Wrappers unraveling

[stogieluver]

I've never had this problem before.  I don't know if it's due to being in the middle of winter here in the Gulf south, with the resulting lower ambient humidity and temps inside my house, or what. 

First, the conditions: I live in a city on the Gulf of Mexico where our rh is extremely high nearly year round.  When I say high, I mean 90% plus, and with high temps in excess of 90 degrees in the summer.  Winter conditions usually are average days in the 50's with rh in a range of 40-70%.  I store my stock in an Aristocrat cabinet humidor with the active humidification system set at 60% rh (I don't have temp control).  I smoke 100% in my indoor man cave in my house which is centrally heated and cooled with electric, not the dryer gas, system.  We've had an unusually warm winter so far, and ambient rh in my house has been uncharacteristically below the usual 55-60% rh inside my house.  The temp inside my man cave is a pretty consistent 68-72 degrees.  Lately, the rh inside my man cave can dip as low as 40%, but most of the time it is around 55-65%.  I check my built in digital read out every time I open my humidor to grab a stick, usually once or twice a day, and it consistently reads in a narrow range of 60-62% rh and temp of around 68-70 degrees.

The last couple of cigars (CC's) have started unraveling toward the last half to third of the smoke.  In most cases, the sticks have been coronas, petite coronas, or perlas.  I haven't noticed the problem when smoking a larger stick such as a Lusi or some other Churchill or double corona size, or even robustos.  I'm smoking a Partagas Short right now and it is falling apart about two thirds of the way through.  I just checked my ambient rh and it is at 50% and the temp is 70.

I didn't experience this problem before I started lowering my humi's rh setting to a lower setting of 60 vs the old setting of 65.  I really like the taste and burn at the lower rh. 

I'm chalking this problem up to the cigars being too dry to smoke at sub 60% rh after having been stored at 60% rh. 

Thoughts?  Piggy?  

[PigFish]

... I would only be guessing.

Funny that Bwana has a thread about binders up. This is a structural breakdown of the binder. If it is your fault, I am going to say that your preferred dry settings are nudging the limit of dry. Since you are not storing temp controlled, your higher temps, variances into the 70's might cause a little over dry state.

BUT... you should look at a couple of factors. Are these cigars from one box? OR, have any of the cigar been dropped?

The binder and wrapper support each other structurally... But a dry cigar dropped on the floor can be subject to fines! That is the nature of the beast and enjoying dryer cigars.

If your think it is settings, try taking the rH up a couple of points and see what happens. Remember, when I say 70/60 I depend on pretty capable equipment to pull it off, and I cover both axis for control, both forward and reverse. I don't push these settings to one who has to rely heavily on ambient heat and that heat can average over 70F. You start looking at a real average of 72+ and then a little error in the rH taking you down to the high 50's and you may have a problem.

Smoking sets the settings and not vice versa.

Cheers! -Ray

[SCgarman]

You may be pushing the envelope humidity wise, especially since where you live this time of year is likely the driest air of the year. Maybe bump up the humidity a bit, until the springtime when the Gulf humidity starts to ramp up.

[soutso]

I have a Piggy Cigar Climatology unit.   This means I have control over relative humidity and temperature. I'm going to admit something here that Ray doesn't know about...... Sorry Ray lol

After enjoying the benefit of drier cigars I just had to experiment a little further  and changed my relative humidity sitting to 58.  After about three months of this, I too had the problem of Cigars splitting while smoking. I mainly smoke PCs, minutos and perlas.

Ray,  you may recall that I sent you a few pics of it. 

I enjoyed the flavours at 58RH but  after going back up to 60 RH and waiting a few weeks, it never happened again. 

[El Presidente]

Just a quick look at your stock (particularly the smaller gauges affected), can you identify any fine (and they can be very fine) wrapper splits? 

[Dave001]

strange I store cigars at around 58 RH specially in summer when my temp hits around 72 and never experienced anything like that, I would assume? perhaps that the rapid drop to 40 RH sounds like the culprit how long would you know? that it stays in the 40 RH range?

[cpmurrin]

I had the same problem a couple weeks ago with a couple of wrappers splitting length wise and another falling apart around the cut.  I have an aristocrat as well with the active humidification but not the temp control.  I kicked the humidity up a bit and it seems to have resolved.  I definitely prefer my cigars on the dry side but conditions this winter in Northern California seem to have dried out my humidor a bit.  Good luck resolving your issue!

[stogieluver]

12 hours ago, El Presidente said:

Just a quick look at your stock (particularly the smaller gauges affected), can you identify any fine (and they can be very fine) wrapper splits? 

I'll be doing my semi annual inventory count and stock inspection this weekend.  I'll check for this while I'm checking for beetles and mold.

4 hours ago, Dave001 said:

strange I store cigars at around 58 RH specially in summer when my temp hits around 72 and never experienced anything like that, I would assume? perhaps that the rapid drop to 40 RH sounds like the culprit how long would you know? that it stays in the 40 RH range?

It hasn't stayed at that low humidity for more than a couple of days at a time.  I sort of ruled that out because the rh inside my cabinet stays within a pretty consistent acceptable range.

Thanks to all for the help, suggestions, and advice. 

[PigFish]

18 hours ago, soutso said:

I have a Piggy Cigar Climatology unit.   This means I have control over relative humidity and temperature. I'm going to admit something here that Ray doesn't know about...... Sorry Ray lol

After enjoying the benefit of drier cigars I just had to experiment a little further  and changed my relative humidity sitting to 58.  After about three months of this, I too had the problem of Cigars splitting while smoking. I mainly smoke PCs, minutos and perlas.

Ray,  you may recall that I sent you a few pics of it. 

I enjoyed the flavours at 58RH but  after going back up to 60 RH and waiting a few weeks, it never happened again. 

You make it sound like I keep my customers on a short lead... -LOL

... and I thought I knew everything about you, your kids, your Labradoodle, even your penchant for wearing women's wigs!!!

-Ray

[PigFish]

2 hours ago, stogieluver said:

I'll be doing my semi annual inventory count and stock inspection this weekend.  I'll check for this while I'm checking for beetles and mold.

It hasn't stayed at that low humidity for more than a couple of days at a time.  I sort of ruled that out because the rh inside my cabinet stays within a pretty consistent acceptable range.

Thanks to all for the help, suggestions, and advice. 

...need to shoot me your addy... I have a few cigars for you. If they explode, don't blame me! -R

[soutso]

3 hours ago, PigFish said:

You make it sound like I keep my customers on a short lead... -LOL

... and I thought I knew everything about you, your kids, your Labradoodle, even your penchant for wearing women's wigs!!!

-Ray

You know Ray, we are great mates but I draw the line when you poke fun at my dear handsome mother!!!