Humidor beads issue

[Zeebra]

So, the beads kept my humidor steady at 68 RH (I have the 70 beads) for a solid week. Then a few days ago the humidity suddenly dropped to around 62-63. I don't know what happened? I looked at the tube of beads and there were still clear beads in the tube, meaning they had enough distilled water in them. Why weren't they releasing humidity and bringing the humidor up to 70?

I put a cup of distilled water in the humidor to raise the humidity level, then accidentally knocked over the cup, water spilled all over my humidor and cigars, I quickly "saved" the cigars by removing and drying them all, wiped down the humidor and let it settle without the cigars for awhile.

I then put the sponge and credo back in my humidor and also included the beads and I now have it back to a stable 70. This is with both the beads AND the credo/sponge that came with the humidor.

So my question is, why aren't the beads able to maintain the humidity? It seems if I take the credo and sponge out, the humidity will drop. What am I doing wrong?

 

[cigarsarge]

How is the seal on your humi? Place a small flashlight turned on inside it. Close it...If you see light your humi is warped. Might be the problem.

 

[outlawsp]

It also helps keeping a humidor full.

 

[Zeebra]

How is the seal on your humi? Place a small flashlight turned on inside it. Close it...If you see light your humi is warped. Might be the problem.

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Seal is ok. I've also done the salt test on the hygrometer and it's calibrated fine.

 

[armedak]

Zeebra,

First off I would calibrate you hygrometer with the salt test and make sure your readings are accurate. Second, I would check the seal as mentioned above. If everything checks out above then your humidor may not have reached equilibrium and is sucking up humidity until it reaches equilibrium. I would give it a week or ten days to do so. Good Luck!

 

[cigars&rum]

So, the beads kept my humidor steady at 68 RH (I have the 70 beads) for a solid week. Then a few days ago the humidity suddenly dropped to around 62-63. I don't know what happened? I looked at the tube of beads and there were still clear beads in the tube, meaning they had enough distilled water in them. Why weren't they releasing humidity and bringing the humidor up to 70?

I put a cup of distilled water in the humidor to raise the humidity level, then accidentally knocked over the cup, water spilled all over my humidor and cigars, I quickly "saved" the cigars by removing and drying them all, wiped down the humidor and let it settle without the cigars for awhile.

I then put the sponge and credo back in my humidor and also included the beads and I now have it back to a stable 70. This is with both the beads AND the credo/sponge that came with the humidor.

So my question is, why aren't the beads able to maintain the humidity? It seems if I take the credo and sponge out, the humidity will drop. What am I doing wrong?

[snapback]255050[/snapback]​

I'm having the same problem too, but my smokes now are only at 58%RH :angry: . It just might be do to the season change/temperature drop. I will have to check the seal on mine as well.

McKenzie

 

[Zeebra]

Zeebra,

First off I would calibrate you hygrometer with the salt test and make sure your readings are accurate. Second, I would check the seal as mentioned above. If everything checks out above then your humidor may not have reached equilibrium and is sucking up humidity until it reaches equilibrium. I would give it a week or ten days to do so. Good Luck!

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Seal checked and hygromemter calibrated.

This isn't a new humidor, I got it over a month ago and the humidity level was fine for weeks (first with the credo/sponge and then with the beads). The temp has recently changed as it became very cold over the last week or so but I didn't think it would affect the humidor so much.

 

[viper139]

This is the worst time of year for humidors. The temps drop and the rh drops due to us all firing up the mighty furnace or whatever heat source you use. The beads will go through more distilled water this time of year just for those reasons. What may have lasted months before can last just weeks now. You will need to hydrate your beads more often to keep the stability there.

One thing to remember is the longer the lid is open the more moisture that you are losing, get in and get out. The problem is when the rh in our humis drop a little we tend to open the box often to check what the hygrometer says, this is the worst thing to do since each time the moisture goes out and dry air goes in. Just hydrate the beads to the point that 70%+ of the beads are clear and let them work. You have to trust that what worked perfect for the whole year did not all of a sudden quit working.

 

[jabba]

Zee, you must be Canadian because you sound like a suck! Maybe the Leafs should hire you! LOLOL, just kidding.

Seriously, don't go crazy about RH. Feel your cigars and make sure they aren't dry. Most of those analog hygros suck and salt test means nothing if they are cheapies. How are they smoking?

