Wine cellar door question

I am building a wine cellar. The door choices are mindboggling but I have narrowed it down to two similar doors (3'0x8'0, two panels, top is glass

2/3, bottom is raised panel 1/3). The first door is solid mahogany. The other is mahogany veneer over MDF. Both are rated for exterior. I am in FL. The cellar will be cooled to 55 (humidity at 60-70%), the other side will be at about 75, humidity at 40-50%. I'm told that the MDF will hold up better and not warp. Any thoughts?
Reply to
Mike
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I should add that the price difference is immaterial and the core is FSC certified laminated veneer lumber (LVL) core not MDF.

Reply to
Mike

If the door is sealed on all six sides either one will do just fine.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

Exterior doors should have no problem, pick the one you like best, if it were I, I'd go for the solid mahogany, just because...

Reply to
Jack Stein

ne cellar. =A0The door choices are mindboggling but I have

I made mine out of lauan door skins (1/8") sandwiching a extruded polystyrene core (blue Styrofoam) and a western red cedar 2X2 frame. More insulation =3D better

But living int he Yukon, the municipal water comes in at 2-4 degrees Celsius, so I run all my water through radiators on the wine cellar ceiling. Keeps it at 10-12 degrees all year round.

Luigi

Reply to
Luigi Zanasi

"Luigi Zanasi" wrote

But living int he Yukon, the municipal water comes in at 2-4 degrees Celsius, so I run all my water through radiators on the wine cellar ceiling. Keeps it at 10-12 degrees all year round.

Luigi

***************************** That sounds lik a good way to drink lots of lead tainted water, unless you are very careful to use only radiators made without lead solder. That would limit you to only using plastic end cap radiators.
Reply to
Morgans

No, not really. Unless the water is significantly acidic, the amount of lead that leaches into it from leaded solder is really rather low, and allowing the tap to run for 30 to 60 seconds before filling one's glass eliminates nearly all of it.

What, you think he's running it through *automobile* radiators?? Could be, but I rather doubt it. More likely, he's using normal residential radiators, which are typically made of cast iron.

Reply to
Doug Miller

Or copper/aluminum fin tube baseboard radiators - probably the easiest way to have an in-line water heat exchanger hung from a ceiling.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

Condensation wouldn't become an issue?

Reply to
Robatoy

It's a wine cellar. Dank and dripping ceilings are a feature. ;)

I have no experience with them, so I can't comment on how an inline radiator would work out and how much condensation. A dehumidifier?

I was addressing my empathetic aching back's issue with hoisting a surplus cast iron radiator and suspending it from the ceiling. I see a bunch of downside, and not much upside with going cast iron.

R
Reply to
RicodJour

A fan controlled by a humidistat would be a better choice. Dehumidifiers put out a fair amount of heat, and unless there's a way to exhaust that from the room, it would likely defeat the purpose of using a water-chilled radiator.

And of course if the ambient humidity isn't very high to begin with, condensation isn't much of an issue.

So use a drywall hoist. Actually, the downside is also the upside: lots of mass there. Once it's chilled, it's going to *stay* chilled.

Reply to
Doug Miller

That's it. & soldered using lead-free solder by my plumber.

Luigi

Reply to
Luigi Zanasi

It did on the way to the cellar. It dripped all over the suspended ceiling. But pipe insulation fixed that.

Luigi

Reply to
Luigi Zanasi

Good solution. Is there much condensation?

R
Reply to
RicodJour

No condensation in the wine cellar itself, since it's already cool & we generally have low ambient humidity (I do live in Canada's driest city).

The thermal mass is supplied by the vino itself. The cellar is 4 feet by 10 feet by 8' high & generally holds three to five 54-litre (15 gallons, Doug) demijohns as well as a similar amount of bottled stuff. :-)

Luigi

Reply to
Luigi Zanasi

Like I told Rob, only on the pipes leading to the cellar. That issue was solved using regular foam pipe insulation, not after ruining a number of ceiling tiles.

The wine cellar itself is drier than I would like, but that's not a serious issue. (yes I did try a humidifier which eventually crapped out & I didn't bother to replace it.

Luigi

Luigi

Reply to
Luigi Zanasi

You make your own, then? How come I haven't ever seen you over at rec.crafts.winemaking?

Reply to
Doug Miller

I put a truck radiator in a garage window once (late 60's) and ran tapwater through it and used a box fan to blow the cool air into the garage. After a few minutes it started to cool off AND pretty much 'rain' in the garage ruining one of my Bardot posters. At first I thought the old rad had a leak in it.

Reply to
Robatoy

Yes you have.

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I was there in the mid-late 90s, but sort of gave up on it, don't exactly remember why.

Luigi

Reply to
Luigi Zanasi

I mostly lurk there now.

Reply to
Doug Miller

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