Problems with a HumiJar

so to preface this, i am a college student so i am broke as a joke. that being said, i purchased a Cigar jar off of ebay (new condition, 32.99 pricetag on bottom) it boasts what looks like an oak lid and a spainish cedar disk at the bottom. i added a humidifier and hygrometer to it. the problem is regulating the humidity. if i seal it skyrockets, so i immeadiately got rid of the rubber gasket seal, and just close the lid. this works decent, but i need to check it every couple of hours. i thought i solved my problem by adding some cedar blocks. this regulates the humidity well, but apparently they are not the same a spainish cedar ( which is apparently a type of mahogony, lame). How detrimental is this action? i mean i love the smell of cedar, and it only seema to affect my cigars alittle. anybody with any experience with these things, or any suggestions?

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Originally Posted by here'sjohnny

so to preface this, i am a college student so i am broke as a joke. that being said, i purchased a Cigar jar off of ebay (new condition, 32.99 pricetag on bottom) it boasts what looks like an oak lid and a spainish cedar disk at the bottom. i added a humidifier and hygrometer to it. the problem is regulating the humidity. if i seal it skyrockets, so i immeadiately got rid of the rubber gasket seal, and just close the lid. this works decent, but i need to check it every couple of hours. i thought i solved my problem by adding some cedar blocks. this regulates the humidity well, but apparently they are not the same a spainish cedar ( which is apparently a type of mahogony, lame). How detrimental is this action? i mean i love the smell of cedar, and it only seema to affect my cigars alittle. anybody with any experience with these things, or any suggestions?

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Welcome to the forum johnny. I'm not experienced with the humi-jar, but removing the seal could cause your rh to fluctuate and be even more difficult to keep regulated. Have you calibrated your hygrometer? What type of humidifier are you using? PG 50/50 solution or just distilled water?

Perhaps you should consider a small desktop humi, or a coolidor, both of which can be had pretty inexpensively. Beads are an alternative for regulating rh.....a search for them on here will yield many results.

I would say you might just want to get a cheap humidor. I don't think those cigar jars work to well. Theres really nothing in it to hold humidty since its mainly glass and almost no spanish cedar.

If you are stuck with the jar, put the seal back on and then get some beads. They help regulate humidity instead of just shooting moisture into the air. For a jar you could get a small tube of beads for cheap and then your problem is solved.

spiffy

Put the seal back on. Order one of these.

Fill the jar up with cigars they will help maintain the humidity. The more cigars you have in the jar the easier it will be to regulate the rh. If you need a good variety of cigars check out the newbie sampler II thread on this site.

If the beads won't fix the problem, then get ride of the jar and buy a rubermaid tupperware, or cooler.

well after fiddling with it a bit and adding a couple of sticks and the cedar blocks, the humidity has settled in. Putting the seal on just makes it skyrocket. works fine now save for the cedar smell, but i hear that will eventually go away as well. thanks for the help.

Plastic ware with snap on lid at your local supermarket - @ $5.
Water Pillow from your local B&M - 50 cents.
Well maintained cigars - priceless.

ended up getting a drymistat tube from my local shop. this was easier than beads as i can just set it in the center. the rh still skyrockets with the seal on so i am just going to let the seal off for the time being. thanx for the help guys.

oh... and in intrest of maintaining good humidity i did add some more cigars, but just to help regulate the rh:smiley2:

after reading up some more on these i noticed some people claim that storing cigars in the upright position can cause the ends to splinter. so i was wondering if this is true i could just lay the jar on its side. what i was wondering is if i could lay that drymistat right on top of the cigars/lay the cigars on top of it?

also as a side note i talk alot about regulating rH, but how important is temperature? as a college student in central ohio who lives with twelve other poor students i cannot always gaurantee that the temp in my room is above 60 degrees.

I only get concerned with the temp when it climbs much above 70f......beetles hatch at 80+ I think. My humi and coolers pretty much stay in the low 60f and even the mid 50's during the winter........during the summer it will raise to the mid 70's and it is time to move them to a cooler place.

I don't know for sure regarding the tube, but I would guess airflow around it would be important, but maybe less so in the smaller environment of the jar. I'm sure someone else will have more info on that.

yeah i im definatly going about it cautiously. the tube i have is crystals and has holes in the top of the lid, but it does not drip (shook it rather forcefully ver the sink). i also have some of my housmates cigars in there so i don't want to ruin them either.

so i am still looking to find out weather or not it would be a problem storing cigars end. does anybody know if this will cause splintering? can i lay the humitube on top of the cigars? will robin be able to save batman? find out next time on when newbs post questions cuz they're newbs!