cigar humidor questions

[ubet]

I know their are some cigar smokers here. I am ordering this humidor http://www.famous-smoke.com/bally+glass+top+humidor/item+28373 and have found out that I need to season it. I have read and semi figured out what I am supposed to do. Will regular bottled water work? And what can I do with the 20 cigars I am ordering with it, while its seasoning? I have never owned a humidor, or ordered cigars so I am sort of lost. Thanks

 

[harley_jeff]

Re: cigar humidor questions

Use only distilled water in humidors.

 

[killerwaffles]

Re: cigar humidor questions

The easiest way to season a humidor, especially for beginners is using the Boveda Seasoning kit. IT comes with instructions and everything you need to keep the cigars humid. One great place to get good deals on cigars is cigarbid.com

To maintain humidity, i use Heartfelt beads which only require to "recharge" the beads with distilled water every month or so.

http://www.cheaphumidors.com/p_boveda-packets_SEASONING-KIT.html

 

[Switchblade]

Re: cigar humidor questions

ah hmmm, let me clear my throat before I begin...
You don't use straight Distilled Water in your humidor unless you prefer the taste of moldy cigars. Get a gallon jug of distilled, and 8oz of PROPYLENE GLYCOL. Mix it. Now look at the humistat in that little box. If it has green foamy stuff in it, toss it(That stuff is for flower arangements, not a humidor). Get yourself a good gel based humistat and use a mix of DistilledG of 5:1(20% pg). PG will keep mold away and your gel based humistat will hoold water for around 15 - 30 days depending on teh size of the box. If the box is larger than a shoe box in overall cubic inches, you will need two 2x5 block style humistats. One on either side, or front and back, or top and bottom. If the box is smaller than a shoe box, one humistat centered front or back will work fine.
Stay away from top mounted humistats. Cigars too close will overhumidify and get mold from being too damp because they are too close. IF your box has the humistat on the top, remove it, get a pair of flat magnets, some wood glue, and super glue. Super glue one half the magnet to teh back of the humistat, the use wood glue to glue th eother half to the back or front of the box. When the glue is dried, simply plac teh magnets togetehr for the perfect postion for your humistat.
Box conditioning:
You like to wait over two to three weeks? Neither do I. Get a sterile sponge, and your distilled/pg mix. Dip the sponge, and ally a LIGHT coat of D/PG all over the wood interior of the box. Close it, let it 'dry'. Put your hygrometer inside. When it's <70% you can safely put everything back in. The boxes are kiln dried. They simply need a little D/PG to renew their basic humidity. Your humistat will do the job over time for you, but you must check it weekly to insure it stays wet because the wood is taking more than the cigars(not a bad thing, just requires attention for about three to four weeks or so). Any questions?

 

[ubet]

Re: cigar humidor questions

Switch, are these what you are talking about? http://www.famous-smoke.com/search.cfm?category_id=40013&pageNum=2

The humidor I am getting is for 100cigars 12x8x5 if I remember. It has a hygrometer on it.

If I season it using the boveda kit, will I still need to use a humidifier?

 

[ubet]

Re: cigar humidor questions

Or get something like this? http://www.cheaphumidors.com/p_traditionalhumidifiers_PSH-3.html

Apparently the humidor I am looking at has a humidifier in it.

 

[ShakyDave]

Re: cigar humidor questions

I've had several pretty decent humidors but always had trouble with the humidity in them. So I bought a large coleman cooler and put a humidifier in it. Keeps about 500 sticks at a time in great condition. Being a bachelor I don't give a shit about aesthetics.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: cigar humidor questions

Heck, back when I smoked a pipe, we'd just toss a wedge of apple into the tobacco pouch and call it good. But then again, the tobaco usually got smoked up in a week of two, and things seldom had time enough to reach the moldy stage.

Greg

 

[Switchblade]

Re: cigar humidor questions

If your humidor has a 'humistat' in it already(the thing that humidifies) and a DIGITAL hygrometer, you are fine, IF the digital hygrometer is actually solid and easily adjusted(you must know 'in the house humidity to test it or have a known good test station with reliably calibrated digital hygrometers). The other way to test it is to go into a shop with a walk in humidor and see if they have a hygrometer visible, then take yours out as you look around and after five minutes check it. Not the adjustment and act accordingly. OR you can send your hygrometer to me with a self addresses return shipping paid envelope and I will test, adjust and send it back...trust me on this, it might benefit you more than you think

If your humistat isn't gel based(i do not know about those sponges, never used them, but the gel works very reliabley and keeps very consistant humidity) I can probably swap out the inners with gel so long as the thing can be opened and reclosed. As I said, a favor, you pay both ways for the mail and I am certain you will be happy with the results.
The Boveda stuff is fine too, but I have found them to not be so consistant and have always tested with my known digitals...$80ea and they never lie so long as the batteries are good

 

[schollianmj]

Re: cigar humidor questions

or you can place the Hydrometer into a small sealed container (I use a small two cup tupperware dish) with a shotglass full of salt and just enough water to wet the salt. let the hydrometer sit in the box for 24 hours and it should read 75%. if it dosnt adjust accordingly.

