Ambient humidity and seasonal behavior changes

[Da Klugs]

This topic may not apply to everyone here. If you keep your cigars in coolers you are pretty much immune to the 20-40% drop in humidity in areas of the country where we need to heat.

I experience a dramatic change this time of year in maintenance issues related to humidification. All summer long its a once a month reload of the CO's. Environment where I keep things is always 70 degrees. Have 40 lbs of beads spread around in things that I don't recharge all summer. Inside temp of the cabs is always 68 degrees. Seems simple enough.

Humidity in the summer ranges from 55-60% in the office. This makes for easy humi maintenance. Well heating season just started. The humidity in dropped from 50 to 30% in a week. Humidity in the cabs dropped from 64 to 60% in a couple days last mont. Happens every year. Capacity is good, but less than optimally sealed former cigar club cabinets are a pain during the winter. High end electronically controlled cabinets probably are not affected much other than the need to keep up with the reservoirs. The rest of us have more work to do. Turned on the humidification system on the furnace and got the office back up to 42%.

Adjusted the CO II's to the winter setting. Charged the beads for the first time since June. Need to keep up with this now on a weekly basis till springtime.

Thought I'd post this as this time of year many people start posting about their cigars not tasting the same/ flat / losing their palate. Every system (Other than coolers) is affected in some way. Might be that your cigars are a few points different in RH than they have been during the summer and you need to adjust your humidification settings/process.

[md4958]

Thanks for the info Dave :tu

[Da Klugs]

Thanks for the info Dave :tu

Sorry it's a month late. Had to find my original on the HD. :)

[SilverFox]

Thanks Dave awesome advise as usual.

For me it was very significantly different in my Vino's, the coolers where not impacted and it makes sense after reading your OP as they are a fully sealed environment. In the winter Calgary gets a wide variance of temps and teh RH is low. My Vino's dropped 5 points over night when the temperature bottomed out and they had not moved since maybe July and required hardly any maintenance. Now it is a daily watch to ensure that the beads are doing there thing.

I think this is the main reason I like to be well above the minimum beads for the volume as it allows the beads to maintain equilibrium in larger swings.

[14holestogie]

I had rh issues when I had my humis upstairs, but since moving them to the basement, it's holding pretty steady. Once a month, maybe, for rehydrating and the temp is pretty constant year-round.

[Footbag]

Thanks for the tips...

My cabinet has a decent seal, but I'm still refilling my Avallo once every two weeks.

One thing I've been hypothesizing about which could also effect the winter cigar woes is that the humidity drift can throw off digital hygrometers and will require more frequent calibrating.

I have two hygros in my cabinet at all times. Three if you include the Avallo. I noticed a few serious drifts that clued me into the fact that I needed to recalibrate rather then change any other aspect of my setup.

[shaggy]

i have taken to just putting a container of water in.....been so dry here they really dont get over 62-63 %

[Ratters]

Yep, constant maintenence required this time of year. One PITA is that my Humid-aire sensor went all screwy so it's either on all the time or off all the time, so I got to turn it on for a bit every day by hand to keep things kosher. Things should return to normal in these parts in about two months though.

[Rabidsquirrel]

Had to recharge my beads for the first time since I've gotten them (~2 months). Bit of a struggle to keep my humi at 60%. The cooler, however, sits at 68%.

[blckthree]

Discovered the same thing myself when the heat came on regularly, the humidty dropped and required more maintanance.

Mike :ss

[ahc4353]

It's all I can do to keep mine at 60. I have just one desktop. Can't bring myself to do the cooler thing. Like wood humidors. One day I'm gonna get one of those nice end table ones. I'll battle with that one in the winter as well I guess. Old school is hard work. :D

[icehog3]

Great information, Dave. :)

[Rock Star]

yeah dave..this has been the toughest year for me to keep my unit stable..its been all over the place..

[yourchoice]

This topic may not apply to everyone here. If you keep your cigars in coolers you are pretty much immune to the 20-40% drop in humidity in areas of the country where we need to heat.

I experience a dramatic change this time of year in maintenance issues related to humidification. All summer long its a once a month reload of the CO's. Environment where I keep things is always 70 degrees. Have 40 lbs of beads spread around in things that I don't recharge all summer. Inside temp of the cabs is always 68 degrees. Seems simple enough.

Humidity in the summer ranges from 55-60% in the office. This makes for easy humi maintenance. Well heating season just started. The humidity in dropped from 50 to 30% in a week. Humidity in the cabs dropped from 64 to 60% in a couple days last mont. Happens every year. Capacity is good, but less than optimally sealed former cigar club cabinets are a pain during the winter. High end electronically controlled cabinets probably are not affected much other than the need to keep up with the reservoirs. The rest of us have more work to do. Turned on the humidification system on the furnace and got the office back up to 42%.

