Xikar Travel Humidor Question
- Thread starter Benndy72
- Start date
First of all I would only add a hydrometer if I wanted to measure the alcohol content in my travel case... If I wanted to check humidity I would add a hygrometer.
Why is your case over humidified? Did you add a humidification device or add DW to the green foam mold breeding ground?
A word of advise, never never use the green foam that comes with humidors and travel cases! Throw it out immediately or just plain don't add water to it. It just asking for a mold issue!
Back to the topic at hand. These travel cases don't need any humidification since they seal air tight, your cigars will not dry out in them... If you did want a humidification device for piece of mind. Just buy a 65rh boveda pack and call it good.
As for me I don't use any humidification in mine. I just fill it full of cigars and call it good. They smoke like a dream!
Why is your case over humidified? Did you add a humidification device or add DW to the green foam mold breeding ground?
A word of advise, never never use the green foam that comes with humidors and travel cases! Throw it out immediately or just plain don't add water to it. It just asking for a mold issue!
Back to the topic at hand. These travel cases don't need any humidification since they seal air tight, your cigars will not dry out in them... If you did want a humidification device for piece of mind. Just buy a 65rh boveda pack and call it good.
As for me I don't use any humidification in mine. I just fill it full of cigars and call it good. They smoke like a dream!
Last edited:
That's some good info KC. Now I know what to do when I finally buy one myself.
I agree with KC; travel cases are usually air-tight and really meant for travel. I like the small boveda packs (8 gram, 62%) for this. If you are going on a longer trip, maybe go with a tupperware and a larger boveda pack.
Thanks for the input, and yes HYGROMETER is what I wrote but autocorrect thought it knew better. The case came with a humidifation disc - the kind that is full of beads that swell, not the foamy green shit - after adding PG to the disc and letting the humidor sit over night I was only getting around 55% humidity. My question about adding a hygrometer was because I wanted to see what, if any, change there was in the humidity level after putting the foam racks filled with cigars back in the case (ie. if the residual humidity would increase the overall), my issue is that with the foam inserts the way they are, there is a. No space for a hygrometer, and b. even if there was, would you still be able to get an accurate reading with the inserts in the way.
Hope the question makes a little more sense now, thanks again gentlemen.
Hope the question makes a little more sense now, thanks again gentlemen.
Most people I know remove all the inserts and only leave the foam on the lid and the bottom.. It gives you extra storage space and if at least half way full the sticks don't bounce around enough to hurt each other. This is for the 15ct and below herf a dor. If it was a larger case I'm sure people would leave the foam insert.
You could always put it on a level with shorter sticks if you want to make room for it in a case with inserts.
I use no inserts and put my lighter and cutter on one end of my case with no problems.. I'm sure you could do the same with a hygro.
You could always put it on a level with shorter sticks if you want to make room for it in a case with inserts.
I use no inserts and put my lighter and cutter on one end of my case with no problems.. I'm sure you could do the same with a hygro.
How "wet" are your cigars? I'd say ditch the gel not accurate in a closed system you either need beads(take too much room) or Boveda(perfect for this) recommend the small ones. Another thing you can try is putting cedar sheet like the ones that come in cigar boxes and see if that helps with the cigars being over humidified.
So here's where I'm at now, pulled out the humidification disc last night and let the whole case dry out over night - sticks included. A little research yielded that Xikar (and Boveda) actually makes a hygrometer that fits in the space where you would otherwise put the humidifier so I ordered one, and we'll see what levels I get after throwing in a couple sticks of beads with PG. In the meantime I threw in a Boveda 72 and am going to cross my fingers.
I actually had already tried putting the cedar sheets in thinking that it would help but it really didn't make much of a difference at all.
As for how wet they were: varying on their position in the case, the ones closest to the humidifier were quite literally soggy, working outwards from that it wasn't nearly as bad but everything was much softer than it should have been; think overripe carrot.
The case also has a valve on it that can be adjusted so I'm thinking it may be a game of finding exactly how much breathability to allow for, whereas a completely sealed environment may just not work unless you're using the bovedas.
I actually had already tried putting the cedar sheets in thinking that it would help but it really didn't make much of a difference at all.
As for how wet they were: varying on their position in the case, the ones closest to the humidifier were quite literally soggy, working outwards from that it wasn't nearly as bad but everything was much softer than it should have been; think overripe carrot.
The case also has a valve on it that can be adjusted so I'm thinking it may be a game of finding exactly how much breathability to allow for, whereas a completely sealed environment may just not work unless you're using the bovedas.
The valve on the larger travel humi's is used as a pressure release. When you go flying and get to your destination you might not be able to open your case, this vapor lock due to the pressurizing of the plane cabin. So in order to make it easy to open you release the valve and it will allow for equal pressure and allow you to open your case. You want to keep the valve closed other wise so that your case stays air tight.
Yodis is spot on about the valve...
leave it completely shut at all times.. there is no reason to burp the valve unless you are trying to equalize pressure (after getting off a plane.. or taking it to elevation.. or depth.. etc..)..
leave it completely shut at all times.. there is no reason to burp the valve unless you are trying to equalize pressure (after getting off a plane.. or taking it to elevation.. or depth.. etc..)..