I have "The Conquistador" humidor from www.premiumhumidors.com The Hygrometer is built in and supposedly pre-calibrated. The problem is as follows. My RH is steady at 80% and there does not seem to be a way to get the Hygrometer out. I believe the RH is actually ok, however it bothers me that the Hygrometer is so far off. Before it is suggested, I have taken the wise advice this forum has given to other members, and ordered some Viper beads. My question is if anyone is familiar with this particular humidor and how I might go about fixing my little problem? I believe that part of the problem is that I got too much water into the hygrometer when wiping down the humidor with distilled water. The humidor has holes cut into the front where the hygrometer is. I appreciate any and all help and/or suggestions. So far I am very pleased to have found a great place to share my new hobby with fellow BOTL's. SOTL's too. =)
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Humidor problems
- Thread starter RONINDICE
- Start date
Zeebra
Daddy still loves Padrón!
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- Jul 10, 2005
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- 2,029
I'm not familiar with your humidor, but can you see the back of the hygrometer from inside the humidor? Mine is like that and you can just push the hygro out from the inside. Just push and it comes out...at least that's how mine works.
Don't even bother with the hydro.
Get a digital, set it inside. Then calibrate the analog to match the digital. That will still give you the satisfaction of being able to read the RH from outside the humi, but still have the precision of a digital.
Get a digital, set it inside. Then calibrate the analog to match the digital. That will still give you the satisfaction of being able to read the RH from outside the humi, but still have the precision of a digital.
I agree 100% and have a digital hygrometer on order. However....there seems to be no way to manually calibrate the hygrometer. Nor is there a way to access the back of the hygrometer from the inside of the humidor. If I could just manually adjust it to read at normal level and rely on my digital hygro I would be ok. But there seems to be no way to adjust it. I am thinking about taking the cigars out and using a blow dryer on the area where the holes are cut into the wood for the hygro. Perhaps it is just too moist in there.
Maybe I should try to post pics to display the hygrometer and how it is built into the humidor and not accessable.
Got the 65% beads. They have been in a couple days now. Just received my digital hygrometer today and it is steady at 75% RH. I am going to let it sit for a week and see what happens. If at that time it is still high I will try taking my cigars out and leaving the humidor open for a day. I think I may have wiped it down with too much distilled water. The wood is luckily not warped, but the RH is definitely high right now. Also....I got the beads with the aluminum container and it says it comes pre-prepped (i.e.- I dont have to add water). I just want to verify this fact. Perhaps Viper can weigh in on this discussion. Also the RH in my room seems to be much higher. Like around 82% RH. I dont know what to do about that since I dont have central air or good air flow.
Don't add water to the beads especially if your humidity is running high!
If your humidity stays high you may have to dry out your beads and then put em in your 'dor.
-Rob
Have you salt tested the new hydro, it maybe a little on the high side also. I would suggest you salt test the hydro and find where you stand +/- 75%, and then recheck the humidor after a couple of days. Don't get too crazy with trying to tweak things all the time, let the beads do their job and have things settle down a bit before driving yourself crazy.
Mike
Jut an update. Perhaps you all can still help. I have let the beads sit in my humi for a couple weeks now. Still at about 75% RH. Is there anything you can suggest? I was thinking about taking the cigars out and blow drying the inside of the humi. What do you guys think? Any other ideas?
They hygro is digital and was supposedly "good to go" right out of the box. Will salt testing the hygro adversely affect the RH level if it was supposedy pre-calibrated? Also, I am pretty sure it is too humid as I smoked an Opus X Fuente Fuente tonight and it had some serious burn issues and did not taste very good. I am assuming this is the reason.
They hygro is digital and was supposedly "good to go" right out of the box. Will salt testing the hygro adversely affect the RH level if it was supposedy pre-calibrated? Also, I am pretty sure it is too humid as I smoked an Opus X Fuente Fuente tonight and it had some serious burn issues and did not taste very good. I am assuming this is the reason.
LilBastage
Meat is murder! Tasty, tasty murder.
- Joined
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Salt testing the unit certainly won't hurt it unless you get salt or water on it somehow. It is very important that you confirm the hygro's reading or it really does you no good in this situation. I don't do the salt test myself, I take a small amount of beads and my hygros and put them in my 15 count otterbox overnight. Seems to work pretty well for me.
You may also want to check your beads. I've never seen the aluminum units, but try to get a good look at the beads themselves. They should be mixed in color, some white, some clear. About 70% clear is what I shoot for. If they're all clear, they need to be dried out a little. Hair dryer or oven method (see Viper's site) will do it.
