Cabinet humidor prepping, sealing and seasoning ! *** PIC HEAVY ***
- Thread starter Yukoner
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irratebass
www.blindmanspuff.com
I'm with ya Sofc, but I'm desperate
Gonna go the Dr Joe route to season the cabinet, any tips or do I put sponges on every shelf? As indicated in this video
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You guys worry too much.
Bovedas with kitty litter with very well. Hcm beads work great but expensive for what they are.
I would put a few bovedas in there and two or three containers of kitty litter and cigars. Wait a couple of days and if they're low spray the kitty litter
Actually, I completely agree with you here. Active was always "sold" to me as being a set-it-and-forget-it system. In reality, it needs just as close monitoring as passive humidification, as you can go dangerously high or low in RH pretty quickly. I guess at some point when you need to humidify too large an area (I'm not suggesting that's the case with the cabinets in this thread), there's not much choice but active.
irratebass
www.blindmanspuff.com
Well I am going to treat it as I just bought it, and going to season it properly this time. I'm waiting on my boveda seasoning packs to arrive, I also went out last night and bought sponges.
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irratebass
www.blindmanspuff.com
irratebass
www.blindmanspuff.com
Update, I decided to put the sponges in a day ahead of the seasoning packs arriving (thanks Amazon)
Anywho the packs arrived yesterday, and they were still in the mailbox when I returned from the shop last night put them in around midnight, and this morning (7am) all hygrometers were between 67 & 68%, gonna leave it alone for the 3-4 days and will report back
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Anywho the packs arrived yesterday, and they were still in the mailbox when I returned from the shop last night put them in around midnight, and this morning (7am) all hygrometers were between 67 & 68%, gonna leave it alone for the 3-4 days and will report back
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irratebass
www.blindmanspuff.com
84%, now remember I had the fans going this entire time as well.
Update : all hygrometers were reading right at 75%
So, it's been 4 days. Took out the boveda backs, hooked up the Magna (BTW the beads still had too much mold, so I threw them away, cleaned out the Magna, put in a pound of heartfelt beads in a mesh bag, threw DW over it, and gonna leave it for another 3-4 days, along with the new hygrometers. If the beads work I won't go back to the CO beads.
Some pics from top to bottom, can't see the second new hygrometer it's in the very bottom lying down
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Update : all hygrometers were reading right at 75%
So, it's been 4 days. Took out the boveda backs, hooked up the Magna (BTW the beads still had too much mold, so I threw them away, cleaned out the Magna, put in a pound of heartfelt beads in a mesh bag, threw DW over it, and gonna leave it for another 3-4 days, along with the new hygrometers. If the beads work I won't go back to the CO beads.
Some pics from top to bottom, can't see the second new hygrometer it's in the very bottom lying down
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Few observations:
- I'd move the CO down to the very bottom. Then all you're trying to do with fans is pull humidity strictly up. Having it where it's at introduces another variable you have to contend with.
- The space directly above your drawers (picture #2). It looks like you have a shelf directly on top of a shelf ? Or is that a cedar tray sitting on a shelf ?
- Do you have fans anywhere other than the very bottom ?
- I'd put the drawers back in, if you plan on using them. They're SC, so they will absorb a lot of RH and will also help regulate your RH going forward. The veneer on the inside of the humidor (the walls, if you will), are pretty thin SC. Like wallpaper SC almost. I would venture to guess (and I could be wrong here) that the volume of SC in your drawers is > the volume of SC in the veneer.
Since it's been a few days, how are the Heartfelt beads working out in the CO ? I've heard mixed results of replacing the CO beads with Heartfelt ones.
- I'd move the CO down to the very bottom. Then all you're trying to do with fans is pull humidity strictly up. Having it where it's at introduces another variable you have to contend with.
- The space directly above your drawers (picture #2). It looks like you have a shelf directly on top of a shelf ? Or is that a cedar tray sitting on a shelf ?
- Do you have fans anywhere other than the very bottom ?
