Humidity Problem
I'm having trouble getting a new humidor up to the proper humidity. My digital hygrometer is reading in the high 50s/low 60s rH. Here's the sequence of events leading up to the current situation.
1) Received 75 ct used humidor from my brother. He didn't report problems but then again he was none to vigilant about humidity. Probably used an unknown humidifier and analog hygrometer.
2) Humidor contained 30 cheap cigars that had been outside humidity for over a year. Threw them out.
3) Put a bowl with distilled water inside the humidor for 10 days.
4) Added distilled water to make 75% of the beads in a Heartfelt cylinder good for 2000 cc of humidification; capacity of this small humidor ~700 cc.
5) Removed dish and inserted 5 DP Blue Churchills; after 24 hours got 63 rH
6) This rH continued 3 days; smoked 2 of the Blues.
7) Bought 10 E P Carillo cigars from CigarBid. This was the last time the humidity was good.
8) Humidity low. Inserted one glass of distilled water; still low; inserted another, low; inserted a third today, low.
9) After getting first low reading I added more water to the beads. It looked as if the cylinder needed it as more than 20% were opaque. At this point I thought the problem was with beads.
10) Tested cylinder with hygrometer in a plastic bead. Humidity correct at 66 rH (hygrometer calibrated at 66 after #7)
Shouldn't have been problems at all; even if the 10 E P Carillo cigars were very dry (is this a problem with CigarBid)? The combined surface area of two glasses should have been enough to bring the rH up. Though I read that a humidor can struggle to get the proper humidity and that in the long run it usually does, this is about two weeks of problems.
Leak? If so, why did the humidor have the proper rH with just the 5 Pepin sticks and then go down after putting the 10 E P Carillo sticks in?
Any light you can bring to these events would be sooooo helpful! Mike
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