General Description
The Wine Guardian humidifier is a professional, USA manufactured, self-contained unit
designed specifically for wine cellars. It has been designed for easy installation and operation,
either as a free-standing unit or mounted on a Wine Guardian cooling unit. Wine Guardian uses a
humidistat to sense and control the amount of moisture needed to be added to the cellar.
Humidifiers are not intended to remove moisture, only add moisture. All components are of a
high quality, standard commercial grade. The humidifier operates with 24volt power only and
therefore does not require UL or CSA approval. All wiring shall comply with NEC. The free
standing humidifier also comes with a sealed plug in transformer and lead cord to allow the unit
to operate independent of a Wine Guardian cooling unit.
Wine Guardian humidifiers are the evaporative drip pad type. Air from the cellar is drawn over a
distribution pad which is saturated with water from a distribution tray. As the air passes thru the
pad, it absorbs moisture thru evaporation of the water. This raises the humidity of the leaving air
which returns to the cellar. Hot water is recommended as it increases the capacity of the
humidifier to evaporate the water as it passes thru the pad. The hot water also leaves less solids
on the surfaces of the pad and flushes contaminants out of the pad. Excess water is collected in
the bottom trough and exits through the drain.
To avoid build-up of mineral deposits on the pad and potentially causing blockage of the air
flow, it is recommended that hard water be treated (filtered and softened). Install a 5 or 10
micron in-line water filter ahead of the humidifier to keep dirt from fouling the inlet screen and
the evaporation pad inside. If the water has a high mineral content, a softener may be needed to
prevent excessive scale from building up too rapidly on the pad.
Additionally, to insure adequate wetted surfaces and to help flush away excess minerals, the
water flow is set to always have a flow of water to the drain. When operating, the humidifier will
use approximately 1 to 2 gallons of water per hour depending on the water pressure in the
building. About 60% of that will pass thru and go out the drain. There is a strainer and an orifice
in the line to restrict the flow of water but a throttling valve may be needed to keep too much
water from going to the pad. All that is needed is a steady dripping of water out of the drain to
ensure adequate wetting and flushing of the pad media. Excess water doesn’t hurt but it also
doesn’t do any more humidifying. The drain volume is too much for just a bucket. A gravity
drain line should be piped to an open floor or sink drain, or a condensate pump may be used
where a gravity drain is impractical. This excess drain water can be discharged directly onto the
ground. The discharge of the drain can be combined into the condensate drain from the cooling
unit.
The humidistat, located in the cellar, will automatically turn on the humidifier whenever the
cellar humidity is below the setpoint and turns it off when the cellar humidity reaches setpoint.
The recommended setpoint is 50% for wine cellars. This humidity level is high enough to
prevent corks from drying out and low enough to prevent mold from forming. When the unit
turns on, the water solenoid valve opens and the fan turns on. When mounted and connected to a
wine guardian cooling unit, the humidistat also controls the main fan to circulate air to and from
the cellar.
