Humidistat location

[mcease022]

Hi All,

I am going to wire up my humidifying system on my tower humidor - where is the best location to put the humidistat sensors to measure the humidity and switch on the humidifier when the humidity drops? does it matter where it goes? I would assume near the top so that it shuts off the humidifier when the humidity reaches the top of the humidor. Am I thinking right?

[LordAnubis]

If you have fans that move air and the air is well mixed, then it shouldn't matter where the sensor is placed. If you don't have good air movement, then the top will be higher humidity than bottom probably. Which means by placing it up top the sticks at the bottom might be too dry. Horses for course mate. Try it yourself on yours and you be the best judge of what suits you and your tastes and smoking experiences with what you smoke coming out of that humidor.

Moving this thread to the humidors section.

[bugg4672]

I agree with LORD, my cabinet is 48w x 24d x 80h and my humidistat is at the top. I have always kind of gone by what people say about what to set the stat at. Some say 65% others 70%, It was a few years back I opened a box of NC's up that was on the top shelf that had been stored for about a year. When I opened the box nothing but mold, lucky for me it was only surface it had not reached inside the cigar, also it was only in 2 boxes. At that point I started listening to the cigars, I found out in my unit 63% is the optimal humidity, plus I bought a hygrometer for each shelf. I got them at Wally world for like $8, calibrated them and they work great. Now to tell you how the real world works where everything is not so perfect, I have my humistat set at 65%, the top shelf hygrometer reads 65%, second shelf 64% - 65% more on 64%, 3rd shelf 63% and 4th shelf bounces between 62% - 63%, and the very bottom storage area where I keep extra ashtrays, lighters and such usually reads 62%. Now for the kicker, if I have my humistat set on 65% those are the readings I get, if I set it to 70% the humidity the top shelf will be 73% - 75%, second shelf 73%, next shelf 73% and last shelf 72%. I dont know why there is a big jump in the humidity like that, it took me about a year to get it straitened out, now when I smoke a cigar I can tell a HUGE difference in the flavors. So you have to listen to your cabinet and cigars, when I first started collecting cigars and people told me that, I thought they had some mental issues but now I get it. Good luck you'll figure it out.

Update forgot to add.......I no longer go by what my humidistat says, I adjust the setting going by what the hygrometers say.

[mcease022]

when I first started collecting cigars and people told me that, I thought they had some mental issues but now I get it. Good luck you'll figure it out.

Update forgot to add.......I no longer go by what my humidistat says, I adjust the setting going by what the hygrometers say.

hahah the first line made me laugh. I plan to set my humidistat based on the hygrometers for sure. Thanks guys. The reason I ask is that I can place it at the top buy the humidistat will be very visible because I have slanted shelves on top. I can also try to hide my humidistat behind one of the drawers I have in the middle of the cabinet but there will not be that much air flow there so I am not sure if it will get enough flow to be set properly. I can also put it right at the very bottom of the cabinet because there is already a hole in the back of the cabinet at the bottom. I will have to drill a hole to put it in the other two locations. I'd rather drill as little as possible obviously.

[PigFish]

I also answered you with this.... on another thread. Cheers!

Context relates to the other thread!

No correction to be made. Water vapor rises. So does warm air above cooler air. This then means mixed, homogeneous air is the only answer to consistent humidor. This also means that "tower" type humidors are an inherently bad design. (a side note)

I place my sensors on the back wall of my humidors about mid height. You should understand that my equipment is real-time and quite fast. So fast as a matter of fact, that I must dampen its response or the controls will bounce off of set points and you don't want that. The fact is, water in your system is constantly out of balance and it must be homogenized constantly to stay in balance.

My solution is to run air (air for temp and water vapor for rH) over the sensor, but not 'at the sensor.' The difference being that I put the sensor in the position to be in an air stream, but don't point a fan at it. I put it on the vacuum side of a ducted fan to keep it current without pressing it to become overly sensitive to any change.

High sensitivity equipment has some disadvantages. This is dealt with in the controller where I tweak down the sensitivity. You don't want your controller to miss trends, you want them displayed and acted on, but you do want your controller to filter out noise.

The bottom line is you can trick your controller (a real-time controller) by either isolating or shadowing it, or exposing it forced air and exposing it to too much 'noise.' Sensor placement is something that is tested empirically and contrasted to data logging equipment and other sensors placed in the humidor. That is how and where you place it... I may use a dozen sensors, all data logged to learn how a piece of my equipment (a humidor) works. Humidors are started with a theory, but need to be tested empirically. They don't work on theory. Well... let me rephrase that, they do work on theory, but they only work well when empirically tested for results.

You don't want your sensor atop or too close to hygroscopic material, like cigars or raw wood, where there will be water vapor that lingers around those substrates. It must me in open air and should be mounted on plastic or a water inert material that will not attract water like a hygroscopic material does. Reading a localized hygroscopic material is a common novice mistake. You lay your sensor on a piece of wood that is of the right rH and that is all that it will read. Put it on some dry wood, and it will saturate your humidor until the outer layers of wood report the set point rH back at you.

Sensor placement is a bit of an art. Those are the basics, go from there!

-Piggy