Dry Box Setup

[dowjr1]

So I did finally figure out I need to dry box my Habanos prior to smoking (unlike most NCs) but was curious how most do it. I have a cedar lined bag with a number of sticks on deck....separate hygrometer to keep tabs on the RH. I saw Prez say on a recent vid he had dry boxed and entire box of sticks...I guess with a separate humi specifically set with lower RH. How do you do yours?

[Rye]

I used to use an empty cigar box (HdM double epi humi) as a dry box, but lately I have kept my humidor at my ideal smoking levels, so I don't use it anymore. If it feels a bit too wet still, it rests longer and I choose something else that's ready to go

[ap67]

I used to use an empty cigar box (HdM double epi humi) as a dry box, but lately I have kept my humidor at my ideal smoking levels, so I don't use it anymore. If it feels a bit too wet still, it rests longer and I choose something else that's ready to go

What do you consider to be an ideal smoking level? I keep my humidor in the low 60s RH and have recently been experimenting with dryboxing for up to 12 hours. I notice a more even burn, in particular, but ultimately I'm pleased with smoking anything from my low 60s RH humidor.

[Cisco]

I use a travel humidor and a 62% Boveda pack.

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[Rye]

What do you consider to be an ideal smoking level? I keep my humidor in the low 60s RH and have recently been experimenting with dryboxing for up to 12 hours. I notice a more even burn, in particular, but ultimately I'm pleased with smoking anything from my low 60s RH humidor.

I'm running (according to all the hygrometers) in the low to mid 60's as well, and with our very dry climate, I have great cigar performance. Use what works for you, right?

[PigFish]

I store ready to smoke.

A great smoking experience begins with understanding water content in cigars and knowing what you like. You get that experience by consistently storing your cigars at the levels you choose. I run 59 to 62rH and 70˚F. It depends on the humidor.

Piggy

[Lant63]

I run about my whole humidor at 63. I get great burns and usually pretty good smoke production. Flavor is what matters most.

Sent by telepathic super powers

-Stogie Boy

[Guest rob]

My smokes are generally ready to smoke right out of my humidors.... But when required, I leave my cigars on my kitchen bench, besides my car keys, for a day or two.

[ramon_cojones]

step 1 - choose cigar

step 2 - put outside humidor for a day or two

step 3 - smoke

[Rushman]

I also store ready to smoke. The often humid conditions in the Caribbean sometimes fight me as my temporary Tupperdore setup here isn't ideal. If I need to dry box it's simply an empty cedar slb that does the trick.

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[nick2021]

I have a humidor that it usually between 58-60%...I'll usually put the smokes in that humidor for a couple of days before smoking.

[polarbear]

MYeah CC humid sits between 58% and 62% and every thing smokes great

[Hunter1974]

Yeah I used to do the 70 and 70 But 70 and low to mid 60s works best better lights and smokes .I live in a very humid area

[jabster]

I find that if I leave my sticks out for even a few hours they crack, I guess the dry climate does that! So I smoke straight from the humi with no real problems.

[LGC]

Just store them how you prefer to smoke them.

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[PapaDisco]

I've got the other problem: too much ambient humidity. I set the cigars in an unregulated box for at least a day or three prior to lighting. Otherwise if I take a dry (62% rH @ 65F) cigar right out into ambient that's 90%rH and 90F it burns fast up the center and all wonky around the wrapper. If I just let it adjust for an hour or two it's not enough and the draw gets too tight, sometimes too tight to even burn (particularly on a Punch). Let it adapt to its smoking environment and it seems to go much better.

This is all just anecdotal evidence so far . . . still experimenting!

[earthson]

I just use an empty cedar cab (from an NC sampler I got eons ago).

This time of year, however, the RH in my house gets down to around the low 50s, so the CCs typically smoke pretty well out of the humis.

Since moving to lower target RH in the humis (60-65% RH @ 65-68 deg F), I'm more often able to take them right out of the humi and typically get the experience I expect.

