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Cabinet humidity question.

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I hope this message finds you guys well. I was hoping to get some advice from you guys about an issue I’m having with a new cabinet humidor my wife got me in December.
When I first got the cabinet, I seasoned it twice over about a week by wiping it down with distilled water and installing a Cigar Oasis Magna 3 humidifier. I let it run for a week or so set at 67%. Within a day, the humidity was holding strong at 66 or 67%. When it would drop, the Magna would kick on for a few minutes and shut off again as designed. It would only kick on 2 or 3 times a day so life seemed good. I started slowly adding cigars which had been stored at 65% for sometime. After I added all my cigars, everything remained good for about 2 weeks when my problems started.
We had a sudden drop in temperatures in my area which I’m assuming is part of my problems. Even though the interior temperature of the cabinet more or less stayed the same, I noticed a sudden drop in the humidity level of the cabinet. It would drop into the low 50% and the Magna was running constantly trying to keep up. I know colder environmental temps can play havoc on humidity but I figured I had a good door seal so didn’t think it would affect it that much with an active humidifier. I decided to do a little experiment.
I completely sealed the door to the humidor to check my seal and apparently it wasn’t as great as I thought. As soon as I sealed the door, the humidity began to rise again. To combat this, I purchased a roll of 1/16” neoprene rubber door trim to install on the back of the door and along the inside of the door frame so there is rubber to rubber contact all the way around. I seem to have a solid seal now but now I have a different problem that has me confused.
If I do not have my Magna turned on, the humidity just passively from the water reservoir tank will raise the humidity to about 60%. So you would think if I turned the Magna on, it would help push the humidity up to the mid 60s where I have it set but the exact opposite happens! As soon as I turn the Magna on, the humidity starts to drop again. I just don’t get it. Is the outside temperature affecting the humidity that much and why the hell does it drop when the Magna is running? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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Clint

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I am going to make an assumption that you are reading the humidity from the hygrometer on the oasis, which is at the bottom of the humi. Since it looks like you have 4 levels, I would suggest buying 4 hygrometers for each level and see if the humidity is just "filling up" at the bottom. Knowing whether or not this is the case will help you combat the problem. If it is collecting at the bottom, you may need one or two fans on a timer to push the humidity up (or draw it up if you place the fans at the top level).
Please know i am no expert, just trying to help! Let's see what others say.
My Avallo has one fan on each canister, and then two fans at the top that go on every 20 mins or something to be sure that the humidity is circulating.

Hope you find a solution!
 

BradMc

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Just wondering if the return air vent has anything to do with it being so close to the cabinet , that would effect the seal on the door , witch would effect the inside temp and Rh ..... may sound like a dumb question , but just wondering ..... :X3:
 
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I agree, I think you need to put a couple of fans and extra hygrometers in there and see what you get. The return air observation is a good one, I would also be concerned if it was in the path of a vent actually blowing air on it.

The interior environment of your home has changed with the onset of cold weather
 
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Thanks for the input guys. @Clint , the Oasis basin is located at the bottom of the cabinet and the attached hygrometer is located at the top. I have the basin angled so the humidifier air blows out, hits the glass and hopefully rises. @BradMc , I thought about the return vent, I’m hoping that’s not it as I only have one other place I can move the cabinet to but may have to give it a try. Thanks guys.
 
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Just wondering if the return air vent has anything to do with it being so close to the cabinet , that would effect the seal on the door , witch would effect the inside temp and Rh ..... may sound like a dumb question , but just wondering ..... :X3:
That’s the first thing I noticed also Brad.
 

Clint

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Just wondering if the return air vent has anything to do with it being so close to the cabinet , that would effect the seal on the door , witch would effect the inside temp and Rh ..... may sound like a dumb question , but just wondering ..... :X3:
...very good point
 

irratebass

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Frost this shit will drive you crazy, believe me I know. I have the "Tower of power" cab and I also had my magna at the bottom, and the temps would NEVER coinide with each other no matter what I did. I finally watched a plethora of yt vids and asked other people of own my type of cab and finally I said screw it and threw out my magna...................it sat for months as I struggled with this and just used bovedas.

FINALLY I looked at my poor expensive magna just sitting there collecting dust and I decided to move it up above my drawers............I also removed any and all beads (they just collect mold.......I don't care what you or YOU say, it's true they collect mold.....fight me, I don't care.) It now works like it's supposed to.....I can say after almost 2yrs of moving it up no problems, the temp stays consistent and I no longer curse myself for this purchase.

