Overly humid house

[Phillycyclocross]

There's nothing I can do about the house and environment I live in. My house is always in the 70's Rh. So beads and gels don't work well. The last ones I had grew mold on them. What I've typically done is keep a small try of kitty litter in there. It keeps the Rh at 68 for a week or two and then when it starts to creep back up I change it out.

Anyone else have this problem of keeping the humidity down instead of up and how do you control it?

[Colt45]

Aside from going to a climate controlled cabinet....

Do not add any water to your desiccant of choice.

Insulated coolers can help in maintaining climate.

If you have a basement, store your cigars there, or in the coolest dryest part of your house.

[IcedCanuck]

You could try putting a dehumidifier in the same room.

[CanuckSARTech]

Wisearse answer - move.

Actual answer....

I'd agree with Colt. Get insulated cooler-dors, keep them in your basement, and I'd still just use plenty of RH beads. Depending on the size of your coolers (and my math going on 90-100 quart sizing as a guideline), if it only needed one or two 8-oz packs (1/2 pound min., to 1 pound), I'd instead use three 16-oz packs (or 4 or 6 8-oz packs, 3 pounds total or so). Go overboard. Use the 65%, to pull in excess moisture when needed. Mark's RH Beads (cigarmony.com) are awesome working items indeed. Be sure to monitor, and you'll find an approximate timeline of when you should put them in the oven (on extremely low!) for a few hours or so to dry them out, if needed to remove excess humidity. (You can find info around on how to correctly do this).

I'd also look at installing a serious capacity and quality de-humidifier system to tie into your home's HVAC system. With your member tag showing you live in Philly, I wouldn't think you should have humidity like that year-round. If it's seriously in the 70+% RH range year-round inside your house, you may have major issues with your home itself with that high of a constant humidity. Sounds like a bad need for a serious de-humification system indeed.

[Phillycyclocross]

All great suggestions. Thanks!

CanuckSARTech, Philadelphia is now one of the wettest cities in the US. We'll have over 70" of rain before the year is out. It's a combination of the old house we live in and the environment. I have 2 dehumidifiers running in the house all year round. Still I have mold growing constantly on the 75 year old windows.

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/12/12/387811/2011-sets-us-record-for-wet-dry-extremes-wettest-philadelphia-wettest-december-day-in-dc/

[edlye]

I live in the tropics and deal with the high year-round RH by running a dehumidifier and using the boveda humidity control packs in the humidor (the packs seem to last forever, never had one that dried out on me). You can try to control the moldy patches around the house by wiping down affected areas with a vinegar solution (1:1 mixture of vinegar and water) regularly.