• Hi Guest - Sign up now for Secret Santa 2024!
    Click here to sign up!
  • Hi Guest - Come check out all of the new CP Merch Shop! Now you can support CigarPass buy purchasing hats, apparel, and more...
    Click here to visit! here...

Humidor Help

SmokinCharger

SmokinCharger

Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2007
Messages
33
I bought the humidor below which is approximatley 1700 cubic incches. I have a digital hygrometer that I tested using the Boveda One Step calibration. I seasoned the humidor with the Boveda seasoning packs for 10 days. I then put in a 4 oz. Heartfelt 65% RH bead tube that is supposed to support 2160 cubic inches. I wanted to ensure that it will hold the RH before buying the cigars to fill it. After a couple of days, the RH does not reach 65%. It got to 62% once but ends up running lower (i.e. 55-60%).

I live in San Diego, so the temps have been good but the humidity has been very dry - especially since we have run the heater for a few days now.

I will use Doc's dollar bill test to check the seal today. For now, assume that I have a good seal for the following questions.

1) How much of an affect will an empty humidor have on the RH stability? Other than cigars, what can I add to help reduce the air?

2) How much of an affect will a dry house (i.e. running heater) have?

3) I have the humidor downstairs (no basement) in the coolest spot that does not have any direct sunlight and is the most temperature stable. The house temps in the summer can get into the high 70s during the day. What affect will this have on the cigars if the RH is maintained at approxiatley 65%? Will I get the beetles?

My Humidor

4 oz bead tube

Thank you for your help.

Terry
 
SmokinCharger said:
I bought the humidor below which is approximatley 1700 cubic incches. I have a digital hygrometer that I tested using the Boveda One Step calibration. I seasoned the humidor with the Boveda seasoning packs for 10 days. I then put in a 4 oz. Heartfelt 65% RH bead tube that is supposed to support 2160 cubic inches. I wanted to ensure that it will hold the RH before buying the cigars to fill it. After a couple of days, the RH does not reach 65%. It got to 62% once but ends up running lower (i.e. 55-60%).

I live in San Diego, so the temps have been good but the humidity has been very dry - especially since we have run the heater for a few days now.

I will use Doc's dollar bill test to check the seal today. For now, assume that I have a good seal for the following questions.

1) How much of an affect will an empty humidor have on the RH stability? Other than cigars, what can I add to help reduce the air?

2) How much of an affect will a dry house (i.e. running heater) have?

3) I have the humidor downstairs (no basement) in the coolest spot that does not have any direct sunlight and is the most temperature stable. The house temps in the summer can get into the high 70s during the day. What affect will this have on the cigars if the RH is maintained at approxiatley 65%? Will I get the beetles?

My Humidor

4 oz bead tube

Thank you for your help.

Terry
Click to expand...

I remember seeing somewhere you could use bubble wrap to put in there to reduce the air. How much "distilled" water did you add to the tube? May need to add more to get the RH up.

If it were me, after 10 days of seasoning, I'd take out the boveda packs, drop in the heartfelt tube, and fill that sucker with some smokes and not stress too much over it. If it were me.

As long as you keep the temps below 70F, you should be okay on the beetles. It's just when temps get over that. I would think a basement would stay fairly cool, but then again I've never had a basement. :rolleyes:
 
After having just gone thru this, I would say to put the Seasoning Packets in for a little longer. I left mine in until they seemed almost flat. I put my beads in after about 15 days, and then added my smokes. I would guess I left the packets in for a total of 25 days, and after I took them out, I've been holding very steady with just the beads. The packets work longer then 10 days, and there is really no reason to take them out after only 10. I think it takes about a month to really have your humi seasoned when it is brand new. You can start using it earlier then that, and keeping the packets and beads in will keep a fairly consistant Rh.
 
Thank you. I was thinking about adding the seasoning packets back into it for a bit longer.

Regarding the tubes, I use a mister spray bottle with distilled water to get them wet, shake them, respray and then put into a zip lock bag for an hour or two.
 
You may want to try putting some of the distilled water in a shot glass and sitting that in your humi. I know that's what a lot of folks do.

Greg
 
After wiping down the the cedar, I left the sponge in the humidor for a couple days then I added the beads. After two more days it was done.
 
15 to 25 days...wow, that's way too long IMHO!

