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New Humidor

7

72Orange

New Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2006
Messages
7
Hello. I'm a newbie in NJ and wanted to say Hi.

Also, I just bought THIS Humidor and seasoned it for 4 days using the usual method of treating the wood and leaving a sponge on a plastic bag in it. Humidity held steady at around 75% for the full 4 days.

I took my cigars, that I neglected and never regularly checked and they got dried out a bit, and put them in the new humidor. They are a little dryer than I'd like but are still more than smokeable. So I put them in the new humidor and for three days in a row now my humidity is stuck at 60%.

I have a Large rectangular humidification element and also one of those jars with the pieces that look like broken peices of jello in it.

I thought these humidification devices would be more than ample, and am wondering what's going on. Is it possible that since the cigars are a little dry they are absorbing the moisture and eventually the humidity will settle out around 70% or so? Any thoughts?

I did check and the humidor is air tight and the gauge is properly calibrated.

Thanks!
 
That's what it sounds like to me. I think you are on the right track just keep an eye on the humidity.
 
Most (if not virtually all) humidity problems can be fixed with viper beads. Visit heartfeltindustries.com and pick some up.

Although I have no experience with it, "The Puck" seems to be very popular as well. I think it is available on the heartfelt site, as well as Mark at cigarmony.
 
Yeah, the beads are nice but not really all that necessary for a humi that size. It tends to make things easier on you, but I had a humi just like the one you bought (in fact it was my very first humi) and all I ever used for the two years I had it was a standard rectangular humidifier that came with the unit. Although during the summer months I often needed to make some adjustments to control the humidity, all in all, the humi did a fine job other than being too small. :)

Your theory about the dry cigars bringing down the humidity may very well be correct. My first thought was whether your hygrometer is accurate (since most of those analog hygrometers are cheap and inaccurate). However, apparently it is accurate so the only thing I can think of is if the humidity was holding fine prior to the cigars, just give it some more time and likely the humidity will slowly rise. The one good thing about your issue is that if you're going to have a problem with humidity, I'd much rather be a little low than high, particularly in the summer. At 60%, you're really not very far off from where you want to be (unless you're trying to get to 70%). I'd much rather store my cigars (and I do) at 63-65% during the summer months. During the winter, I store them at 65-67%.

Good luck, welcome to CP (don't forget to introduce yourself in the "Introduce Yourself Here" part of the forum) and good choice of color! ;)
 
Anything in the 60-70% range will work. Your dry cigars may just be absorbing the water vapor and may even out after so time.
 
Great, thanks guys. I figured it was OK and would straighten itself out.

Nice sight you guys got here!
 
Throw that hygrometer out and get some beads.... Oh yea, be sure to post when you are getting a bigger humi. It won't take long ... hehe
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

But now I'm confused. My gauge that came with the box that I thought was correct, may not be. I bought a digital one on eBay just to use as a back up and put it in the humidor. It reads 69% at the same time the one on the box reads 60%. I'm thinking of taking the digital one to my local cigar store and checking it against theirs.
 
72Orange said:
Thanks for the replies guys.

But now I'm confused. My gauge that came with the box that I thought was correct, may not be. I bought a digital one on eBay just to use as a back up and put it in the humidor. It reads 69% at the same time the one on the box reads 60%. I'm thinking of taking the digital one to my local cigar store and checking it against theirs.
Click to expand...

No need for confusion, just perform the salt test on both hygrometers and then you will know for certain which one is accurate (or how much off each one is). It is a very easy task to perform and the instructions are below. You don't really need to include a bottle cap in the bag; it really isn't necessary as long as you have the salt water solution and enough air in the bag. Hope this helps. :)

---------------------------------

In order to calibrate your hygrometer, you will need a Ziplock bag, salt and a small shallow open container, like a bottle cap.

In the shallow container, place about a teaspoon of salt and add a few drops of water to get it wet. Don’t add too much water, just enough to get a moist pile of salt. Remember, you don't want a salt water solution, just damp salt. Place the container in the bag along with the hygrometer.

Close the bag with some air trapped inside and let it sit. Allow this to stabilize for at least 6 hours (don't rush it). After it has stabilized, check the hygrometer reading without opening up the bag. It should be exactly 75%. If not, you can simply adjust the reading by turning the dial on the back of the hygrometer with a small screwdriver, if your hygrometer permits.
-------------------------------

This was copied from ecigardepot.com.
 
theorangeman said:
72Orange said:
Thanks for the replies guys.

