RTV to help seal a glass-top humidor?

Hi all,

I received a glass-top, 100-cigar capacity humidor for Christmas from my fiancee's parents. The problem is, it's not holding humidity (with the xikar crystal humidifier full, it's at 60, and only because it's full--when it gets time for refilling, it goes down to mid-50% and I'm going through a lot of PG). It had been suggested to me by my local cigar retailer that I use RTV or some kind of sealant, but I'm afraid it will change the flavor of the cigars, but I'm not sure if the smell will reach them.

I have already tried wiping the seals a few times with distilled water to make the cedar swell at the seals, but this has netted me little to no success.

Is RTV viable? Or is the humidor just unserviceable?

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Comments

avengethis

My first question...did you calibrate the Hygrometer? Are you using an analog or digital Hygrometer? Also did you season the humidor prior to throwing cigars in it?

rchristian2

I did season it. I used distilled water in a shot glass and filled my crystal humidifier up and waited for about two weeks. It seemed to hold at 60, at which point I decided to transfer my cigars from my old humidor thinking they'd help bring the humidity up and hold it.

Probably a bad bet since I don't have that many cigars in there to help it hold humidity, which could be a factor.

I'm using a digital hygrometer.

avengethis

have you ever calibrated the digital hygrometer? Which brand are you using?

jd50ae

I had a humidor that acted the same. Checked and re-checked. Calibrated and re-calibrated. Finally took some 1/2 inch craft tape and applied it to the outside of the sure-seal parts all the way around and it finally worked.

rchristian2

It's a xikar digital.

I wasn't aware there was a way to calibrate those.

I should mention it was reading accurately (or what I assume to be accurately) in my last humidor, and it was usually at 69-71% humidity.

jlmarta

Right! First things first. A CALIBRATED digital hygrometer. Also, have you done either the "slam" test or the dollar bill test on the seals?

avengethis

rchristian2:
It's a xikar digital.

I wasn't aware there was a way to calibrate those.

I should mention it was reading accurately (or what I assume to be accurately) in my last humidor, and it was usually at 69-71% humidity.

Do you have a link to which one you have? I know one of theirs auto calibrates but the rest there should be a way to calibrate them. The other option would be just do the salt test with it to see where it reads. What you do is take a 2 liter bottle cap or something like that and fill it with regular salt and then add enough water to it that it all is moist (not drenched in water) and then place that in a ziploc or airtight container with the hygrometer. Give it 24 hours and it should read 75%. If it does not then you know how far off you are.

rchristian2

I'm doing the salt test right now. I looked inside the hygrometer battery cover and saw a screw there, I'm assuming that is how it's adjusted if it's off.

http://www.neptunecigar.com/pr/xikar_purotemp_digital_hygrometer_round.aspx?SRC=ShoppingCom

Link above.

avengethis

After doing a bit of reading on these it seems their "auto calibration" sucks and sometimes is way off. Hopefully that is the case for you. Run the salt test and get back to us with what it reads at and then we can figure out the next step.

Patrickbrick

In the winter when there is no humidity I add another humidifier to my humidor, doing this keeps the rh where I want it, in the spring etc I take it out. You may just not have enough humidity in there. Also much of the information stated above is accurate. But some times the fix is simple.

Bob Luken

Welcome

I feel your pain.

You should know, wintertime IS the WORST time for desktop humidors.

There are several possible combined problems and solutions.

Good advice so far. We are here for you bro

Here are a few of my thoughts on your humidor situation

Yes, your hygrometer may be suspect but, for now, if I were to assume it's accurate enough,.... then maybe one problem is that you didn't properly season it to begin with. I'm glad you didn't wipe down the inside of the humidor but, for me, a shot glass is not enough and holding steady at 60% is not high enough for me to consider it seasoned. For this purpose I'd suggest a larger container for the distilled water that allows for more surface area of the water to be exposed inside the humidor. I would expect a steady reading for a few days in the mid 70s or above before I'd call it ready to use.

And, that screw you found in the battery compartment of your hygrometer,..... I'm almost 100% certain it's not for adjustment purposes.

