I would make sure not to leave the sponges in while your away, and monitor it frequently while they are in there. I thought I was having trouble with low humidity when I was just starting out and put in a new sponge soaked with distilled water for a few days. All of a sudden I had mold. Turns out my hygrometer was crap. When I got a new one, the humidity was actually 90 %. It didn't take long for the mold to grow.
cbuck, I'll definitely pull the sponges a day or so before I leave. I was hoping to let the humi & beads "set" while away (probably 5 days, maybe a week). I have a new digital hygrometer for this humi on order and I'll calibrate/test it with the salt test before use. Do you think 3 sponges are too much? (4.7" x 3" cello sponges)… when Catfish says "soaked", that's what I intend to do… soak the sponge but with no pooling of the distilled water on it's plate.
Catfish, I'm adding a Medici/Havana Foot Locker to the mix… it should arrive this week. I want to get the seasoning started so that it might be ready when we return from visiting family over the holidays. I'm planning on using 3 sponges; 1 in the lower compartment and the other 2 on each of the shelves. I hope to be able to get through the initial "sponge days" before we leave, pull the sponges and drop in the beads and hygrometer as we head out the door and come home 5 days later, check for consistent rh over the next two days and have
a humi ready for loading.
Is this a realistic set of expectations? Any suggestions?
If you are leaving for a long period of time, i would nto use sponges. Use a couple shot glasses or shallow dishes/bowls of distilled water. It will slowly bring it up. i do this often instead of reseasoning. Normally about once a year when temp's make a major shift, I may have a humi drop. When that happens, I just toss a small dish with distilled water in and it rebounds.
cbuck, I'll definitely pull the sponges a day or so before I leave. I was hoping to let the humi & beads "set" while away (probably 5 days, maybe a week). I have a new digital hygrometer for this humi on order and I'll calibrate/test it with the salt test before use. Do you think 3 sponges are too much? (4.7" x 3" cello sponges)… when Catfish says "soaked", that's what I intend to do… soak the sponge but with no pooling of the distilled water on it's plate.
Honestly, I just put them on the dish dry, and pour distilled water on them until they are soaked. i think leaving the sponges in there for 5 days is perfectly fine (just saw the number of days so disregard my previous recomendation). I assume this is a large count so 3 sponges is fine. My 400ct I used 3, one on each level.
The humi claims to be a 400 count (15 X 10.5 X 15.5" interior dimensions). My concern is that something might go wrong while I'm away and I'll have to dry out and start over… the worst case scenario would be mold. I would not leave sponges in the humi while I'm gone, just beads. It's been so dry here that I really want to get my smokes out of my smaller/leaky humidors and into the new/larger one soon.
The humi claims to be a 400 count (15 X 10.5 X 15.5" interior dimensions). My concern is that something might go wrong while I'm away and I'll have to dry out and start over… the worst case scenario would be mold. I would not leave sponges in the humi while I'm gone, just beads. It's been so dry here that I really want to get my smokes out of my smaller/leaky humidors and into the new/larger one soon.
5 days? I'd do that normally... don't put beads in it at all. If you are concerned, jsut put glasses of distilled water.
5 days? I'd do that normally... don't put beads in it at all. If you are concerned, jsut put glasses of distilled water.
Okay, so if I read this right my approach should be to use glasses of DS while away and drop in the beads and do the fine tuning and monitoring after I return. That would be easy enough! Thank you!
5 days? I'd do that normally... don't put beads in it at all. If you are concerned, jsut put glasses of distilled water.
Okay, so if I read this right my approach should be to use glasses of DS while away and drop in the beads and do the fine tuning and monitoring after I return. That would be easy enough! Thank you!
I would drop the glasses in, but still use the sponge for 2-3 days when you come back, then place your beads in.
Update: The 300 count/Medeci/foot locker humi arrived on Monday… I didn't expect such quick delivery. It was so cold that I let it sit overnight to get to room temperature and dropped the glasses in on Tuesday morning. Because I am an idiot (and was really curious if I could see a change in the water level) I opened the humi on Wednesday morning but have vowed to let it go until Saturday before I open it up and put 2 new digital hygrometers in (top shelf and bottom of box). I was surprised at how far off the new digital hygrometers were when I did the salt test, about 8% low. So I reset them and performed the test again… adjusted/reset and tested again. Things seem to be about right but it's very hard to get 1 click/1% adjustments with the little plastic knobs.
The glasses of DW have been in for about a week and the humidity level in the humi is at about 80%. It sure smells nice when I lift the lid. I added 2 bead tubes on the top shelf over the weekend and closed it up again. After the holidays I'll drop in the sponges for a few days and then the bead jars and do the final steps, monitoring for rh stability before filling this humi which, thanks to Ccom specials and the sprint sale, will be very easy indeed. Thanks again to Dustin & everyone who's given some input on this thread.
Update: I pulled the glasses when we arrived home last night (after 12 days) and dropped in the sponges. The RH was still at 80%. On Thursday I'll pull the sponges out and introduce the bead jars and work on getting things down to 70% before consolidating into the new humi. I'm psyched!
Last post on my new footlocker humidor… The sponges came out last night and humi held 75% all day today so I dropped in the full boxes and 10 packs in the bottom with the beads and boveda packs distributed throughout and then loaded in the singles in the two shelves up top. I'll check the rh over the next several days adding or subtracting beads/boveda packs as needed. Thanks Catfish for this great thread, the advice and hand holding were invaluable.
While they are different, it is the same principle, which is what I was getting at. I have the gel jars and sticks in some of my humi's. Bought them a while back, use them since I have them.
I used the Humi-care beads in my new footlocker… I have three jars as well as two of the cigar-sized tubes and one 75 boveda pack spread out on 3 levels. I have a hygrometer on each of the top two shelves as well as one down in the hold (overkill, but I had a few left over after combining all my smokes from smaller humis). I seasoned this 300-500 count humi for about two weeks @ Dustin's method and am happy to report that it is holding steady at 69%, which where I like it in the winter time here in cold, dry PA. I decided not to go with KL because the pictures I saw (in coolers) showed a LOT of real estate taken up by KL and I didn't want to loose valuable cigar space.
Comments