Adjusted the CO II's to the winter setting. Charged the beads for the first time since June. Need to keep up with this now on a weekly basis till springtime.

Thought I'd post this as this time of year many people start posting about their cigars not tasting the same/ flat / losing their palate. Every system (Other than coolers) is affected in some way. Might be that your cigars are a few points different in RH than they have been during the summer and you need to adjust your humidification settings/process.

Thank you for the very timely post. I sat at a solid 65% for most of the year and now am pretty much stuck at 60~61%.

One question related to what I bolded above...How much higher than your typical fair weather months' setting do you dial up your CO II?

[Smokin Gator]

You have 40 POUNDS of beads!!!! I think I could regulate my house with 40 lbs. of beads.

[Da Klugs]

Thank you for the very timely post. I sat at a solid 65% for most of the year and now am pretty much stuck at 60~61%.

One question related to what I bolded above...How much higher than your typical fair weather months' setting do you dial up your CO II?

Depends on which one. Varies on the section or cab. Anywhere from 12 to 1 to 12 to 2:30.

[HK3-]

I don't think mine have changed much. :confused:

Maybe I better go have a better look.

Thanks for the useful info Klugs. :tu

[Prefy]

i have taken to just putting a container of water in.....been so dry here they really dont get over 62-63 %

:tpd: I have resorted to the same thing mike!

[Throb]

You have 40 POUNDS of beads!!!! I think I could regulate my house with 40 lbs. of beads.

That's what I thought!!!

1.5 pounds in my Vino, but I find in FL, very little difference between summer and winter. Its been cold here the last few weeks...Down to the 40s at night (not being smug, but that is cold for these parts:D) In the last year since buying my Vino, I've recharged my beads twice, at it was really only a spritzing of water on them.

RH in the house is anywhere from 50-70% and Temps are always around 65-75...The wife likes it at 70 in the house in the summer! You can only imaging what my AC bill is when its 95 from May to Oct!:hn

[Da Klugs]

You have 40 POUNDS of beads!!!! I think I could regulate my house with 40 lbs. of beads.

Its the crazy layout of the cigar club wall unit I bought plus all the other places I keep cigars.... coolers, old cab, humidors etc. Kind of creeps up on you.. till you need to recharge them. :bx

[shilala]

I don't think mine have changed much. :confused:

Maybe I better go have a better look.

Thanks for the useful info Klugs. :tu
Mine haven't changed at all either, Haliburton. :)
I employ the HCM beads/hydra method and I haven't had to do anything but attend to one screaming hydra this winter.
I took the foam out of all but one hydra and I just fill them half way with water. Turns out I missed one, so I tore the foam out of it last week.
I can't wait to see what grief this new cabinet causes me. I'm half scared.

[Cyanide]

I have two wooden humidors. One is a cheaphumidors.com 150 unit, the other is one (75ct) I picked up from a cuban artisan while vacationing there. The holiday one has a bit of a twist to the lid (damn them cubans making woodcrafts in natural 70+% RH). I have added some foam weather-stripping to the inside of the lid and this has helped.

I keep 4 oz of heartfelt 70%'s in each. While it takes about a day to return to 65%, the CH humidor does get back there (though it takes a whole 4 seconds for the RH to start dropping once I open the lid). I only seem to need to charge the beads about once a week. That's north of Edmonton, where the RH is so low that my digital hygrometers can't read the RH if left out of the humis for more than a couple minutes.

Now, the holiday humidor is a little more problematic, this one is sitting at 55%, but the sticks are still smoking well. I recharge these beads at the same time.

My trick has been to put the beads into snack-sized zip-lock bags (the mini bags) and then I spray them down with distilled water from a spray bottle. I can over saturate the beads and they slowly absorb and give off the extra water. Further, the ziplocks give a high open surface area to volume ratio and can be crammed into any free area within the humidor. Flipping the zip portion of the bag inside-out forces the bag to hold itself open as well.

Mind you, 4 oz of beads should cover 2160 cubic inches of humidor (according to retailer). With my humis measuring at 500 (for the 150 cnt) and 375 (75 cnt), this is supposedly overkill. Theoretically, I should be able to bring my bead counts down to 1 oz for either. But, I am happy with what I am doing now. Its probably important to know that I am running both of these humis at near capacity as it is.

I may have to bomb someone to make some space (hint hint)



Cheers

Cy

[dunng]

Thanks for the info Dave! This time of year, I just have to add water more frequently to my Set and Forget It system... it does the rest! :ss

[bobarian]

Bump!:banger