Humidity Help???

jkallen83

ok, my humidor is holding a steady solid humidity, i mean it dont vary ever 1%.....GREAT....but, its too much, its holding at 90%..............................i have the round humidification disk and have it filled with distilled water...........i've read about other stuff but not sure if i should change or just adjust what im doing...........

so, how can i lower my humidity?

jkallen83

so i opened my humidor to let the extra humidity out, let the hygrometer drop into the 50% range, made sure there was no excess water in the round disk thing, put it all back , closed the lid, been checking it, its climbing again. in 45 minutes it went from 58% when it was open according to the hydrometer to 84% when i just checked it.......

at this rate i wont even need any humidification in this thing..................i been reading info on gel and beads, the beads seem better, but, then which kind and where to buy? how much to buy? my humidor is only for 20 cigars............

crzydimnd68

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Humidity-Beads-70-Rh-half-pound-bag-Cigar-Humidor-/120787398756?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c1f7d7064

crzydimnd68

Just make sure it's the round beads.I'm not sure what those crystals are.

jkallen83

i ordered a cigar mechanic round humidifier with the beads.....maybe that will work.

i've recalibrated the hygrometer and it was off, but not by much....but im still running 80% with JUST THE BOX. no humidification at all....i took the foam filled thing out and put a humicare pillow that came with my cigarsprintsale order in there for humidity, but im still at 80%....

i just cant get the humidity down enough to put the cigars in....maybe next week when the bead round arrives it will fix the problem............


this is driving me nuts.

jkallen83

Took the humidifier completely out and put cigars in hoping to see a difference, today, with no humidification I'm still holding a solid 80%.

Does the wood hold that much water? To keep itself too humid?

jkallen83

today i found a shop with a jar of madelaines clear crystal gel crystals that suppose to regulate humidity to 70%.......................only way i can stay even close to range is with 3 thick paper towels and this thing and im still running 75% humidity...... i can take ALL humidifiers out and still be too high........any ideas how to drop this? ive even kept the lid propped a 1/2" open and still run at 72%........... i cant get the humidity down.

JSaint

what kid of humidor is it? i assume you seasoned it already? and i am safe to assume you ran a salt test on your hygrometer too?

Russ55

Are you using a properly calibrated, digital hygrometer? If you're not positive of that, that's the first thing I'd do. Lots of these kinds of problems can be traced back to that. Then I'd let that humidor dry out a bit. Open it up, take all the towels and crap out of it. Make sure there's no mold issues. Order some beads or boveda packs in the mean time, and when it's dried a bit, add the beads/ or packs.

jkallen83

Its new so no mold. Its a 20 capacity humidor. The analog hygrometer sucked so I bought a digital and salt tested it 4 times now. Each time only been 1% off when it does not hit 75% exactly. I seasoned it. It holds humidity solid, just too high....the gel jar is helping as long as the paper towels stay in there, but still a little high. Only thing I can figure is the wood obsorbed too much water and I'm having to dry it out.

JSaint

Could try using Silica packets to remove excess humidity. Ive never tried it but I know my dad keeps tons of the packets in with his guns to keep moisture out.

jkallen83

Well last night I thought I had of. Ran at 70-71% for several hours. Woke up this morning and at 77%. Can't keep it down.

KingoftheCove

jkallen83:

Well last night I thought I had of. Ran at 70-71% for several hours. Woke up this morning and at 77%. Can't keep it down.

You have a small humi, and I'm guessing the wood has absorbed too much moisture during seasoning.
When you close it, that moisture really has no where to go.
As said previously - you need to dry it out and start over.

jkallen83

so basically i just need to open it till it dries, not completely, but enough that the gel jar can regulate the humidity instead of whats in the wood....

KingoftheCove

yeah, but there might be a qualifier here, in that the RH where you are going to open your humi to "dry out", might in fact, be too high.
So, you need to be sure that the room that the humi is going to dry out in is well below 65% RH.
I mention that because the RH in my house is often above 65% (fog + windows left open).

jkallen83

i heat with a wood heater, the humidity in my house is below 50%.....i left the humidor open a while after i read ur last post and it dropped to 52%,.....so humidity in my house is low.

Rhamlin

When you get your cigar mechanic puck put it in there dry it'll start absorbing the xtra moisture out of your humi.

jkallen83

ok i left the humidor open today for about an hour and let the humidity out.....now for the rest of the day its been holding at 68% humidity....from what i read, this is perfect right? if it stays here i should be good i hope....correct me if im wrong...but im happy right now.

kaspera79

I am happy if the humidity level in my humidors is between 65 and 70.. You are good right now.

Marker

jkallen83:

ok i left the humidor open today for about an hour and let the humidity out.....now for the rest of the day its been holding at 68% humidity....from what i read, this is perfect right? if it stays here i should be good i hope....correct me if im wrong...but im happy right now.

Up in MN I can run the humidor anywhere from 65-72. I just make sure and dry box the cigars for a day or two if they are at 72%. Smoking them at 65 is just about right for most cigars. The heavier wrappers (Macanudo maduro, CAO brazilia, 601 greens etc) tend to need a little dry box time to let them open up and draw easier.