Seasonal Mood Disorder

Always timely, always worth a read.

The discovery I made this year was that my humidification controller was really spotty and off by at least 5 points. This is the one that had the full rebuild about four years ago. It's getting replaced, today, with the "new and improved" version from Bob Staebell.

Point being, you need at least one independent RH monitor and you need to salt check them at least annually when you replace the battery. More often is better. It's called "relative" humidity for a reason and you really need to keep an eye on it to ensure things are proper. Coolers with bags of beads in them are almost maintenance free, but checking them is a very good thing. I'm really digging the SensorPush modules (I have two) but there are less expensive ways to monitor the RH. I've also found monitoring the ambient RH is valuable, just to know what the system is trying to keep up with.

Bottom line: use more than one hygrometer, calibrate it at least annually, and expect things to change when your HVAC system changes from cooling to heating or vice versa. And don't freak out over a point or two.....:cool:
 
BlindedByScience said:
Always timely, always worth a read.

The discovery I made this year was that my humidification controller was really spotty and off by at least 5 points. This is the one that had the full rebuild about four years ago. It's getting replaced, today, with the "new and improved" version from Bob Staebell.

Point being, you need at least one independent RH monitor and you need to salt check them at least annually when you replace the battery. More often is better. It's called "relative" humidity for a reason and you really need to keep an eye on it to ensure things are proper. Coolers with bags of beads in them are almost maintenance free, but checking them is a very good thing. I'm really digging the SensorPush modules (I have two) but there are less expensive ways to monitor the RH. I've also found monitoring the ambient RH is valuable, just to know what the system is trying to keep up with.

Bottom line: use more than one hygrometer, calibrate it at least annually, and expect things to change when your HVAC system changes from cooling to heating or vice versa. And don't freak out over a point or two.....:cool:
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Tom, excellent advice brother... Believe it or not, the years will pass by, your cigars will just keep getting better and better.... and your efforts will be greatly rewarded.
 
Thanks for this, while being in Arizona the relative humidity may go for 4-7% in the summer to 7-10% in the winter. So not allot of change to worry about other than the air conditioner not running. However with my first humidor that I setup this summer I noticed fluctuations with humidity where it would occasionally be down to 63-64% and then back up to 68-70% (I run 69% boveda packs currently). Was actually curious if those swings were anything at all to worry about but from reading this post I know to just go smoke a cigar with my left hand and relax with my right. Haha thanks
 
Beads are your friend as they are stable. The other thing that you need to remember the longer you keep your humidor open the more it will fluctuate.
 
tone-ny said:
Beads are your friend as they are stable. The other thing that you need to remember the longer you keep your humidor open the more it will fluctuate.
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I’ve actually got some beads ordered. Wanted to switch to beads instead of boveda. One reason was the 320g boveda packs take up allot of space but also I’ve read allot of people have great success with the beads on here.
 
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