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Hygrometer Problems

D

Davinci

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Ok, I used to have an analog hygrometer in my humi, but for some reason the meter stopped going above 68, and Im sure there was more than 68 humidity in the humi as I had just SOAKED the humidifer with solution. So figuring it was broken, which often happens to the cheap analogs I went out and bought a digital hygrometer. The guy said they were much better so I plunked down 50 dollars of my precious college money and bought it. I went home, installed it in the humi...and alas, its reading that I have 72 degrees temp in the humi and only 42 PERCENT HUMIDITY!! Am I doing something wrong here? Why am I getting such a low reading when my humidifier is soaked? Could it be that my reading temp has always been this low but the analog was reading ok by accident? Its not a big humi and i only have about 40 cigars in there so I doubt I need TWO humi pucks. HEEELLLPPP!! -- Anthony
 
Hold your horses......

First, give that digital hygro the salt test. Take a soda bottle cap and fill it with salt. Put just enough water in it to turn it to a paste. Place it and your Hygro in a zip lock bag and leave it for several hours. (2-6 hrs should do)
If your Hygro is not reading 75% then thats your problem. If it is reading 75% then disregard this post :lookup: :D and carry on with what Sam The Man says...... :cool:
 
I dont know what the problem is, the puck in that humi is rather large, and i resoaked it and it only rasied it to 48. I dont think its the seal but who knows. Im administering the test with the salt now, so far its at 57. Guess we will see.
 
Ok, no go. I did the test the highest it went was 61%. ugghh. now what?
 
Your humidifer unit probably has too much pg in it and won't allow the humidity to be raised. Too late now, but you should have spent the bucks on a better humidifier instead of the hygro. Did you buy the hygro at a cigar shop? $50 seems awfully steep, Radio Shack has real good ones for around $25. Best thing to do is get another humidifier unit, even if it's a cheapo and use only distilled water and no pg. You'll have to check it more often, but to me it's worth it. I have started using only Climmax beads in my units, but they all hold a lot more than 40 smokes.
 
One other thing to check is have you been using distilled water? If you're using tap water, the contaminents will clog up anything you put in there. Also - I don't know how much of a difference it'll make - but I always let the salt test sit for EIGHT hours. You may also want to check the hygrometer to see if there's a set screw. If there is, you can manually calibrate it until it hits 75% on nose with the salt test - then you now you're good. You had also mentioned that you have 40 cigars in the humidor but did not specify an exact size. I've been under the impression that for a humidor to hold it's humidity well - it should be at least 75% full. But still, 42% is waaaaaaay to low.

Good luck!
Dave :thumbs:
 
Ive, been using Mr Mositure wetting solution, not dstilled water, can that be the problem. The stupid guy at the cigar store says use that instead of distilled. Also there is no screw on the hygo for calibrating. And yes I bout the hygro at a cigar shop which is prob why it cost so much, in fact i think its almost the same as the radioshack one. Any ideas now? Also if I need to be using distilled why do I have to toss my humidifier, cant i just fulsh it out with distilled. Also the hygro is reading 53 today instead of 40.
 
I would let the unit dry out and then flush it reall good with distilled water. It will be very hard to get the PG out, maybe impossible. I would also try the salt test one more time for a minimum 8 hours just to check the unit again. One other test, not quite as accurate would be to damppen a rag and wrap the hygro in it. It should read 100% when you unwrap it, after an hour or so. I try to keep all my humidors and cabinets at 63-65%, smokes seem to burn a bit better, IMHO. So, you're almost there.
 
If you did the salt test and your Hygro only went to 61% then the Hygro is bad. It should read 75% when sitting in a zip-loc of damp salt. I would try the salt test one more time and leave it over night.....according to the times of your earlier post I'm not so sure you gave the hygro enough time. Hell, leave it in there for a day. This time if it doesn't go to 75% take it back. To me, you have to have an accurate hygro to know if your humidifier is working or not.....

