Got me a proper humidor!

[beastinem]

Goodbye travel size, hello desktop!

Bought it today. Gotta get some distilled water tomorrow morning to start the seasoning process. The guy threw in a digital hygrometer and a bottle of PH solution as well. With it coming with the floral foam, I guess I will need to upgrade to the beads? Will the floral foam suffice for now? Pics below.....

Front

Top

Tray

Under Tray

Cuban Crafters? Hopefully they are a decent company....

I realized as I was posting this that I put the most obvious captions. As if you don't know that a picture is the "front" or the "top". :\

 

[Mr Peat]

The foam will be fine till you get the Beads in. I've taken the bottom of a plastic 32oz cup and cut it down to a reasonable level. Then put in some water and placed it in my 200 to 300 stick humidor. It kept the proper humidity for years by the poor man's way I did it. I've never had to use beads before. I've also used that gel stuff in a tube. Place some water in it and let the gel absorb it. Once it is done I always made sure there was no extra water before placing it back in the same humidor. It worked as well.

As small as that humidor it shouldn't take long to season at all which is good news for you. Now when are you buying a bigger one? :laugh:

 

[beastinem]

The foam will be fine till you get the Beads in. I've taken the bottom of a plastic 32oz cup and cut it down to a reasonable level. Then put in some water and placed it in my 200 to 300 stick humidor. It kept the proper humidity for years by the poor man's way I did it. I've never had to use beads before. I've also used that gel stuff in a tube. Place some water in it and let the gel absorb it. Once it is done I always made sure there was no extra water before placing it back in the same humidor. It worked as well.

As small as that humidor it shouldn't take long to season at all which is good news for you. Now when are you buying a bigger one? :laugh:

Lol, since I am just starting out in this wide world of cigars, this one will do me fine for the time being. It says it holds 100 cigars. Given that I will probably only own a maximum of 5 while I am experimenting, it's more than enough for me. Hell, I probably could have gotten by with the travel humi that I had that only held 5 sticks, lol. But this one is much nicer.

I think I like going to the cigar shops too much to stock up on cigars. If I was stocked up, I would have no reason to go

 

[MadMonk]

Floral Foam is fine if you pay attention to how much humidity moves after adding a measured amount of water. This is after the initial PG/Water soak. You should really give the humi time to fully season, which, imo, is a couple of weeks using a shallow receptacle with plain distilled water on top of a plate or some other pan like deal to catch any possible spills.
I am not a fan of the wiping the insides, and then a sponge for 24 hours, or similar methods. My own experience has been that the cedar taking the water from a bowl for a couple weeks resulted in a much more stable start-up.

 

[beastinem]

Floral Foam is fine if you pay attention to how much humidity moves after adding a measured amount of water. This is after the initial PG/Water soak. You should really give the humi time to fully season, which, imo, is a couple of weeks using a shallow receptacle with plain distilled water on top of a plate or some other pan like deal to catch any possible spills.
I am not a fan of the wiping the insides, and then a sponge for 24 hours, or similar methods. My own experience has been that the cedar taking the water from a bowl for a couple weeks resulted in a much more stable start-up.

I am still undecided whether or not I will wipe the inside with the damp towel. I read the CigarPass seasoning guide and it suggests it. It also says some people are against it. I am sure it's fine, I just wouldn't want to wet it too much and mess it up. I have until tomorrow morning to decide as I do not have any distilled water available atm.

 

[MadMonk]

Wiping might raise some grain, which some find undesireable.
I just don't think the wood takes in enough water in 24 hours.
YMMV, but this is my experience.

 

[beastinem]

This is probably a really dumb question, but in the seasoning 101 article it talks about leaving a shot glass or small bowl of distilled water in the bottom of the humidor. I get that. My (dumb) question is.....do I put the humidifier in there during these couple of days? Or leave it out? Right now I have the floral foam and I already have it soaked with the PH solution. The guy did it at the shop and told me to put it in a tupperware container along with the digital hygrometer to monitor it and make sure that it is holding the proper humidity.

