Humidity

Joined Nov 2002
1K Posts | 0+
I posted some time back about how I couldn't understand why my cigars got crunchy while my hygrometers were showing up to 90%. I finally picked up a digital temp/humidity gauge small enough to be useful in even my small humidor. Obviously, my old hygrometers were way off. I'm now fighting to get the actual humidity up to 60% in both humidors. I had calibrated them both with the salt method, but must have done it wrong. I'd like to have 65%, but I may have to find places in them for more 'oasis' units, particularly in the winter. Since the dial hygrometers are adjustable, I'm re-setting them to reflect reality. Consequently, I'm just using the digital to correct the analog gauges. As far as temperature, I knew that already, but the digital does reflect the correct house temp of about 73F in the summer. That will be dropping to 69/70 once I switch over to heat, which is forced-air, so that's when the humidity battle really begins. I might just abandon the nice-looking wood humidors, which are not really big enough for long-term storage of bundles/boxes anyway, and put together a 'Coolerdor'. I could keep this in an out of the way spot and get into some long-term storage/conditioning. I'll need to find some Spanish Cedar to put in it. Maybe I'll keep one of the wood humidors for my 'ready' box.
 
you should salt test all of your hygrometers. this may shed new light on everything involved.




coolers do make good humidors. buy new. there is no smell to battle off before you use it. as far as finding spanish cedar to put in it... just get some boxes. when you buy a box keep the cigars in there. when you smoke those down, use those boxes as trays to hold other cigars.
 
I've already been sucessful in raising the humidity in my two wood humidors to the acceptable range. That digital hygrometer really is the berries. I have adjusted the two analogs to match, so now I have confidence in them too. I smoked one of my 'cheapos' today and already they're much more smokable. It's running 66% in the small box and about 71% in the bigger one now. I just swap the digital gauge from box to box and give it an overnight to settle down before checking it. I'll continue to fine-tune the analog gauges to the digital reading, but at this point I can actually do without the digital. I could hardly believe the improvement in the cigars after just two days. I think the humidity was probably at about 50% before. The analogs were reading 80 and 90%! I have done the salt calibration several times and at this point have no confidence in it, or at least how I did it, and I followed the instructions to the letter. I adjust humidity by moving around the four small trays of Oasis foam that I have in addition to the Oasis units that came with each box. Since none of this has really changed, my problem was soley that they were drying out because I was trusting the gauges.
 
I would still stick with the digital and throw out the analog. This time of year it's fairly easy to keep up the humidity in my walk in, but once winter hits, I go through gallons of water!!
 
I remember Island 44's troubles, and am glad this is a problem past. And Capt, you're absolutely right. It's amazing how much more one needs to recharge humidifiers in winter as opposed to summer.
 
I also had troubles with the salt test, you can pick up a small test baggie from Bóveda. It is called a calabration pack, it is fairly cheap if you are already ordering online. Some local shops carry them, it takes all the guess work out. But I still switched to all digital and in the winter with froced hot air heat my coolerdor holds the best humidty. I only open my humis when needed during those months, the RH just gets sucked out.
 
Things are going great right now. The analogs are faithfully following the digital, and the cigars are showing their true potential. I shoulda done this a long time ago.
 
I love to revive old thread especially for the newbies. There is nothing better than a good digital hygrometer. The ones I use are by Flukers and are designed to be used for lizards and stuff. Both of them have worked flawlessly for almost 5 years now.
 
Recently I purchased the wooden cigar ashtray with stainless steel inner really looks nice and defines its class , Not like those cheap plastic ashtrays which you used to find in home of smokers.
 
Ashtrays??? Real men don't use ashtrays, they just throw the butt on the ground!!