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Fighting Florida Heat....

beastinem

beastinem

New Member
Joined
May 14, 2010
Messages
159
I will make this short and sweet, hopefully somebody can point out my mistake.

Couple months ago I bought a "100 Count" desktop humi and went through the CP humi seasoning guide. I bought a calibration kit for my digital hygrometer and put it all in place. Now, all I had was the tray with the foam that came with the humi. I tossed the foam and filled the tray up with 70% heartfelt beads. It seemed to hold CLOSE to 70% humidity for a couple of days or so then slowly started dropping off. I tried rewetting the beads with the spray bottle and it just doesn't seem to go up to 70% humidity. As of now it is sitting at 52% humidity.

Do I maybe need a bigger tray? More beads? Also, with the constant heat here in FL, I can't afford to keep my AC running on high all day. So it is normally about 76 degrees in my house and on my digital hygrometer. Maybe it's too hot?

Also, the beads seem to go white within a day. As if they are drying out overnight. Not sure if that is normal.

Any ideas or suggestions will be appreciated.

-Zach
 
If they're going dry overnight, you may have a bum seal on the humi. If the seal is good, you may have to reseason. While you're figuring that out, read this .
 
Thanks for the link Tom. I am kind of worried that it might be a bad seal. I hate to think that considering I just bought it brand new and I really like it. The only way I know of to test the seal is the "Woosh test" or whatever the hell it's called. Problem is, I don't know if the sound I am hearing is the "woosh" that I am supposed to hear, lol. If it is in fact a bad seal, is there ANYTHING I can do to fix it? Like a humi home remedy? :)
 
Regarding the "whoosh" test... if you hear wood hitting wood, you either have a bad seal or you're dropping the lid from too high. A couple inches is probably high enough.

You could also do a dollar bill test, close the lid on a dollar bill and see if it's easy to remove the bill. If you can pull it out easy, the seal may be bad. If it tears, you probably have a decent seal and one less dollar. You can also place a small flashlight inside and take the humidor into a dark room and look to see if the light shines through the space between the lid and body.

Some have had succes using weatherstripping to make the seal tighter.
 
I agree with the advice everyone else has given, it sounds like a bad seal. Make sure the humidor is not setting directly under an air conditioning vent, as that may also reduce the humidity, but probably not as much as you are experiencing.


Ken
 
My vote is your losing humidity around all those glass panes. I'm assuming it's THIS humi...

I had a bad seal around the glass in mine. Some rope-caulk weatherstripping and it's been rock steady. Move your stash to a tupperdor and re-season.


Good luck!
 
I think it didn't get a chance to season real well. How long did you leave water in there before you went to your beads?
 
I can't comment on possible humi seal issues but I can tell you that my 70% beads only keep my humidores stable for about two or thee days before dropping into the low 60's. After I re-charge the beads it'll jump up to 70% then over the next week drop down to 60% when I have to re-charge the beads again. Normal humidity here is about 12% here in Iraq but my room is kept below 80 degrees Fahrenheit by my AC unit so its not over heating. I have twice as many beads as the Heartfelt website recommends for the size of my humis too. ???
 
jnknzz said:
My vote is your losing humidity around all those glass panes. I'm assuming it's THIS humi...

I had a bad seal around the glass in mine. Some rope-caulk weatherstripping and it's been rock steady. Move your stash to a tupperdor and re-season.


Good luck!
Click to expand...


Yep, that's the one jnk! Thanks for all the suggestions and advice on this everybody. I am afraid that it is my seal. I will look into trying to seal it up a little on my own. Worst case scenario, I have to buy a new one :\ jnk, would you happen to have any pics of the caulking job on yours?

Thanks
 
beastinem said:
Yep, that's the one jnk! Thanks for all the suggestions and advice on this everybody. I am afraid that it is my seal. I will look into trying to seal it up a little on my own. Worst case scenario, I have to buy a new one :\ jnk, would you happen to have any pics of the caulking job on yours?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I just unrolled the rope-caulk and pressed it in the seams where the glass meets the wood. Worked for me. Again, good luck
 
Thanks again brother. I will get right on this and monitor the beads/humidity over the next week.

On a related note, after rewetting my beads last night the humidity jumped from 49% to 64% overnight. So I think that the seal is definitely the culprit. I will monitor the fluctuation and beads today and tomorrow.
 
beastinem...did you try taking it back to the retailer and explaining the problem to them? Maybe they will exchange it for a new one with a functioning seal/ Give it a try, or at least give them a call.
 
I'd go with the seal. I'm also in FL and just store in cigar boxes now. They tend to dry out the moisture packs and the paper towels real quick. I think ANY A/C action reduces local ambient humidity more than you might imagine.
 
When I ran a desktop, here when the forced air would kick on, the RH in the house would drop like a rock. I have in the past resorted to putting a shot glass with a some distilled water in it, in the humi. Worked pretty well, actually.
 
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