14 replies to this topic

[mateo3904]

I purchased the Capri 50 count humidor from Amazon and I am having some problems. I seasoned the humidor for 1 week wiping down daily for 3 days and keeping a shot glass and drymistat tube. Humidity was steady at 72%.

I have 15 cigars purchased from cigarbid that I believe are dried out. They spent ;5 days in transit and 1 day in a tupperware without humidification.

My problem is that the humidor does not want to stay above60% after adding the cigars Saturday. Now even with a shot glass the humidity is too low. I have a tube of heartfelt beads that don't want to work even when the humidir was empty. So I go back to filling the humidor back up with cigars today and adding the drykistat tube and humidity was at 70% for a couple hours then over the course of a few hours dropped to 59%.

Could it simply be my cigars are just soaking up humidity? The tubes seem well watered, I think I may have even added too much distilled water to the heartfelt beads so I am letting them dry and using the drymistat tube and a shot glass of distilled water to try and bring the rh up. I fear my cigars are becoming more of a loss now.

BTW, the seal on my humidor seems to be good.

I hope this post makes sense and thank you for taking time to read it!

Edited by mateo3904, 26 March 2012 - 01:32 AM.

[rx2man]

put the humidor in a trash bag and see if your humidity goes up or a cooler.

[broblues]

Do you have a digital hygrometer, have you calibrated your Hygrometer?

[MilesMingusMonk]

and humidity was at 70% for a couple hours then over the course of a few hours dropped to 59%.

Stop opening your humidor every few hours.

[22jdub]

When you season it, you should wipe it down once, then leave it closed until the humidity regulates and holds steady for a couple days. Opening it everyday to wipe it down defeats the purpose

[_Deon_]

Did you perform the dollar test on the seal?

[chiefmd]

If you put too much water on the beads you can ruin them. Try a spray bottle next time.

[mateo3904]

Do you have a digital hygrometer, have you calibrated your Hygrometer?

yes and It is calibrated.

and humidity was at 70% for a couple hours then over the course of a few hours dropped to 59%.

Stop opening your humidor every few hours.

WIll do that

When you season it, you should wipe it down once, then leave it closed until the humidity regulates and holds steady for a couple days. Opening it everyday to wipe it down defeats the purpose

Ok I will try wiping it down and let it sit for a couple days, then check it.

I did use a spray bottle but fear I may have used to much water.

I'll look into all these ideas. Thank you guys.

[BGlover]

Whatever you do, don't lick the beads!

[2K6TBSS]

Here is a link to season your humidor. http://www.cigarpass...ew-humidor.html

Take a look and see if you missed a step, or did something wrong. Just reading the OP, I would say that wiping the humi down daily was your first mistake. Try to re-season and see if you have better results.

Second, DON'T use distilled water and the drymistat, use ONLY a shot glass with distilled water. The drymistat could cause issues when seasoning.

Third, it might take longer than 1 week to properly season the humi. If you were wiping it down daily, you could have been tricked into thinking it was properly seasoned and holding RH, since you were essentially adding RH on a daily basis with the wipe down. You weren't allowing the wood to absorb the water at it's own pace.

Fourth, yes the sticks you are adding could be very dried out and sucking up the RH in your humi, but I would think that maybe it's a seasoning problem over the smokes.

Patience is a virtue when you are seasoning your humi.

And like BGlover said - DON'T LICK THE BEADS!!!

Edit - Grammar

Edited by 2K6TBSS, 26 March 2012 - 10:55 PM.

[Rod]

All very good suggestions.

If you truly are adding dried cigars, then they will most certainly act as a sponge by soaking up the humidity.

[ilikefishes]

Patience young grasshopper. It takes time to get these things right. There is a reason that a 10 year old cigar tastes soooooo good. Don't worry about the humidor once you get it properly seasoned. Open it once (1), that is one (1) time a day if you absolutely have to. Hee Hee, this is going to drive you nuts, but DO IT.

Then take the smokes you have, put them in a tupperware container. Then go to your local B&M and get yourself a Bovedo 70% pack. Stick that thing in there and start smoking.

Once your humidor is holding constant at around 65-70% you can start slowly putting cigars in. Then fill 'er up as fast as you can after about a week. The fuller the humidor the more efficient it runs. At least this is what we all tell our wives.

[Aussie Shaun]

I have to agree with ilikefishes on this one, nothing sucks up humidity like a near empty 50ct humidor. Fill that sucker up son and you wont have any problems after that.

[Habanos addict]

On a small desk top humidor things should be simple and easy.

First wipe down the wood with a lightly moist lint free cloth with distilled water to remove cedar dust from manufacturing not for conditioning..
Too moist of a cloth and you can raise the grain of the wood..... bad idea.

Next place the humidor in a plastic bag with out any holes anywhere and tie the end shut with the humidor in it with a couple of Boveda 84% humidity packs inside the humidor.
Forget about it for three days.

Next take out the 84% packs and replace with 69 or 70% and do not use the bag anymore.

Calibrate a small hydro digital round gauge that shows both RH and temp and place it in the humidor with the 69 or 70 pack.
Use three of them with a fifty to 75 count box,or about one for the humi and one per 25 count.

Check once daily only to see what the RH is.,
When you go through a week with steady same RH as the packs say on them checking only once daily, not before, put your cigars in and you are done.
If RH drops then be patient since you are only humidifying cigars now not the humidor.
It will come up in a few days when your cigars are perfect and longer if they were dry.

If the humidor never goes to RH on the packs with out cigars send it where you got it from or sell it.

Sealing a humidor too tight or using foam and such means your humidor is not a good one.
You need some air but not enough to keep humidity from coming up to par.

Buy the humidor ,packs and digital gauge before the cigars if possible.
A tupper ware with packs will work fine even if totally tight for months if you have to but a humidor is better.

Besides consistent RH at 68-70 all you need is some air exchange that is as described above and not more than 74 F temp as well as no light.
Uvs destroy cigars.....you let them see the light of the day only when they are burning.when you smoke if outside.

Humidors with glass are a bad idea unless they do not see UVs

Any other way you will not get the best possible taste of your cigars which is the most important reason for having them.

A double ziplog bag with a little pack in there is the way to go when you go shopping for sticks,but keep it out of the light of the sun when transporting your cigars as much as possible.

Edited by Habanos addict, 28 March 2012 - 08:35 AM.

[tomthirtysix]

Are you puffing on the cigars too frequently?