Take my ramblings for whatever, but that's what worked for me.
 
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Frost this shit will drive you crazy, believe me I know. I have the "Tower of power" cab and I also had my magna at the bottom, and the temps would NEVER coinide with each other no matter what I did. I finally watched a plethora of yt vids and asked other people of own my type of cab and finally I said screw it and threw out my magna...................it sat for months as I struggled with this and just used bovedas.

FINALLY I looked at my poor expensive magna just sitting there collecting dust and I decided to move it up above my drawers............I also removed any and all beads (they just collect mold.......I don't care what you or YOU say, it's true they collect mold.....fight me, I don't care.) It now works like it's supposed to.....I can say after almost 2yrs of moving it up no problems, the temp stays consistent and I no longer curse myself for this purchase.

Take my ramblings for whatever, but that's what worked for me.
Awesome info. Thanks I will definitely keep it in mind
 
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I’ve had a similar cabinet (a little bigger; Tower of power) with the cigar magna (2.0 and 3.0) and had the same thoughts about the humidity being able to rise above the drawers between the glass and the drawer fronts. Unfortunately I ran into the same issue as well when running the cigar magna on the bottom (8 points higher than the top, my unit controller was also mounted near the top/rear corner). I also took the approach of putting the cigar magna above the drawers, but ran into the humidity in the lower portion to run between 5 and 7 points lower than the top.

The only solution I found that worked was to angle the unit forward on the bottom shelf. (not sure if you can, the cabinet looks like it may not be deep enough) and run a computer fan on the second to highest shelf with an additional humidification device (beads, etc) under the fan blowing upward toward the hygrometer/controller of the unit.

I know it sounds weird, but let me keep the entire Cabinet exactly at 65% where I wanted it. I had two additional hygrometer’s, one in the top and one in the bottom to verify humidity. The beads I had underneath the fan on the top kept everything at 65%. And the bleed off the unit at the bottom kept the bottom between 63%-65% The unit turned on less frequently than when I didn’t have additional humidification at the top, and everything was stabilized from the beads and the bleed off of the unit.




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irratebass

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I’ve had a similar cabinet (a little bigger; Tower of power) with the cigar magna (2.0 and 3.0) and had the same thoughts about the humidity being able to rise above the drawers between the glass and the drawer fronts. Unfortunately I ran into the same issue as well when running the cigar magna on the bottom (8 points higher than the top, my unit controller was also mounted near the top/rear corner). I also took the approach of putting the cigar magna above the drawers, but ran into the humidity in the lower portion to run between 5 and 7 points lower than the top.

The only solution I found that worked was to angle the unit forward on the bottom shelf. (not sure if you can, the cabinet looks like it may not be deep enough) and run a computer fan on the second to highest shelf with an additional humidification device (beads, etc) under the fan blowing upward toward the hygrometer/controller of the unit.

I know it sounds weird, but let me keep the entire Cabinet exactly at 65% where I wanted it. I had two additional hygrometer’s, one in the top and one in the bottom to verify humidity. The beads I had underneath the fan on the top kept everything at 65%. And the bleed off the unit at the bottom kept the bottom between 63%-65% The unit turned on less frequently than when I didn’t have additional humidification at the top, and everything was stabilized from the beads and the bleed off of the unit.




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Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that part.......yeah my bottom temps would also be too low after moving the magna, so now the bottom is empty except for my surge protector for fans that I installed and no longer use (one on bottom & one on very top)......so the bottom is being wasted, but i'm ok with that I have two more winos that are doing the job the cabinet can't.
 
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I wonder if the 2 fans that come with the Magna is enough to move the air in/around the drawer section from top to bottom and vice versa.
Where are the circulations fans located, and what direction are they moving the air?
 
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I wonder if the 2 fans that come with the Magna is enough to move the air in/around the drawer section from top to bottom and vice versa.
Where are the circulations fans located, and what direction are they moving the air?
Not sure if this was directed at me.

Neither of my Magna (2.0 or 3.0) came with additional fans.

I used a larger variable speed computer fan (pictured below) to circulate the air upwards on the second to highest shelf toward the control unit/hygrometer of the magna unit.

I put bovedas (65% to match the humidity I was shooting for in the humidor) in the drawers to stabilize humidity or in case it was not circulating as well as I thought.






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I put 1 pound of heartfelt humidity beads on the top shelf and it’s doing fine right now. I think the Magna is fine for summer, spring and fall but struggles in the winter with the temperature change so going to have to use some passive humidification like the beads to boost it when it’s cold out.
 
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