I personally dont use PG or any PG based mixes in my Humidors. Distilled water works just fine.

 

[ubet]

Re: cigar humidor questions

Switch, THANKS for that offer thats pretty damn kind of you! I will probably take you up on it, I will post pics when it gets here and see what it entails. My wife bought it for me as a present... I am pretty stoked. Will my kestrel nv45oo work I know it reads humidity, I was just thinking of throwing it in there and leaving it, if the hygrometer that came with it isnt worth a damn. I know its not a digital hygrometer.

 

[ubet]

Re: cigar humidor questions

Well it came today. They humistat is foam. I took a sponge and got it wet with distilled water and am in the process of seasoning it. The directions say it should be ready in 2 days. I did get the bovida kits, but they arent here yet. Switch depending on how this seasoning goes, I will probably take you up on your offer.

 

[Switchblade]

Re: cigar humidor questions

clean your Kestrel really good, then put it in te box over about 4 hours. That 'should' give you an accurate reading based upon your Kestrel's accuraacy, then simply move the needle in the hygromenter(usually a tiny screw) to the correct reading, then another 2 hour test to insure accuracy. The offer to change out the green crap is still on. Polymer soft media and 20% PGS

 

[ubet]

Re: cigar humidor questions

Switch pm inbound!

 

[ubet]

Re: cigar humidor questions

Ok, so I seasoned like the directions said. I then calibrated said hygrometer per instructions, its reading 80 and my kestrell (uncleaned) is reading 74.xx. I am trying to recalibrate the hygrometer right now. I didnt think this was going to be such a pain in the ass! Does it sound like I might have to buy another hygrometer?

I have my cigars in there right now and its reading 75% and stablilizing via the kestrel.

I have the humistat in there now, I had the 69% boveda packs in there. Over a 3hr period the kestrel averaged 74.5 taking reading every 30 seconds.

Thanks

Ubet

 

[Drifter]

Re: cigar humidor questions


Ubet,

if the packs and the cheap hymidification becaomes a pain in the ass you can really simplify things by going this route. Once it is seasoned the beads take all the guess work out of humidification.

http://www.heartfeltindustries.com/proddetail.asp?prod=AH_2_65

I have a large Avallo cab that has an active humidification system now, but I built a humidor out of a small wine frige that used a pound of 65% beads. That thing was dead nuts on once it stabilized. very low maintenance.

Just another option, extremely easy to hold the humidity right where you want with very little fuss.

 

[jakeleg]

Re: cigar humidor questions

Bill Clinton found Monica Lewinski to be an extremely efficient and cheap "human humidor". Not sure how the flavor or bouquet might have been affected.

 

[Switchblade]

Re: cigar humidor questions

And replied to

Beads, the hard round ones are junk. They infuse way too much PG and go dead after a couple years(I started with these in large cabinet humidors for the old Distorted business). The polymer soft media is the proverbial cat's ass and with a 20%PG solution works seriously well and maintains a nice 65% - 72% depending on room rh.
For perfect smoking, a small box humidor set to 58%rh conditions cigars that will be smoked within 7 to 10 days. As to 'infusions', the only ones I consider these days are conjac, bourbon, port, and coffee. Nothing, however, beats a nice dark ligero or a double or triple maduro and a pour of nice bourbon. Shoot, I would even smoke a Thompson dog rocket if the bourbon and the company was good enough(this was considered BTDT in a certain Polish compound during a certain deployment while working with a multinational task force...some perks were just not to be denied, and 1A stopped at the Polish gate)

 

[ubet]

Re: cigar humidor questions

replied to your reply....

I just finished an infusion "isla de sol", the first inch or so was really good, the rest of it was like sucking on a dog turd. I ordered some smokes today (more than I should have) I got some ghurkas (including some ghurka beauties), some 5vegas and some augusto reyes. If I remember right, there are some double maduros in there.

I wish I would have looked around more, because I just found a pack of 80 cigars for $89, the total if bought all separate is like $400, it included some cohiba red dots. I know nothing of any of the cigars in there, but would have gotten double what I bought for about $40 less.