I've often heard that aquarium sealer is the way to go if you end up needing to seal the glass.

Blue painters tape can be a temporary fix for a loose seal. But, if it solves the problem, consider returning the humidor (if this is possible) because you have proven the seal to be bad because you already tried to use distilled water to swell the seal with no good results.

Good luck.

Keep us posted

jlmarta

Speaking of sealers for humis, I haven't tried this so I don't know the answer but I'll throw it out here to let you all think about it.

You've probably heard of Sugru. It's a pretty remarkable substance that's useful for a lot if things but it's a bit pricey. If you don't know about it try googling it. There's a less expensive substitute called Oogoo. Cheaper, but you have to do more of the work. You can google that, too.

It seems to me that one of these substances could be used to improve humidor seals but someone will have to try it first.

I've used both of these but for different reasons. They worked very well for my purposes. Just thought I'd mention all this for everyone's consideration.... ??

edelrionyc

Those glass top humidors will never hold humidity well regardless of what you do. They are too acceptable to outside weather conditions. Think of the window of your house on a cold windy day. No matter how sealed it is, since it is glass, cold will get through.

jlmarta

edelrionyc:
Those glass top humidors will never hold humidity well regardless of what you do. They are too acceptable to outside weather conditions. Think of the window of your house on a cold windy day. No matter how sealed it is, since it is glass, cold will get through.

I don't believe cold will harm your cigars. After all, folks DO freeze 'em to do away with beetles. And as long as the temp stays below 70 or so beetles aren't much of a problem.

It's the RH we're concerned with here. It can't get through the glass so that's not the issue. The seal(s) is/are the issue.... Jus' sayin'....

rchristian2

Definitely will get back to y'all.

I'll check it again about 1130 cst tonight. I keep buying cigars to go smoke them somewhere because I don't feel like the cigars in my humidor have had enough humidity for me to smoke them. The wrappers would probably start coming off.

http://www.neptunecigar.com/pr/xikar_crystal_250_humidifier.aspx

This is my humidifer, so it's definitely big enough for my humidor, and to top that, it's filled to the brim with PG, almost overflowing. It's got to be the seal or my hygrometer reading wrong.

avengethis

It could be possible that it is not enough. What humidor do you have? Or what is the capacity of it?

rchristian2

It's 100-capacity. The humidifier can humidify up to 250 capacity, and I don't have nearly even 100 cigars in my humidor.

avengethis

The problem could be the cedar actually pulling all the fluid out of it. What is the hygro reading right now?

raisindot

Rather than start a whole new topic on this, I thought I'd latch on because I'm having a similar problem with a new 100--count non-glass Tuscany humidor I bought for my rental office. Now, environmental problems exist here--temperatures, particularly in the morning, are far too low, hovering around 63 when I get it (I don't control the thermostat) and humidity in the office itself is terrible low (right now it's 21%).

I did season this with the shot glass for a week and a half and it got up to around 59%. I didn't want to wait anymore so I put the cigars in and added the shot glass, 5 fully recharged humi-care pillows, a fully-charged land ittle jar of humi-care beads. RH (read on two separate calibrated hygrometers) never got above 56%. Tried putting into two Boveda 65%ers. Didn't raise it a bit. So, in desperation, I put in the "lid-mount" humidifier that came with it (which I normally avoid based on warnings from folks here), and humidity has risen to 62%.

Which makes me think that while there may be a seal issue, I think the overall deterimental, cold low RH environment is the culprit here. I'm going to see what happens as the weather warms up, or might try adding more shot glassses. Fortunately, I only keep my "lower-end" sticks in this, and I haven't noticed any cracking or dryness on the few I've smoked from there this winter.

jd50ae

avengethis:
The problem could be the cedar actually pulling all the fluid out of it. What is the hygro reading right now?

This also. I always wipe once with a humi-wipe...just once, and only wet enough that I can see it being applied. If I am not using the humidor right away I will put the humi-wipe on a small plate in the closed humidor and let it sit, UN-touched for about a week.

One thing I have noticed. A large number of new cigars usually drives the RH up for a couple of days.

