Humidor Help

[sipnjd]

I have a New Air AW280E and I cannot get the humidity up. I have to large containers of distiller water in it. Several shot glass & Bovida packs! as well as 3 lbs. of Hartfelt beads, 70%. Also have a PC fan on a timer to help circulate the air. Humidity on the to is at 58%, middle 59%, bottom at 61%. I also wiped the drawer down with DW three times. It't been 8 days like this. I have two more boxes of cigars due next week so I will need to remove one of those large containers of water to make room. Any suggestions.

 

[acc05R1]

Ara will be along shortly. Paging @sofc

 

[bdc30]

What calibration have you done to your hygros? That seems like a massively excessive amount of moisture in there.

Just wiping the wood drawers doesn't saturate them. From my experience they take a bit of time to fully absorb whatever moisture they will retain, but as stated that doesn't sound like your main issue.

 

[Lezanstar]

How long ago did you get the wineador? Did you season it before adding all of your cigars? I'm not as familiar with that model but I believe there bay be a drain hole that needs plugged to retain the humidity. Check in the bottom all the way at the back and see if it is there.

 

[acc05R1]

In another thread, I saw where someone heated distiller water in a large bowl in the microwave until it starting boiling. Then they place it in the wineador so the steam would season the cedar faster. After 2 days, his was ready to go. Of course, there were no cigars or other Humidification media in the wineador during those 2 days from my understanding. Also, try taping over the drain plug as stated earlier. I taped over mine in my NewAir 281. My NewAir CC-300 came plugged. I had a little condensation issue until I put about 3 pounds of kitty litter sprayed with DW in it.

 

[mguti]

Coming straight from boveda's website:

"Note: Do not mix Boveda RH levels within the same humidor, and do not use Boveda in the same humidor with other humidification products. They will fight against each other and reduce the efficiency of the Boveda."

Don't know if this will completely solve your problem, but it may help. I have a NewAir 121E and I got 65% Boveda's inside and it stays pretty steady.

 

[sipnjd]

How long ago did you get the wineador? Did you season it before adding all of your cigars? I'm not as familiar with that model but I believe there bay be a drain hole that needs plugged to retain the humidity. Check in the bottom all the way at the back and see if it is there.

I got the wineadoir about 3 weeks ago. I made the mistake of going out a buying a bunch of boxes of cigars before I got my drawers from Forrest and properly seasoned them. Once the dawers arrived I put the cigars in a cooler so I could season the drawers. I put the humidity packs and the beads in the cooler along with an ice pack to keep them cool. I put the large containers of water, 6 of them, 1 in each drawer in the wineadoir. I think the ice pack was to cold in the cooler because the next day when I got home from work the humidity was in the mid 40's. That's when I really stated to panic. So I removed most of the water containers from the winadoir and put the cigars in with the bovids packs, beads, shot glasses of DW and two large containers of DW. I did cover the drain hole with electrical tape. So for the next week the humidity stayed in the 59% to 63% range. Yesterday I added the six 72% bovids packs. This morning the humidity was still low. I put the hygrometers inside the drawers and waited about an hour and then I was getting 72% humidity readings on all three hygrometers. I guess you get a more accurate reading inside the drawers rather then being mounted on the front of the drawers. I then removed all the containers of DW & the shot glasses and a few hours later with the hygrometers still inside the drawers I was 67% in the top drawer, 69% in the middle drawer and 70% in the bottom drawer. Now I can rest comfortably. I'll give it a couple of days and I will see what happens if I remove the bovids packs and see if the beads alone will do the trick. Now I am also thinking maybe I should have just used the bovids packed and not the humidity beads. The beads do take up valuable space. The bovids packs I can just put on top of the cigars and I read on here how you can recharge them. I'll think about and may get rid of the beads. Sorry for the long story here. I do appreciate the input from my fellow smokers.

 

[sipnjd]

Where I can I a timer that can go on for just a few minutes, then shuts off? All I have been abel to find is one with 30 minute intervals.

 

[sofc]

Ara will be along shortly. Paging @sofc

Nope.