Thanks,
Zach

 

[MadMonk]

I've done it both ways, and no problems either way. Just make sure that the foam isn't dripping. I don't even open the humidor for 2 weeks. I place a dated piece of paper on, or in, the humidor, to help me keep track of time. With those windows, it should be easy to see what the humidity is doing.

 

[Ty Atkinson]

Very nice humi!
i have a cuban crafters also, its a PALACIO BIRDSEYE MAPLE one they sell.

In mine i rested a dish of distilled water in the bottom did not wipe down the sides with water and being impatient i really wanted too.
The first thing i would do is make sure that digital hygro is calibrated properly via either salt test or boveda calibration.

Cant wait to hear more about your journey!

Get ready to learn some patience!

 

[investandprosper]

I bought mine from Cuban Crafters, the 100 count in the rosewood finish. For 50 bucks, it's a solid humidor that has an excellent seal. I seasoned it using the CP guide, lightly wiping down the inside with distilled water (they key is lightly) and leaving a small dish of distilled water in there for a couple of days. It held the humidity perfectly after that, and keeps it at 70% exactly unless I put new cigars in it. Just be careful if you wipe it down, just lightly dampen the paper towel once and wipe down all of the surfaces including the tray and dividers. Don't press hard into the wood, just lightly brush the damp paper towel onto the surfaces.

Nothing smells better than a freshly stocked humidor.

 

[RoguePuffer]

thanks for asking the questions.

I have yet to purchase a humidor and am using a perdomo box in a ziplock with a sponge tube in it. I would realy like to get a proper humidor, but all in good time. The questions you have brought up have me at least prepared to wait two weeks before playing with a new toy once I do get one.

Beautiful one though I realy like the finish, from what my friends are telling me though, dont trust that analogue gauge!

Good luck with your new humidor. Also from what I have been told, it is far better to keep it closer to full than empty because the more material inside, the more consistant the humidity leval, you might want to think about finding an economy smoke you like and buying a bundle just to keep in the box for stabelization. even if you dont smoke them, they will be ageing and becoming a better smoke anyway!

 

[thechenman]

I agree with the earlier posts regarding not wiping down the inside of your humidor with distilled water. Make a mistake with too much water and it could warp the humidor. Best bet is to use a shot glass or bowl of distilled water. Place it in the humidor for a week or two and voila. You could also use a couple Boveda Seasoning packets as well. I've used those in the past and they work fine. For a humidor your size you would likely need at least two or three of them.

As suggested make sure you calibrate your hygrometer first so you can monitor how your humidor is seasoning.

Finally, you stated you have a 100 count humidor. That number usually is in reference to the number of corona sized cigars that can be stored in the humidor. As you will likely have man cigars larger than a corona (i.e., Robusto, Toro, Churchill), you will probably not be able to fit 100 cigars into the humidor. Also keep in mind that a humidor will work best when it is 75% full. It will be difficult to maintain a constant level of humidity with only 5 cigars in a humidor of that size if you are opening an closing it on a daily basis. Beads work great, but they take their sweet time in raising and lowering humidity. The reason a fuller desktop humidor works better is because the cigars themselves act as humidification devices when inside your humidor as they contain their own moisture. You lose that benefit if you only have a few stick in there.

 

[beastinem]

Thanks for all the great replies everybody (and Loren for the pm's).

I will hunt this thread down in a couple of weeks to let everybody know how the seasoning turned out and how the humidity level is holding. Hopefully I don't have to come back BEFORE that with problems

-Zach

 

[gt3911]

Congrats, nice unit

Great advise given here. Take your time, it pays off with most things in life.

 

[beastinem]

Very nice humi!
i have a cuban crafters also, its a PALACIO BIRDSEYE MAPLE one they sell.