One thing to consider is the seal on your humidor. If your room is at 82% and you don't have a good seal it seems to me that you could be getting extra humidity into your humidor from your room. Kind of the opposite of my dry winter problem in Minnesota. If this is the case the beads may be oversaturated and not able to regulate the humidity very well. If this is what's going on I'd shoot for a more 50-50 ratio of white to clear or even more white than clear to try to give them the opportunity to regulate the moisture a little better.
Double check the beads, double check the seal, and test that hygrometer.
Hopefully this is helpful to you. Just a few things I've learned here in the last few months.
Good luck!
You may also want to check your beads. I've never seen the aluminum units, but try to get a good look at the beads themselves. They should be mixed in color, some white, some clear. About 70% clear is what I shoot for. If they're all clear, they need to be dried out a little. Hair dryer or oven method (see Viper's site) will do it.
One thing to consider is the seal on your humidor. If your room is at 82% and you don't have a good seal it seems to me that you could be getting extra humidity into your humidor from your room. Kind of the opposite of my dry winter problem in Minnesota. If this is the case the beads may be oversaturated and not able to regulate the humidity very well. If this is what's going on I'd shoot for a more 50-50 ratio of white to clear or even more white than clear to try to give them the opportunity to regulate the moisture a little better.
Double check the beads, double check the seal, and test that hygrometer.
Hopefully this is helpful to you. Just a few things I've learned here in the last few months.
Good luck!
NullSmurf
Das Bruce
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- Jan 18, 2006
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- 7,858
Yes, pry it out carefully and do the salt test. No, you don't manage your humidity with it, but if it were me, its part of the quality of the furniture. It HAS to be there and it might as well be somewhat accurate. DO put a digital inside - the CP store has a nice one in the $20 range. So long as you use the Viper beads, you only really need the hygro to tell you when its time to recharge your beads.
Shooter
Living life on the heavies.
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- Mar 15, 2006
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- 3,554
Yea your hygrometer will come out. You prolly have three holes in your humi right behind the hygromter if I am correct and if I am correct the analog one you have is a piece of junk, (I have the same set up), I salt tested and it sat at 75 for hours and I was thrilled, then it dropped to 50 and never changed... I got the 65 beads and it sits at 55 all the time... I basically water my beads once every three-four weeks or when they turn white... My humi gets alot of use... I need to get a digital one but hey my smokes are great and burn well...
Cheers
Cheers
Perhaps I mis-stated. I have a digital hygrometer. It says it came pre-calibrated. I have read somewhere that if it is digital that you generally dont need to salt test. Can someone please confirm this? I am sorry to be such a painin the a**. Thanks again.
ThankYouForNotSmoking
Self-Proclaimed Everyman's Man
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- Mar 26, 2006
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What's the humidity outside like? It sounds like you should be using the beads to absorb moisture rather than add it. Do you live on the ocean or near a big lake?
Also, you could be storing your humidor in a high humidity area, make sure there aren't any waterpipes near bye (for example, don't store it underneath a bathroom or kitchen sink, although, who in their right mind would?)
Hope that helps.
peter
Also, you could be storing your humidor in a high humidity area, make sure there aren't any waterpipes near bye (for example, don't store it underneath a bathroom or kitchen sink, although, who in their right mind would?)
Hope that helps.
peter
Cigar Penguin
New Member
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- Feb 9, 2006
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Whats the use of salt testing when you cannot adjust the hygrometer,like on digitals.
Other than to see how far off it is.
I only have seen one digi hygro that allows you to adjust it.
I never depend on one unit,I have 2 or 3 for each box,add them all to one bag when calibrateing and adjust whichever ones can be adjusted and see how far off the ones that cannot be adjusted are.I use this as a referance point to go by where my cigars at the point I like em.Never do I believe the thing is accurate.
I agree with what someone said above,take the beads out,let them dry fully.
Then place the dry beads in your humidor to suck up the excess moisture for a day then check them,add water to a third of the beads or 2/3's ,always leave some dry beads to allow for excess moisture to be sucked up.
Make sure before you do the above you season your humidor appropriately.
Some rush to add cigars in before its properly seasoned.Depending on size and what not,it should take a day or 3.
If your cigars are relatively high in RH then add them to fully seasoned humidor with dry beads at first.
You may need to leave your gars in there for a month-3 months to re-adjust to the changes,this will level the RH% out.
Cigar Penguin
New Member
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Good luck and keep us posted.
AVB
Jesus of Cool, I'm bad, I'm nationwide
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I've found that most do not like the salt test because it corrodes the electronics. Some will say differently and YMMV.