So, I was rocking a Hydra in the bottom of my cabinet (ToP style) and this weekend it ran out of water while I was helping chippewa move. The fans were running still but there was literally no water in the unit. My humidity (I have about 2 lbs of Shilala in it as well) was better AFTER the hydra ran out of water than before. With it running with water, I would routinely see 61-63 readings and now that just the fans are running, I am seeing 65 on all 3 shelves. Anyone have any explanation for this? I should note that the weather over the past week has been very consistent and just about the only variable has been whether the hydra has water or not.
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My guess would be that there are always pockets around the beads of higher moister. With the fan running thoes pockets got dispersed around your humidor.
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While the premise of higher humidity air stagnating near the beads is valid, the flaw in your theory is that the auxiliary fans ran before too, so that higher humidity air was always being moved around.

What was observed, in a nutshell, is that Steve's active humidifier ran dry, and the humidity went UP in the tower after that happened.


Steve, you said you were away, or not around your humidor anyway, for the weekend. Are you in it a lot normally? That would be the first thing I would consider, that simply keeping it closed for a few days allowed it to rise to the set point RH of the HCM beads.
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No, I normally just check the RH through the glass and with such a brutal winter here, I haven't been getting in it to smoke a lot. As for the fans, they were running the same before AND after the active humidity ran empty, so T.G. is correct about that. I just found it interesting that once I stopped introducing additional humidity into my system, that the humidity actually went up. Dunno why, maybe Michael or Shilala will chime in and possibly have an explanation.
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Could it be your new weather stripping :-) :-) :-)
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I thought that too at first, but I put the weather stripping on while the unit still had water. It actually helped keep it right about 62. Then once the water ran out it shot up to 65... trust me, I'm definitely not complaining!! Just wondering if theres an explanation or if I just got lucky *shrugs*
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Perhaps the weather stripping plugged the leak and it took some time for the beads to achieve the correct RH?
Maybe add some water to the hydra and see where the RH goes from there.
Either way I'm happy your cab is where you want it :-)
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Did it get colder? RH is relative to temperature. Same amount of water + colder air = higher RH.
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Nope, the house stays the same temp all winter long much to the chagrin of my wife. I've taken the hydra out of the unit all together and we'll see if the humidity stays close to the same, if so... I'll have a hydra for sale :-)
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I didn't know what his setup is. I was thinking just one fan that would kick on and off when the RH dropped. If it started running all the time a stronger constant air current would circulate the moister around the humidor better. But ya another fan running ruins everything for me.
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Steve or Dom, can you give me some more info on the weather stripping? I have the same cabinet and noticed the bottom of the door isn't sealing well.
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Bob, all I know was that it was 3/16 inch wide.
I grabbed it at my local hardware store for 3 bucks.
I'm sure Lowes or Home depot would have it.
If not the store is around the corner from me, I can see if they have more.
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Thanks. I figured it was something like that. I'll look next time Im at Lowes.
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The current setup, for the past 2 weeks: the small fan with the hydra kit on the bottom facing up (at the front) the hydra's 2 fans in the back (all on the bottom shelf. My other 2 fans fell off and I never bothered to reset them. Once the water ran out, I unplugged the hydra and it was still completely steady.
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