I have a montegue cabinet humidor, which lives in my office on the 1st floor. I've had it for about four months now. I have weatherstripped the doors and drawer, per pictures and instructions here:

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showpo...22&postcount=7
http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showpo...27&postcount=8

One thing I have noticed recently is that when I come home from work and walk into my office, I swear I can smell the aroma of cigars from inside my montegue within a few feet of the humidor. Do you think that means that I have a seal issue, with air escaping? Or is this normal? Could it be because of spring and the air is warming up (I don't recall noticing this until the past 2 weeks)?
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I would go more by what a calibrated hygrometer was reading than by smell when determining whether or not a seal was good, Matthew.
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:-)
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I agree. Quite frankly i would love it if my humidor keep humidity and made the man cave smell like a box of cigars :-)
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I would think so too, but it seems like my cigar oasis turns itself on every few minutes, as I can hear it inside the cabinet. Is this normal? I got to thinking that maybe if the seal isn't airtight, that would explain why the damn thing turns on every few minutes. Plus, the past few sticks that I've smoked seemed to be a bit on the dry side to me.
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If the Cigar Oasis is turning on every few minutes, and your cigars are dry, it sounds like you absolutely have a bad seal.
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How thick was the weatherstripping you used? You said it is a recent issue? Has anything changed?
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I used 1/8 x 3/8 foam tape, the same in the photo in the first link above. Ever since I got the montegue in December, I've had to refill the cigar oasis every couple of days, and I noticed when I am in the office for a long time that I could hear it start up every few minutes for 30 seconds or so. I just assumed that it was because it was winter time and the air was so dry.

I will say that I recently purchased a boat load shilala's beads. I have about 12 of the large bags in my humi now, and I also have the cabinet nearly full of cigars (in December it wasn't very full). I haven't been paying as close of attention to the frequency of the cigar oasis starting up recently, so I don't know if this has changed from winter time (its gotten warmer here over the past 2 weeks). Maybe shilala's beads are working well, and the overkill of 12 bags is really helping! But I noticed the smell of my cigars a few days ago, which is what prompted this whole thought process.

This montegue is my first cabinet, so I don't know what I should expect to observe in a good seal versus a bad one. But the past week or two, I am not happy with my smokes, as they seem a bit brittle (the caps have been breaking when I use a punch cut, which didn't happen before!).
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Yeah sounds like a leak or bad seal. Thats not good if your oasis is running non stop and your smokes are still dry. One of my humidors is a converted glass front book case and its pretty leaky but my humicare unit keeps up and my smokes are perfect even in the winter when it runs non stop like yours.
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You weather stripped it and it still leaks?

Have you tried green, pink or red masking tape yet?
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I haven't tried any masking tape yet. I will keep an eye on this for a couple weeks and see if things improve, as I've only had shilala's beads for a week for two. Maybe they will keep the levels stable and give my sticks a time to settle in.
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sounds like a bad seal. :-)


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That is the one thing I have learned... To expect instant results from a humidor is too much. My vino took almost a week to settle in, and that is with no wood to speak of. Have you tried the flashlight test?
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:-):-):-)
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Okay, I've spent some time in my office today, and it seems to be pretty consistent: The cigar oasis will turn on every 2-4 minutes, but only runs for about 10-15 seconds. But it happens over and over and over again! So this sounds like a seal issue, then, right? This is my first cigar oasis, so I do not know what the normal activity on this unit should be.
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I had a Cigar Oasis on a small end table cabinet. It ran quite a bit.
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I have no clue why it never occurred to me to try a flashlight! Sure enough, there were a couple of spots where the lower doors came together where I could see some light! I have added some extra weatherstipping in several key spots. After the additional weatherstripping, there is still the tiniest bit of light that you can see along the bottom 1/4 of the doors where they touch when shut, but its literally only a sliver. Besides, if I lock the doors shut, the lock seems to keep the doors tight enough that this sliver disappears, so I think we are good to go!
Of course, I had the doors open for a long time messing around with the additional weatherstripping, which dropped the RH way down! However, I've noticed that in 10-15 minutes since I locked it shut, the humidity is already jumped back up from 62 to 66 RH! I don't think I've ever seen recovery that quickly before. Hopefully that is a good sign that I've got a nice tight seal now! :-)

Thanks for the help, everyone! I love Cigar Asylum! :-)
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Good stuff man! Glad it may be solved for you. Hopefully we can have a smoke one day together :-)
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:-)
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You could have a bad Oasis...happened to me.
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