Gadget for testing cigar “humidity”

[slowsmoke]

Haven’t seen this posted here, thought it might be interesting to some. 

https://cigarmedics.com/

It claims to test the “humidity” of a cigar.

I assume it is using an electrical current to gauge the moisture content, and then referencing temp to spit out a RH number? 

It’s probably inaccurate, and it’s certainly unnecessary. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little tempted to get one and play with it. 

For posterity’s sake, here is a recent thread where a similar topic was discussed:

 

[Lucass111]

Very interesting but I question the accuracy. So many devices come pre calibrated and many are off by a significant amount. Would be awesome if they worked as advertised!

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[SenorPerfecto]

Hmmm

[PigFish]

I have one. Not one for cigars but lumber, drywall... construction item testing. It does not work well on cigars as cigars are not solid and homogenous. I use mine for construction purposes, if wall framing is dry enough for drywall, etc. Don't waste your money!

-Piggy

[CaptainQuintero]

I mean, it seems a lot more expensive than just rolling a cigar between your fingers and thumb?

[Lomey]

I'd play with it for an hour or so and then forget about it. Also, it doesn't look like it will work on smaller rg cigars.

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[slowsmoke]

4 hours ago, PigFish said:

I have one. Not one for cigars but lumber, drywall... construction item testing. It does not work well on cigars as cigars are not solid and homogenous. I use mine for construction purposes, if wall framing is dry enough for drywall, etc. Don't waste your money!

-Piggy

Ray, does yours measure in RH like this one, or some other unit?

[PigFish]

How can a gadget designed to measure water content in a solid, register in rH, a unit specific to water in space? I have not looked at mine in a couple of years.

I am going out of town for 3 days, and if you remind me with a PM I will scrap around and find it. As I recall, you match the moisture number to the tested substrate to get a PMC. You see there must be an empirical part where readings are tested against a sample that will be dehydrated and tested for absolute water content in order for the measurements to be worthwhile. At least that is what mine does...

Cheers! -R

[Mikeltee]

I know this is old but I asked about this product in the IM which led me here. I too was confused about the patent pending billboard on it as it looks just like my wood moisture meter, but the probes appear to be closer together which is obviously a necessity. Regardless... they are coming out with a calibrator for this. It was announced last month. Cubans are pretty tightly packed and should offer enough resistance to get a measurement and a simple squeeze will surely help those that don't. After recently wasting a perfectly good cigar that was too dry, I will be adding this to my kit to check a couple in every box I get. This will help weed out the local vendors that are obviously not storing their stash in humidors which I believe is the case with my recent dry one. I should have known by all the pics they post with boxes stacked to the ceiling in an apartment spare bedroom. Why someone would invest 30k+ and not even put a couple humidifiers in a room is beyond comprehension for this old dog....

[HumidorJuan]

$30 seems very cheap.

[BrightonCorgi]

On 8/11/2019 at 5:56 PM, PigFish said:

I have one. Not one for cigars but lumber, drywall... construction item testing. It does not work well on cigars as cigars are not solid and homogenous. I use mine for construction purposes, if wall framing is dry enough for drywall, etc. Don't waste your money!

-Piggy

Would measuring the rh of the box be worth it?

[Fugu]

6 hours ago, Mikeltee said:

Regardless... they are coming out with a calibrator for this.

There isn't really much to add to what Piggy already so concisely addressed, back in August. But since you unearthed this thread, Mikeltee ....

What they did here is, they slapped a "Cigarmedics" logo onto a 10-$ log-wood moisture tester - ahem - a "one-of-a-kind gadget", trying to cater to the cigar community. Then, they come up with, pardon, "invented" a virtual unit of 'relative humidity' (rH is always referring to a gas, not solid matter, so this in fact is nonsense) that's to be used with it as a kind of practical scale, a scale the cigar smoker appears to be accustomed to.

And finally, there is that fundamental issue of the heterogeneous, fluffy stuff of undefined density, which a cigar is made of. The final reading is depending as much on actual substrate moisture as it does on cigar construction (compactness), among other factors (mineral content, salts, etc., affecting conductivity). A sure "must-have"....

Even if properly calibrated, for our purpose this is pseudo-accurate. You won't get any meaningful information from it. And sure less than by doing what CaptainQ suggests. Getting a feeling for your cigars and how they smoke is what's crucial. rH is only a proxy for storage and equilibrium moisture for us.

But for those who are using a probe-thermometer for cooking steaks - I'd say go and get one!

[El Presidente]

On 8/12/2019 at 1:56 PM, PigFish said:

. As I recall, you match the moisture number to the tested substrate to get a PMC. You see there must be an empirical part where readings are tested against a sample that will be dehydrated and tested for absolute water content in order for the measurements to be worthwhile. 

Cheers! -R

That's what I was going to say Ray 

 

[PigFish]

On 11/12/2019 at 11:16 AM, BrightonCorgi said:

Would measuring the rh of the box be worth it?

... what is the rH of a box??? (the question is rhetorical)

Read a little of Goo's post. A solid monolith does not have an 'rH number.'

Each hygroscopic substrate will have an amount of water (percent moisture content) of bonded water at any given rH and temperature. It is empirically derived and not measured by an instrument except via a form of comparison (that was at one point empirically derived).

To come full circle, the EPMC of the box, will not likely ever be the same as the cigar, regardless of equilibrium due to the fact that the substrates are different. You could establish a link, via empirical testing, but you already have such a convenient link... That link, rH at a given temperature.

As Goo indicated, these hygroscopic materials have no 'rH.' What we do have is empirical data models based on decades of cigar storage at different rH and temps relating them to ranges that we use today. All the models are empirical. 

Actual destructive PMC models would be better from an eggheads perspective. However for us smokers, that is impractical and pretty much useless data.

If I told you that my cigars are a perfect 11.3895% PMC, that would be meaningless data for you. The best way (instruments notwithstanding) is the comparative variable approach. rH and temperature baby... that is all you need!

Cheers, R

[Mikeltee]

It may not be dead nuts accurate but either is my $3 hygrometer I have in each of my tupperware boxes. If I can test a known good cigar for a baseline reading and test others and find they are many units lower than my test subject I know they are not ready to smoke. There is no other instrument aside from squeezing a cigar and listening for crunch to take a measurement. As I side above, I realize this is a simple moisture meter. The only difference being that the prongs are closer together. I emailed them and they said you can measure down to a 36 ring. My moisture meter is about 1.5" apart. Its $25. What do I have to lose?

[PigFish]

(insert PT Barnum quote here)

-the Pig

 

[PigFish]

... alright! I just wasted some time watching some dude that has eaten way too much sugar and apparently knows nothing about hygroscopic materials put a cigar in a microwave, shove this stupid instrument up the ass of a cigar and say that as the cigar gets heated the 'cigar humidity' goes way up...!

I can see that I will spend the rest of my life trying to undue the garbage, straighten out he tangled minds of the gullible, and try to explain away junk science that will stem from this dollar-store garbage device.

Buy one of these and I will say a prayer for you and your cigars!!! -the Pig