Problem with my humidor

[RandyM450]

I'm reasonably new to the cigar arena, but a week or two ago, a humidor was purcahsed for me (I believe its a Don Salvatore, and I think $50-$60 was spent on it). Anyways, I live in southern California where the humidity is usually pretty normal (about 50% most days), and I'm having a problem keeping the humidity below 80%. My room always stays at a pretty constant 70 degrees, but I can't lower the humidity in the humidor. I have three cigars in there, and the foot is starting to swell on two of them (from what I've been reading, that's supposed to mean its too humid). I'm pretty sure the hygrometer is reading close to accurate. I tried both the 'wrap the hygrometer in the towel' and the 'salt in the ziplock bag' test, and it's calibrated to the best of my ability (maybe I should still try a digital hygrometer, I don't know). I was wondering what I could do to lower the humidity. I've been reading everything on the internet that I can get my hands on, and here are some of the options I came across. Which ones do you guys think works the best?

1) Add more cigars so the extara moisture will be absorbed by the extra cigars.
2) Add a PG solution to the credo to help regulate the humidity (I'm only using distilled water right now).
3) Pull out the credo and let it dry out for a while, then put it back in the humidor.

Thanks for any advice you might have.

Randy

 

[MountainPasser]

Hi Randy,

If it were me I would get some new oasis foam “wet flower foam” form a hobby store. Then go purchase some PG solution from a tobacco shop. Replace the foam in your humidifier with new and charge it with PG. If you don’t want to buy new foam you can use a hair dryer to dry it out. You want to get most of the water out so you can get close to a 50/50 solution. Hope this helps.

-Mpass

 

[Joe P]

Randy,

Ditto what Mpass said with a couple other options.

Since you are using just distilled water the humidity will continue to rise. I would take the credo out until it drops to 70%. In the meantime get some 50/50 solution. Once you get your humidity down and your credo has dried out, then you can put the 50/50 PG solution on the credo and then you can put it back in your humi. Or you can chuck your credo and get some climmax beads. Heres a link Climmax Hope that helps.

Joe

 

[FatherTiresius]

Me and Mpasser were just discussing this out on the smoking porch over a Punch Rare Corojo (well two of them actually), and he brought up a good point. When you refill your credo w/ 50/50, don't fill it all the way because you want it to absorb some of the moisture from the cigars. So you need to leave some room for that.....maybe fill it about half to 3/4 full until things get stabilized. Then you should be good to go.

 

[RandyM450]

Thanks for all the advice. I went out today and bought some 50-50 solution. I'm currently letting the credo dry out, I'll fill it up 2/3 of the way with 50-50 solution, and I'll let you guys know how I turn out. Thanks again.

Randy