I am sure you are all sick of answering this

[AaronFromPA]

*WARNING* this is a newbie post from someone who has tried everything in his very limited knowledge *END WARNING*

OK so let begin!

My humidor or as I so love to call it my dryidor refuses to hold humidity at this point. Currently it is at roughly 54%...not good. I have tried charging it by wiping down the wood, misting it with an atomizer, sitting a bowl of water (yes distilled) in it and currently I use the gel bead type of humidifier though I have some 65% beads on order. It is a small 50 cirag humidor and I am just out of ideas. I tried reading some other posts but did not understand the lingo...like what the hay is the gel method?...and just got confused.

Any help would be appreciated at this point as I really want to get this thing going as it was a christmas present from my fiance. Oh yeah and last evening I put a flashlight in it and zero light escaped so I am guessing the seal is fine.

 

[AVB]

First I'd check your gage using the salt method. You can do a search and find a number of references to that.

 

[AaronFromPA]

I used a calibrated digital the other evening which I stole from a cigar buff friend of mine. it is accutate with in +1/-1 according to him so I am faily certain that I have the right number. I thne set my cheap ass one to the setting it got so it too should be almost correct. I am going to pick up a digital one this weekend to help me out with all this stuff.

Also I dont know if my home humidity shoudl be taken into account. It is the middle of friggin winter here and extremely dry. Currently the humidity in my home is about 39%.

 

[psyktek]

Indoor humidity is certainly a factor, but 39% isn't that bad; furnace mount humidifiers only have one more notch above that, and I believe it's 40%. Above that and you start getting mold problems.

More important is the ambient temp. Humidity in a humidor tends to rise with temp. Is the box in a chilly room?

Empty boxes are harder to stabilize than full ones. Try loading your humi with your current stash (or wait for those Nicaraos) and then see how it does. Humidity and beads and ceegars are a homeostatic system; it wants to find equilibrium and stability.

And quit opening the box every half hour to check it! ??? :whistling:

 

[AaronFromPA]

And quit opening the box every half hour to check it! ??? :whistling:

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Now now I only try to check it once per day. It is however empty as can be at this point beides the bowl of water I have sitting in it at the moment. I had to take out the gel to make the tupper'dor as I was afraid of losing my stash. I am somewhat scared to put anything at all in it at this point because I fear they will dry out. if I put the Nacaraos in when I get them (only got 5 coming...remember Aaron is broke and poor) along with the 5 Taranos I have coming would I not risk losing them due to the low RH? If not I am more than happy to give it a shot.

 

[ricmac25]

I would also check the seal. In the dark, put in a small flashlight and close the lid. See if too much light is coming out.

Just making sure you are checking every possibility.

 

[AaronFromPA]

I would also check the seal. In the dark, put in a small flashlight and close the lid. See if too much light is coming out.

Just making sure you are checking every possibility.

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Tried that last night as well, no light escaped it was like a black stinkin hole. I am guessing the wood is just extremely dry maybe. It is a pretty well made humidor really I dont know what kind it is but it was in one of those kit type things you can get off of famous that come with the lighter, clip, and ash tray...you know the ones. At this point the battle is getting personal

 

[KayakinBoy]

Where did the humi come from? ???


Nevermind, you replied before I said it lol

 

[BkCloud114]

I'm still a newbie here, but kinda had the same problem with my Thompson Humidor, it wouldn't hold the humidity no matter what I did.

I bought myself a small (54 qt) Igloo cooler and decided to use that with a wireless hygrometer so I don't open it all the time to check humidity. I also bought 1/2 lb of 65% beads and use 1/4 lb in my Igloodor.

I live in an apartment in NYC so you could imagine how dry it is in here with the heat from the furnace. My hygrometer is at 61% with 71 degrees inside the humidor.

IMO it is probably the humidor. I sold my Thompson one to a guy on e-bay and he told me he took it apart to use for parts and it was nothing but cheap wood covered by very thin cedar on the inside. So I don't know how that could be good for my cigars. I guess you get what you pay for.

I would buy a cooler... if ya hang out here and CBid long enough you'll need a bigger one in no time. Somebody here told me to buy one twice the size you think you'll need.

That's my 2 cents, for what it's worth.

 

[AaronFromPA]

Hey Tommy Thanks for the advice. At this point I know I will eventually need a bigger one and will likely go the route of the igloo however I would really lik eto get this one working simply due to the fact that it was a gift from my fiance so I want her to know I appreciate it...you know the drill.
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The humidor really does seem to be pretty nice IMHO and I do not think it is thin cedar. At this point I just dont have the sash to warrent another and since I am rather limited on my budget due to my other hobbies and paying for a wedding I am not acumulating them overly fast .

 

[Kento]

Most reasonably/cheap humidors are made out of cedar veneer plywood, so that would not be a cause for inability to maintain humidity. I would place a hygro inside the humi, place the humi in an airtight cooler, place another hygro and a humidification device in that cooler, and let the whole shebang sit for a few days. Then open it up and compare, quickly, the hygro inside the humi, and the hygro in the cooler. If they are the same it would be safe to say the humi is not airtight ( although I read somewhere that airtight humi's are bad, and lead to mold, etc). If they are different, then the humi is good, and you have to fine tune your humidification devices. (make sure you calibrate the 2 hygros to each other too)

 

[inflatus]

Aaron-

Go the bead route if you still have trouble. My coolerdor is in a cool spot and is not filled with very many cigars. It took a few days to get the humidity right, but it happened.

 

[AaronFromPA]

Thanks all I will give this all a try and maybe it will all equal out. One more question I have had is can I use too many beads? I know the 1/2 pound bag I ordered is way to much for a 50 cigar humi is there a formula for how many I should use or is it guesswork? Also do more beads equate to a more stable enviroment?

 

[Gunpowder]

I would liberally season the box at this point. Heck just pour some water in there and swish it around, let it soak, then pour out excess.