In mine i rested a dish of distilled water in the bottom did not wipe down the sides with water and being impatient i really wanted too.
The first thing i would do is make sure that digital hygro is calibrated properly via either salt test or boveda calibration.

Cant wait to hear more about your journey!

Get ready to learn some patience!

It seems quite a few people have a Cuban Crafters humi. I really like that it comes with a 1 year warranty card. That's nice.

I actually did get a digital Hygrometer. The guy that sold me the humi actually threw it in with the package deal. The PH solution, the digitial meter, and a group of cigars that I didn't think would be very good. But thanks to the wonderful BOTL's here on CP, I have been told otherwise. I have already tried one and it was very good. So I guess I got me a better deal than I thought when I walked out of there.

What exactly would I have to do to calibrate it? Is there a sure fire test to see if it is reading accurately?

I wiped it down today and I now have the bowl with distilled water in the bottom. So early next week we'll see what it's doing Just gotta upgrade that floral foam humidifier, which I will take care of tomorrow when I head down to Tampa!

 

[thechenman]

Very nice humi!
i have a cuban crafters also, its a PALACIO BIRDSEYE MAPLE one they sell.

In mine i rested a dish of distilled water in the bottom did not wipe down the sides with water and being impatient i really wanted too.
The first thing i would do is make sure that digital hygro is calibrated properly via either salt test or boveda calibration.

Cant wait to hear more about your journey!

Get ready to learn some patience!

It seems quite a few people have a Cuban Crafters humi. I really like that it comes with a 1 year warranty card. That's nice.

I actually did get a digital Hygrometer. The guy that sold me the humi actually threw it in with the package deal. The PH solution, the digitial meter, and a group of cigars that I didn't think would be very good. But thanks to the wonderful BOTL's here on CP, I have been told otherwise. I have already tried one and it was very good. So I guess I got me a better deal than I thought when I walked out of there.

What exactly would I have to do to calibrate it? Is there a sure fire test to see if it is reading accurately?

I wiped it down today and I now have the bowl with distilled water in the bottom. So early next week we'll see what it's doing

Just gotta upgrade that floral foam humidifier, which I will take care of tomorrow when I head down to Tampa!

When you go to Tampa tomorrow, check to see if your B&M has a Boveda Calibration Kit. It is just a ziploc bag with a saline solution pouch in it. The insturctions on how to calibrate your hygrometer are printed on the bag. It's really simple, but takes a day or two. The kit only costs a couple bucks. You could do a salt test yourself with a ziploc bag, a bottle cap, some salt and water, but the Boveda kit is much simpler.

 

[beastinem]

When you go to Tampa tomorrow, check to see if your B&M has a Boveda Calibration Kit. It is just a ziploc bag with a saline solution pouch in it. The insturctions on how to calibrate your hygrometer are printed on the bag. It's really simple, but takes a day or two. The kit only costs a couple bucks. You could do a salt test yourself with a ziploc bag, a bottle cap, some salt and water, but the Boveda kit is much simpler.

Thanks Chenman! If they don't have it, I will read up on the salt test and just do it that way.

 

[Ty Atkinson]

Ill Send you a used calibration kit if you cant find one at the store they say they are garunteed good for 3 months.

 

[Humidor Minister]

Part of the world of cigars is just slow and easy. Take your time seasoning it properly. I would not recommend wetting the surface or wiping it. The slow process will help you get use to ageing your cigars as well. You've got a nice humidor there, use it properly and you'll have a lot of good times to look forward to. Congratulations on your investment. :thumbs:

 

[beastinem]

Ill Send you a used calibration kit if you cant find one at the store they say they are garunteed good for 3 months.

Thanks for the offer Ty. I actually picked one up in Tampa today. Cost me like 2 bucks I think.....if that. Also got me some heartfelt beads as well. Just finished swapping the floral foam out for them. Got the hygrometer sitting in the calibration bag now. In 36 hours, I will know how crappy it is Things are coming along nicely.

Thanks again for all the help guys!

-Zach