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Question about Herfadors

xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402
Ok, so I was perusing the recent Ccom catalog, and came across the deal for 5 Camacho Pre-Embargo's + Herfador and jumped on such a sweet deal. So far so good - the sticks smell great and I was just about to head outside to smoke 'em, but when I looked at the herfador inside, I was a bit puzzled

Inside is the typical junk puck, so I thought I could just replace it with beads - turns out that the green foam is wafer-thin, and the room inside the puck is so small that there's almost no room to put the beads in. If I try to jam them in, the beads just fall through the holes in the puck - the puck is so small, I can't even insert a wire mesh to keep them in, because it uses up all the room. So now I have a herfador without any humidification inside

So I'm wondering - how do you guys humidify these things? Water pillow? Buy a bigger one next time?

Comments

  • One2gofstOne2gofst Posts: 583
    I use a water pillow, but usually, in my 2-stick and 5-stick they aren't going to be in there long enough to need additional humidification (thing IS water tight after all). In my 10-stick or 15-stick cigar caddies, I use a pillow. You can also take a tube and poke holes in it and fill it with beads, but you lose one space for a cigar.

    BTW, how'd you like the PE? That is a stick I really want to try, but cannot justify the price at this point, even for the samplers and can't justify a single when they can be had so much less per stick in the sampler ;)
  • kaspera79kaspera79 Posts: 7,257 ✭✭✭
    I've got a five stick herfador that i use almost daily. A water pillow works well keeping these sticks it good condition, but I don't keep the cigars in it for more than a few days at a time before smoking them, or returning them to my humidor.
  • xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402
    Thanks for the help :) Think I might go with a tube or pillow; I plan to use it on short trips when I'm away for a few days. I know it's airthight, but I'm worried how much humidity I'll lose every time I open it up - with so much space and such a small puck, the cigars are gonna be the primary humidity contributor
    One2gofst:
    BTW, how'd you like the PE? That is a stick I really want to try, but cannot justify the price at this point, even for the samplers and can't justify a single when they can be had so much less per stick in the sampler ;)
    Very nice; I don't typically go for cigars with bold flavors just because they're overwhelming for me and I don't really care for the general taste, but this one was really nice; the flavors were smooth and none of them were overpowering or bitter. Pretty much what a premium medium-body cigar should be.

    If you go for the Holiday sampler in the Ccom catalog, you could probably split it with someone on the forums; $50 is steep, but $25 for 2 sticks and a herfador/3-sticks and no herfador ain't too shabby

  • DiamondogDiamondog Posts: 4,169
    Just got the 15 stick herf myself, I used a small tubo punched a million small holes in it, loaded beads and threw it in with the sticks...just got back from a 3 day road trip all was well...
  • kuzi16kuzi16 Posts: 14,633 ✭✭✭✭
    Diamondog:
    Just got the 15 stick herf myself, I used a small tubo punched a million small holes in it, loaded beads and threw it in with the sticks...just got back from a 3 day road trip all was well...
    this is exactly what i do.
  • Stryker808Stryker808 Posts: 269
    In my opinion you don't need a humidification device in there. Its air tight, whatever the humidy the sticks are at when you put em in thats what there gonna be when you take em out. I use the her-a-dor 5er just for holding sticks to and from a herf or work etc. Not for long term storage.
  • xmacroxmacro Posts: 3,402
    For me, this thing is gonna be used for when I'm away from home for a week or so (any longer, and I might as well throw my 20-count humi into the car when I leave)

    At any rate, I've been toying around with the humi and found a solution that doesn't take up any room/allows me to carry all 5 cigars with humidification. The water pillow is a great idea, but I wanna be able to carry churchills, which leaves no room for the pillow; and the tube of beads takes up a slot that could be used for another cigar

    As I said before, if you take the puck out and remove the green foam, you'll see that 1) the slots in the puck are large enough that beads will slip through, and 2) the puck is so small, that you can't put a wire mesh over the holes to keep the beads in, else all the room will be taken up.

    So after a little playing around, it turns out, that when you order beads, they come in all sizes (though you can only tell if you look closely) - most of the beads in the bag are so small that they slip through the holes in the puck, but some of them are large enough that they don't slip through. So what I did was go through my bag of beads bit by bit until I found about 10-15 beads that were big enough not to slip through the pucks holes (yes, there's only enough room for 10-15 beads).

    Now, even with this method, there's only enough room for 1 layer of beads, but it should be enough to provide proper humidification for a week or so

  • PsychoSJGPsychoSJG Posts: 766 ✭✭✭
    I like using a Boveda pack. Takes up no room, and its 2 way like the beads.
  • Jetmech_63Jetmech_63 Posts: 3,451 ✭✭✭
    On the ship i got bored, ripped out the foam, cleaned off the adhesive and easily fit 5 on each side with a water pillow on the top. Space is a premium on the boat so this worked out very well for port visits.
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