Humidity - please help if possible.

[goalie204]

I enjoy cigars, and am trying to learn patience.

There is a longer background story if anyone needs to know, but i'm going to try only to include the things i feel are most significant.

-I re-seasoned my humidor a few weeks ago for 9 or so days.
-My 65% beads arrived in the mail. I charged them and put them in. RH just after seasoning was about 64%
-Before adding cigars, i watched the hygrometer. Slowly RH kept dropping. When it was at around 58, I added cigars (at the time, around 10 was all i had).
-Humidity kept dropping, it dropped to 54, then 52. On the advice of some friends here, I put the cigars in a tupperware container, along with the puck and the hygrometer.
-I bought a vino and put the tupperware in it, humidity started going up. It was at around 57 a few days ago.
-Yesterday I Received a package of 12 cigars and added them along with the 8 i had back to the humidor with the puck and hygro.
-Put the humidor in the empty vino for its sexy air tightness. Recharged beads (they are fully charged, probably 99%)
-Hygrometer now reads 51 this morning with my 20 sticks in it.

A lot of you have been helping me, and I've been getting different advice from several people and it it's all appreciated, and being a newb, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong if anything, or what i can do to resolve it. I thought maybe i was being impatient, but I've never had a constant RH of over 60 in at least 1.5 months of owning my little 25-50ct, and i'd like around 60-61 at least. I've gone through a lot of scenarios in my head, and come to the cigar asylum brethren to please help me with any advice, suggestions you can.

Thanks in advance

Myles

btw, merry christmas everyone
and Happy Chanukah to my heebz

[goalie204]

btw, hygrometers are calibrated, before someone asks

[Martin]

How many lbs of beads are in your humi?

[goalie204]

Originally Posted by Martin

How many lbs of beads are in your humi?

beads - http://www.cigarmony.com/index.asp?P...ROD&ProdID=267

humidor - http://www.pipesandcigars.com/25rowowindeb.html

[K Baz]

I'll give you the toughest words to hear in the early times of dealing with RH - it's going to be fine. Your cigars will be fine from 55 % - 70 % many people store them in these ranges. The rapid swings are what you want to avoid.

Now what is the deviation on your hygros so we know what your actual RH is?

Also considering all the changes your doing new vino, add sticks, removing sticks, etc it will take a while for everything to balance and settle. If your sticks are dry from shipping they will "suck up" the RH when you open the lid/door you lose some RH. Also a hygro is not like a clock it doesn't report the RH changes instantly I give my hygro 24 - 36 hours to adjust to any of the adjustments I make.

I know ifs tough as you want to take care of your collection and you want to make everything all right.

My suggestion is take out what you plan to smoke in the next week put it in the week or so and then leave the rest in your humi and leave the humi open in your vino. Let them all settle undistrubed for as long as possible. I would also consider going to your B&M and getting some plan empty boxes i.e. PSD 4, Petite Edmondo, boxes with lots of exposed wood. These will take up space and add to the leveling out of the RH. They will suck up some RH when you add them but they will help later in keeping it constant. Also the less space you have the lest hard the beads have to work as they,depending on the volume you have, take time to release the RH. The boxes are also nice looking and to store singles.

Rest assured once you have everything in your vino conditioned and you fill it up more it will become rock solid as far as RH. I have a fridge and it sits on 60 % for months and never moves it becomes tough to even adjust the RH if you want to.

Hope this helps. Also if your just to neverous and need instant results I suggest you look at something more active on the RH front look at a Hydra this will release RH once it hit a certain level and is more active then beads.

[goalie204]

Thanks Kevin, I'm not nervous, no worrys there. I think this whole thing is actually a blessing in disguise. For me, it's been a different slope than the one people here talk about. I've fallen down the slope of "caring too much to the point of getting so frustrated that you have to stop caring in order to remain sane" and i'm almost to the bottom, thanks for the advice

[K Baz]

No worries its not uncommon. I at one time drove myself batty try to "fix" RH problems. I went through two wooden humis and a couple of Hygros then a cigar oasis and on and on.

The solution is the vino in my opion will save your problems. fill it with more beads then you need charged at 60 % then get your cigars in there then fill up what you have left with spanish cedar trays or empty boxes to help stablize and remove empty space.

Once you get it down there is a feeling of releaf then you can go back to worrying about the impoetant stuff like what smokes to buy next.

[goalie204]

one day maybe, right now im financially not so good. I blame xmas, and i blame this site! *shakes fist*

[Mugen910]

Myles your sticks may be just soaking up the humidity for a bit. Give it some time and it'll eventually level off. I wouldn't worry to much brother. Keep in mind some of us on here freeze our cigars and bring them back to life so a little time low humidity should be fine until every gets normal...also try putting two hygrometers in your vino. One at the top and the other at the bottom. That way you can see if there is any diff not only in temp/humidity but also in calibrations of the hygrometers.

[goalie204]

On it bao

[acarr]

Have you checked your humidor for leaks? The vino may be airtight but if there are leaks in the humidor, the ambient RH around the box in the vino is going to be dry and suck all the humidity out of the humidor.

[goalie204]

flash light test and dollar bill test both passed

[Mugen910]

Originally Posted by goalie204

flash light test and dollar bill test both passed

??? Please explain.

[BORIStheBLADE]

I'm sure you do,but I'll ask anyways. You have that drain hole on the bottom of the vino plugged/covered right?

[St. Lou Stu]

Is it any better yet?

[goalie204]

Originally Posted by Mugen910

??? Please explain.

flashlight in, lid closed, no sign of light -

dollar bill half in half in, lid closed, lots of resistance, cant pull out easy -

[goalie204]

Originally Posted by BORIStheBLADE

I'm sure you do,but I'll ask anyways. You have that drain hole on the bottom of the vino plugged/covered right?

Yes i did plug it, but the issue is humidity inside the humidor. Take the vino out of the equation completely. It doesn't play a role in the humidity problem im having, because i had the same problem while the humidor sat upon a shelf.

[Mugen910]

Originally Posted by goalie204

flashlight in, lid closed, no sign of light -

dollar bill half in half in, lid closed, lots of resistance, cant pull out easy -

I like the flashlight trick... Thanks

what do you do if the dollar bill trick shows little resistance?

[Rabidsquirrel]

Originally Posted by Mugen910

I like the flashlight trick... Thanks

what do you do if the dollar bill trick shows little resistance?

It sounds like it's the same principle when you use the dollar bill to see if the seals are bad on your car window. Little resistance indicates that the seals are bad. I guess you can just add a piece of tape to the humidor to bulk up the seal a bit.

[MikeyC]

Originally Posted by goalie204

Yes i did plug it, but the issue is humidity inside the humidor. Take the vino out of the equation completely. It doesn't play a role in the humidity problem im having, because i had the same problem while the humidor sat upon a shelf.

Well, if you bought a Vino . . . why not get more beads so that you can maintain the RH of the larger space within the Vino? Then you don't have to worry about any problems with your humi. You can keep the humi around for dry boxing or you can just leave it in the Vino to store singles.