In Florida and I recently took delivery of an Artevino III from Costco while it was on sale for $400 off. Eurocave-made - supposedly - but less fully featured — great for garage bulk storage. Anyhow, I had it up and running and got it down to 55F when I put a temp/humidity monitor in there where it was holding 55F and 65%RH pretty steadily for a day, so I decided to load it up.
I opened the fridge and kept it open to load half of it (probably about 20-30 mins between loading bottles and moving shelves). I knew the temp would go up, but it was night time and I figured the compressor would kick on and cool it down like it did before … which it did. But I think running the compressor like that took the RH down to the mid 40’s. I’ve thrown a soaked paper towel into a bowl (don’t have a spare sponge) and put it on the bottom half, but it doesn’t seem to have much effect over the course of 24+ hours.
Anyone else in a warm & humid climate? Will it eventually sneak back up into the 50s/60s in RH?
Personally, I wouldn’t worry at all about humidity in the mid 40s. That seems fine. But everyone has their own opinion about the humidity thing, so go with your own feelings about it.
I would give the wine fridge at least a week to stabilize before any concern about temp/humidity readings.
I assume the bottles weren’t at 55 degrees when you were loading? The unit would have to work for a lot longer to cool down the full load of bottles than it did just the open air. That would probably explain the additional loss of humidity, which my guess is will recover to some extent over time. But either way, I agree with comments above that it’s not something to worry about.
We have a similar model Artevino from Costco and the instructions said to add a small amount of water (a few ounces) to the bottom of the unit.
I assume that wasn’t in your instruction book.
Tom
Wine coolers have recommended environment temps. I know I had one that specifically said to not use in a garage because it was not intended for the wide range of temps. I know you asked about humidity, but make sure your model can handle a garage with wide swings of temps.
FWIW, I live in the desert SW and don’t humidify my cellar yet haven’t noticed any problem trends with bad corks or fill. I’ve never seen a single drop of condensation in my drain line. Friends with similar set up don’t report problems either. Wines up to 20 years. I wouldn’t worry about the humidity not getting high enough in FL! Enjoy.