I bought 4 Caliber 4R factory calibrated hygrometers and placed all 4 in the same humidor, they all read the same and I won't use anything else. Saw one in a photo of Irishman90's set up and went looking for them. They can be had for $25, sometimes less, and are worth it.

rchristian2

My hygrometer is at 74%, so only 1% off. It's definitely the humidor. Where can I get humi-wipes? Is this something I should do and then put the cigars back in?

avengethis

rchristian2:
My hygrometer is at 74%, so only 1% off. It's definitely the humidor. Where can I get humi-wipes? Is this something I should do and then put the cigars back in?

Instead of humi wipes there are a few options. I prefer not to put water directly onto the wood...

1.) Just use something with more surface area than a shot glass and let it sit in the humi for at least 2 weeks or until you are reading in the high 70's steadily. (something like a long flat tupperware with an inch of water in it or something like that)

2.) Use the boveda seasoning kit - this is another pretty easy solution as you just toss in the packet and let it sit. I think its something like an 84% pack that will work the same way as just distilled water.

Bob Luken

avengethis:
rchristian2:
My hygrometer is at 74%, so only 1% off. It's definitely the humidor. Where can I get humi-wipes? Is this something I should do and then put the cigars back in?
Instead of humi wipes there are a few options. I prefer not to put water directly onto the wood...

1.) Just use something with more surface area than a shot glass and let it sit in the humi for at least 2 weeks or until you are reading in the high 70's steadily. (something like a long flat tupperware with an inch of water in it or something like that)

2.) Use the boveda seasoning kit - this is another pretty easy solution as you just toss in the packet and let it sit. I think its something like an 84% pack that will work the same way as just distilled water.

Yep, and you also might need to fix any problems you may have with the seal before you get started re-seasoning.

rchristian2

Funny thing happened, I'd like to know what you gents make of it.

After calibrating my digital hygro, I popped out the analog that was built-in to the front of the humidor. The Xikar fits right in that hole, and so I put it in there. Now the reading hasn't moved from 74%., when I would have expected it to go down even 1% or 2% just on the merit of having let air inside it through the little holes behind the hygrometer. So was the hygrometer reading wrong then, or did I mess it up somehow and it's reading wrong now?

avengethis

rchristian2:
Funny thing happened, I'd like to know what you gents make of it.

After calibrating my digital hygro, I popped out the analog that was built-in to the front of the humidor. The Xikar fits right in that hole, and so I put it in there. Now the reading hasn't moved from 74%., when I would have expected it to go down even 1% or 2% just on the merit of having let air inside it through the little holes behind the hygrometer. So was the hygrometer reading wrong then, or did I mess it up somehow and it's reading wrong now?

Just to clarify...
You did the salt test on the digital and it read that you were off 1%. You then took out the analog hygro of the humi and popped in the digital and its still reading 74%? What was the analog reading before you took it out? Have you ever calibrated the analog?

If thats the case, do you still have cigars in the humi? have you started to reseason it?

rchristian2

Haven't ever calibrated the analog. It's doing the salt test now.

And all the above is correct. Off 1% on the digi, and it's still got the same reading since I put it where the analog was. I was keeping the digi inside the humidor up to now. The analog reading was always about 52%~

Still have cigars in the humidor. Never took them out nor started to re-season yet.

avengethis

rchristian2:
Haven't ever calibrated the analog. It's doing the salt test now.

And all the above is correct. Off 1% on the digi, and it's still got the same reading since I put it where the analog was. I was keeping the digi inside the humidor up to now. The analog reading was always about 52%~

Still have cigars in the humidor. Never took them out nor started to re-season yet.

Ok let me know what that analog test out at here later today and we will determine the next step.

0patience

If you need to seal it, aquarium sealer is the best thing to use.

Bob Luken

Also, battery replacement may be a consideration. Some models of hygrometer don't give you an indication of a weak battery. They just start giving weird readings intermittently.

rchristian2

The analog is now reading above 70%, and it's been in the bag with the salt since yesterday. May have been 24hrs by now.

edit: And since I hadn't said this before I don't think, thanks all of you for the help and the quick responses. I'm a new member here and think I may stick around.