The mysterious case of the vanishing humidity. Or...

[klipsch]

So here I am, an uber-noob with a tendency to become obsessive over new interests, and now in possession somewhere in the neighborhood of !50 cigars (though I know some may not consider a large part of those "CIGARS" :laugh: ), stepping back from my first attempt at wooden storage. I've got 2 identical humidors with a capacity to hold 75-100 sticks each. I thought the first was maintaining fairly well, but about midweek the RH dropped to 59% and stayed there regardless of anything I did. I filled it after following some directions to season it for a 3-4 day period entailing wiping it down, then placing a soaked sponge and humidifier inside, let it sit, remove the sponge, let sit more time...and then add sticks. RH was in the 75% range when I FILLED it to capacity. I'm using the ICE gel jars for humidification and everything was holding stable around 68%-70% for about a week or so. I added a few more sticks and within 2-3 days I saw the RH drop to below 65% at which point I threw a Boveda 84 in there (on the top shelf) to try and catch & reverse the downward slide. It continued to drop to 59% even with the added Boveda, and now I was concerned. I pulled everything out of the humi and put the cigars in ziplocks with Boveda 65's while I tried to correct whatever was happening.
Of course I'm thinking that I didn't season long enough. I'm a noob with my first humi, and got over excited and filled (overfilled?) it too soon. So I put a shotglass filled with distilled water and the gel in the empty humidor and let it sit for 24 hours before checking again. This morning it was still at 59% measured with a calibrated Hygroset II. What's happening here? Do I just need to be patient? Am I right in assuming that adding so many sticks all at once was just too much for anything to be able to maintain? I'd really appreciate any help...

Thanks,
Walt

 

[smokintexas]

While it is possible you might have not seasoned it long enough for the humidity to soak into the cedar, the other possible culprit is that the humidor doesn't have a good enough seal to keep the humidity in. There are a number of different variables at work here. If it were me, I'd take the sticks out and put 'em in a ziplock bag or tupperware and then re-season the humidors letting them rest longer than 3-4 days to see what the humidity does. If you don't change anything within the humidor days 1-6 and the RH is steadily dropping then I would assume its the seal. You should do this with both humidors so you can set up a control and gauge the difference between the two humidors. If one humidors RH stays steady and one does not, with all of the same variables inside the humidor then you know it's the seal.

So here I am, an uber-noob with a tendency to become obsessive over new interests, and now in possession somewhere in the neighborhood of !50 cigars (though I know some may not consider a large part of those "CIGARS" :laugh: ), stepping back from my first attempt at wooden storage. I've got 2 identical humidors with a capacity to hold 75-100 sticks each. I thought the first was maintaining fairly well, but about midweek the RH dropped to 59% and stayed there regardless of anything I did. I filled it after following some directions to season it for a 3-4 day period entailing wiping it down, then placing a soaked sponge and humidifier inside, let it sit, remove the sponge, let sit more time...and then add sticks. RH was in the 75% range when I FILLED it to capacity. I'm using the ICE gel jars for humidification and everything was holding stable around 68%-70% for about a week or so. I added a few more sticks and within 2-3 days I saw the RH drop to below 65% at which point I threw a Boveda 84 in there (on the top shelf) to try and catch & reverse the downward slide. It continued to drop to 59% even with the added Boveda, and now I was concerned. I pulled everything out of the humi and put the cigars in ziplocks with Boveda 65's while I tried to correct whatever was happening.
Of course I'm thinking that I didn't season long enough. I'm a noob with my first humi, and got over excited and filled (overfilled?) it too soon. So I put a shotglass filled with distilled water and the gel in the empty humidor and let it sit for 24 hours before checking again. This morning it was still at 59% measured with a calibrated Hygroset II. What's happening here? Do I just need to be patient? Am I right in assuming that adding so many sticks all at once was just too much for anything to be able to maintain? I'd really appreciate any help...

Thanks,
Walt

 

[MadMonk]

Check the battery in your Hygrometer. You might also put it in the ziplocks with the cigars and boveda to see what reading you get.

I have always let a humidor season at least a week at the very minimum.

As mentioned, check your seals, and compare the two Humidors.

 

[BlindedByScience]

What's the ambient humidity in the room where the humidor is?

My home right now is running about 40%. My cabinet with active humidification keeps up, but I can imagine any passive system in a dry environment will be struggling.....

 

[klipsch]

Thanks for the insight and suggestions. I tried two different hygrometer's (same type) and got identical RH readings (I would hope so from two of the same hygros). I'm going to keep Humi I locked down with the shot glass of distilled water and ice gel for 36-48 hours and see what's happens. Humi II which I put 15 sticks (alot less than the 80+ I loaded into Humi I all at once) into was sitting at 80% last night then 75% when I first opened it today to check. I know less than half of nothing about this, but I'm hoping to learn enough to not ruin my cigars. ???

Late EDIT: I had thought about the ambient humidity playing into this. I think I'll throw a humidifier in that room and see how that effects things

Late Late EDIT: I just put a wick type humidifier in the living room and placed an analog hygrometer (Checking/calibrating the 2nd Hygroset again for accuracy) across the room for reference.

 

[MadMonk]

I have two whole house humidifiers running in the winter, due to the layout of the house.
They keep the house around 45% RH, and it does help with the passive humidifiers I use.