Cigar Grads 3 - Dry Climate Humidity Control.

   By now you've already got your humidor seasoned and working. However, being a humidor owner has its ups and downs. Even though your humidor is stable the moment, there will be occasions where it will mysteriously loose containment or fluctuate. This entry will explain and inform you about why your humidor is doing this and what you can do about it.

You may have added some bad apples to the bunch

    Have you ever noticed when you buy a few cigars and put them in your humidor, the humidity drops? I never realized this was happening to me. The shop I was buying cigars from kept their cigars slightly drier then usual. They weren't bad bay any means, just not as humidified as my humidor was. Adding a few to my humidor was causing the humidity to drop and often times dry out the other cigars. When this happened, the RH fell quickly and never stabilized. Just for comparison, I had about 40 cigars I had purchased online, which tend to be slightly over humidified for shipping, and placed them in my Coolidor with a bead humidifier. After about two hours, I checked the hygrometer and it read 76%! The humidifier I had was too much as the cigars were already saturated. So I took the humidifier out and let the cigars settle down. Once the humidity dropped to about 68% I threw the humidifier back in there and all is well.

    Here's what was going on in my cedar humidor. The dry cigars I added, pulled moisture away from the cigars that were already stable. This resulted in the other cigars looking humidity as well as the cedar walls of the humidor. Well, living in a dry climate, the wood of my humidor has a hard enough time staying moist on its own so it was starting to struggle with the RH imbalance. Eventually, the RH fell below 60%. Something wasn't right.

    What I had to do was remove my cigars and put them in a plastic airtight container with the humidifier (Coolers work well). I left them all in there for about a month. Rotating them regularly, constantly checking the hygrometer. In the meantime, I placed a wet sponge on a dish in the humidor so the wood would remain saturated. After I was satisfied that my cigars were re-humidified, I placed them back in the humidor and switched from using a Gel humidifier to beads.

    So far, the RH has been stable. What I do now when I buy a new cigar from anywhere, is give them a light squeeze. If they're supple and slightly firm like they should be, I'll place them in the humidor. But if they are rigid and dry, I'll place them in the plastic container with a humidifier for a few days to a week. Once the cigar looks and feels humidified I'll move it to the Humidor.


It may be Old Man Winter

    Though many of us love winter time, sometimes our humidor shows us its disdain for it. Unless you've got a completely airtight Pelican case for your cigar storage, I'm betting you notice your RH goes haywire once you start cranking the central heat. Like I've said before, in drier climates like mine, winter time can wreak havoc on you humidors RH. Anytime you start running your heater, everything from your skin, hair, and cigars start to feel dry. This is because in the winter time, your home turns into an enormous dehydrator. Have you ever used one of those? A dehydrator simply circulates heated, dry air, in order to draw the moisture out of food. This is what your home does in the winter when your heat runs.

    The first things I will recommend is relocating your humidor away from any heating vents and, if you have a multi-level house, move it down stairs. Heat rises and the upstairs level in my home is always parched and hot while the downstairs level seems to stay nice and cool. Doing these two things made huge differences for me.

    The next things I will suggest are; 1) Always check your humidifier and recharge it twice as often as normal. 2) If you are fortunate enough to own a large Pelican/synthetic air tight case, place your entire humidor in it to keep the moisture in until winter passes. 3) If you don't have a case large enough, buy a space humidifier. Keeping your room well humidified will reduce the rate at which the heat will zap the moisture from you humidor. If none of those work, go with the tried and true (and inexpensive) Coolidor. Simply buy a cooler that has a good lid seal and place all of your cigars in there with the appropriate humidifier. I've done that and it works wonders.

    I hope these steps will help you battle the ongoing RH fight. Please follow the links below for glass top humidor leaks and seasoning. Take Care!

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