[rodrigodeanda]

I've got the other problem: too much ambient humidity. I set the cigars in an unregulated box for at least a day or three prior to lighting. Otherwise if I take a dry (62% rH @ 65F) cigar right out into ambient that's 90%rH and 90F it burns fast up the center and all wonky around the wrapper. If I just let it adjust for an hour or two it's not enough and the draw gets too tight, sometimes too tight to even burn (particularly on a Punch). Let it adapt to its smoking environment and it seems to go much better.

This is all just anecdotal evidence so far . . . still experimenting!

Thanks for sharing that info! I live in a high RH area too and been having burning problems, I'm going to try what you say to see if there's an improvement in the way my cigars smoke! Thanks again!

[mikek]

Here in Vegas with an average of 10 rh, I keep mine at 65 I have tried lower and before the night is over I run into wrapper problems. When I was in Santa Barbara Ca. I would use 62 rh. It's go'n to make A difference where you live.

[LeafLover]

Store at 58-60 rh.

But will still drybox 1-7 days. I like my cigars in the drier side.

[JohnS]

Dryboxing is fine if done in the right environment. I'm finding some great results lately myself from dryboxing in an airtight ziploc bag for 1 to 2 days and then smoking. The humidor is at 69% RH, but after reading this thread I may consider going to 65% RH. I live in Sydney, Australia which, like most other Australian coastal cities is fairly humid year round, so I don't fear my cigars drying out. I would if I lived in Nevada or Utah, USA for example.

[earthson]

Caveat: You really gotta keep tabs on your macro environment. If the room is dry (less than desired humi RH) and your humi can breathe, expect moisture to diffuse from your humi (micro) into the room at a faster rate.

If it's moist in your macro (higher than desired humi RH), you might have to dry box. I use a simple $20 hygrometer in each humi and it helps me monitor moisture flux.

Experience is really the only teacher and it's taken me ~7 years to really get a feel, although I am a little slow!

[rodrigodeanda]

I store ready to smoke.

A great smoking experience begins with understanding water content in cigars and knowing what you like. You get that experience by consistently storing your cigars at the levels you choose. I run 59 to 62rH and 70˚F. It depends on the humidor.

Piggy

Hi Piggy! I wanted to ask you what RH would you have your cigars in if your only choice is to have them stored ad 24ºc (75f)

I ask this because I've been having burning problems from quite some time. I run a pretty basic setup, tupperdor with about 40 sticks in it with a 65rH boveda pack and some cedar sheets separating cigar layers. Right now the cigars are at 24ºC and 66rH

The temp and rH outside the humidor can vary a lot, from 20C to 30C and from 50rH to 80rH depending on the day. As for now the temperature inside the humidor is pretty stable, since I've been watching it settles around 24C.

My burning problems consist in the wrappers burning slower than the filler, resulting in kind of a tunnel effect. My first guess is something related to humidity, would you suggest to go up in the rH level? In your experience what rH would you use with this temperature? As for now any kind of wine cooler is out of my reach due to lack of space in my apartment.

Thanks!!

[PigFish]

Hi Piggy! I wanted to ask you what RH would you have your cigars in if your only choice is to have them stored ad 24ºc (75f)

I ask this because I've been having burning problems from quite some time. I run a pretty basic setup, tupperdor with about 40 sticks in it with a 65rH boveda pack and some cedar sheets separating cigar layers. Right now the cigars are at 24ºC and 66rH

The temp and rH outside the humidor can vary a lot, from 20C to 30C and from 50rH to 80rH depending on the day. As for now the temperature inside the humidor is pretty stable, since I've been watching it settles around 24C.

My burning problems consist in the wrappers burning slower than the filler, resulting in kind of a tunnel effect. My first guess is something related to humidity, would you suggest to go up in the rH level? In your experience what rH would you use with this temperature? As for now any kind of wine cooler is out of my reach due to lack of space in my apartment.

Thanks!!

My apologies for not getting back to this sooner.

I have recently taken on a rather large project in my "other" profession and that has taken up a lot of my time. For the next few months my visits will be far less and more brief.

I cannot really diagnose this type of problem with such little data, but I am going to take a stab at it.

There is a phenomenon called hysteresis. Hysteresis is the lag time, the jet lag if you will, of water transfer into and out of hygroscopic material.

