Picking up my new humidor tonight

[ninfiction]

AustinMike - 12/6/2017  10:21 AM

Humidity is slowly heading north.  It was at 62 all day yesterday and has finally crept up to 63%.  I have two bowls of distilled water and a cigar oasis in there.  I put the CO in to move air around a bit.

I picked up a used tower about a year and a half ago off craiglist - Power Tower or whatever that is pretty common. It's not as nice as the model you got and I paid $200 for it but it works and has a lot of room.

I seasoned it for at least 2 weeks, maybe closer to a month before I started filling it up. Really need to be sure the wood has absorbed enough moisture to stay stable. The air inside is the easy part to level out. You might want to pull the drawers out and set them on the shelves just so they get exposed too.

Nothing worse than battling the RH once you start filling it up.

[AustinMike]

Good tip about the drawers.  I've pulled them out and set them on the shelves above.

[MacMac]

Very nice!  

[Deener27]

Xaland - 9/3/2018  6:34 AM

I am now on my third humidor - progressively getting better quality and bigger size as the collection grows. A 50 cigar humidor is a good starter. My advice is to really research it. Buying the cheapest humidor should not be the goal so much as buying the best one at a certain price point. Read reviews https://coolerexp.com/best-cigar-humidors-review/  a lot of them. As said previously, Spanish cedar lined humidors are mandatory, and a good fit. It should feel solid and the lid should fit snugly. I found that the floral foam humidifiers dry out too quickly for my environment. So I bought a great device (forgot the name, but can look it up later if you want) that has a reservoir for water and it feeds the foam over an extended period of time. It lasts for several weeks.
When you get your humidor, you will want to prep it prior to putting in all of your prized cigars. The cedar lining will be dry, and if you put cigars in it, it will extract all of the moisture out of the cigars. This prepping process is called peppering. You simply wipe down all of the cedar lined surfaces with water, and begin humidifying it. Wait a day or two until your hygrometer measures that there is a steady and consistent humidity of 65-70%. THEN, put your cigars in.
Lastly, I was instructed to use distilled water. Tap water is a dicey situation, particularly if you live somwhere with really hard water and a lot of minerals. Those flavors can be absorbed by the cigars. It may be overkill, but I always use distilled water. I buy it cheap for like a buck a gallon at the grocery store. Good luck!

Welcome to the site.

You would be interested in the knowledge base that we have here (and debated for years): http://www.cigargeeks.com/community/boxx/knowledgebase.asp?display=list&SortbyType=1

[Chefjohn]

Xaland - 9/3/2018  7:34 AM

I am now on my third humidor - progressively getting better quality and bigger size as the collection grows. A 50 cigar humidor is a good starter. My advice is to really research it. Buying the cheapest humidor should not be the goal so much as buying the best one at a certain price point. Read reviews https://coolerexp.com/best-cigar-humidors-review/  a lot of them. As said previously, Spanish cedar lined humidors are mandatory, and a good fit. It should feel solid and the lid should fit snugly. I found that the floral foam humidifiers dry out too quickly for my environment. So I bought a great device (forgot the name, but can look it up later if you want) that has a reservoir for water and it feeds the foam over an extended period of time. It lasts for several weeks.
When you get your humidor, you will want to prep it prior to putting in all of your prized cigars. The cedar lining will be dry, and if you put cigars in it, it will extract all of the moisture out of the cigars. This prepping process is called peppering. You simply wipe down all of the cedar lined surfaces with water, and begin humidifying it. Wait a day or two until your hygrometer measures that there is a steady and consistent humidity of 65-70%. THEN, put your cigars in.
Lastly, I was instructed to use distilled water. Tap water is a dicey situation, particularly if you live somwhere with really hard water and a lot of minerals. Those flavors can be absorbed by the cigars. It may be overkill, but I always use distilled water. I buy it cheap for like a buck a gallon at the grocery store. Good luck!

Welcome to the site. As Deener pointed out there is a fantastic knowledge base  with a wealth of info. Do yourself a favor and check  it out.

