If my humidor is improperly seasoned, will it still hold RH?

[Danforz]

Can you post a picture of your setup? Just curious to see how you have it laid out.

 
Of the seasoning of or the humidity maintenance?

Maybe this will help... for seasoning, I have two shot glasses. One on the bottom floor, one on the second to top shelf. I also have two heavily soaked foam elements inside and did a wipe down prior. Currently, it is reading 72-73% and holding. The shot glasses have shown minimal, if any, evaporation.
 
Regularly, I have 2/3lb of beads at the bottom which I soak (I get some cracking, but they are in a glass jar so its irrelevant). 1/3lb of beads at the second to top shelf. I have purchased some more beads along with cedar trays, which should alleviate any concerns about humidity at the bottom.
 
Ultimately, from what I'm seeing, the problem is my pallet (which magically does not taste cigars on some days and does on others).

 

[MilesMingusMonk]

The beads are over saturated, if anything.

 
 

I also have two heavily soaked foam elements inside and did a wipe down prior.
 
Regularly, I have 2/3lb of beads at the bottom which I soak (I get some cracking, but they are in a glass jar so its irrelevant). 1/3lb of beads at the second to top shelf.

 
Sounds like your problems are due to too much humidification - let your cigars breathe! Get rid of the "heavily soaked" foam. Dry out your saturated beads.

 

[MilesMingusMonk]

Also, a glass jar is not a very effective container for beads. Increase the surface area of your beads. Mesh bags, nylon stockings or a tray works well.

 

[Capt J]

cigars taste best to me when i am well hydrated.

 

[Danforz]

 

The beads are over saturated, if anything.

 
 

I also have two heavily soaked foam elements inside and did a wipe down prior.
 
Regularly, I have 2/3lb of beads at the bottom which I soak (I get some cracking, but they are in a glass jar so its irrelevant). 1/3lb of beads at the second to top shelf.

 
Sounds like your problems are due to too much humidification - let your cigars breathe! Get rid of the "heavily soaked" foam. Dry out your saturated beads.
 

 
This was done during the seasoning period. 

 

[BigBear]

I would agree with 
 

Sounds like your problems are due to too much humidification - let your cigars breathe! Get rid of the "heavily soaked" foam. Dry out your saturated beads.

 
Personally, I wouldn't put anything with standing water in any of my "active" Humidors...
As for the rest... You've gotten a lot of great advise, re-read & do what you will!!
 
Best of Luck!!
 
Edit: Reading is fundamental for me too...  :whistling:

 

[{tpc}]

Go with what rod said.
 
You can always play around with the humidity. Lower it.  Wait a week. See how they smoke.  Raise it, wait a week, see how they smoke.  Or get 2 identical tuppadores, prepare one at 65%, one at 75% and put identical sticks in each.  Wait a week, smoke them and compare.
 
There isn't a perfect answer for this, sounds to me everything is seasoned and calibrated right.  But different smokes smoke differently.  Plus where your smoking makes a difference too.  Is it cold or warm, high or low humidity?  All of this can play a factor.  I don't think you are doing anything wrong nor do I think there is anything wrong with the sticks.

 

[Danforz]

Go with what rod said.
 
You can always play around with the humidity. Lower it.  Wait a week. See how they smoke.  Raise it, wait a week, see how they smoke.  Or get 2 identical tuppadores, prepare one at 65%, one at 75% and put identical sticks in each.  Wait a week, smoke them and compare.
 
There isn't a perfect answer for this, sounds to me everything is seasoned and calibrated right.  But different smokes smoke differently.  Plus where your smoking makes a difference too.  Is it cold or warm, high or low humidity?  All of this can play a factor.  I don't think you are doing anything wrong nor do I think there is anything wrong with the sticks.

 
The humidor was seasoned for a few days and the cigars have been placed back inside. It is holding humidity between 68% - 69%. I am going to try and drop humidity to 64%-65% and see if the taste changes a bit. At the end of the day, I also have to be careful what I eat or drink before smoking, as those seem to have a profound affect on my pallet. Unfortunately, some days when I have yet to eat anything, I still sometimes cannot taste the cigar. We will see what happens. 

 

[broblues]

Are you smoking a bunch of cigars every day?  How much do you smoke?  Maybe you need to step away from the chalupa!

 

[personal User]

Today, I picked a stick from the bottom of my humidor to smoke. The moment I lit it it burned fast and lacks in flavor. I've noticed that, sometimes, my cigars seem light in flavor and burn strange.
 

Sometimes the cigar is rolled too loose, will burn too fast and consequently will lack flavor because it's too hot.
 
Sometimes if we're busy and not paying attention to the cigar and how we're smoking it will cause flavor shift and a different impression of the cigar. Happened to me a week or two ago with a petite corona. The next one was night and day different.
 
I agree to get rid of the foam.
 
I tend to think that multiple methods of adding humidity are not necessarily wrong in itself, but tends to confuse our thinking as to what is actually transpiring.
 
Also, as mentioned by others - changes in temp also affect R/H.
 
I will say that when I changed from 70/70 to 65/65, it was over a month before I felt like the cigars truly settled down.
 
You are measuring R/H of air, not moisture content of the cigar. The moisture content saturation of the whole cigar is going to take a bit.
 
Don't forget, R/H is not an absolute "moisture content" measurement but a measurement of humidity relative to temperature. So, RH will shift when Temp shifts but moisture content remains the same.
 
