Hydra SM

I broke down and picked up a hyrda SM and placed it into a small dried out humidor I had laying around. This was a Thompson Barrel Humidor much like this one:

http://www.thompsoncigar.com/product...93/pc/8389.uts

The biggest difference is mine has an analog hygrometer on the face rather then the digital that is shown.

The first thing I noticed about the hydra is that when I place it into this hygrometer with the ribbon cable running out the back of the humidor, the digital display on the Hydra is upside down (when viewing from the front). To correct this I would either need a longer ribbon cable or have the cable run out the front of the humidor. A very minor complaint.

The other concern I had when I ordered the hydra was that it appeared the fan would blow the humidity straight up. On the barrel humidor there is a shelf just above where the hydra and I was concerned about that area becoming over saturated. But no fear, the top fan pulls air in and then pushes the humidified air out either side of the hydra.

I calibrated the hydra using the salt method and set it to work. Initially the hydra was saying the RH was around 40%. After a few minutes it measured the humidity at above 70%, and turned off. Of course this wasn't stable and the hydra continued to kick off and on every 20 seconds or so as it tried to stabilize the RH. I had this placed in my den and when it was completely quiet in the room I could hear the fan working. Whenever there is any noise, or I'm not listening for it, I don't notice the noise. After a couple of days the humidity stabilized at 70% and I no longer notice the hydra turning on. I only put 11 cheap sticks in there from my normal coolidor to see how it functions. I've also ordered a bunch of cheap cigars off of cigarbid that I'll put in there also. I don't expect there to be any problems, but if the hydra continues to perform as well as it has I will be moving it to my larger humidor as the main humidification system. After 2 weeks of ownership, I'm happy with the hydra. It does take up some real estate, in a small humidor that is stuffed this could be an issue. It seems to be a good fit for the barrel humidor and size won't be an issue in the coolidor..