New Raching MON2800A is on the way

[BJack]

For me it's been a process of trial-and-error with different temp and RH settings over a few years (well before I got the Raching unit). With my first NewAir 1500 unit I started at 68F and 68% RH (just to be a bit lower than the standard 70/70 and what most retailers sell you cigars at) and then slowly over about and year and a half got to my 70F/64% RH settings. I would literally move the RH 1% (up/down), wait at least a month or two so all the cigars in boxes acclimate, smoke several, then tweak again by a % etc etc.
My reasons for settling on those are two-fold. The first is just purely personal preference...I just found I enjoy my cigars a lot more when they are a little drier. I find the flavors are more crisp/clean, less muted and very importantly for me they simply burn better, more even. I smoke very slowly...like about a puff (at most two) per minute. 
The second reason is my environment, and this will vary wildly depending on where you are. I live in a high temp and high humidity environment and always smoke outside on my patio. All year around, at night (when I smoke) outside the temp range is about 75F (lowest) up to about 88F and outside humidity is high 70% (lowest) and sometimes as high as 90%. So I found I need to store my cigars a bit drier so when I pull it out the wrapper does not get over-saturated with moisture while I am smoking it. So I found that storing at 64%RH (@ 70F) gives me just the right amount of moisture in the cigar so that it also burns nicely when I smoke outside in much higher humidity.
I have smoke cigars as low as 70F / 60%RH, but find that a bit too dry for my taste. 62%RH works great for me too, but I just bumped it up a tad to 64%RH just because I am not sure how well cigars will hold flavor if I want to age a few boxes for say 2-3 years. What I did find (for me) is that at 70F and any avg %RH over 66%, my cigars just burn like crap and because I smoke slow I had to keep re-lighting and touching up. Whereas now I light once and rarely have to touch my lighter while smoking. I figured out that for me (where I am), cigars stored at 70F and between 62%RH - 65%RH are always great.
So bottom line I store them at these settings based on my taste and environment. I don't believe you can go wrong with RH% 60-70. If you keep steady temps between 65F-70F, it's just a personal choice.

I appreciate you giving me your thoughts in such detail. I’ve been messing around with my humidor for about the last two years. Always trying to find the perfect temp and humidity. But now I’m about to move to another state and I’m going to have to do new adjustments again. So I’m always curious to see why other people place their humidity and temperature at the points they do. Thanks again for your thoughts.


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[Socrates]

A pleasure and it does seem like everyone goes thru a bit of journey finding their preferred temp & humidity for storage / smoking. I also can't dry-box where I am (not sure I would want to either way)...so with me it was a matter to find the best single settings that I can just smoke and store at. Of course, now I am already wondering whether I should lower to 63% RH for the summer LOL. It never ends! 😆

Good luck with your move and happy smoking!

[yuppie]

Gorgeous unit and appreciate the data you provided along with it.

[Socrates]

Thanks! Yeah I decided to just keep posting my experiences and observations as I use the unit. I know when I was thinking about buying a Raching I was scouring forums trying to find any real-life comments about their units, so I thought, "what the heck, I might as well do it with mine in case it helps others who may be thinking about buying one."