I'm with Matt on the Climmax Beads...... got me some for a fridgador I put together and they are the only way to go.
http://www.climmax.com/ For the record....I am in no way affiliated with them just one happy customer.
 
So is the "Mr Moisture" bad to use? I was using the distilled water in my box for a while, and I was paying fairly close attention to it. At least IMHO :) The guys at the local cigar shop fave me a few sample bottles of the "Mr Moisture" and it seems to be making my life much easier.

Could that change in the future??
 
With time you shoudl be able to tell by feel if the smokes are too wet or dry. But, that takes a few years of experience and a humidor that you trust. Sounds like a woman doesn't it? :)
 
Ok, I'm sure someone else could go into much more detail about the scientific principles here, but here's what I understand in a nutshell...
It sounds like this "Mr. Moisture" is the standard 50/50 solution (50% Propylene Glycol, 50% Distilled Water). That's exactly what you want for the intial charging of your oasis foam. However after that intial charge, it's primarily just the distilled water that evaporates, so if you add more Mr. Moisture, instead of a 50/50 solution, you may have 75/25 because you're adding the mixture to almost pure Propylene Glycol, then next time it may be only85/15, and so on and so on. You just don't have the water in there anymore! That's why, after the intial use of the solution, you should use just plain distilled water to recharge it occasionally. From what I've heard you should completely flush out your oasis with distilled water about every year. Then dry it out (I've heard the refrigerator is a great low humidity enviroment for this) and then re-charge with the 50/50 (Mr. Moisture).

Make sense? I hope so, 'cause I don't want to have to go through all this again!

Good luck!
Dave :D
 
Ok, this is what I did. I took the hygro back and got a new one, and tested it. After 24 hours of the salt test, it reads 70% humidity. There is no way to calibrate it like the radio shack ones, but I think 70 is good enough. I went and got new floral foam and soaked it with mr mosture and next time, after this one I will use distilled. Unforunatley my reading is only at 54% in my humi, but the guy in the cigar shop said that may be because its winter and recommened either putting another small credo in or a stick with the gel crystals. There are only 40 or so cigars in there, a few of which are tubed, so I think i will go get a second humidifer tommorow and hopefully that will solve the problem. Is this a common thing though? needing TWO humi devices? just curious if anyone else uses two as well.
 
I guess it really depends on how big the humidor is and how full it is. As I mentioned in an earlier post, if you're humidor is not at least 75% full, it's a little more difficult to keep it steady. Also - you should give the humidor a day or two after messing with the humidifier to stabilize - it's not an instantaneous thing.
One last option to consider - you may have a humidor with a bad seal, and the winter dryness is fast approaching. The easy way to test this is to toss (ok, don't actually throw it!) your humidor into a garbage bag (unscented!) and seal it off tightly - wait a minimum of 24 hours (48 would proabably be better) then check it. If it's 70% then you know you have a leaking humidor. Either go buy anther humidor or make an coolerdor. Coolers are cheaper anyway and hold MUCH more.

Good luck!
Dave :cool:
 
I agree with Dave.... you need to give that humi a few days to stabilize before making too many adjustments.

One other thing to remember....you said your hygro read 70% after the salt test.....which means your hygro is off by
-5%. Any reading you get on your hygro should be read as 5% higher. So your 54% is actually 59%. I bet if you leave it alone for a day or two and NOT open the humi (we all know how hard that is) you are probally right where you need to be.
 
D'OH! How could I have missed that 5% difference. Thanks for pointing that out AllOfUs. Guess I wasn't paying enough attention...

Dave

:sign: :sign: :sign:
 
I guess its is slowly stablizing. I checked it this morning and now its at 58%, so it looks like its on the right track.
 
I don't think that anyone could have put it better than that DaveWF. I'll make sure that I keep a fairly close eye on everything.
 
Thanks modF

By the way, what exactly does "modF" mean?

Just curious...
Dave :p
 
I think it was said in Top Gun, "I could tell you but then, ..." :)

It it actually a play on initials of my name and my former handle. About 7 years ago I figured I would either become one of 100 or just make my own :)
 
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