t seem to leave a white residue but I’ve only used it for a couple months. I run it constantly but on low and maintain humidity between 65-75% measured in the middle of my cellar about 5 feet off the ground with 8 foot ceiling. I wish it were more “passive” but right now it does the trick. Our relative humidity is just super low in Colorado. I think I bought the humidifier from Costco for less than $80. The bucket and towel alone was not enough for me, but might be somewhere else in the world. Good luck!
Thanks, guys. I’m pretty certain I’m going to now forgo the integrated humidifier and go with over off three options or a combination thereof that has been mentioned.