Humidor Help

Hello all, I am new to the forums here and I have a question to start off with.

I recently got addicted to the wonderful world of cigars. And in doing so, I purchased myself a 150ct humidor. I thought i would take the cheap road out and purchase one off of ebay. I followed all the steps that are required to season a new humidor. And I bought the humidity beads from heartfelt, 2oz of 70% beads. I have been at this for about 3 months now and this thing will not stabilize. I have to re-fill the beads every 3-5 days. I have even taken a shot glass and filled it full of water and left it in there. The humidity never get's above 63%, usually in the high 50's. After I re-fill the beads it will stay in the low 60's for a day or two, then it starts to fall. I access my humidor maybe once a week, and have gone longer to see if it's me opening it that is causing this. It's a glass top humidor and i put a digital hygrometer on the top shelf so I can check it when i walk by.

My question being...did I just get a bad humidor? 3 months later and it's still not stabilized? Should I just accept this as a lesson learned, you get what you pay for, and purchase a humidor from a well known trader?

I would appreciate any and all comments or suggestions.

Welcome to CS, I would probably look into see if your humidor is leaking. I have a 300ct humidor that doesn't seal at the door very well and I am stuck recharging the beads I have every week or so. I would also do a salt test on your hygrometer to make sure you are getting the right reading. You might be getting a lower reading than what is actually in your humidor. If you are using the hygrometer that came with the humidor, along with the digital one you keep at the top, it might be off. I know all the analog hygrometers I got with my humidors were all off and I have at least 2-3 digi hygrometers I use to make sure I am getting an accurate reading. I also salt tested my digital ones to make sure they are accurate. You can search for the salt test and find the thread that shows you exactly how to do it.

If its a glass top humidor you probably want to check the seal around the glass as well.

Since you are new here I would also recommend posting an intro so we can get to know you better :smiley20:

Do what Silencei suggests about calibrating your hygrometer. Also you can do some simple tests to make sure the seal on the humidor is good.

#1-The dollar bill test- place a dollar, half in and half out of the humidor and close the lid. Try to pull the bill out of the humidor. It should be very difficult if not impossible to pull out. Do this on all sides of the humidor. If the dollar slips out easily, the seal is no good.

#2- Whoosh test- open the lid a few inches and drop it. You should hear a "WHOOSH" sound like the air is cushioning the lid's fall. If the lid slams, the seal is no good.

Good luck and Welcome from NY.

Welcome!

If the humi is, say, from easy source, then there are a couple things to try, assuming your humi fails the tests above that Logan mentions. But before you start, you may find something as simple as putting something with some weight on the lid may be enough to seal.

1. wipe down the wooden "lip" on the lid (I'm guessing) of the humidor with water, enough to get the lip wet, then wipe to absorb any excess moisture. This is not recommended on a $500+ double-wall 'real' wood humi, but I suspect that you don't have one of those. If you're not getting a seal, then this method will swell the cedar wood seal enough that it hopefully functions.

2. if the above doesn't work, then get some 1/8" x 3/8" closed-cell rubber weatherstripping tape from Home Depot or wherever and seal the lid (on the edge, not the lip).

You may also have to seal the glass - sometimes the glass is held in place by strips of wood tacked into place; if so, again, steps 1 and 2.

Good luck!

Some asides:

- MHO is if you don't have $500 to spend on a decent humidor (e.g., Diamond Crown), then go with a cooler conversion (and you'll probably need the weatherstripping tape for a conversion as well).

- more beads wouldn't hurt, but is not the immediate concern. I've got a pound in my 150ct, and it could use more, as I only have loose un-cello'd sticks in there.

- a Hydra/Humi-care or Cigar Oasis active humidifcation (fan on a sponge) is probably a very good investment. The Cigar Oasis is slightly better, but the Hydra/Humi-care is slightly cheaper. (Humi-care is the house brand for Cigars International, and their version of the Hydra is $10 less than the Hydra.)

Damn, I was thinking your could do the flashlight test till I realized that yours has a glass top. That's what I did with my shitty humidor, just took a small flashlight in it, went into a dark room and looked for light coming from under the lid. I guess maybe you could cover the glass...

I'm going to have to try seriously wetting the part of mine with the gap and see if that helps, maybe even invest in the weather stipping, thanks for the advice.

A little but of weight is a good start. MRN's book is the perfect weight for a desktop humi :smiley2:

Winter is a killer. The ambient RH in my house is now typically under 30%. My desktop humi is about 50% full right now, and so each time the humi is opened, all that 65% RH air is replaced by dryness. I keep those cedar sheets from old boxes over my singles, and a sheet of Tyvek (recycled from courier envelopes) over the cedar, and mist the Tyvek very slightly with distilled water every time the humi is opened.