This is my first winter as a cigar smoker and have had my ups and downs in the RH department. I have read some good info on here that has helped out alot with RH problems over the last few winter months. A couple weeks ago I decided to try something and share what I did.
Problem: RH levels in my 200ct humidor decrease drastically over the course of 3-4 days. I followed B.B.S.'s advice and soaked the credos in distilled water in conjuction with Viper's 65% beads. RH% would get up to about 68% and by day number 3-4 it would be down to 52-54%. At this point I would just recharge the credos and spray some distilled h20 on the beads. It is worth noting that over the summer I didn't have any problems with RH% in this humi. I don't smoke anything out of this humidor, all stuff that I wanted to age for a while. I have 2 travel humidors(1 large and 1 medium) that contain things that I to smoke daily, no issues with them. I think I know why summer RH was fine, but will go on.
After continually following the above pattern for a few weeks I decided to change batteries in my dig. hygrometer and re-calibrate it(salt tested). It calibrated out at -1%. At this point I thought that I would try putting the smokes in my cooler(Coleman 50qt. I think) just to see if things would be a bit more stable. Same results as with the humidor.
At this point I decided to go back to the old days and store the sticks in a large tupperdor to see what happened. With a smaller amount of beads the RH has held a steady 67% for the past 5 days without any help on my part.
I'm concluding that I obviously have sealing issues with both the humi and cooler, and have read several other related threads and seen some excellent fixes using weather stripping and other things which I will definately try.
What I am wondering: is the fluctuation in RH over that past couple months going to have any adverse/ negative effects on the quality of the smokes? If yes, is there anyway to help revive them?
Thanks in advance for any feedback!
Problem: RH levels in my 200ct humidor decrease drastically over the course of 3-4 days. I followed B.B.S.'s advice and soaked the credos in distilled water in conjuction with Viper's 65% beads. RH% would get up to about 68% and by day number 3-4 it would be down to 52-54%. At this point I would just recharge the credos and spray some distilled h20 on the beads. It is worth noting that over the summer I didn't have any problems with RH% in this humi. I don't smoke anything out of this humidor, all stuff that I wanted to age for a while. I have 2 travel humidors(1 large and 1 medium) that contain things that I to smoke daily, no issues with them. I think I know why summer RH was fine, but will go on.
After continually following the above pattern for a few weeks I decided to change batteries in my dig. hygrometer and re-calibrate it(salt tested). It calibrated out at -1%. At this point I thought that I would try putting the smokes in my cooler(Coleman 50qt. I think) just to see if things would be a bit more stable. Same results as with the humidor.
At this point I decided to go back to the old days and store the sticks in a large tupperdor to see what happened. With a smaller amount of beads the RH has held a steady 67% for the past 5 days without any help on my part.
I'm concluding that I obviously have sealing issues with both the humi and cooler, and have read several other related threads and seen some excellent fixes using weather stripping and other things which I will definately try.
What I am wondering: is the fluctuation in RH over that past couple months going to have any adverse/ negative effects on the quality of the smokes? If yes, is there anyway to help revive them?
Thanks in advance for any feedback!
)!