- I'd put the drawers back in, if you plan on using them. They're SC, so they will absorb a lot of RH and will also help regulate your RH going forward. The veneer on the inside of the humidor (the walls, if you will), are pretty thin SC. Like wallpaper SC almost. I would venture to guess (and I could be wrong here) that the volume of SC in your drawers is > the volume of SC in the veneer.
Since it's been a few days, how are the Heartfelt beads working out in the CO ? I've heard mixed results of replacing the CO beads with Heartfelt ones.
irratebass
www.blindmanspuff.com
I had the CO all the way in the bottom the 1st time, but I didnt season it like it did this time, so maybe moving it is not a bad idea.
Yeah those are just shelves on top of each other, I just put them in there to season them, they may or may not stay in there.
I just have the 2 fans.
Planning on reintroducing the cigars on Wednesday
Have had no issues with the heartfelt beads being in there, and the CO is not constantly running, so progress has been made
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Yeah I'd move it to the bottom, just my opinion.
OK. Well the shelves themselves aren't 100% Spanish cedar. They're lined the same like the walls, so a very thin veneer of SC. One of the trays would be a better idea. In any case though, make sure the air vent slats line up as best you can, to help with airflow.
Consider then perhaps more fans at the bottom, pointing upwards. I wound up doing 4 fans in total, two on the very bottom next to the CO and two more on the shelf right above the CO. The idea being to get a "jet stream" of humid air moving upwards towards the top.
Glad to hear the HF beads are working out, I've been curious how that would work.
irratebass
www.blindmanspuff.com
Thanks, yeah I am thinking another couple of fans couldn't hurt.
Quick update, no pics:
Removed all the sponges this morning, moved the CO to the bottom with it pointing towards the door so it goes straight up, with no cigars in there there is a nice jet stream of air going up the front. Moved shelves around, added the drawers (with cigars in them and in a more uniform placement to allow airflow, before it was very cluttered and clogged)
Set the CO to 65%, will slowly add cigars in on a daily basis.
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Damn things don't hold up well either. After having 3 Cigar Oasis units die over roughly a 10 year span I bought a Le Veil iCigar unit to try.
I'm using an odd hybrid method of the active unit combined with several Boveda packs. The Le Veil is set 3% lower than the rating of the Boveda packs. It runs if humidity drops much in theory. I dunno, I may abandon it if it doesn't work well. Boveda is hard to beat if you don't mind using several of them.
I'm curious, what do you expect the life cycle of a Cigar Oasis to be ? If I can get 3 to 4 years of operation out of one, I'm happy, and if it fails, I'll buy another. I would be pissed if it failed after 13 months of course, but a few years ? Based on your 3 COs in a 10 year span you're getting 3+ years on each one ? Just curious as I find it interesting the different expectations people have about things.
Bovedas are great but when you get to a certain size of humidor / cabinet / closet, it just gets too expensive and they aren't quick enough reacting to the large RH swings that can happen.
Agree. I would be very happy if I get three years out of my CO. I have my CO Magna facing the back of the humidor with about an inch of space between each shelf and the back. I don't have any aux fans to help force it up and it works great. I supplement with KL on each shelf and my CO only runs for a little bit after I've had the door open for awhile. I haven't had any issues at all with the CO and it maintains my RH within 3% top to bottom. Hopefully with the KL and it not running that often, I can get 3+ years out of it.
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I don't know what COs cost now but used to be around 100. I've run half a bag of kitty litter and about $20 worth of bovedas (most of which I got for free) for maybe five years and don't see it costing any more (other than distilled water) for much longer.
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Well, all you've really got are a couple of sensors a readout and a small fan. Lasting over 36 months doesn't seem like much to ask, but obviously it is since they don't in my experience.
As I mentioned I'm using them to augment the Boveda's as I had with beads before I realized how good these things are. So far it has worked well in my foot locker humidor, especially since its for rest and not opened very often.
I'm a cabinetmaker by trade and have thought several times of building a good size armoire type humidor cabinet but I'm still of the belief I guess that's its simpler to have a long(ish) term storage unit that you leave shut as much as possible, them a medium size unit for sticks that are basically ready, combined with a desk top humidor that I smoke out of.