CheapHumidors.com

Subject: Re: CheapHumidors.com Mon Mar 24, 2008 4:17 pm

I'm liking what I am reading about the beads and think I will give them a try. I think I am going to pass on the water pillows for seasoning the humidor and just do the sponge in a bowl routine. I am going to get a digital hygrometer as was also suggested.
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Arizona, where the temperature is always warm but the pipe smoking is always cool. Mikem

I highly recommend Scott Bundy at www.piperestore.com for all of your pipe cleaning and restoration work.

Subject: Re: CheapHumidors.com Mon Mar 24, 2008 4:28 pm

I saw a sign one time that read..
We do three types of work here. Fast, Cheap, and Good.
If you want it Fast and Good, it wont be Cheap.
If you want it Good and Cheap, it wont be fast.
If you want it Fast and Cheap, it wont be Good.

It fits in the cigar world to.. Good and Cheap: wipe it with a distilled/purified water soaked Sponge,Let it sit 24 hrs,repeat, do this until you open it one day to find the humidity right were you left it. It isn't fast but nothing in the pipe and cigar world is designed to be 'fast'.

Subject: Re: CheapHumidors.com Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:28 pm

Thanks gentleman for the websiite for the Humi-beads. Ordered enough tubes for the humidor along with a digital hygrometer. Now just counting the days until everything arrives.
_________________
Arizona, where the temperature is always warm but the pipe smoking is always cool. Mikem

I highly recommend Scott Bundy at www.piperestore.com for all of your pipe cleaning and restoration work.

Subject: Re: CheapHumidors.com Mon Mar 24, 2008 10:44 pm

Mike,

If it's not too late... I have an extra Digital Hygrometer you can have! It will save you about $20. If you want it just PM me. Hopefully you can change the order. Let me know.

Also, CONGRATS! Great looking humidor! cheers

Great way to jump into it! Lots of good info. here for you. I think you made a great choice going with the beads. If I had to do it over again, that's the way I would go.

I too wiped down the inside of ALL my humidors! Had no ill efect on them ,but I wouldn't do it again and take the chance!

Enjoy!

Lucky
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“A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another's”

-Jean Paul Richter

Subject: Re: CheapHumidors.com Mon Mar 24, 2008 11:12 pm

What are these ill effects your fearing from wiping your humi with purified/distilled water? Its been the STANDARD for at least 100 years. Distilled/Purified water is what's used in the beads,the 'electronic' humidifiers, and even the old flower foam pucks.

The beads will not season his humi any faster. He will still need to get what little bit of wood he has in there to stabalize out.
What they will do is act as a fail safe if his electronic humidifier goes down.

Personally I do not like glass humi's. Light is an enemy of processed tobacco. Thankfully the bigger part of it is designed to hold box's instead of individual sticks.

Foiled Again Joined : 10 Dec 2007 Posts : 172

I think it is true (once again) that time is something that cannot be avoided. It will take some time for your new humidor to stabilize and become the seasoned, reliable vault of stogies that you know it can be. Don't sweat it. (no pun intended Wink

)

As far as blotting the inside with distilled water to get a little jump start, well, I don't have any warping issues after doing that to mine. And I have wiped it down more than once. My humidor is relatively thick and heavy for its size, so maybe that has something to do with it.

As usual, YMMV.

Subject: Re: CheapHumidors.com Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:04 am

If I had read I'd have seen what you were refering to.

PDiddy, I have issues with the advice you have received. Before waterpillows and cheap humidors people wiped their ceder. Here's where I think the gimmick is. A dollar jug of water and a 50cent sponge doesn't make the 'cigar dealer' (some of the modern crew are far from tobacconist) any dough. Plus they need an excuse for the extremely shoddy construction of the stuff they market.

Every humi I have bought had instructions in it to wipe the spanish ceder. Its a thirsty wood that swells very little and retains strength when 'wet', which is the main reason its used in a humi. The pleasent oder is secondary. I've chased a lot of links looking at the stuff on the market, one actually said you didn't need ceder. WTF? So what they want me to believe is I need to buy their cheap humi,with inferior wood, and umm oh yeah don't get it wet,you'll warp it.
A quality unit made of/lined with Spanish ceder will be ok with the water.

If I'm wrong there are millions of folk down through time that are wrong with me, and we aren't chasing profit. Take whatever advice ya prefer Very Happy

Subject: Re: CheapHumidors.com Tue Mar 25, 2008 8:49 am

I have a feeling that the whole "Do not wipe" thing is borne out of warping incidents on humis with very thin cedar lining, which is probably a lot of the cheaper humidors out there. A second thing I infer from the stuff I've read is that guys are putting sticks in a humi that has not absorbed the moisture it could and should to become stable at a given humidity level, and then the moisture given through the humidification device is too little to continue to hydrate the wood and the cigars too - humidity in the box drops and the cigars are too dry, loss is incurred. Seems it's more a general commentary on making sure your humidor is seasoned (has absorbed all the moisture it will, achieving the woods saturation point wherein the unit will now retain a good stable relative RH level) with a warning about possible warpage. Patience, young padawan! So yeah, you might find that a whole lot of guys just wipe em down and everything's fine, but then those who have issues, well, here's some reasons why and things you could have done differently, more carefully.