It can get confusing, there are so many variables.
 
So, try to remove variables.
 
Take the foam out.
 
Select a RH level you think appropriate and stick with it for awhile. a good while. Keep temps as stable as possible, make sure humidor not located near air vent, sunlight at times, etc.
 
Keep things stable. As mentioned by some old heads here whose sticks are smoking fine and whose temp/RH levels shift over time theirs smoke fine. What is happening there is that there are no rapid changes.
 
Pay attention to what sticks are giving you an issue, and pay attention to how you smoke them. If they are burning fast, take very small puffs. When I learned to do that I was amazed at the flavor I could get from a petite corona and how long it would last.
 
Realize there may not be one answer here, or even two, could be a combination of things.
 
HTH

 

[ironpeddler]

So let me try to figure out what you're saying. 
 
You think you may have rushed the seasoning procedure of your humidor by not allowing the humidity to totally permeate the Spanish cedar completely so that it can create a stable environment.
 
By that you mean, even though you received a good reading on your hygrometers before adding cigars to it, you're thinking that the quick, initial humidity you infused in the humidor may have dissipated and this lack of humidity in the cedar is now drawing humidity OUT of your cigars like a sponge and causing them to taste strange and burn crooked....because said cedar has allegedly dried out a bit and is looking to re-humidify itself by any means it can find...and in this case, it's the moisture within your cigars.
 
Is this close?

 

[whylieineedacigar]

 

 
Sometimes if we're busy and not paying attention to the cigar and how we're smoking it will cause flavor shift and a different impression of the cigar. Happened to me a week or two ago with a petite corona. The next one was night and day different.
 

 
Couldn't agree more with this statement! This has happened to me several times, same cigar box, 1 day apart, night and day different!

So let me try to figure out what you're saying. 
 
You think you may have rushed the seasoning procedure of your humidor by not allowing the humidity to totally permeate the Spanish cedar completely so that it can create a stable environment.
 
By that you mean, even though you received a good reading on your hygrometers before adding cigars to it, you're thinking that the quick, initial humidity you infused in the humidor may have dissipated and this lack of humidity in the cedar is now drawing humidity OUT of your cigars like a sponge and causing them to taste strange and burn crooked....because said cedar has allegedly dried out a bit and is looking to re-humidify itself by any means it can find...and in this case, it's the moisture within your cigars.
 
Is this close?

 
For some reason I just pictured my mother saying this to me & I was around 7 years old lol

 

[personal User]

So let me try to figure out what you're saying. 
......Is this clo

oops,got to go will come back with more in a bit in an attempt to clarify.
 
I redrafted that post four or five times in an attempt to be clear, knew I wasn’t doing as well as I would hope, but it was either go with what I had or not make the post. Please bear with me trying to express myself in a different way.

 

[personal User]

While the initial post was about seasoning a humidor I am saying that all the variables affect what is going on in a humidor. I will state that I pretty much ended my humidity issues when I started looking at it differently.
 
Moisture (humidity)  inside a sealed space will attempt to reach an equilibrium with the absorbent/dispersement materials sharing the space. Those materials absorb or disperse at different rates and have different abilities to absorb or disperse moisture.
 
Look at your humidor as an environment of materials that is attempting to establish an equilibrium and the hygrometer is only an indicator of the air in that environment and not an indicator of the state of the other materials.
 
A hygrometer is an indicator of the RH of the air only.
 
Equilibrium takes more time than we would like, and other variables such as leakage, and loss (opening the humidor) work against us.
 
However, equilibrium and stability are what we seek, and hygrometers indicating RH only tell a small part of the story.
 
Another major source of confusion is the fact RH shifts when temperature shifts even if moisture content remains the same and only the temperature has shifted.

 

[broblues]

How long ago did you "season" your humi?

 

[Capt J]

While the initial post was about seasoning a humidor I am saying that all the variables affect what is going on in a humidor. I will state that I pretty much ended my humidity issues when I started looking at it differently.
 
Moisture (humidity)  inside a sealed space will attempt to reach an equilibrium with the absorbent/dispersement materials sharing the space. Those materials absorb or disperse at different rates and have different abilities to absorb or disperse moisture.
 
Look at your humidor as an environment of materials that is attempting to establish an equilibrium and the hygrometer is only an indicator of the air in that environment and not an indicator of the state of the other materials.
 
A hygrometer is an indicator of the RH of the air only.
 
Equilibrium takes more time than we would like, and other variables such as leakage, and loss (opening the humidor) work against us.
 
However, equilibrium and stability are what we seek, and hygrometers indicating RH only tell a small part of the story.
 
Another major source of confusion is the fact RH shifts when temperature shifts even if moisture content remains the same and only the temperature has shifted.

To add to the discussion a quote from an old text book of mine, The American Practical Navigator by N. Bowditch (1977 edition):
 
Art. 3712. Humidity is the condition of the atmosphere with reference to its water vapor content. Relative humidity is the ratio (stated as a percentage) of the pressure of water vapor present in the atmosphere to the saturation vapor pressure at the same temperature. As air temperature decreases, the relative humidity increases. At some point saturation takes place, any further cooling results in condensation of some of the moisture.

 

[BlindedByScience]

...what about altitude?  You guys are completely blowing past the effects of altitude in proper cigar maintenance...!!....