Noob Needs help Please

[arch72]

Hello I have a problem and hope someone can help me out. I have season my humidor I put two bowls of distilled water in it and let it sit for two weeks until it got up to 72% Rh and then took out the bowls of water and put in beads( these are not the best beads they look more like dust) The temperature was staying between 68 and 70 and the Rh was between 68% and 70%. All was good so far (Right????)

Now a week later I put some cigars (about 200) and the temperature went up now it is reading between 71 and 73 and the Rh is reading beween 73% and 75%

What should I do ?

Should I let it sit for a few days to see how it goes ?

Any and all help is VERY MUCH appreciated

[Ginseng]

From the sequence of events, it sounds like the bunch of cigars you put in might have carried in excess moisture which then manifested as an increase in the relative humidity once it came out into the environment. The temperature rise is a puzzler though. Are you saying the temperature went up in your place and the RH went up, or that you think the cigars cause the temperature in your cabinet humidor to go up?

I say it's a puzzler as the temperature increases, saturation or RH goes up and it should read lower. Pigfish will either verify or correct me on that. So I'm thinkint that the massive input of cigars was most likely the proximate cause for the spike.

As for what to do, I would just open the door and fan out the insider air once or twice a day for the next day or so. Then stop and leave the door closed to see what the new equilibrium point turns out to be. Then you can plan a course of action.

Wilkey

[Ginseng]

Doh!

Arch, I accidentally deleted your post when I was trying to reply. Sorry, iPhone posting fail! Please repost.

As for the temps going up inside the cabinet while the house stayed the same...do you see any flames? Perhaps the cigars are on fire?

Wilkey

[arch72]

LOL that would really suck I just spent over $200.00 on those sticks and no big deal sh** happens and what I said was the house stayed the same but the humidor did go up 1 to 2 degrees but I think I found that prob Nooby me forgot I put weather stripping around the inside of the door. I have taken that off now (easy to put on pain in a** to take off ) LOL

[PigFish]

I think the problem might be coming from that foot on the bottom shelf of your humidor…! –LOL

Cigar husbandry 101 includes the lessons on ambient conditions and your humidor. Uncontrolled, or passive humidors are, or are looking to become where they reside. In other words, your environment is ‘catchy.’

The fact is, no one’s home is that stable. I too live in a desert, not quite as severe as where you live, but a desert nonetheless. In some ways this might be an advantage to your cigar keeping and you will likely have a very reliable dry environment, except perhaps in ‘monsoon’ season or if you use a swamp cooler.

First your rH is too high. That is my humble opinion. If you prefer cigars this wet, and that is your preference then you can disregard my comments.

I find that the unknowing, not wanting to dry out their cigars, often over humidify. I know this from experience as I did the same as a neophyte.

Advice on seasoning a humidor is sketchy at best, and frankly there is no rule of thumb… Why; because no one publishes a table of differentials (internal verses external conditions) and how to definitively treat each condition if viewed as a matrix of differential condtions? There is then no “right way.”

Conditioning then is a matter of getting the humidor right in an attempt to have the humidor support the cigars. Unfortunately, unless you isolated your cigars to determine what they will in turn do to your humidor, or need from your humidor, you may end up with problems. My friend Wilkey has intimated this to you already.

In my opinion, wet cigars are a problem. Wet cigars are a greater problem than dry cigars (within obvious limits). You see it can be difficult to remove excess water from cigars and it should be done slowly (over time) to prevent differential drying that could lead to shrinkage and fines.

Now to your problem.

First, I would suggest isolating at least some of your cigars with a hygrometer to see what type of condition that they are in. If you put a bunch in an airtight container and see what ERH they develop, we can see if the problem is in the cigars or the humidor, or both.

I say start from scratch here. I have been doing this type of work long enough not to believe anyone’s magical changes. Magic does not happen in anyone’s humidor (except mine, maybe… -LOL).

If the cigars by themselves are creating ERH environments in the 70’s and that is not what you want, you made a mistake in conditioning your humidor. This is what happens when you try to follow poorly conceived, one size fits all rules and myths.

The good news is that you have not damaged anything. But what you will need to do is establish exactly what conditions that you have so that you can make logical decisions on what changes you must make to affect your cigars. The key is position your labors so that you can compensate for ambient conditions trying to drive your humidor outside of the conditions that you prefer. This should be intuitive.

Measure the temp and rH of the room. Assuming you are not data logging and if you have the time, every time you have to make a trip to the head, or the fridge or something routine, check your equipment and write the results down on a log including the time and date. You will note that things are not as stable as they appear. I can post some data logs if you are interested in how the conditions in my shop can change. Your home, while less severe I am sure, is anything but stable!

Your cigars did not magically change your environment (the heat in it). That is unless you stored them in a warmer room and then dumped them in your humidor. I refuse to believe this is the case… Frankly, the temperature in your room changed! The heater could blow on the humidor, the sun could have been on it or the wall behind it, the TV next to it heated it up… the variables are endless. A simple look around, or a log will demonstrate where that assumption of yours came from. Start logging and looking around and the answers will present themselves.

In the end; get used to the temperature fluctuating unless you start running and active controlled humidor (a story for another day).

So, your homework is: Test the cigars for ERH by isolation. Test the ambient for a differential base line. Then establish a plan to move your humidor’s environment to the conditions that you seek using what you have now (your baseline ambient conditions) so that you don’t have to buy new stuff!

Start the logs on the internal and external conditions. Go soak your feet in the “river,” and report back!

Best of luck with that great new stash of cigars!

Cheers! -Piggy

[Hunter1974]

Did you calibrate your hygrometer

[peterk814]

Did you calibrate your hygrometer

hahah this! for sure. Those hygrometers can be seriously off

[SmittyinAZ]

I never get tired of reading Pigs explanations. Good stuff as always.

[mrpad]

It should level out right? I would think after a week or two the temp and rh should balance out. but im still new what do I know. lol