Humidor Help

My humidor may be out of whack... I lose humidity. It could just be my hygrometer but I have many valuable sticks and some friends have recently made me worried about the state of my cigars. Provide any help or tests that you can!!

[Volt]

1. replace the battery in the hygrometer... Mine seem to last about 9 months accurately.

2. Calibrate the hygrometer with a pack or salt.

3. Add beads to help hold the RH solid.

4. Where is the Humi located. As things begin to heat up direct sun light, sitting under the ac vent can play with the numbers.

5. I find personally all the little hygrometers a crap. I just load my humis up with 65% beads. Mine smoke perfect, no tunneling, uneven burns, and less worries.

[BigCat]

How long have you had this humidor? Did you season it properly before loading it up with sticks? What kind of seal is on it? Did you try the dollar bill/flashlight tests on it? If you didn't season it and/or it doesn't seal well, you are going to have an uphill battle. If you did season it and it does seal well, I agree that beads will go a long way to stabalizing things and letting you worry less about your smokes.

[lightning9191]

Do what the previous posters suggest. How do the sticks feel/smoke? That's what is important at the end of the day.

[Parshooter]

Don't open it up every 10 minutes to check the humidity

[md4958]

Originally Posted by Volt

1. replace the battery in the hygrometer... Mine seem to last about 9 months accurately.

2. Calibrate the hygrometer with a pack or salt.

3. Add beads to help hold the RH solid.

4. Where is the Humi located. As things begin to heat up direct sun light, sitting under the ac vent can play with the numbers.

5. I find personally all the little hygrometers a crap. I just load my humis up with 65% beads. Mine smoke perfect, no tunneling, uneven burns, and less worries.

with Mike

what have your friends told you about your cigars that has your concerned? Are they brittle? Usually you will experience more burn issues with an over Humfried stick, but it sounds like you're loosing humidity.

Some guys like their sticks in the high 50% RH.

[shilala]

If you can't get the nasty bastid to hold humidity AFTER you have recalibrated and re-batteried your hygrometer, put the whole shooting match in a big plastic bag and see if you can stabilize it in there.
If you can hold rh in the bag with the humi in there, it'll tell you your humi is leaking like a sieve. At that point you can add a seal and a snap latch of clasp to draw it tight.

Or you could just get your cooler going now. I tried the Humidor thing, but couldn't control the humidity, so I went to a cooler. It is much easier do deal with. Mine don't need to be messed with for at least 6 months probably closer to a year.

[mosesbotbol]

I have found that waxing the outside of the humidor helps some in keeping the humidity inside.

The most important thing is: How are your cigars?

Forget what the hydrometer says, if the cigars have a touch of spring to them and are smoking fine; leave it at that.

Does you hydrometer element hold water or does it run dry like overnight?