I bought a cheapy humidor on cigarbid. I seasoned it by keeping the sponge style humidifier and a boveda 65% pouch in the humidor for about two weeks. After about two weeks the humidor stayed at a steady 69%. I swapped out the sponge humidifier with a xykar humidity bead humidifier of the same size and left the boveda in it. Now after a couple days it reads at a steady 59%. I believe 59% is too low. I was just hoping to change the sponge device for a lower maintenance xykar one. What would yall suggest? Should I take out the Boveda pack?
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http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...10C3B5475A.jpg
http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...F54416900E.jpg

Here's some pics for a little reference
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I am fairly new to this, but I will give it a shot for what its worth.

First of all, I didn't see a digital hygro in your photos. From what I have been reading, the analog ones are fairly inaccurate. Just ordered one myself last week, should be in today or tomorrow.

One you get that, and calibrate it, it should give you an accurate reading of where your humi is at.

Also you could try doing a paper test on your humi to see if the seal is working. If the paper is difficult to remove your seal is good. if your seal is bad, you are going to be constantly r recharging your beads.

Like I said, I am pretty new here, I am sure the other guys will help you out alot better, but those are my thoughts from reading around here. I am having the opposite problem with too much r/h in mine.

Thanks
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So my thought is that economizing here is false economy, because of the cost of the cigars.
I like these:
http://canadahumidor.com/electronic_....0_humidifier/

Combined with some beads.

The beads are useful if you live in an area with fluctuating ambient RH - like where I am - where indoors it got to 65% yesterday. Come Novemcer it will be 35%.
Peace of mind is priceless.
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All solid advice here. Get yourself a digital hygro and toss those other humidifiers for some beads. The beads are a little costly but they're almost maintenance free and will last for quite a while. I suggest ordering a pound and using half. Save the other half for when you inevitably have to order a larger humi.

As for the humidor itself, I've never had much luck with cheapy humidors from C-Bid. Most of the ones I've ever gotten don't seal very well. If functionality is more important to you than appearance then I suggest either getting some large sized tupperware or a small cooler to store your sticks in.

Just my :-)
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It has a digital hygrometer in there. The xykar humidifer is filled with the beads. and the seal sucked originally but now that I have done a small bead of sealant around the perimeter the seal seems a lot better now. I did the flashlight test and zero light was seen through the lid.
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Being in Canada I know what you mean w/ the fluctuations. Never had any success with the beads, tossed them out and using the gel puck by Xikar. Flawless and keeps my box steady at 67%. Did my first refill on it after almost 3 months. I still have the beads from HFI but either I undersized it, or something else....

I bought the 65% and they would not hold the RH at 60%... (Not my hygrometer either - tried two different ones)

I am a believer in the Gel now until I move up in size and will again try the beads, but probably just KL.
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Don't have to be an old fart to give good advice. This is solid.

Here is a link to the sticky on seasoning a humidor. It has great information:
http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showthread.php?t=620

I think that your method of using the sponge was solid because of the surface area and the ease of giving up the humidity. Nothing wrong with the present setup and I'm sure that people will have very good advice on possible improvements.

Do the tests for gaps (paper test, light, etc.) to see about your seal. Seals can be fixed in several ways, so check back before you make any adjustments to the humidor. Shiala and Waxingmoon can probably give hands on advice.

One other thing to consider is the lid drop test. Open the lid a small ways and drop it to close. If it clunks closed, then the seal isn't as good as it could be. I've noticed that humidors that get really dry can lose the seal do to lack of moisture at the closure. If this is the case, wipe down the edges at the closure to add humidity. This may take several treatments before there is enough moisture there. When I add distilled water to my humidors, I tend to spritz the wood around the opening on both the box and lid very lightly.

May or may not help, but worth considering.
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FWIW, the "beads" in Xikar humidifiers are a misnomer. They are actually super absorbent polymer gel (aka: "SAP") in spherical form. Some other example devices that use SAP are the Humi-Care jars, water pillows, cigar mechanic humidifers and aqua beads for plants. They are more for storing and releasing humidity than they are for absorbing it from the air, and they tend to work slowly.

When you hear people speak of "beads" here, they typically are referring to either HCM beads or heartfelt beads. Both of wich react much faster than SAP and will actually absorb humidity from the air to bring a humidor back down to their set point if it is high.
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So you are saying the xykar doesn't use "beads" it uses SAP crystals. You think I should get some beads to add into the humidor?
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If you like how your cigars are smoking, then there's no reason to change anything.

I used a SAP Crystal-Jel jar from CI in one 40qt cooler for years with moderate success. Overall it worked, humidity swung a bit, but for the most part, not unbearable. But problems would almost always arise when I would add recently purchased boxes of cigars, as most vendors ship a bit on the wet side so that the cigars don't dry out in transit. Or when my region would experience high humidity for a week or two. This tended to cause all the other cigars in there to suck up the extra moisture and now I had a cooler full of cigars that were all overhumidifed for my tastes. So I started dryboxing cigars a few days before smoking them, which meant I had to plan days in advance what and when I would want to smoke, this didn't always work out. Then I started leaving new shipments out on the counter for a week or more before putting them in the cooler. This was a lot of work, especially as my storage grew, and it didn't completely solve the problems. I often didn't like how my cigars smoked or the work involved.

Then I got beads from Shilala (now sold under www.HCMbeads.com). I don't have to do any of that **** anymore. I just put the cigars in the humidor, cooler, storage tub, close the lid and forget about them. My hydrometers always read the same and I like how things are smoking now that I have them at 63%.

:-)
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I wanted to like the beads, really did... Maybe I will try them again, but with KL and try more than the tube I have currently holds.

I find the Xikar puck foolproof for me... Never tried my cigars down that low - as stated above it sits at a steady 65-67, except for one time when my hygrometer was off and I was smoking cigars around 57.....
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