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Difficulties with dry boxing

H. Vachon

H. Vachon

King of the Hobo Hut
Joined
Aug 30, 2019
Messages
4,205
Location
Holland, MI
I have been reading a lot about people’s humidity preferences and a majority of the people swear by dry boxing for at least a few days before smoking. This is not a practice I am accustom to.

I keep my humidor at 68% and I’ve noticed a decline in flavor from when I first buy the cigars. I’m assuming that has to do with the higher humidity in the humi verses the lower RH while shipping.

I purchased a cedar cigar box from my local B&M with the intention of using it to dry box separate from he rest of my stash. But with the relative humidity in our house being in the 70s and sometimes higher, I can’t get my dry box under 68%. Is there any household item (trying to refrain from having to buy more Boveda packs) I can toss in there to absorb some of that moisture so I can get down around the 55-60% range?
 
jfields said:

Heartfelt Industries, Heartfelt Cigar Humidor Humidity Beads, Heartfelt Beads, Humidors, Quality Cigar Accessories

www.heartfeltindustries.com www.heartfeltindustries.com

These might help. They should help absorb humidity (in your case) as well maintaining a desired level. You might need to dry them out every so often if you see the humidity climbing in your dry box. A food dehydrator if you have one, or the lowest temp setting in your oven.
Click to expand...

John is correct... when I lived in Florida, I started using beads... they worked perfectly in my dry box... it would take a few days after I put the cigars in, to get down to the desired 60 to 61 percent...
 
H. Vachon said:
I have been reading a lot about people’s humidity preferences and a majority of the people swear by dry boxing for at least a few days before smoking. This is not a practice I am accustom to.

I keep my humidor at 68% and I’ve noticed a decline in flavor from when I first buy the cigars. I’m assuming that has to do with the higher humidity in the humi verses the lower RH while shipping.

I purchased a cedar cigar box from my local B&M with the intention of using it to dry box separate from he rest of my stash. But with the relative humidity in our house being in the 70s and sometimes higher, I can’t get my dry box under 68%. Is there any household item (trying to refrain from having to buy more Boveda packs) I can toss in there to absorb some of that moisture so I can get down around the 55-60% range?
Click to expand...

That is seriously wet. Don't you have an air conditioner?
 
I may just be inserting my foot in my mouth, but with your house humidity being that high, a lined travel case may lock the humidity better if you go the bead/boveda route. I use a xikar 15 count case for mine.
 
Scap said:
That is seriously wet. Don't you have an air conditioner?
Click to expand...
It’s been raining constantly and we have the air off. I salt tested both my hydrometers and set one in my dry box and one in the middle of the room. The ambient the was 73
 
In MN, I experience this problem through the varying seasons. In the summer my issues are getting humidity down (I have a wineador and temperature controller that i set to a lower temp to engage the fans and cooling more often and keep humidity closer to 65) and in the winter I have the opposite issue.

For me, my only real choice was a wineador/freezerdor for keeping both temp and humidity reasonable based on the sheer level of change when the air is on 6 months of the year versus when the heat is on the other 6 months.

My dry boxing reflects the same. I use an entire wineador at a lower temp/humidity during the "wet" months and a regular dry box with some boveda's or beads works great during the dry months.
 
I need to find a way to sneak a wineador past my wifeador so she doesn’t divorceador my ass 🤣 My end game is to get a cigar cooler, just need something to get me through until spring.
 
H. Vachon said:
It’s been raining constantly and we have the air off. I salt tested both my hydrometers and set one in my dry box and one in the middle of the room. The ambient the was 73
Click to expand...

I'd go insane if it was that humid indoors.
Turning the air off is not an option in Houston.
 
Scap said:
I'd go insane if it was that humid indoors.
Turning the air off is not an option in Houston.
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Michigan weather is a crap shoot. Especially where I live right off the coast of Lake Michigan. If we only experience two or three seasons a day I’m content 🤣 Looking at my weather app the highest this week will be in the upper 70s and the lowest will be lower 40s. Idk what f-cking season this is.. lol
 
Storage RH and smoking RH can be two very different numbers. Storage RH is all about allowing the cigars to age properly, without damaging the oils that make special cigars what they are.....yet not so high as to encourage mold growth. Smoking RH is as much about personal preference as anything. Ask a hundred experienced cigar smokers what their humidors are kept at. You'll likely get answers between 55% and 75%. No coincidence that 65% is right in the middle of that range. All of this is predicated on actual salt tested, calibrated hygrometers....unless we're talking about the same thing in terms of RH, it's all sort of academic.

A wise man once said, and my observations concur, that storage at too low an RH will slowly allow the oils that make cigars special to dry out. Anymore, I won't store lower than 65% and my cabinet now runs 67-68%-ish. Which smokes "OK" but a little dryer is better. My dry box has a big tube of 60% beads in it, and runs quite well at that point. Giving a special smoke 2-3 days in the dry box makes an amazing difference. And, if your ambient RH is too high, the beads will work to lower the RH to a better and much more smokable level.

Lastly, if you're really interested in playing this game well, you really need to know ambient (in the room) RH levels in addition to what's going on in your cabinet or desktop. If it's 80% in the room....it's going to be rather hard to maintain 65% in your cabinet.

FWIW - YMMV - etc.....B.B.S.
 
BlindedByScience said:
Storage RH and smoking RH can be two very different numbers. Storage RH is all about allowing the cigars to age properly, without damaging the oils that make special cigars what they are.....yet not so high as to encourage mold growth. Smoking RH is as much about personal preference as anything. Ask a hundred experienced cigar smokers what their humidors are kept at. You'll likely get answers between 55% and 75%. No coincidence that 65% is right in the middle of that range. All of this is predicated on actual salt tested, calibrated hygrometers....unless we're talking about the same thing in terms of RH, it's all sort of academic.

A wise man once said, and my observations concur, that storage at too low an RH will slowly allow the oils that make cigars special to dry out. Anymore, I won't store lower than 65% and my cabinet now runs 67-68%-ish. Which smokes "OK" but a little dryer is better. My dry box has a big tube of 60% beads in it, and runs quite well at that point. Giving a special smoke 2-3 days in the dry box makes an amazing difference. And, if your ambient RH is too high, the beads will work to lower the RH to a better and much more smokable level.

Lastly, if you're really interested in playing this game well, you really need to know ambient (in the room) RH levels in addition to what's going on in your cabinet or desktop. If it's 80% in the room....it's going to be rather hard to maintain 65% in your cabinet.

FWIW - YMMV - etc.....B.B.S.
Click to expand...
I agree with everything you mentioned. I store at 68-69% but I would like to try smoking closer to 58-60%. The RH in my man cave was in the 70s but has now returned to the normal upper 60s.

I ended up getting a 62% boveda (which I was originally trying to avoid) to put in my dry box. It seems to help, but I think long term I will probably switch to the beads to have more control. Many people seems to advocate for them. Plus boveda has a large jump in their % jumping from 62 down to 49 with not much in between.

I appreciate everyone’s input and recommendations!
 
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