Normally I do not post many reviews, but I felt compelled to review the Antietam cabinet humidor that I bought a few months back.
When I purchased the humidor, it included a Hydra humidifier. I added to it two additional fan units to assist in circulation.
A week later, I received the humidor and the Hydra in decent condition (a small nick on the front of the humi, but looked okay overall).
Once I got the humi setup, the seasoning process began. Two weeks of seasoning with distilled water in a bowl and the occasional light wipe down of the interior wood to get things started correctly. Nothing out of the ordinary...just typical humi seasoning.
After this, I installed the Hydra with the additional fans. The first few days were great, then the humidifer would get dry in the Hydra. I would re-wet the humidifier and two days later it would be bone-dry again.
Obviously, the Hydra was not able to properly keep the rh level up in a humidor this size, so after a month and a half of dealing with the issue, I bought over a pound of 65% beads from Heartfelt Industries. My thinking was between the both of them, the Antietam should run a few weeks before needing attention from me.
Unfortunately, the beads and Hydra are dry within a week. This has occurred every week for over a month, so I am sure that this will continue. I feel that something must be wrong with the humidor for something like this to happen.
At this point, I cannot say that I'd recommend buying an Antietam humidor due to it's performance. It looks rather nice and seems reasonably well put together, but it cannot hold humidity at all. In retrospect, I think a VinoTemp would have been a much better overall purchase.
I feel rather bad writing a review like this, but I feel that this may help someone with their future cabinet humidor research.
If anyone has any suggestions as to how I can improve the performance of the humi, please let me know. Thanks!!
When I purchased the humidor, it included a Hydra humidifier. I added to it two additional fan units to assist in circulation.
A week later, I received the humidor and the Hydra in decent condition (a small nick on the front of the humi, but looked okay overall).
Once I got the humi setup, the seasoning process began. Two weeks of seasoning with distilled water in a bowl and the occasional light wipe down of the interior wood to get things started correctly. Nothing out of the ordinary...just typical humi seasoning.
After this, I installed the Hydra with the additional fans. The first few days were great, then the humidifer would get dry in the Hydra. I would re-wet the humidifier and two days later it would be bone-dry again.
Obviously, the Hydra was not able to properly keep the rh level up in a humidor this size, so after a month and a half of dealing with the issue, I bought over a pound of 65% beads from Heartfelt Industries. My thinking was between the both of them, the Antietam should run a few weeks before needing attention from me.
Unfortunately, the beads and Hydra are dry within a week. This has occurred every week for over a month, so I am sure that this will continue. I feel that something must be wrong with the humidor for something like this to happen.
At this point, I cannot say that I'd recommend buying an Antietam humidor due to it's performance. It looks rather nice and seems reasonably well put together, but it cannot hold humidity at all. In retrospect, I think a VinoTemp would have been a much better overall purchase.
I feel rather bad writing a review like this, but I feel that this may help someone with their future cabinet humidor research.
If anyone has any suggestions as to how I can improve the performance of the humi, please let me know. Thanks!!