Wrappers cracking in humidor?

[Not A Nice Person]

I have a small mystery bothering me, and while search (both Advanced and Google) turned up plenty of posts referencing wrappers cracking when smoked at cold temperatures, or when cigars dry out, neither of those things fits my situation.

I have a smallish chest humi, about a 150 count, fairly full both below and in the top tray, with 65% Heartfelt beads in two Spanish cedar coffins below and a perforated tube above. Probably about a half pound of beads total. I probably spritz 'em about every other week or so.

Some of my cigars are cracking, most aren't. I've lost a Camacho 10th, two Oliva V lanceros, an NC Monte torp, an Infidel torp, and a couple others. Most cigars are unaffected, and the ones in cello don't seem affected at all. Most, but not ALL of the affected cigars arrived by mail (the Camacho 10th I think I bought here.)

I'm looking for input on WHY this happens . . . is it because they get/got dry? Or were below 65% and swelled up too fast? Temperature swings? Every mention I've found of the phenomenon seems to involve either dry or cold air, neither of which we get much of on the South Texas coastline, and most specify the cigar in question was being smoked, not just sittin' in the dang humidor.

If there's some fine tuning I could do to keep from losing any more cigars, I'd like to give it a shot.

Thanks, Boar

 

[baldheadracing]

"Below 65% and swelled up too fast" is my guess - although this usually happens when the humidor is higher than 65% (The wrapper/binder becomes a moisture barrier around 65% according to the CigarOasis designer). Temperature swings have a similar effect because the absolute moisture content of the cigars changes while RH is constant, but a humidor is supposed to dampen fluctuations in temperature (unless it is a humidor with glass). As long as the humidor isn't exposed to direct sunlight or near an air register, the temperature swings in houses these days shouldn't be that drastic (unless you're like me and go nuts with the programmable thermostat in a 100-year-old house :whistling: ).

Good luck!

 

[lherzolite]

I'm certainly not an expert, but it seems like only things that could be causing the problem would be large or rapid swings in temperature and/or humidity. I lived in Florida for a while, and during the winters it was typical to have huge swings in temp and humidity (I had no heat and didn't use AC much). If this is the issue, maybe you could move the humi to an interior room where the swings would be moderated a bit.

 

[chainer]

Hmm I'm not sure cigars in cello would be immune to cracking if the humidity was shifting that much...

My question would be how often do you access the humie? Sticks on the top tend to get cracked because they are moved about so much.

 

[Not A Nice Person]

"Below 65% and swelled up too fast" is my guess

Sticks on the top tend to get cracked because they are moved about so much.

Those are both real good possibilities as likely culprits.

I get in the humi almost daily, and never less than 5-6 times a week. And rearrange things when I add purchases, or move things from the boxes underneath to the top tray . . . and when I stop to think about it, the cracked cigars are mostly corojo and Connecticut . . . thinner leaves.

Also, I do spritz the top tube more often than the bead coffins, because it loses moisture faster. If I'm overdoing it, there could be an RH spike every time I suppose.

Think maybe I'll be more careful with the uncello'd sticks, and not spritz the top tube for at least three days after adding new cigars, and see how it goes from now on.

~Boar

 

[dead_man]

i think you might be over spritzing the beads, happened to me when i first got my beads, i was afraid to let them get dry, and over did it. i usally get 70% wet. i had wrappers crack like that too, laied of the water for a bit, and that fixed it.