cooler-der question

[gunsandcigars88]

I have my cooler set up with 65% Heartfelt beads and have been running a steady 70 deg. 65% RH for about three months now. Now that it is colder the house thermostat has changed and my cooler stays from 66-67 deg. Since the temp change my RH has jumped to 70% RH and I haven't added any water to the beads in over a month. Any idea what's happened???
Thanks for the help!
B

 

[mitro]

Just a thought, but I have noticed that the hygrometers I have JUMP 4% when the temperature goes from 68 and above to 67 and below. I've only recently noticed this since I got a wine fridge and can easily replicate the circumstances. I had the same issue when I had a cooler last winter. Might try recalibrating the hygro at the temp that your cooler is at.

It might be a long shot, but it can't hurt. Regardless, 70% isn't going to hurt anything.

 

[Ginseng]

I've never seen that. In fact I tested four different hygros and they did not change a single percentage point going from 60F to 70F. They were all kept in a sealed, gasketed RH stable container when I did the test.

Of course, the additional humidity might be coming from the cigars themselves as they re-stabilize to the new temperature. Almost all materials have a lower moisture capacity the colder it gets. So, if the cigars and boxes are giving up some humidity, there'd be no place for it to go except into the air where it would be detected by the hygro.

Wilkey

 

[antaean]

Everything else being equal, in a closed system, if the temperature drops the RH% will go up. It may take the beads a few days to catch up. If I recall correctly, for each degree Fahrenheit drop the RH goes up 2%. This effect may be seen on one of the many psychrometric charts available on the 'net (linky).

Of course, not everything is equal. If your ambient temp drops suddenly, the air space inside the humidor may or may not drop the same amount at the same time and of course the sticks have the previous temp and will be slower to respond.

When temps start to drop, make sure your beads aren't saturated and still have some room left to absorb some additional moisture. I think Heartfelt says you can use a hair dryer to dry them a bit but don't put hot beads back into the humi.

Most importantly, don't sweat the small things. The overall amount of water inside the humi doesn't change much due solely to a temp decrease, and things will eventually adjust.

BTW, good job if you haven't needed to add water to the beads in a month :thumbs:

Cheers,
antaean

 

[antaean]

I've never seen that. In fact I tested four different hygros and they did not change a single percentage point going from 60F to 70F. They were all kept in a sealed, gasketed RH stable container when I did the test.

Wilkey

I would be interested to hear the details of your test!!! This stuff fascinates me.

Cheers,
antaean

 

[Ginseng]

I reported that in a long post on my hygrometer setups. Please search for threads by me in the Humidor forum.

Wilkey

 

[antaean]

I reported that in a long post on my hygrometer setups. Please search for threads by me in the Humidor forum.

Wilkey

I found this.

You stated that you allowed at least 24 hours for equilibration after temp change, etc. Your %RH stabilized at the desired levels due to the humipacks/salt slurry driving the system. I imagine that if you took readings versus time immediately following a temp change that you would see the effect I mentioned. The effect might be more clear if the experiment were done without any humidification devices.

The bottom line is that eventually things equilibrate to the desired %RH provided that the humidification devices function properly.

Thanks for the heads-up to your earlier post Wilkey, it is informative (as usual :laugh: )

Cheers,
antaean

 

[gunsandcigars88]

Thanks for the help guys I am working on getting this fixed.
B

 

[MX]

I ran a cooler for almost 6 months i n Iraq, and noticed the same thing. Every time the temp would fall the RH would rise, I can even see it in my desktop here at the house. I just didn't worry about it all that much, it would always work its self out. If you are worried about it, just open the cooler up for a bit until it drops again.

Tim

 

[dk_ace]

I had a similar problem a while back, and my solution was to dry the beads in the oven, and then only recharge about 30% of them. For most of the summer I ran my humi that way due to the moist air. Leaving most of the beads dry allows them to pull moisture out of the air if that is the problem.

D