gt3911
Member
Hello all,
Sorry – another noob here.
I’ve had a few things running through my head recently but kept refraining from making a topic as I didn’t want to rush into questions that didn’t really need asking. But I feel now that I could really appreciate some advice as I’m quite cautious and don’t want to damage anything.
I got my first humidor this last Sunday, nothing amazing, it has a capacity of 80 cigars.
I’m going to admit this… My order arrived, humidor and cigars – GREAT! *thinks – hmm shame it didn’t come with any instructions / advice… ah well I’ll fill her up and go do some reading ---- oh damn, time to empty her now!* ooops.
So, after emptying the humidor, I put a shot glass in there with water, but left the humidifier uncharged, as I placed some solution on order, I became concerned that after 24hrs the hygrometer was reading 40.. I felt this was too low but wanted to wait to see what this solution stuff was all about!
So, my solution arrived, and then I became confused about how much to use, I was quite worried about using too much, I’d heard mentions of people using squirts – but how big is a squirt?! I used the solution found here with a generic humidifier identical to this here so I started to put little drops of solution onto the foam, literally a tea spoons worth, and thought, surely we’ll need to use more than this.. so then I dropped a few more drops in eventually after dribbling more in, I noticed the foam seems to soak it up a lot, and soon looked ‘dry’ like it wanted more, I probably ended up with around 40mm in there, and left it tipped upside down for 1hr to allow any drips to drip (which didn’t occur) to ensure it wasn’t too wet.
I then placed the humidifier into the humidor and removed the shot glass. 12hrs later.. a reading of 40! So I decided put the shot glass back in but to fill it with the solution and take it from there, about 6hrs later 55% - now that things were looking up I was hopeful. Unfortunately 24hrs later still 55%.
While this was going on I’d been desperately asking friends if they had a hygrometer I could borrow, but so far no luck.
My hygrometer is on the front of the humidor, but thankfully 5hrs ago, I was relieved to find I can pull it out, I expected it to be glued in. Excellent! Lets test this thing out, I got a damp cloth and wrapped it up. 1hr later 70% 2 hrs later 70%.
Ah – finally, it seems I’m dealing with a poorly calibrated hydrometer. But now I’m just wondering about the best way to calibrate it. I read the methods here and just like my uncertainty with the solution I’m a little ‘scared’ about messing this up too.
My concerns with the damp cloth – isn’t humidity relative to temperature, so a damp cold cloth, or a damp warm cloth?
I thought, to be safe try and calibrate it using both methods listed. Calibrate it to around 96% when in a cloth, and then see if that calibration comes anywhere near close to 75% in the salt solution, if it reads 50% then I know something didn’t work right…
Aswell as being unsure about the temp of the cloth affecting the result, with the salt method, “a cup or spoon filled with salt” unless your using very tiny cups theres quite a big difference here, does it not matter if I use a cup or a spoon full? As long as the salt is damp the quantity doesn’t matter?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I know, a lot of you are going to say, get a digital, maybe even get beads, and yes, I’ve been looking into this, and plan on importing from the US to help keep the cost down, but unfortunately I’m really trying to make do with what I’ve got as these are costs I didn’t account for – I just payed my car insurance for the year so my account is currently sitting in the red, I do intend on upgrading my equipment, its just totally unfeasible right now though.
Many thanks!
Sorry – another noob here.
I’ve had a few things running through my head recently but kept refraining from making a topic as I didn’t want to rush into questions that didn’t really need asking. But I feel now that I could really appreciate some advice as I’m quite cautious and don’t want to damage anything.
I got my first humidor this last Sunday, nothing amazing, it has a capacity of 80 cigars.
I’m going to admit this… My order arrived, humidor and cigars – GREAT! *thinks – hmm shame it didn’t come with any instructions / advice… ah well I’ll fill her up and go do some reading ---- oh damn, time to empty her now!* ooops.
So, after emptying the humidor, I put a shot glass in there with water, but left the humidifier uncharged, as I placed some solution on order, I became concerned that after 24hrs the hygrometer was reading 40.. I felt this was too low but wanted to wait to see what this solution stuff was all about!
So, my solution arrived, and then I became confused about how much to use, I was quite worried about using too much, I’d heard mentions of people using squirts – but how big is a squirt?! I used the solution found here with a generic humidifier identical to this here so I started to put little drops of solution onto the foam, literally a tea spoons worth, and thought, surely we’ll need to use more than this.. so then I dropped a few more drops in eventually after dribbling more in, I noticed the foam seems to soak it up a lot, and soon looked ‘dry’ like it wanted more, I probably ended up with around 40mm in there, and left it tipped upside down for 1hr to allow any drips to drip (which didn’t occur) to ensure it wasn’t too wet.
I then placed the humidifier into the humidor and removed the shot glass. 12hrs later.. a reading of 40! So I decided put the shot glass back in but to fill it with the solution and take it from there, about 6hrs later 55% - now that things were looking up I was hopeful. Unfortunately 24hrs later still 55%.
While this was going on I’d been desperately asking friends if they had a hygrometer I could borrow, but so far no luck.
My hygrometer is on the front of the humidor, but thankfully 5hrs ago, I was relieved to find I can pull it out, I expected it to be glued in. Excellent! Lets test this thing out, I got a damp cloth and wrapped it up. 1hr later 70% 2 hrs later 70%.
Ah – finally, it seems I’m dealing with a poorly calibrated hydrometer. But now I’m just wondering about the best way to calibrate it. I read the methods here and just like my uncertainty with the solution I’m a little ‘scared’ about messing this up too.
My concerns with the damp cloth – isn’t humidity relative to temperature, so a damp cold cloth, or a damp warm cloth?
I thought, to be safe try and calibrate it using both methods listed. Calibrate it to around 96% when in a cloth, and then see if that calibration comes anywhere near close to 75% in the salt solution, if it reads 50% then I know something didn’t work right…
Aswell as being unsure about the temp of the cloth affecting the result, with the salt method, “a cup or spoon filled with salt” unless your using very tiny cups theres quite a big difference here, does it not matter if I use a cup or a spoon full? As long as the salt is damp the quantity doesn’t matter?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I know, a lot of you are going to say, get a digital, maybe even get beads, and yes, I’ve been looking into this, and plan on importing from the US to help keep the cost down, but unfortunately I’m really trying to make do with what I’ve got as these are costs I didn’t account for – I just payed my car insurance for the year so my account is currently sitting in the red, I do intend on upgrading my equipment, its just totally unfeasible right now though.
Many thanks!
