Desktop humi frustrations

My desktop humidor is driving me crazy, it is a glass top that I got on Amazon. I have sealed all the edges and have seasoned it for a total of at least 3 weeks now (above 80 the whole time). I have about 30 sticks in there and 4 boveda packs (65), plus the humidifier that came with it and I cant keep the darn thing at 65%... I have recalibrated the hygro twice, I left a soaking wet sponge in there with the 4 bovedas and it was steadily falling around the 70 mark, but I don't have room in there to leave a giant sponge and dish for humidification purposes.

Aside from getting a new humidor, what can I do?

You said you sealed the glass...........that leaves the lid.

must not be closing tightly.



IMOP.......return it and get a different one (with no glass.)

Not worth the hassle.

Trust me, I've been in your shoes.

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Originally Posted by Chadderkdawg

My desktop humidor is driving me crazy, it is a glass top that I got on Amazon. I have sealed all the edges and have seasoned it for a total of at least 3 weeks now (above 80 the whole time). I have about 30 sticks in there and 4 boveda packs (65), plus the humidifier that came with it and I cant keep the darn thing at 65%... I have recalibrated the hygro twice, I left a soaking wet sponge in there with the 4 bovedas and it was steadily falling around the 70 mark, but I don't have room in there to leave a giant sponge and dish for humidification purposes.

Aside from getting a new humidor, what can I do?

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Hey Kendall,

Where were you storing your cigars before this? Is it possible that they are super dried out? If the humidor was staying at 80% humidity during seasoning, it seams like the seal is functioning. If the cigars were dried out prior to being added to the humidor, they will initially suck all the moisture from the humidor causing lower humidity readings. How long have the 30 sticks been in there?

Get the humidifier that came with it out of there. Get the sponge out. With just the 65% bovedas in there, where is the RH sitting at? If it's at 65%, then you are golden. If it is dropping lower or the bovedas are drying out quickly, you have an air leak somewhere, or as Kayla suggested, you might have very dry sticks.

I gave up on my desktop and have kept mine in tupperdors until I finish my winedor.

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Originally Posted by cheaphumidors

Hey Kendall,

Where were you storing your cigars before this? Is it possible that they are super dried out? If the humidor was staying at 80% humidity during seasoning, it seams like the seal is functioning. If the cigars were dried out prior to being added to the humidor, they will initially suck all the moisture from the humidor causing lower humidity readings. How long have the 30 sticks been in there?

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I have collected all of the sticks from BOTL from here and stogiefriends, this was my thought which is why I stuck the sponge in there with everything. I have been running this thing for about 2 months now.

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Originally Posted by Ilroy

Get the humidifier that came with it out of there. Get the sponge out. With just the 65% bovedas in there, where is the RH sitting at? If it's at 65%, then you are golden. If it is dropping lower or the bovedas are drying out quickly, you have an air leak somewhere, or as Kayla suggested, you might have very dry sticks.

I gave up on my desktop and have kept mine in tupperdors until I finish my winedor.

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When I have only the Boveda packs in there it has gotten as low as the high 50s and I pulled everything before it fell any lower.

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Originally Posted by Chadderkdawg

I have collected all of the sticks from BOTL from here and stogiefriends, this was my thought which is why I stuck the sponge in there with everything. I have been running this thing for about 2 months now.

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Well if that is the case then I am assuming bad seal. I would go back to the people you bought it from and tell them it doesn't seal. If you want to fix it on your own you can try weather stripping or bees wax.

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Originally Posted by cheaphumidors

Well if that is the case then I am assuming bad seal. I would go back to the people you bought it from and tell them it doesn't seal. If you want to fix it on your own you can try weather stripping or bees wax.

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The paper test was good when I got it... I'm already having a size issue (as we all do) so this wont be a forever box for me. Another issue is that it's winter here and everything is super dry anyway. I may try and put this in the basement and see if that helps too.

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Originally Posted by Chadderkdawg

The paper test was good when I got it... I'm already having a size issue (as we all do) so this wont be a forever box for me. Another issue is that it's winter here and everything is super dry anyway. I may try and put this in the basement and see if that helps too.