My advice is make sure 60-70% of the beads are clear like Vip said, then record your RH level and feel and smoke your sticks. If you are happy with how they are smoking just try to keep your RH stable and forget the reading. Also, it may help buying a good digi hygrometer.

PS. I think the RH is screwing with your head because your nervous about the baby on top of the fact that your Leafs stink! LOL

 

[Sunward]

to check the lid seal, i often use a crisp $20 bill, and close the lid. you should be able to feel resistance when pulling out the bill (like getting the credit card back from the wife :laugh: ). try this on all four sides hope this helps.

Ed

 

[Zeebra]

Zee, you must be Canadian because you sound like a suck! Maybe the Leafs should hire you! LOLOL, just kidding.


PS. I think the RH is screwing with your head because your nervous about the baby on top of the fact that your Leafs stink! LOL

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Geez man what's with the attack on the Leafs! They just beat the dreaded Habs who moaned and whined about the officiating all game long. Then the Montreal d-man pushed the linesman at the end of the game for a nice handy "abuse of the officials" penalty.

Lay off you wop!
:laugh:

 

[Zeebra]

This is the worst time of year for humidors. The temps drop and the rh drops due to us all firing up the mighty furnace or whatever heat source you use. The beads will go through more distilled water this time of year just for those reasons. What may have lasted months before can last just weeks now. You will need to hydrate your beads more often to keep the stability there.

One thing to remember is the longer the lid is open the more moisture that you are losing, get in and get out. The problem is when the rh in our humis drop a little we tend to open the box often to check what the hygrometer says, this is the worst thing to do since each time the moisture goes out and dry air goes in. Just hydrate the beads to the point that 70%+ of the beads are clear and let them work. You have to trust that what worked perfect for the whole year did not all of a sudden quit working.

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Thanks Viper, guess I've been opening the lid far too often the last few days, that combined with the huge change in temperature probably affected the humi. I've added enough distilled water now and the humi seems fine once again (the last day) I'll see how it goes the rest of this week.

 

[natejustice]

The same thing happened to my coolidor, and it was due to the fact I was opening the lid way too often, and taking to long too decide what I wanted to smoke I now try to be as quick as I can, so that the dry heated air outside of the humi, doesn't infiltrate into my coolidor.. hope all goes well with your humi

This is the worst time of year for humidors. The temps drop and the rh drops due to us all firing up the mighty furnace or whatever heat source you use. The beads will go through more distilled water this time of year just for those reasons. What may have lasted months before can last just weeks now. You will need to hydrate your beads more often to keep the stability there.

One thing to remember is the longer the lid is open the more moisture that you are losing, get in and get out. The problem is when the rh in our humis drop a little we tend to open the box often to check what the hygrometer says, this is the worst thing to do since each time the moisture goes out and dry air goes in. Just hydrate the beads to the point that 70%+ of the beads are clear and let them work. You have to trust that what worked perfect for the whole year did not all of a sudden quit working.

[snapback]255089[/snapback]​

Thanks Viper, guess I've been opening the lid far too often the last few days, that combined with the huge change in temperature probably affected the humi. I've added enough distilled water now and the humi seems fine once again (the last day) I'll see how it goes the rest of this week.

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[armedak]

The best investment I ever made was the remote station hygrometer. It allows me to check the humidity in my coolerdor without opening it all the time. I just glance at the base station and tells me the humidity and temperature in the coolerdor and I can also check the room humidity and temperature as well. It also has room for another three cells I believer so I could use the thing to check the humidity and temperature in as many as 4 humidors.

 

[mrjinglesusa]

Had the same problem recently. My 65% beads were dropping down to ~57-58%. What I did was saturate them as much as possible as I figured I won't have a "high" humidity issue during the winter. I have about 75% of them "clear" and also put in a dish of distilled water. My humidors are slowly climbing (61%-63%) after only 24 hours. I think I wasn't keeping them hydrated enough initially...

 

[bursty]

Phew! I was having the same problems and was assuming I did something wrong to the beads. ???

 

[emodx]

Keep a hockey puck with foam handy during the winter months. When the RH starts to drop with the temp, toss in the puck with distilled H20. Also, do a google for RH and temperature. Remember that RH has a direct corellation with temp. The lower the temp goes, the lower the maximum RH goes. So if the avg temp in the house is 65F, the maximum RH might be less than %75 in a perfect setup. Food for thought. Anyways, like it was posted before, go by how they smoke and how they feel. Knowing your cigars is a big part of it.

-E