[05Venturer]

Xaland - 9/3/2018  6:34 AM

I am now on my third humidor - progressively getting better quality and bigger size as the collection grows. A 50 cigar humidor is a good starter. My advice is to really research it. Buying the cheapest humidor should not be the goal so much as buying the best one at a certain price point. Read reviews https://coolerexp.com/best-cigar-humidors-review/  a lot of them. As said previously, Spanish cedar lined humidors are mandatory, and a good fit. It should feel solid and the lid should fit snugly. I found that the floral foam humidifiers dry out too quickly for my environment. So I bought a great device (forgot the name, but can look it up later if you want) that has a reservoir for water and it feeds the foam over an extended period of time. It lasts for several weeks.
When you get your humidor, you will want to prep it prior to putting in all of your prized cigars. The cedar lining will be dry, and if you put cigars in it, it will extract all of the moisture out of the cigars. This prepping process is called peppering. You simply wipe down all of the cedar lined surfaces with water, and begin humidifying it. Wait a day or two until your hygrometer measures that there is a steady and consistent humidity of 65-70%. THEN, put your cigars in.
Lastly, I was instructed to use distilled water. Tap water is a dicey situation, particularly if you live somwhere with really hard water and a lot of minerals. Those flavors can be absorbed by the cigars. It may be overkill, but I always use distilled water. I buy it cheap for like a buck a gallon at the grocery store. Good luck!

Thanks so much for the copy & paste post on a 9 month old thread for your first post

[CarlosoftHUN]

My new 80ct humidor is arriving to my home today... cant wait to share the pictures and review

[Murphy223]

CarlosoftHUN - 9/17/2018  3:33 AM  My new 80ct humidor is arriving to my home today... cant wait to share the pictures and review

definitely interested in seeing pics - i'm about to get my 2nd one started 

[CarlosoftHUN]

I had only a half an hour to play with it, so just started to seasoning it, and it was late, so took only these two pictures:





Its about 10"x10"x12" and theoretically 80ct large, but if you would put the humidifier into the bottom drawer - as it intended - then max 70ct, but in reality more closer to 65ct.. Which is a shame somehow, but still the capacity is the same as my other two small desktop humidor together, so cant complain, and also will use 3 bovedas, and maybe a small humidifier, so will get it sorted....
Hopefully before I leave for travel, I can move the first batch into it.

[junglepete]

Nice Viktor.. you're on a good roll

[benchjockey]

Good looking piece, Viktor. Have fun filling it.

[Murphy223]

That's really nice - I like the small form factor with glass front and drawers.  Mine is typical Desktop / lid etc and curious to hear how you like over time

[CarlosoftHUN]

Murphy223 - 9/18/2018  2:15 PM

That's really nice - I like the small form factor with glass front and drawers.  Mine is typical Desktop / lid etc and curious to hear how you like over time

I have also two desktop one, but time to get a larger one, as too many cigars I got recently...
I like it already, but will keep you posted on how well it works... so far the only thing is that the drawers - surely because its new - not so smootly can take out... :-D

but all 3 big drawer has 1-1 separator in it, so quite cool

[CarlosoftHUN]

I have promised that I will write some more details and reviews about this piece, so some additionals:
Most of us knows that we may need to inspect the new humidor, to see if the construction is good, looking for damages, etc, how well the box or door is closing etc..

I did the same, but forgot to check the glass itself, and after I have started to seasoning it, just realized that maybe - not sure - the box is leaking around the glass, even though the door is well closing.

After I checked, it became obvious, that it can be leaking - nothing serious, but still air can come and go, causing constant drop in humidity, or at least the bovedas drying out quickly, so what I have done I took a Pattex wood glue and glued around the door, and around the hygro as well.

 

 

I had to took out the door, because the glue was so soft, it was flowing down the window - so I had some mess. After I used the glue, took a spatula, and took away any extra amount of glue, which is not needed, also because the too much glue would be visible from outside, even though it was a transparent ( when dries)..

After a few hours it was dried almost 100%, so with some window cleaner, carefully cleaned the window from the glue residues, and screwed back the door to its place..


Also the glass was not real glass, but plexi-glass.. which is a bit sad, but still does its job...

 

In a nutshell, it is a very nice, cheap box, but needed some DIY work to turn it to a really good one :-D