40 drawer patience killer

[Mitch]

Couple quick thoughts, one what was the humidity before you started to humidify it. And if you take all the humidifiers out, does the humidity quickly drop or stay about the same? This may help to understand if your problem is humidity leaking out, our your humidifiers not adding as much moisture as you think they are. I'd also shoot for 80% humidity to start, once it gets up in that range back off and see how quickly your humidity drops. If it drops like a rock, keep it high for a while, if it drops slowly back it off to a lower overshoot. If you are in a very dry area like it sounds you are, it will be much easier to bring it down to where you want it once it's seasoned than trying to get it up when your humidifiers are only trying to add a tad over where you want to be.

Also, I'm not a big fan of wiping down surfaces, but you could put a small bowl of water in each drawer and let the wood drink. I don't remember the exact numbers, but if I remember right something like 30% of the weight of wood is moisture, so if you have three hundred pounds of dry wood, you need to add almost one hundred pounds of water to get it set. That's over ten gallons of water that needs to slowly seep into the wood and become evenly distributed.

Good luck and keep us posted. And have you worked out the second mortgage on your house so you can fill this thing? I'm a little jelous, but to be honest I'd be afraid to own something that looks almost empty with five thousand cigars in it.

 

[L8A]

Couple quick thoughts, one what was the humidity before you started to humidify it. And if you take all the humidifiers out, does the humidity quickly drop or stay about the same? This may help to understand if your problem is humidity leaking out, our your humidifiers not adding as much moisture as you think they are. I'd also shoot for 80% humidity to start, once it gets up in that range back off and see how quickly your humidity drops. If it drops like a rock, keep it high for a while, if it drops slowly back it off to a lower overshoot. If you are in a very dry area like it sounds you are, it will be much easier to bring it down to where you want it once it's seasoned than trying to get it up when your humidifiers are only trying to add a tad over where you want to be.

Also, I'm not a big fan of wiping down surfaces, but you could put a small bowl of water in each drawer and let the wood drink. I don't remember the exact numbers, but if I remember right something like 30% of the weight of wood is moisture, so if you have three hundred pounds of dry wood, you need to add almost one hundred pounds of water to get it set. That's over ten gallons of water that needs to slowly seep into the wood and become evenly distributed.

Good luck and keep us posted. And have you worked out the second mortgage on your house so you can fill this thing? I'm a little jelous, but to be honest I'd be afraid to own something that looks almost empty with five thousand cigars in it.

Thanks for the input Mitch. It has been colder than normal in Charlotte and the humidity has been below normal as well. I think both of these are contributing to the issue but I'm just not sure how much. The starting RH inside was 38% when I got it home and in the house. I have wiped down the inside of the unit as well as each drawer multiple times and have also put several shoe box sixed tupperware containers with distailled water throughout the unit. It has come to what i show to be 61% and that is where it has stopped. I have several different digital hydrometers in the cabinet including 2 remote sensors that read temp/humidity. If I turn the humdifier off the humdity will drop to around 55% and stay.

As for filling the thing up once I get the humidity in line, I'm not sure just a second mortage would work. It's huge compared to the 300 unit I already have but it will be fun trying.

 

[Bob Staebell]

Nice acquisition. S-B builds really nice commercial units.

I have used the Stewart Beckwith Hurricane humidifier in a number of locker applications over the years. It has substantially more output than a MoistNaire & can easily be adapted to a ducted delivery of moisture into the air plenum if desired. Fans can be switched out to 12V DC.

This particular one we wanted the upper compartment humidified & used fans to draw moisture into the locker set. In the dead of winter, I did find that it could have used more fans in the plenum to pull air down,and or a larger plenum to accomodate better air flow. Eventually put another humidifier towards the bottom to get even distribution. Future lockers with the humidifier on top incorporated both those features. My preference is to put the humidifier on the bottom.

The net/net is locker-drawer humidors tend to have a lot of air leakage compared to a similar sized armoire with just 4 doors. You may find you need one or two large systems to do the job.

Not certain if these pics will publish.

cheers,
Bob Staebell

 

[Bob Staebell]

lets see if I can attach a photo or two

 

[L8A]

Nice acquisition. S-B builds really nice commercial units.

I have used the Stewart Beckwith Hurricane humidifier in a number of locker applications over the years. It has substantially more output than a MoistNaire & can easily be adapted to a ducted delivery of moisture into the air plenum if desired. Fans can be switched out to 12V DC.

This particular one we wanted the upper compartment humidified & used fans to draw moisture into the locker set. In the dead of winter, I did find that it could have used more fans in the plenum to pull air down,and or a larger plenum to accomodate better air flow. Eventually put another humidifier towards the bottom to get even distribution. Future lockers with the humidifier on top incorporated both those features. My preference is to put the humidifier on the bottom.

The net/net is locker-drawer humidors tend to have a lot of air leakage compared to a similar sized armoire with just 4 doors. You may find you need one or two large systems to do the job.

Not certain if these pics will publish.

cheers,
Bob Staebell

Bob that is the very best and most useful response I have received so far. It looks like you have some experience on these very large commercial units yourself. i read about the hurricane but i didnt eventhink about ducting it down. I have several fans blowing air down the back of the unit and have ordered another commercial size unit to put on the bottom and blow up. I also ordered the fan kit that comes with 2 additional fans. I think that should be enough to get me over the top. The RH is reading 63% as we speak so I know i'm gaining ground.

 

[dpricenator]

Look up bob's name and you'll see what he does for a living

 

[L8A]

At least I know where I'll get the next one. Thanks again Bob.