Humidor not bringing RH up in Cigars

[Malt]

I bought a new Electric humidor and I’m noticing cigars I have are “dry”. I bought a humidity cigar checker and sure enough the cigars are at 62 ish but the humidor is set at 68. if I jack the humidor up to 75 ish to get the cigars up to what I want which is 68-70 is that a good way to do it? Once they get there turn it back down?

I checked the humidor with 2 other gauges and they are all within 1 degree. Humidor is 68, one gauge is 69 the other is 67 so I know the humidor is working as it should. Here in Nova Scotia it’s been very dry and the humidity in the house is only 50.

[BrightonCorgi]

How long have then been in there? Are the cigars in their original boxes? How were the cigars stored before this humidor?  

It does take time for cigars to catch up and I wouldn't rush it. Raise the humidor to 70% and be patient. 

[Malt]

42 minutes ago, BrightonCorgi said:

How long have then been in there?  Are the cigars in their original boxes? How were the cigars stored before this humidor?  

It does take time for cigars to catch up and I wouldn't rush it.  Raise the humidor to 70% and be patient. 

The cigars I have other than the Canonazos have been in there at least 30 days. Some are not in original boxes. (Should I put them back in the boxes?) I have 8 hand rolled from an event in Florida that were just in plastic transport bags so those are naked. The Montecristo Tubo are still in the tubes and the ones that came in plastic wrappers are still in those. I'm not very patient but it’s dry in the house which isn’t helping. All the cigars as far as I know were stored at 65-70 before I got them.The Canonazos were at 63 and I just got them so after a while they should come up, but I took them out of the plastic wrap (as a bundle) so that they could fit in the humidor. 

[BrightonCorgi]

Wait a couple of more weeks and see where you stand.

[Malt]

The weather here is like yours and all over the place. Playing havoc with humidity in the house. I’ll set it up and wait. 

[zacca]

You need to give it time. They don’t just magically get to the same RH as the humidor in a day or two. Water moves very slowly inside cigars. It will take weeks at a minimum depending on how far off your target they are. And no I wouldn’t advise trying to accelerate this with a higher humidity setting. That’s a good way to have your wrapper swell and separately from the binder. And your mold risk goes up significantly. 

Patience is key for almost all aspects of this hobby.

[Mike Mecklenburg]

On 3/22/2026 at 8:45 AM, Malt said:

The cigars I have other than the Canonazos have been in there at least 30 days. Some are not in original boxes. (Should I put them back in the boxes?) I have 8 hand rolled from an event in Florida that were just in plastic transport bags so those are naked. The Montecristo Tubo are still in the tubes and the ones that came in plastic wrappers are still in those. I'm not very patient but it’s dry in the house which isn’t helping. All the cigars as far as I know were stored at 65-70 before I got them.The Canonazos were at 63 and I just got them so after a while they should come up, but I took them out of the plastic wrap (as a bundle) so that they could fit in the humidor. 

I like to keep my cigars in the original box as long as you have room in your humidor. The 8 hand rolled are good in the transport bags, keep the tubes in tubes and keep the plastic wrappers. It always appears that we buy more cigars than our humidor can hold so I know you are trying to consolidate.  

Like the above advice, you have to climb the humidity ladder very slowly but you did not reveal what is the temperature inside your humidor?

[Malt]

18 hours ago, Mike Mecklenburg said:

I like to keep my cigars in the original box as long as you have room in your humidor. The 8 hand rolled are good in the transport bags, keep the tubes in tubes and keep the plastic wrappers. It always appears that we buy more cigars than our humidor can hold so I know you are trying to consolidate.  

Like the above advice, you have to climb the humidity ladder very slowly but you did not reveal what is the temperature inside your humidor?

The temperature inside is 70F. I ordered a couple of gauges to supplement the RH and temp just to make sure the humidor is reading right. I have 2 extra RH but none are consistent. The water tray is using up water(distilled with gel beads). 

I'll be a lot more patient. If everything I put in there is low 60’s then it will take a while for the whole lot to come up. I did put some back in boxes but I’m limited in space. 

[Malt]

Not much wonder why my cigars were dry. My old humidor which I thought was working correctly was not.  The sensor was off over 6 degrees less than what it said. I had it at 66 so everything was acclimated to 60. 

The picture of the big humidor has the temperature on the door. I bought a new mobile sensor to put inside and took the sensor out of the old humidor and set it in there to see how close it was. Not even close, shows 76 but the other 2 are at 69 and 71 which is what I’m looking for. After 2 weeks with the temperature set up to 70 on the new humidor the cigars are finally coming up. Currently they are are 63-65 depending on the stick.