The hysteresis of something like water transfer is not necessarily a mirror image of itself for adsorption versed desorption. And while we are talking this type of language, it is important that you understand that water, tobacco and a desiccant solution or desiccant material are not all the same. This means that not all the contents of your humidor will move to accept or to shed water at the same rate as another item, and it is all dependent on temperature.

To try and pull this together for you, I think you are having what I consider typical stability control problems. In a nut shell, you have water temporarily residing in your cigars as the temperature changes while the other systems attempt to catch up with it.

If you were to take a cigar and put it in a mason jar and put it in the sun you would soon find that the heat has baked the water right out of the cigar and you may have actual condensation inside jar! As you think about how this can happen, and it can, you need to understand that cigars are not water vapor and don't act as water vapor does. A cigar is just like any other vessel that contains water where the bond strength of water to the cigar changes with temperature and water vapor pressure.

What this mix might net you, is a cigar that when heated lets a lot of water go from the entire cigar, until the rH gets to 100% in the jar and causes a 100rH condition, the outside layers of the cigar become too wet (100rH), while the insides have dried out with their water being soaked up in the outside layers and deposited on the glass. These are changes due to temperature fluctuation and the nature of hysteresis as it works on different media, including cigars in your sealed container.

It is therefore not for me to tell you a 'setting' but request that you do something to make a setting that has previously worked for you work again. The key here is a greater form of stability. If an automated solution is not going to work for you, then perhaps an insulated solution will. While the insulation will hold swings longer, they will take longer to get there and should be longer in duration and lower in amplitude.

I think that insulation of your humidor is the first simple answer!

I know that is not what you asked for, but I think it is at the root of your problem!

Cheers! -Ray

[rodrigodeanda]

My apologies for not getting back to this sooner.

I have recently taken on a rather large project in my "other" profession and that has taken up a lot of my time. For the next few months my visits will be far less and more brief.

I cannot really diagnose this type of problem with such little data, but I am going to take a stab at it.

There is a phenomenon called hysteresis. Hysteresis is the lag time, the jet lag if you will, of water transfer into and out of hygroscopic material.

The hysteresis of something like water transfer is not necessarily a mirror image of itself for adsorption versed desorption. And while we are talking this type of language, it is important that you understand that water, tobacco and a desiccant solution or desiccant material are not all the same. This means that not all the contents of your humidor will move to accept or to shed water at the same rate as another item, and it is all dependent on temperature.

To try and pull this together for you, I think you are having what I consider typical stability control problems. In a nut shell, you have water temporarily residing in your cigars as the temperature changes while the other systems attempt to catch up with it.

If you were to take a cigar and put it in a mason jar and put it in the sun you would soon find that the heat has baked the water right out of the cigar and you may have actual condensation inside jar! As you think about how this can happen, and it can, you need to understand that cigars are not water vapor and don't act as water vapor does. A cigar is just like any other vessel that contains water where the bond strength of water to the cigar changes with temperature and water vapor pressure.

What this mix might net you, is a cigar that when heated lets a lot of water go from the entire cigar, until the rH gets to 100% in the jar and causes a 100rH condition, the outside layers of the cigar become too wet (100rH), while the insides have dried out with their water being soaked up in the outside layers and deposited on the glass. These are changes due to temperature fluctuation and the nature of hysteresis as it works on different media, including cigars in your sealed container.

It is therefore not for me to tell you a 'setting' but request that you do something to make a setting that has previously worked for you work again. The key here is a greater form of stability. If an automated solution is not going to work for you, then perhaps an insulated solution will. While the insulation will hold swings longer, they will take longer to get there and should be longer in duration and lower in amplitude.

I think that insulation of your humidor is the first simple answer!

I know that is not what you asked for, but I think it is at the root of your problem!

Cheers! -Ray

First of all thank you very much for your input and knowledge! Don't have to apologize for taking long to answer. I really appreciate that you took the time to put in such understandable words and so thoroughly well explained.

I didn't think about isolation until you mentioned it. For sure I'll give it a try and will let you know how things work out!

I also wanted to thank you for all the info you are always willing to share here! I've learnt a lot from your posts in the few months I've been a member! I'm aways looking forward to reading new information you post.

Again thank you! - Rodrigo