A couple hygrometer calabration questions - update

[Pipe Smoker]

Howdy folks,

After lurking for a little while I finally joined your forum because I am on a quest to finally get my humidor running properly...after 12 years.

I never really paid too much attention to the humidity levels inside the humidor because I never really kept cigars in it long enough for the humidity to really matter. Now that I am storing larger amounts of cigars for longer periods of time I am starting to find the humidity problems to be a little more frustrating.

I read a bit here and there and I decided on Heartfelt beads and the round digital hygrometer that Heartfelt sells. I also bought the little Boveda calibration pack to go along with it. Long story short I put the hygrometer in the calibration pack on Saturday night around 10pm. It very slowly worked its way up to about 70%. On Sunday it slowly crept from 70% to 74%. At about 10pm it still wasn't at 75% so I left it over night again, because the instructions said 24-36hrs - and I figured the longer the better. This evening when I got home from work it had actually dropped down to 73%.

My first question may be obvious to those who actually understand the inner workings of a hygrometer, but I was wondering why it took so long. I understand that we let it sit in the bag for 24 hours to make sure that it is properly reading the rh, but shouldn't it come to that reading relatively quickly? I expected it run up to 75% within an hour and then I thought I was just supposed to watch it for the remaining 23 hours to make sure it stayed where it should be. I didn't expect it to take the full 24 hours to reach the proper reading.

My second question is: should I be worried that it has actually dropped 1% today? When I adjuster the calibration setting should I increase it by 2% - so that it reads 75%? or should I only adjust it by 1% and assume that the 74% reading I had yesterday was correct and the rh in the bag actually dropped today?

I imagine the answers to my questions are probably obvious but I couldn't find anything when I searched the forum or the internet.

 

[investandprosper]

You could try the salt test to see if you get different results. Just take a water bottle cap and fill it 3/4 or so with salt. Drip a few drops of water so that the salt is saturated (not pooling, if it pools dip a corner of a paper towel and absorb the excess). Place the cap in a Zip Lock sandwich bag with your hygrometer and let it sit for 24 hours.

Temperature can affect humidity levels, so make sure you don't leave the bag in the sun or anything like that.

 

[vortex]

Good points about the temp and saturation of the salt.

Also, if you're using beads it's not that important. I trust the beads more than my hygros.

FYI the partial pressure of water vapor is 75.5

 

[B.HOBS]

24 hours is recommended because the atmosphere within the bag itself needs to acclimate and stabilize before you can assure the reading is 99% correct. Evaporation time, chemical reactions etc, aren't necessarily quick, but the hygrometer will react quickly to changes within an environment regardless.

Even still, as cautious as you can be, there is always room for error, and nothing is ever going to be 100% accurate. Don't worry though, a little variance, say 1-2%, is not going to hurt your collection one bit! If your hygro reads at 74% after 24 hours, just bump it up one % and be done with it. That 1% could have been a reaction from a temp drop or some other variable.

Your cigars will be just fine! Good luck to you, and hope I made some sort of sense.

 

[Pipe Smoker]

Well maybe it isn't the hygrometer...

So my initial post was a couple of weeks ago. Since then I have had a puck of heartfelt beads in my 50 ct desktop humidor and the most consistent rh I get is 63%. I recently started a cooler so I picked up some more beads. I had some empty tubes lying around (used to contain sponge-type humidifiers) so I filed a short one and stuck in the humi and when that didn't have an effect I filled a longer one (about 4") and still the rh sat at 63%. So I pulled my hygro and decided to salt test it - expecting it to be exactly 2% off. Well after 24hrs in was spot on at 75%.

I know that I am supposed to trust the beads, so does this mean that I have a problem with the box itself? I haven't tried the flashlight test, but I have tried the dollar bill test and the humidor holds the bill firmly (though that might just be because of the height of the lip.)

Right now I have all my smokes in the cooler and shot glass of distilled water in the humi (about 36 hrs now) - is there anything else I can/ should do?

 

[grateful1]

Take a damp papertowel and loose wrap it around the Hyrgo. then stick it in a bag.
Within 30-45 minutes...maybe an hour...it should read near 100%.

As for the humi...have you re-seaoned the wood? It could just be trying to suck up the moisture....as could any 'new sticks' that are in there.

What's the TEMP in the room? How much rain have you had?

 

[Rod]

Like Gary said, I would recommend you season/re-season the cedar. You'll want to remove all of the cigars while you do this. Just place the cigars in a large ziplock, along with a small humidifier. Get the humidor at a steady RH for at least a week before you start introducing any cigars. Good luck!

 

[Pipe Smoker]

Weather has been pretty mild here in Philly - daytime high of ~73, no really rain to speak of. The temps in the humidor according to the hygrometer have been around 70. As far as re-seasoning the humidor, I have had a shot class of distilled water in the for about 36 hrs (as of this morning) and the hygrometer was reading 64%.

Cigars are happy in a 28qt cooler with 1/2 lb of beads, so I'm not too worried about them for the time being.

 

[Rod]

A better option, buy a larger cooler and make that your humidor. A lot less to worry about.

 

[grateful1]

Weather has been pretty mild here in Philly - daytime high of ~73, no really rain to speak of. The temps in the humidor according to the hygrometer have been around 70. As far as re-seasoning the humidor, I have had a shot class of distilled water in the for about 36 hrs (as of this morning) and the hygrometer was reading 64%.

Cigars are happy in a 28qt cooler with 1/2 lb of beads, so I'm not too worried about them for the time being.

I still believe one needs to do a light whip down with a damp cloth on the wood. Then the shot glass .

Then...a new humi!

Have you tried a new hygrometer?

 

[Pipe Smoker]

After nearly four days the rh is still sitting right at 64%. Assuming that the seal on the humidor was shot, I took the hygrometer out of the box and left it sitting next to the humidor over night and it's reading 53%, I was expecting it to be very near 64%. Since it was lower I guess that means the box is holding some humidity. I'm going to take the shot glass out and leave some beads in there for a day or so and see what the effect is on the rh.

Stupid question: If the box stays consistent between 61%-64% is that going to be too dry to store cigars? I have been smoking a lot lately, probably because of the time I spend reading these boards, but normally I smoke only 2-3 cigars a week. At that rate some sticks would sit in the humidor for weeks or months. I know that proper rh is a function of personal taste, but I don't really have a feel for what the difference between 60% and 70% actually is.

 

[Pipe Smoker]

I'm starting to think its just the box.

After about a week with a shot glass of distilled water it still read 64%. At that point I took everything out and wiped it down with some distilled water. I was very optimistic because the towel came away very brown which I imagine is a build up of oil from the various cigars that have been through it over the years. Once I ran the whole surface over with a little bit of distilled water I put the shot glass back in there and after a day the rh was sitting at about 71%. It settled in at 69% and sat there for week. On Friday I took out the shot glass and put the beads back in (I have one round puck, one short tube and one long tube) as of Sunday night it was reading 71%. My guess is that this is just because the rh in the room is pretty high, given the week of rain we have had. I may give up on the humidor and just let my smokes live out there life in the cooler.