Wine cooler humidity help

[deviate]

Hi I have a 8 bottle thermoelectric wine cooler and I've been reading that it's best to keep cubans at 65/65. I keep the cooler plugged in and let it run so it turns on quite often. I have a sensor outside and I have a wireless sensor inside my boxes. The cooler is pretty much filled up with boxes. I did a salt test on the sensors and them seem to be pretty accurate. When the cooler turns on I see the humidity swing from 63-65 but comes back to 65 within a couple of minutes. The wireless sensor inside the box, stays at 65. However, at 65 the cigars seem really dried out! They're very hard and even crackle. So now I've been playing around with the humidity, and I bumped it up to about 73-74. They seem much better and are springy to the touch and actually look oily now. They are not too soft or anything. Am I doing something wrong? Is it because the cooler is always turning on that even when my sensors reads 73 humidity that's not really the case? I want to try to keep the humidity at 73-75. I'm worried that my cigars will mold at too much humidity.

 

[Brazilla]

OOOO ME FIRST! I get to reply.

It's proper etiquette around here to post in the introductions sections first and let us know a little more about you.

As far as bumping you CC up to 75degrees, how do you feel about coleopterology?

OK 75rh is probably a little too high for any cigar. I would suggest raising your temp to around 68 and trying to level your rh somewhere in the same range. You don't say what device your using for your humidity.

just my 2cents

 

[Napa_Smokes]

Hi I have a 8 bottle thermoelectric wine cooler and I've been reading that it's best to keep cubans at 65/65. I keep the cooler plugged in and let it run so it turns on quite often. I have a sensor outside and I have a wireless sensor inside my boxes. The cooler is pretty much filled up with boxes. I did a salt test on the sensors and them seem to be pretty accurate. When the cooler turns on I see the humidity swing from 63-65 but comes back to 65 within a couple of minutes. The wireless sensor inside the box, stays at 65. However, at 65 the cigars seem really dried out! They're very hard and even crackle. So now I've been playing around with the humidity, and I bumped it up to about 73-74. They seem much better and are springy to the touch and actually look oily now. They are not too soft or anything. Am I doing something wrong? Is it because the cooler is always turning on that even when my sensors reads 73 humidity that's not really the case? I want to try to keep the humidity at 73-75. I'm worried that my cigars will mold at too much humidity.

Hello and welcome to CP. I believe this topic has been addressed in the past. From my personal experience I would retest your hydrometer/sensors. Your cigars should not be dry or cracked at 65%. I have smoked some that had been kept at 50% and they smoked a little hot for my tastes but where not cracked or dried out at all.

As for the cooler kicking on frequently. I would try changing its location. Most wine coolers remove some of the moisture from the units. The harder the cooler works the more likely this will happen. Place it in the coolest part of your house/ apt. If your humidity gets up to high yes your cigars will mold. However it could very well be just an adjustment that needs to be made or a replacement of the sensors if they are malfunctioning on a regular basis.

Hopefully that answers your question. You can always try the search function and find how other BOTL's here have addressed this problem or set there units up and get some great ideas from them.

There is a lot of information on this site if you chose to stick around and become a part of it.

Here would be a good place to start.

 

[deviate]

Thanks for the replies guy. It was my first post but I've been here reading and researching for awhile and I think I did everything correct. Napa_Smokes, I redid the salt test and one hygrometer is +2 while my wireless one is -1. I'm using silica beads as my humidifying device and maintaining humidity is definitely not a problem whether my drain plug is plugged up or left unplugged. I still think something is seriously wrong or I'm doing something incorrect. I already have my cooler in the basement so I can't help that. I guess I could just turn off the cooler since it doesn't really ever get hotter than 72F but I wanted to constantly run the cooler b/c I'm thinking the fan helps distribute the humidity. I thought of something else, could it be that my boxes need to be seasoned? So even though my readings are around 75-76 humidity the boxes are sucking out the humidity from my cigars? They feel better but they still feel kind of hard and the draw seems quite tight. I don't get enough smoke. I thought if the cigar felt hard, it was too dry? And I thought having a tight draw means over humidification? I'm confused! Any ideas? Thanks

 

[deviate]

Instead of giving the beads a couple of sprays, I decided to leave a shot glass of distilled water in there over the weekend and maybe help recondition my boxes. I guess to "reseason them"? Good idea or not so good?