I got a new humidor, what next?

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Thanks! I have a 300ct. humi so I have ordered some of the larger tubes. What method have you found best for wetting the beads?
 
pilot711 said:
Thanks! I have a 300ct. humi so I have ordered some of the larger tubes. What method have you found best for wetting the beads?

You'll probably read quite a few methods around this board. Personally, I've been keeping it pretty simple.

I have distilled water in a small spray bottle that I bought from Walgreens. If my humi dips below 65% or they look completely dry, I take each end off one at a time and spray each end. I've read that direct water will make the beads crack. The spray bottle provides a pretty good mist, and I haven't noticed a real problem with cracked or split beads.

One thing to note; you'll have to trial and error the amount of water you spray in each end. If you spray in or otherwise add too much water, the beads could "expand" too much that it makes it difficult to put the ends back on. Or else what has happened to me is that I've sprayed one end, capped, then reversed to find the beads have already expanded so much that when I took the other end off, a bunch had spilled out.

I've heard some people just spray the tube itself, others have wrapped the tube with a damp cloth. I suppose you can experiment on your own. I'm not quite the connoisseur, but I can say this method has worked perfectly fine for me to date, and I've had some sticks left over from last Summer that survived the cold dry Midwest climate, and burned perfectly for me this Spring.

Hope that helps!
 
I'm having trouble with my humidor. I have a savoy pad in there and also a tube with the beads, and a digital temp/humidity reader, I always use distilled water.
During the last two months the humidity has been running high..between 70 and 80%., temps run high also. Is this normal during the summer months? I keep opening the humidor to air it out, humidity drops but builds up again. I have not added water to the pad in two months. Any suggestions?
 
You can add some pieces of spanish cedar to help regulate the humidity some, or remove some of your sources of moisture. During the summers here in AL I sometimes have to remove all beads or whatever else I have in my humidors for a short time. It also helps to keep your humi loaded with cigars. A full humi is more stable than one with lots of empty space.

As for temp, look for the coolest place in the house to keep your humi. I have 2 coolerdors that I use for box and singles storage until I move the sticks into a humi and the cooler's insulation helps keep the temp steady. I keep them in the back of my closet where it stays cooler. I have used small Oust fans to help circulate air in the largest humis and coolerdors.
 
Thanks, i will remove the source of humidty for a while and see if it helps. I am not sure where I would get spanish cedar?
 
Patrick IL. said:
Thanks, i will remove the source of humidty for a while and see if it helps. I am not sure where I would get spanish cedar?

local cigar shop.

old boxes. if you make a good sized purchase or if your friends with the owner you can get em for free.

ill have to get back to you on this but i may have a few collecting dust around here. if i do i may be able send you some of the wood. no promises. i just cleaned out the basement.
 
I agree with Kuzi ... a local shop usually has some empty boxes that they will either give you or sell to you for a few dollars. My local shop usually has some for $3 to $5.

I bought some off of eBay a while back and cut it into pieces to fit in my coolerdors. Some of the humidors I have came with dividers that I move from one to the other if I need to offset a humidity spike.

If you can't find any old boxes PM me your addy and I'll send you some pieces.
 
Thanks everyone, I went to my local shop, they gave me some spanish cedar and it seems to be doing the trick!
 
so i got a new humidor, so i figured this was a good thread to put this in:

every humidor that i have set up in the past has taken a few days to "even out" with the RH. this one took less than a day. is this abnormal? anyone ever have this happen to them? any theorys as to why its like this?


i still dont have smokes in there yet but I am adding beads to bring it back down to the 65% i want instead of the 71% it is at. ... probably take a day or two.
 
Funny stuff Matt...

I'd bet that it's the learning curve that you have acquired...had you even heard of beads when you seasoned your first humi? Hell, they weren't even in use when I got my first one. The beads are a definite plus nowadys, fo sho...
 
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rmrdaddy said:
I'd bet that it's the learning curve that you have acquired...had you even heard of beads when you seasoned your first humi?

now that you mention it... it probably is the learning curve. this is post number 1374. after the almost 2 years of posting here i have learned a ton. i know that my humidity is high because i put more than a shot glass in the humidor. ... i put 2 small, shallow, wide dishes in there so that it WOULD speed up the proscess. i just didnt think it would do it over night.

I didnt know about beads on my first humi. I remember thinking that 50/50 solution was world changing when i first learned about that. My dad was the one that tought me how to set up a humi first. hes old school. distilled in foam is how he rocks it.

i guess i learned so much from the first 3 humis and from all of you that humidor number 4 was almost TOO easy. ...like trying to pick up a barbell marked 1000Lbs only to find out its made of styraphome.
 
So, after having all sorts of problems with humidors i finally gave up on them. I have found that the best way to keep my sticks is to store them in Cigar Jars, but instead of paying top price for them, i go to bed bath and beyond and purchas the plastic containers you keep flower and stuff in. I by the largest ones i can find. I have notices that the lids are a tight fit and that if your sticks are already properly humidified, they tend to not need any type of humidification. I just add a few peices of old boxes i have broken up and they stay at 67F and 72H.

I would use my humidifier more, but it has a really poor seal on it. Does anyone know how to fix that?
~CB
 
How poor of a seal? How do you know it's a bad seal? If you are not so attached it might not be so bad to pick up a new humi. Besides that way you can buy a bigger one! But if you want to fix the old one give some more detail. Also did you do a search for this problem?
 
I am almost positive its the seal due to everytime i season it, it only takes a couple of weeks to dry out. I got to where i would just leave a shot glass of dist. water in there, but it would suck that up to. I am not too attached to it. My wife gave it to me for my b-day and its monagramed and all, but i just keep it in my office with a few smokes at a time in it. I am actually happy with the jars at this point, so im not yet willing to upgrade to another humi. I would ask for another one for x-mas, but my wife may kill me! I can hear her nagging now!
 
if you want to get the seal better. go to Home Depot, Lowes or such and get some thin weather stripping. works great.
 
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