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Wine Refridgerator for Ultra-Highland?

Hi Y'All, its me again.

Yes, I did a search on this topic and the best I could find was posted in '03.

Now that its 6 years later, has anyone gone through and modified a wine cooler fridge for their ultra-highlanders?

Pics, would be AWESOME:-O

Yes, I know Jeremiah converted a fridge, but I'm talking one of these babies with a front glass door.

42L-Wine-Cooler-Cabinet-Mini-Fridge-Refrigerator-BC-42-.jpg


As soon as my missus loses her mind (or a bet), I'd like to get one for MY Holy Grail nep, the villosa.

Ya know, the bottom covered with live sphagnum moss to keep the humidity up, lights on a timer, be like 14 years to outgrow it . . . whadda ya folks think?

Gots to be ready when the wifey feels generous:-D

Good Growin,
E
 
wow, could work. The only thing is are fridges humid enough? Also I would think a rise and fall in temps would be necessary, could the fridge provide that? One other thing you might plan for, a fridge will exhaust heat into the surrounding area, will there by any plants that will be effected by it? You could probably grow you L/L near it.
 
Well, it's on a much smaller scale, but I'm going to use a glorified icebox to grow N. singalana.

By the way, I have seen pictures of a 14 year old villosa, and it would still fit in the cooler. The nep might outgrow it in something like 20+ years though.
 
Hiya Ant-

Thanks for chiming in.

I betcha one of them more expensive models would have a temprature dial where you could manually adjust the temps. Yes, it would be a chore :-(, but its better than lugging ice bottles into a terrarium every night.

I was thinking of putting it as a stand alone dealio in the corner of the living room so I can view it daily. But when that day comes . . . who knows ???

E
 
Addition of a fan for proper air circulation and it sounds like you'd be good to go!

Edit: Maybe an ultrasonic fogger for humidity and looks?
 
Personally, I don't think that humidity would be too much of an issue, because as moisture condenses, condensation appears on the plant itself as well, preventing the leaves from drying out.
 
"Addition of a fan for proper air circulation and it sounds like you'd be good to go!"

Hiya FReNcH3z-

I haven't personally inspected any of these yet, wifey might be wondering, he doesn't drink . . . so whats he up to . . . hmmm

But I believe, like a regular fridge, they already come with a built in fan . . . me thinks.

E
 
Better options ?

Cycling might be a problem....
what I mean by this is warming during the day and then cooling sufficiently during the night. It can be done however.
I have direct experience with these. There is a fan inside, blowing "semi-cold" air off a cold heat-sink inside. It uses a thermo-electric cooling device, however it is not very good at it. It "CAN" bring the temps inside down from 5-20 degrees lower than the surrounding temps.
With a nice fan inside already, air circulation won't be a problem.
The difficult part is lighting the thing without driving up the heat inside so much that it has to work hard to cool down enough in time for a nice night-time chill.
It is a delicate balance of many variables, but it can be done. I have used one for one of my highland grow chambers for about a year or so, but had to revamp it heavily to get it to even closely work, and while do-able, there are better options if you're a handy do-it-yourself-er.

It does bring down the temps to 50 degrees when you fill it with wine and don't keep opening the door or heating it up inside during the day with a bunch of fluorescent lights ! Once you do that, you have real problems that will need solving!

Necessity IS the mother of invention. Best of luck.... and
If you try it, would love to hear your results.
Paul
 
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Hiya Paul-

Thanks for your input :hail:

You mentioned that " there are better options if you're a handy do-it-yourself-er".

Would you have a step by step on how to do it yourself (better yet a pic with explanations), or has that been posted and you can redirect the directless to it?

If possible, I'd like the final product to be nice and clean, and not a bunch of hoses and a myriad of electrical lines runnin around . . . ala Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory.

Good Growin,
E
 
  • #10
1) Wine coolers cost more than regular refrigerators
2) Will they get cool enough? Serving temperatures for wines (depending on the wine) are from 43-66F. Most people store their wines around 55F.

You'd be better off buying a commercial glass door refrigerator from a store going out of business. The kind used for selling soft drinks or dairy products.

Given the size that Nepenthes grow to a little dinky 3 shelf wine cooler isn't going to have much capacity.
 
  • #12
What would be really cool is to get one of those door-less soda coolers. They use a sheet of air to keep the cold air in, and warm air out.You could probably put a whole HL terra in there.
 
  • #13
1) Wine coolers cost more than regular refrigerators
2) Will they get cool enough? Serving temperatures for wines (depending on the wine) are from 43-66F. Most people store their wines around 55F.

You'd be better off buying a commercial glass door refrigerator from a store going out of business. The kind used for selling soft drinks or dairy products.

Given the size that Nepenthes grow to a little dinky 3 shelf wine cooler isn't going to have much capacity.

Hiya Not A Number-

1) If anything, I was gonna look at Craigslist and like you mentioned, maybe a restaurant or bar going outta biz for a used one

2) There are some pop/beverage units out there that will go the 30's . . . Brrrrrrr

I was just planning for a nice single N. villosa to occupy that beverage/wine cooler. So one of them small 12 bottle jobs should last a couple of years.

I'm focusing on pop or beverage units now, wine coolers have tinted glass to protect the wine from UV lights.

Again, this is something I'm just kickin around my hollow head of mine :-D

E
 
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