Your humidor needs something to work on, throw in your sticks with your beads, take out the seasoning and it will stabilize very fast. If you have open space, throw in some empty cedar boxes.

I run my air conditioning for 6 months of the year set at about 73 degrees. My humidors (large) have never been at 70 degrees, summer or winter. My systems are automatic
but I still have beads (dry) in each humidor, more than required, to keep my RH between 63 and 65%

Provided your RH is below 70, don't stress on the ambient temperature between 70 and 75.

Brian
 
Using Doc's dollar bill test. I found that the right side does not seal very well. What recommendations are there for sealing it?
 
I don't think I should be getting credit for the Dollar bill test. It's a fairly well known technique.

Doc.
 
SmokinCharger said:
I bought the humidor below which is approximatley 1700 cubic incches. I have a digital hygrometer that I tested using the Boveda One Step calibration. I seasoned the humidor with the Boveda seasoning packs for 10 days. I then put in a 4 oz. Heartfelt 65% RH bead tube that is supposed to support 2160 cubic inches. I wanted to ensure that it will hold the RH before buying the cigars to fill it. After a couple of days, the RH does not reach 65%. It got to 62% once but ends up running lower (i.e. 55-60%).

I live in San Diego, so the temps have been good but the humidity has been very dry - especially since we have run the heater for a few days now.

I will use Doc's dollar bill test to check the seal today. For now, assume that I have a good seal for the following questions.

1) How much of an affect will an empty humidor have on the RH stability? Other than cigars, what can I add to help reduce the air?

2) How much of an affect will a dry house (i.e. running heater) have?

3) I have the humidor downstairs (no basement) in the coolest spot that does not have any direct sunlight and is the most temperature stable. The house temps in the summer can get into the high 70s during the day. What affect will this have on the cigars if the RH is maintained at approxiatley 65%? Will I get the beetles?

My Humidor

4 oz bead tube

Thank you for your help.

Terry
Click to expand...


Hi Terry,

My response to your first question is that small temperature fluctuations in a mostly empty humidor may cause large swings in the "measured" RH since the humidity will not be uniform throughout. Don't worry about it.

My response to your second question is that the RH outside of your humidor really will not matter that much either and way too much concern is given to the "seal".

The Spanish Cedar lumber people (link is a pdf, particularly pg 7 and graph pg 8) suggest that it can take several months to go from kiln-dried condition to 60% to 70% RH, without adding water directly to the surface of the wood. When you season the humidor with Bovedas and/or beads, it might be helpful to think in terms of the moisture(water) content of the wood versus the amount of water actually released by the passive humidification devices being used. You have a lot of wood and a lot of air. It doesn't take much water to humidify the air. It can take A LOT of water to humidify the wood. Also, as far as stability of RH is concerned, there is a difference between the surface of the wood being humidified and most, if not all, of the wood cross section being humidified. A good sized humidor for a couple hundred sticks and more, can take several months to truly stabilize the RH. However, you do not need to wait that long. The first two or three weeks should be more than enough to stabilize the surface of the spanish cedar enough to avoid large RH swings from the wood sucking up the water. When you add the sticks and/or boxes, they too will help further humidify the humidor. Just make sure that your humidification devices have enough water in them at all times.

As far as the outside air being too dry, unless the seal is a total POS don't worry about it. Again, just make sure your humidification devices always have enough water. The Spanish Cedar lumber people have presented data which indicates that it takes nearly twice as long to de-humidify the wood as it does to humidify it.

Once you have things stabilized, you will need to pay less and less attention to things as time goes by. Less air space is better than lots of it, but how much less does not have an exact answer. If you crowd most of your boxes/sticks together to fill the box up, you will probably have 10% air space or more. If you leave what you think is 30% air space, it is probably more like 50% because you will guess wrong about it. Fuller is better though you still need to have the ability for air to circulate slightly.

Hope this helps ease your concerns.

Cheers,
antaean

[editted to add reference link to Spanish cedar properties file]
 
I have sprayed the Heartfelt bead tube with distilled water and even put a paper towel soaked with distilled water around it and let it set in a zip lock bag.

Concerned that only the outside layers may be turning clear, I poured distilled water direclty onto the tubes. After putting it back into the humidor, it only took a couple of hours before stabilizing at 65% and has stayed that way now for a couple of days.

The spray bottle was not getting them enough distilled water.

Thank you for the help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top