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A paper test isn't necessarily accurate on a glass top. You could use it just to age your sticks and wrap the outside of the box in cling wrap :)

K, so if you have some sort of tupperware or similar, put your sticks in there with the bovedas and hygro. See where the RH is after awhile (a day or two). If it drops low or the bovedas dry out then your sticks are dry. If it is stable at about 65%, then your humi is leaking. You will need to seal up every possible leaky area and get it stable before you want to put your sticks back in. If it was a cheapy humidor, this might be a difficult task. Mine was a cheap groomsman gift, so I gave up on it before I ruined any cigars.

Did you calibrate your hygros with a 65% boveda in a small sealable container? Are they digital or analog hygros? Analog generally are not accurate. Calibrate with the 65% boveda and you will have them calibrated to the level you want your humi to be at.

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Originally Posted by cheaphumidors

A paper test isn't necessarily accurate on a glass top. You could use it just to age your sticks and wrap the outside of the box in cling wrap :)

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Haha I get in there far too often to make that work!

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Originally Posted by Ilroy

K, so if you have some sort of tupperware or similar, put your sticks in there with the bovedas and hygro. See where the RH is after awhile (a day or two). If it drops low or the bovedas dry out then your sticks are dry. If it is stable at about 65%, then your humi is leaking. You will need to seal up every possible leaky area and get it stable before you want to put your sticks back in. If it was a cheapy humidor, this might be a difficult task. Mine was a cheap groomsman gift, so I gave up on it before I ruined any cigars.

Did you calibrate your hygros with a 65% boveda in a small sealable container? Are they digital or analog hygros? Analog generally are not accurate. Calibrate with the 65% boveda and you will have them calibrated to the level you want your humi to be at.

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I like the tuperware idea, I'll try that.

Hygro is the basic analog, calibrated with the salt test. I'll also calibrate it to the boveda tonight, another good idea, thank you.

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Originally Posted by Chadderkdawg

I like the tuperware idea, I'll try that.

Hygro is the basic analog, calibrated with the salt test. I'll also calibrate it to the boveda tonight, another good idea, thank you.

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Yeah, salt test is usually not very accurate either. Get a digital when you are able...a caliber IV is a decent one and not too expensive...around $25.

I didn't buy from Cheaphumidors, but this is the one I have.

http://www.cheaphumidors.com/humidor...r-humidor.html

What did you do to seal the glass?

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Originally Posted by TreySC

What did you do to seal the glass?

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I used an all purpose silicone sealant on every joint in the box.

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Originally Posted by Chadderkdawg

I used an all purpose silicone sealant on every joint in the box.

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You'd think that would do it. All the way around the glass too? If that's not it and after checking the cigars, I'd go cooler or tupperware and forget he humidor

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Originally Posted by TreySC

You'd think that would do it. All the way around the glass too? If that's not it and after checking the cigars, I'd go cooler or tupperware and forget he humidor

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Yep all the way around the glass, I bet my sticks are just dry and our house is just too dry right now.

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Originally Posted by Ilroy

Yeah, salt test is usually not very accurate either. Get a digital when you are able...a caliber IV is a decent one and not too expensive...around $25.

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$20 from Cheap Humidors and that's before our 10% discount. Can't beat that.

A tupperdor is sooooo much less work. It doesn't look great but you'll have rock solid RH.

I've had some luck using poly tape(like electrical tape) on the lip of my humidor to help it seal...but even though it locks down and clamps on the tape, it's still no where near as steady as my tupperdors.

Hygro is dead on, tested the rh in our house and its below 30%, woof.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by Chadderkdawg

Hygro is dead on, tested the rh in our house and its below 30%, woof.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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When I moved from CA to NV in 1999, we went from a place that had a fair amount of year round humidity to the high desert that has very low humidity most of the time. BEFORE the move, all my humidors did OK. Once we hit the dry climate, I soon found 3 of my lower end humidors had warped from the dryness and no longer sealed proper.

Due to my buying habits, I recently had to bring a couple low end desktop humidors out of retirement. They seal OK but being low end, they are cheap and I know I have to use more than the normal amount of humidification media.

The temperware thing sounds ok. If all else fail go with a cooler aka coolerdor we called it back in the day- really works great with less stress. At least your smokes will be safe until you can get things straight. Heck you might want to stick with the cooler when you see how it maintains temp and RH.

Darn I forget where I saw it but there was a thread on this, and the guy said the bottom is one of the weakest points on these cheaper humidors. Try and do a search on Google for making Chinese humidors work. And what's your environment inside your place like? Fluctuate in temp and humidity quite a bit?

