Question on large cabinet

[Smokestack]

Hi guys. New to the BOTL !! I've recently acquired a larger humidor cabinet and I plan on moving all my sticks and boxes into it. I have one of the Hydra LG electronic humidifiers but I don't really think it works the way it should. My question is what else would be a good way to humidify this monster? Beads? Or should I look for something else?

I'd imagine I would need a lot of beads for this thing. I can't post a link to the one I have because I'm new but if you google HUM-2000 you'll see it. Thanks guys for the help

 

[BesstR]

Is it a tall cabinet I have the tower of power about five feet tall. I have my humidifier on the bottom humi care xl or something like that from CI. Then I have some beads on the top to keep it regulated.

 

[Smokestack]

Yes it's about 6 foot tall. Thanks for the info. How much of the beads are you using ?

 

[Jfire]

Here's your shopping list....
1lb of heartfelt beads
4lbs of mini cat litter.
Find some empty cigar coffins. Fill half with the 1lb of HF beads. Fill other half with KL. Why have a pound of HF beads? You'll need them in the summer. Your RH is going to spike in summer. These units are known to be leaky. Dry humi in winter. (Extra KL) Wet/high RH in summer. (Extra HF beads to adsorb RH) I'd place several of each coffin in each shelf. (KL/HF)
And finally be prepared to turn off your active humidity (Hydra LG) in summer it more than likely will not be needed.
Jfire

 

[NCost]

Tell us more about where the unit will sit and what climate you're in. Will it be kept in a room with A/C in the summer? Temps in the winter? These all matter to figuring out what to recommend.

While jolietfire is probably spot on, w/o knowing your location it's a tough call. In in NW Ohio and have dry cold winters and hot humid summers. My Humi never gets above 75 degrees and I use active humidification (Accumonitor) to control it. It runs year round. I'm not into the beads/litter method as I don't like using space that could be better served holding cigars.

 

[AlohaStyle]

Agree... active humidity and supplement with beads. As said above, if your area gets humid in the warmer months, you will probably want to turn off your active humidifier and take water out. I live in Seattle and have Aristocrats active humidification system plus a bunch of beads scattered around in the mesh bags. They don't take up any room as I simply put them in between the boxes wherever they can fit. I rarely run my active system.

And JFire... good advice but not sure why you say use both kitty litter and beads. You say use beads to absorb the Rh but that's why kitty litter is made... to absorb things. I would say kitty litter does a better job absorbing Rh than beads do IMO.

 

[Jfire]

Because HF beads are set to a certain RH. KL is not. So in the summer the HF beads will help to keep it at the set RH he wants..... 60-65 or 70.
I guess we will disagree even though I'm right

 

[Angry Bill]

Or you can purchase the Accumonitor set up from Avallo and not worry about it. Just add water every 6 weeks.

 

[AlohaStyle]

(Extra HF beads to adsorb RH)

Because HF beads are set to a certain RH. KL is not. So in the summer the HF beads will help to keep it at the set RH he wants..... 60-65 or 70.
I guess we will disagree even though I'm right

Yep, you are right that HF beads help keep it set at the Rh he wants. I talked about your comment above saying extra beads "to absorb" the Rh. I was just wondering why you said use kitty litter and beads, but then said extra beads to absorb Rh. Kitty litter's main purpose is to absorb so if you are concerned about absorbing Rh, use more kitty litter.

I personally think it's good to use both. Beads to keep a more consistent Rh but also use kitty litter in the hot temps if Rh starts to rise. Kitty litter will help bring that down better than beads will IMO. But we are basically saying the same thing... use beads to control most of the Rh, and supplement with litter to give a "boost" either way, up or down. I personally prefer/need to use dry litter in the summer to keep it down.

It's not all about trying to be right Justin... just trying to answer the guys' question. :tonguerol :togetherl

 

[AlohaStyle]

Or you can purchase the Accumonitor set up from Avallo and not worry about it. Just add water every 6 weeks.

And sorry Bill, that just isn't correct. If someone lives in a humid area, an active system alone might not work and can actually make it worse. No way an Accumonitor or Aristocrats' Set and Forget system can lower humidity... I have to flat out empty my water containers for probably 6-8 months out of the year and just use beads. The first Summer I had my Aristocrat, I had the humidifiers filled correctly and the Rh was just shooting up and up.

 

[Smokestack]

Hey guys. I live in Florida. My 4 desktop humis always did fine with standard humidificatiin from boveda packs or beads and even in humid months didn't have any issues with high humidity since the house is kept cool and such. Do you think I'd be ok just running the active machine on the bottom and placing a couple of pounds of beads on shelves?

 

[AdamJoshua]

Florida you might be better off with just beads, having grown up there and remembering the stifling humidity you will want something to suck it up so your cigars aren't damp and you don't get " pre-mature plume" on them.

Speaking of FL hopefully you use the AC or have the cigars somewhere cool, never a good thing to let cigars get over 75 degrees.

 

[Angry Bill]

Or you can purchase the Accumonitor set up from Avallo and not worry about it. Just add water every 6 weeks.

And sorry Bill, that just isn't correct. If someone lives in a humid area, an active system alone might not work and can actually make it worse. No way an Accumonitor or Aristocrats' Set and Forget system can lower humidity... I have to flat out empty my water containers for probably 6-8 months out of the year and just use beads. The first Summer I had my Aristocrat, I had the humidifiers filled correctly and the Rh was just shooting up and up.

I'm pretty sure no one knew he lived in Florida. I for one didn't know until 11 hours after I made my post. Until the gentleman posted that he lived in Florida. He might have lived in California, Arizona, Europe or Wherever. That information was unknown.

There are many methods to keep cigars humidified. What works best for one person and/or climate, may not work for the next person or climate. Keeping an open mind to various methods and experiences is the key to solving the problem.

God bless you dude.

Good luck smokestack. Hope you get your humidity issue figured out sir.

 

[NCost]

Or you can purchase the Accumonitor set up from Avallo and not worry about it. Just add water every 6 weeks.

And sorry Bill, that just isn't correct. If someone lives in a humid area, an active system alone might not work and can actually make it worse. No way an Accumonitor or Aristocrats' Set and Forget system can lower humidity... I have to flat out empty my water containers for probably 6-8 months out of the year and just use beads. The first Summer I had my Aristocrat, I had the humidifiers filled correctly and the Rh was just shooting up and up.

Oddly enough I think it is more dependent on how high your RH is in your house. Last summer we had weeks of 95+ temps along w/ 90-100% humidity and my Avallo using the acuumonitor never once got over 67% humidity. Now I do keep my house at 69 degrees in the summer as I like it cold when its so damn hot. I never once turned off my accumonitor and kept it filled all summer long. My cigars smoked perfectly.

 

[Smokestack]

The humidity in my house usually never goes above 55 and I keep the temp around 72 on average

 

[AdamJoshua]

That's pretty amazing that the RH in your house never goes about 55 in Florida.