De-humidifying

morefifemusicanyone

I love factory seconds!
Hello,

I have a coolerdor with Heartfelt rh beads (65%). I think I added too much water to them when I initially placed them in my cooler. It is also the end of summer/beginning of fall in MN and as such is pretty humid in my basement.

The beads are keeping my coolerdor down to 71% but it climbs to 74-76 when I open the cooler.

I have the cooler filled with cedar boxes and cigars. I am wondering if there is anything I can add (sponge maybe?) to soak up some of the humidity from the rh beads.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
 
If the beads are in a bag, you can dry them with a hair dryer. Otherwise you can place them on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven at its lowest setting.

Take an Rh reading from inside your boxes. This is a better indicator of the actual Rh of your smokes. :2
 
I will try a hair dryer over them and see how that works. I thought of microwaving them, but I didn't know if that would be too much heat.

The boxes are old cedar cigar boxes made into open trays, so they are not sealed. The rh meter is right next to and on top of some of the boxes (they are stacked in the cooler). I am pretty sure the rh is accurate, but I will stick it inside one of the trays and see if there is a difference.

I used the tops of cigar boxes for lining in the cooler, would putting some of the tops in the oven on low and drying them out work (the cedar would suck out the excess humidity)?

Thanks for the tips!
 
Hello,

I have a coolerdor with Heartfelt rh beads (65%). I think I added too much water to them when I initially placed them in my cooler. It is also the end of summer/beginning of fall in MN and as such is pretty humid in my basement.

The beads are keeping my coolerdor down to 71% but it climbs to 74-76 when I open the cooler.

I have the cooler filled with cedar boxes and cigars. I am wondering if there is anything I can add (sponge maybe?) to soak up some of the humidity from the rh beads.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

:tpd: I think I may be experiencing similar issues as well. Im in the process of building my coolidor and I think I may have added too much water to my beads. Im about to load up my coolidor with my boxes which as of right now remain unseasoned so Im hoping that they might compinsate for the excess moisture:hn. Best of luck morefifemusicanyone ill keep you posted if it works.:tu
 
If that doesn’t work, I’ve heard of people using a product called Damp Rid to suck out excess moisture. I think they sell it at Home Depot. If you decide to go that route, make sure it’s not scented.
 
it's interesting how you say when you open your cooler it goes up...when technically you are losing the air and humidity when you open it...maybe calibrate your hydro first?
 
it's interesting how you say when you open your cooler it goes up...when technically you are losing the air and humidity when you open it...maybe calibrate your hydro first?

I would be losing the humidity only if the external humidity is lower than the humidity inside the cooler.

The humidity of my basement is probably close to 80% I would guess.

The hydro has been calibrated using the calibration kit from heartfelt.
 
damn your basement is sticky as hell...close to like smoking outside in florida =(...so used to no basements...didn't even think about that
 
Yeah, I am thinking its time for a dehumidifier. :)

I used to have a house in Kansas City and went thru this all before.

On an 80-degree day with a RH of 80%, air is pulled into the crawl space and cooled to 68 degrees, the RH goes up by 26.4% (12 degrees x 2.2%). There’s a catch- 80% plus 26.4% is more than 100%! Since we can't have more than 100%, the air becomes oversaturated it gives up the excess moisture on your cold crawl space walls, water tank, pipes, ducts, and other cold things in the form of condensation.
Even during times when you do not have condensation, there will still be high RH levels. This will allow mold to grow and odors to form in your home. Along with the mold, dust mites will also flourish in the high humidity levels.

So the important thing is to get a dehumidifier before you have more problems than soggy cigars.
 
If that doesn’t work, I’ve heard of people using a product called Damp Rid to suck out excess moisture. I think they sell it at Home Depot. If you decide to go that route, make sure it’s not scented.

Damp Rid works well. Drying the beads out with a hair dryer on low works well to though it does take awhile.
 
I dried the beads with a hair drier, rechecked the calibration on my hydrometer, and opened the cooler to dry out for ~1 hour upstairs.

The hydrometer was a couple of degrees off so the cooler was probably closer to 69ish before.

Right now the hydrometer has been in the cooler overnight and it is 66%, so looks like just drying it out a little worked well.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Hopefully this information can help someone else looking for the same answers.
 
Hopefully this information can help someone else looking for the same answers.

Yep, helpful to me cause I am having the same issue with my new heartfelt beads. I overwatered them, not intentionally though. I followed the instructions and they didn't appear to be absorbing the water so I jostled it around in the dish (got the puck type) then all of a sudden the beads rapidly sucked up the water so fast it spread to full absorbtion after pulling it out. My levels were also going too high so I blow dried it - twice. Now it's holding lower but still 1-2 points higher than it's supposed to. Maybe I need to blow dry it one more time. I didn't want to dry them too long cause I didn't want them to get too hot for fear they may melt or something, even on low heat. I'll give it another shot.


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