When the weather turns cold the atmosphere dries out. I've had two small humidors I keep inside of a plastic bag to protect them from humidity swings. Try not to open it any more than you have to.

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Originally Posted by Chadderkdawg

Yep all the way around the glass, I bet my sticks are just dry and our house is just too dry right now.

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I'm in DSM, too and it's been pretty bad the past couple of weeks. Earlier this winter I gave up on my cheaper humidor and just stuck to the tupperware. I put my cigars in a Rubbermaid container while I tried to see if I could seal the humidor but realized it was just easier to use the Rubbermaid instead. The humidor worked great in the summer when the ambient humidity in my house was around 65% (imagine that) so it might work for overflow during smoking season, but it's nice to not have to worry about my storage when it's really dry.

My desktop does the same thing during the winter. I haven't checked the humidity in the house, but it's low. Do you have a humidifier on your furnace? I've got one on mine, but I can never tell if it's doing any good or not. Just a thought. I broke down and bought a handful of 65% Bovedas, and threw them into a 52 qt Igloo cooler with a bowl of water. Put all of my cigar boxes and my desktop in there also. It was at 70% last night after a week :D

I actually have temporarily fixed this, I left a soaking wet sponge in an open ziploc and threw the bovedas in there, been holding steady at 65 for a couple days.

Small table-top style humidors suck, for lack of a better word. There's just not enough internal volume to maintain an accurate and stable environment. To maintain the correct RH as per hydro readings, you'll most likely wind up with wet cigars and cigars that taste like crap. IMO of course.

Get yourself a 54 qt Igloo Marine Cooler and a load of quality empty cigar boxes, not those that are painted or varnished. Bare wood boxes are best. If possible, line the bottom with thin cedar and maybe a little along the lower walls. Get it pumped up to about 75 RH over the course of a few weeks then put a big bag of humi beads, maybe 1 1/2 lbs. in the center-bottom between the boxes and let that sucker stabilize at about 65 RH.

You'll be happy as the cigars will be kept perfectly and overall the cooler requires little maintenance or headache other than a little water spray on the bag once in a while. Keep the drain plug open to allow some of the gases to release. It doesn't have that much impact on the RH. :D

Is it pointless to put HF beads in a cheap humidor like in this case? Or would the HF beads still work, but just need to be recharged more often?

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Originally Posted by Rocket Scientologist

Is it pointless to put HF beads in a cheap humidor like in this case? Or would the HF beads still work, but just need to be recharged more often?

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Heartfelt beads work very well, but they aren't miracle workers. If a humidor is too leaky and the surrounding environment is too dry, they simply cannot adequately maintain RH and you need to fix the leak or get a new humidor.

For a lesser problem, HF beads or Bovedas will probably keep the cigars safe and smokable, but perhaps not as high as the devices are rated for. In such a case, you might use 70% HF beads, or Bovedas at 69% to 72%, just to maintain ~65% RH. I would not recommend higher-RH devices such as 75% Bovedas, unless you are willing to check the RH, without fail, every single day; if the home atmosphere's RH rises, as it will in spring most places, you could quickly end up with overly moist cigars and possibly a mold problem. Fortunately, Bovedas can be recharged a few times and HF beads can be recharged as often as necessary; it's just a little more work to do.

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Originally Posted by Cigarer

Darn I forget where I saw it but there was a thread on this, and the guy said the bottom is one of the weakest points on these cheaper humidors. Try and do a search on Google for making Chinese humidors work. And what's your environment inside your place like? Fluctuate in temp and humidity quite a bit?

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I saw that on BOTL's forum,he took the bottom out and placed plexiglass as well as the original base back,then reglued the SP strips on the sides.Bascly rebuilt the box.

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Originally Posted by Lostmason

I saw that on BOTL's forum,he took the bottom out and placed plexiglass as well as the original base back,then reglued the SP strips on the sides.Bascly rebuilt the box.

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Wow, I just went down that rabbit hole and learned way more about cheap humidors than I ever wanted to know.... Now I have to improve my box, I just don't even have a choice. Ignorance really is bliss.... oh if only I could reach out the the old me.... "Don't google that! Your cheap POS humidor is just fine!"

You could always just keep it for a dry box,a day or so for sticks you're going to smoke quickly.