But now I'm confused. My gauge that came with the box that I thought was correct, may not be. I bought a digital one on eBay just to use as a back up and put it in the humidor. It reads 69% at the same time the one on the box reads 60%. I'm thinking of taking the digital one to my local cigar store and checking it against theirs.
Click to expand...

No need for confusion, just perform the salt test on both hygrometers and then you will know for certain which one is accurate (or how much off each one is). It is a very easy task to perform and the instructions are below. You don't really need to include a bottle cap in the bag; it really isn't necessary as long as you have the salt water solution and enough air in the bag. Hope this helps. :)

---------------------------------

In order to calibrate your hygrometer, you will need a Ziplock bag, salt and a small shallow open container, like a bottle cap.

In the shallow container, place about a teaspoon of salt and add a few drops of water to get it wet. Don’t add too much water, just enough to get a moist pile of salt. Remember, you don't want a salt water solution, just damp salt. Place the container in the bag along with the hygrometer.

Close the bag with some air trapped inside and let it sit. Allow this to stabilize for at least 6 hours (don't rush it). After it has stabilized, check the hygrometer reading without opening up the bag. It should be exactly 75%. If not, you can simply adjust the reading by turning the dial on the back of the hygrometer with a small screwdriver, if your hygrometer permits.
-------------------------------

This was copied from ecigardepot.com.
Click to expand...

Good post. The only thing I would change is to wait 24 hours and to double bag. Actually, I use a tupperware type container when I do mine.

I've had hygros be way off after 8 hours and come around to within 1 or 2% after giving them some more time. You really want to make sure that the environment stabilizes before placing too much faith in the results.

JMHO
 
I think i am going to check mine also. I have almost the same humidor and it sticks around 80 to 85 i am worried that i may have to much moisture. I am in a humid place but i would like to know for sure. I was using purified water in my humidfier but then i bought a bottle of Humidifacation fluid and notice right away in a few days mold or fugas growing on the humidfier and a few of my cigs had a white haze on them. Can anyone tell me what happen did i do something wrong. Let me know. If you look hard at my sig pic you can see the white haze.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I'm not sure how to take the gauge in the box out so I will do the salt test on the digital one and go from there. I am pretty sure the digital is accurate because after being closed for the last 4 days it shows 75% on the nose and that's what the humidty gel is calibrated to release.

So I'll set up the salt test now at 9PM and wait 12 hours and report here at 9AM.

Thanks again guys!
 
OK. It's been about 11 1/2 hours and my digital reads 70%. So if it's calibrated 5% too low then my box is actually 74% which would make more sense. I'm going to repeat this test a few more times and see what I get.
 
For a digital hygrometer, that's not what I would expect. I would definitely try the salt test again and see what you get. As for how to get the analog hygrometer out of your humi, it's real easy - it just pops out. You may need to turn and twist it a bit, but it will come out without too much trouble. I used to have the humi you now have and I took the hygrometer out several times to test. It was always way off so eventually I stopped even looking at it and went with a digital one.

What kind of digital hygrometer are you using? I've got three at home that I use and all of them are within about 1% (which is about what you would expect from most digital hygrometers).
 
HERE'S the one I got. I probably shouldn't have gone with a cheapo. It says + or - 5% which I didn't realize before.

Anyway, just to update, I went to my local cigar store and checked it against their hygrometer and mine showed 70% while theirs was 75% on the nose. So that's two tests showing that my digi is 5% too low. I'm doing another salt test now on it. (I wonder if I can recalibrate the digi).

I didn't realize it was that easy to take the round hygrometer out of the box. I didn't know if it was sealed in their or whatnot and didn't want to break it.
 
That's funny, the digital hygrometer you have a pic of is also the very first digital one I bought as well. I still have it, but I've found it to be the least accurate of the three I own.

The other two I have that I really like and have found to be accurate within 1%:

The Little Havana
The Western Caliber III

The Little Havana is my favorite and I'm going to get another one in the near future to replace the cheapo that we both have.
 
That's pretty funny Orangeman! Similar username ... same humidor ... same cheap ass hygrometer!

I see one of those Little Havana's in my very near future. BUt for now I have calibrated my mechanical and my box is holding steady at 75% ... although my cheapo gauge shows 70%. but anyway ... at least I know my humidity is where it needs to be.

Thanks again for the help!
 
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