Also, seems it's pretty much a consensus that the humidification devices included with the humi's (beads too) are not sufficient to season a humidor, they're designed to maintain RH in an already humid environment. To saturate a humidor, a good deal of moisture should be slowly and carefully introduced to the wood over a period of time to achieve saturation and stability. You may think it's BS (and may be, hell, I dunno) but it sounds cautiously logical to me, and when you consider the cost of a humidor and 100 sticks, I'm willing to be cautious. So if you buy an expensive, quality humidor you can probably forget all o this nonsense, but if it was an inexpensive model (they're still not cheap) it may be woth while to baby it a bit.
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These are horrible times and all sorts of horrible people are prospering, but we must never let this disturb our equanimity or deflect us from our sacred duty to annoy and hinder them at every turn.
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Subject: Re: CheapHumidors.com Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:49 pm

Both humidors I've bought I went with the old "shotglass of water" inside treatment till the humidity evened out. Of course I live in Florida, so I fight too much humidity more than too little and for this the beads are great.

One thing to keep in mind is that whatever humidification system you use will work better in a full humidor than an empty one. The stogies act as mini-humidification-dealies (technical term there.) In other words the hardest environment to regulate is one that is mostly air, not stogie. tongue

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Subject: Re: CheapHumidors.com Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:17 am

I have a 100ct humidor from them that I had problems with originally until I kind of figured everything out..originally I only had it about 50% or less filled with cigars and not knowing how often to add water...I now keep it almost all the way filled with cigars and add water maybe once a month and it has stayed around 65 to 68% humidity for a few years now...My church pastor smoked one of my connies today thats about 3 or 4 years old and he was amazed at the humidity and how beautiful it smelled and looked... Cool

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Subject: Re: CheapHumidors.com Wed Mar 26, 2008 9:36 am

Lucky, Sorry I didn't get back to you quicker but they had already shipped my order the morning after I placed it. Thanks for the offer though. It looks like I will be able to start "seasoning" the new humidor by tomorrow if everything gets delivered like it is suppose to.
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Arizona, where the temperature is always warm but the pipe smoking is always cool. Mikem

I highly recommend Scott Bundy at www.piperestore.com for all of your pipe cleaning and restoration work.

Guest

As Mike gets thinner his cigars get thicker.

Subject: Re: CheapHumidors.com Thu Mar 27, 2008 10:43 pm

NO Problem! Hope all works out well! If you do need anything, please just drop me a PM. I'd love to help in any way I can!

I just got done smoking a Rocky PAtel Vintage 1992. FANTASTIC smoke! Nutty, and creamy with a touch of coffee on the finish. Nice way to cap off my sons 5th Birthday!

Lucky
_________________
“A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another's”

-Jean Paul Richter

Subject: Re: CheapHumidors.com Thu Apr 10, 2008 9:49 pm

Well, I prepped the humidor with the beads and electric humidifier that it came with for a little over a week until the digital hygrometer read a steady 70%. I placed all of my cigars from the three small humidors I have into the new one. It has been reading a steady 70% for two days now with it half full of cigars. I am going to let it go for another week and transfer the remaining cigars from my other larger humidor then. I really like his new humidor and it's size and quality. The spanish cedar is at least 1/8" think on all sides and the bottom. I was a little overwhelmed when I saw just how many cigars and brands I have. I guess I need to start smoking them up.
_________________
Arizona, where the temperature is always warm but the pipe smoking is always cool. Mikem

I highly recommend Scott Bundy at www.piperestore.com for all of your pipe cleaning and restoration work.

Subject: Re: CheapHumidors.com Thu Apr 10, 2008 9:57 pm

do you have a list of what cigars you have? With pipe tobacco I finally put together a list of what was in my cellar cause there was just no way I'd remember all the blends I have...
With my cigars I only have about 100...so the most of any one kind would be 15 to 20...probably a LOT of 5 packs I've thrown in there..I know theres some singles that I don't even remember buying...saw a montecristo in there the other day...dont even remember when/where I got that..it was a year or two ago...

anyhoo...was just wondering if anyone has an inventory of their humidor...
_________________
Tobacco Pictures
http://s118.photobucket.com/albums/o102/WJUStudent/Tobacco/

.50cal Pennsylvania Flintlock Rifle...my other tool for making smoke