Humidor set-up question

[here'sjohnny]

Okay so i got my humidor in the mail today, (small 20 count). I followed Lopaka's humidor setup guide to season it. I had soaked the humidifier in pg solution and had it resting on a towel for a long while to make sure it wouldn't drip inside my humi. anyways when i opened the humi i checked the rh and found it to be a solid 90%. am i crazy or is this strange. i know the humi needs time to absorb the water, but that made me imagine it would be overly dry in the humidor until it was ready to rock. Prolly just being a paranoid noob, but what are you guys thoughts?

[bigwhiteash]

Patience is the key, you really need to avoid messing with it for at least 2 days! more is even better. The last one I did, I was lucky enough to be going away for the 4th of July weekend, since I'm impatient myself. Moisture will permeate the air first, the wood will eventually absorb, and hold humidity, but things take quite a bit of time to stabilize. Try not to rush this step, the health of your precious cigars is at stake.

Humidity will read high at the start, after a few days, it will SLOWLY creep down to 70% if you're using PG.

One question, are you using a properly calibrated DIGITAL hygrometer? Those round analog things are very inconsistent.

[here'sjohnny]

Ok no worries i will keep myself in check for the next couple of days. My hygrometer has been calibrated twice in the past with a salt test, both times it hit 80% on the dot so i just mentally compensate by 5. If patience is key i sure won't be unlocking anything soon. (wow thats a terrible joke sorry)

So, question answered, i am a paranoid noob.

[Shelby07]

Be ready for a change after you add cigars. They will absorb or release moisture when you put them in unless they are at the correct rh already. As previouly stated, patience is the secret. Always give the humidor 2-3 days to stabilize and try not to open it to gawk at the cigars too much.

Congrats on your first humi... it won't be your last.

[here'sjohnny]

so i gave my humi 3 dats. the last two it held at 7% perfectly. i filled it with cigars and it jumped back to ninety. Again isthis a spike or should i worry?

[bigwhiteash]

I assume you meant to say 70%?


Sounds about right, things will stabilize after a day or two. Basically, the cigars you added took up the empty air space, leaving less air for the moisture to occupy.

Cigars are much slower to absorb moisture, and your hygrometer can obviously only read the RH of the air, you will get high readings for a day or two. 90 sounds a bit high, but then I've never used an analog "needle" type hygrometer, perhaps they respond differently than digital.


I would still consider investing in a quality digital hygrometer.

[basil]

Filling a 20 count humi is definitely enough to make the rh jump, if the cigars are coming from a high rh environment. Cigars that wet are probably impossible to smoke. It's possible that they came from the store like that, but if you tried to smoke one you'd've known immediately, and that would corrolate with a high rh in a small environment after putting them in the humi.

If it were me, I'd leave them for a few days, don't add water, and be sure to keep them 60-70F. The rh where you live says 45% right now, so that inside your box should come down. Keep in mind also that a smaller space is going to be harder to stabilize.

edit - BWA's suggestion to get a digital hygrometer is a good idea. When you realize you need something larger, go for the beads - very low hassle factor.

[here'sjohnny]

Haha well sorry that previous post was about worthless with the spelling errors. I actually meant it was at 75%. I wasn't surprised at this because the temp in my room is around 88 degrees (no ac). I will get beads in the future b/c this is annoying as crap. the cigars i had were kept at 68% on the dot in a smaller cigar box. If it helps, i took the sponge out of the humi and this also caused it to jump super high. i have some extra spanish cedar planks in the humi for help. I also have to humidification options, the pg solution foam, or the pg crystals in a drymistat tube. I assume they are both the same, but maybe the crystals work both ways like the beads? Anyways i appreciate your help guys.

[Cabaiguan Juan]

The crystals do not work both ways. Beads are definatly the way to go once you relize you need a bigger humidor. I don't know what room you have to play with, but go with a humidor that holds 200 cigars, give or take. Ofcourse, you could make a tuperdor or a coolador which is easier on the wallet which I'm guess would help you out, being a college student and all. Alos, get a digital hygrometer too. With a good digital you always know its accurate and reliable. Congrads on your first humidor.

[here'sjohnny]

i had previously made a tupperdor capable of holding like 50 cigars, but unfortunatly because i am not in a temperature controlled environment the rH would swing day to day so i invested in a humidor in the hopes that it would work better.

[Cabaiguan Juan]

I dont know how an actual humidor would be able to control temp any better then a tupidor would.

[here'sjohnny]

I dont know how an actual humidor would be able to control temp any better then a tupidor would.

i might be wrong in this thought, but my thinking was it had to do with the air tight seal on the tupperdor. I thought humidors only had a semi airtight seal. i would often have to open the tupperdor to release excess humidity. Again am pretty new to the actual storage of cigars (used to just by them and the smoke them that night) so i am clueless on humidors and tupperdor and coolerdors and all this stuff.