Humidity

S

Silhanek

Gorilla
Ok, so directions with my new humidor say to put a small bowl of water inside for a couple days to help raise the humidity and to use warm water to speed up the process. Ok, so I pour out a 1/4 cup of distilled water and zap it for 30 seconds to warm it up. Place the bowl in the bottom and close the lid.

The model I bought has a glass top for viewing and it started to condense water (fog up) on the glass. About an hour later my hygrometer only reads 70%. I've had the bowl of water in there for 4 days and the level has gone down to 55-60% after the first day and stayed constant.

Shouldn't it have read 100% with condensation on the glass?

Anyway, I've read up on salt testing and am going to do that tonight. I was just curious because if it reads 70% when it is really 100%, then one would think that a reading of 55% is actually 85%, right?

Ahh, I think I just need to order some beads.
 
When you salt test, your hygrometer should read 75%.

The inidication of fog on the glass is not indicitive of 100% RH.

Calibrate first and then go from there bro.

Hope this helps

~Mark
 
definately get those beads, 100% best thing ever.

sounds like your humi should be seasoned now, if its been 4 days (subject to size).

Get some 65% beads, put them in (water about 60% of them with distilled water) and then you're good to go

good luck bro

andy
 
Silhanek said:
Ok, so directions with my new humidor say to put a small bowl of water inside for a couple days to help raise the humidity and to use warm water to speed up the process. Ok, so I pour out a 1/4 cup of distilled water and zap it for 30 seconds to warm it up. Place the bowl in the bottom and close the lid.

The model I bought has a glass top for viewing and it started to condense water (fog up) on the glass. About an hour later my hygrometer only reads 70%. I've had the bowl of water in there for 4 days and the level has gone down to 55-60% after the first day and stayed constant.

Shouldn't it have read 100% with condensation on the glass?

Anyway, I've read up on salt testing and am going to do that tonight. I was just curious because if it reads 70% when it is really 100%, then one would think that a reading of 55% is actually 85%, right?

Ahh, I think I just need to order some beads.
Click to expand...


That hygrometer Digital or Analog?
 
Actually in my opinion the condenstate on the glass is the humidity you want in the air being attracted to the cool surface of the glass; so in reality it is robbing the air of moisture. Is the air striking the glass significantly cooler then that on the air inside the humidor? When I first started my display humidor (glass on 3 sides) I had a terrible time getting it to 70% Do you have any old cigar boxes or items that you could put in the humidor to help it stabilize? Heck even if you put 10 or so dog rockets or strips of cardboard in there it would give it some place to start. Cold glass is always going to be a pain. I hope my :2 are helpful. I would strongly suggest looking into obtaining some beads at the RH of your choice. in the meantime be careful not to over humidify as that can be a pain to deal with as well. Hope to hear from you soon that everything is on track :)
 
Ok, beads are definatly on my wish list. I was just hoping to make the current setup work for a little while.

It's an analog. I was thinking that visible water would mean 100%, but I guess not. The highest I've seen it go is 70%. When it arrived, it was reading 40% and I had it opened for a while and it went down to less than 20%. I am in AZ, so that seemed right since our humidity rarely goes into double digits.

The water only collected on the glass when I put the warm water inside. After a few hours that went away. It's been holding constant temp and humidity for the last couple days, so I think it is going to be a good setup once I figure out the guages and get it calibrated. :)

Thanks for the quick answers.
 
Silhanek said:
Ok, beads are definatly on my wish list. I was just hoping to make the current setup work for a little while.

It's an analog. I was thinking that visible water would mean 100%, but I guess not. The highest I've seen it go is 70%. When it arrived, it was reading 40% and I had it opened for a while and it went down to less than 20%. I am in AZ, so that seemed right since our humidity rarely goes into double digits.

The water only collected on the glass when I put the warm water inside. After a few hours that went away. It's been holding constant temp and humidity for the last couple days, so I think it is going to be a good setup once I figure out the guages and get it calibrated. :)

Thanks for the quick answers.
Click to expand...

Pick up a Digital Hydro then salt test it / Analogs are off 80% of time.
Heartfelt sells them :) so when your order your beads grab a digi :)
http://www.heartfeltindustries.com/Hygrometers.htm
 
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As everyone else suggests, you can't beat beads. However, be patient. It takes time to season the wood. Especially if you keep opening the lid. Twice now, when seasoning my humidors, I got overanxious and added my cigars too early. Even if you can get it up to 70%, the wood still takes time to season. As soon as you open the lid the humidity drops to nothing if it hasn't "seeped" into the wood. The wood acts as the buffer. Leave the water in and leave the box alone for a couple of days and then check. This is assuming your hygro is calibrated. I'm sure if you search around you'll find hygro calibration and humidor seasoning. Hope this helps some.

Bill
 
The biggest concern right now is the hygrometer. It's an analog, I'll guarantee you it's off. Even if you salt-tested it and adjusted it, they have a tendency to be off. Get a digital hygro, salt-test that, and then you can trust the readings you get.

After that, you can figure out exactly what the actual RH is in the humidor, and I'll bet that it's greater than 70% with the bowl in there.

At the same time as you order the hygro, get some beads (most would recommend 65%). That way as soon as you figure out the actual RH%, you can add the beads to either add RH or remove RH from the humi. (If you need to remove RH, you want very little distilled water added to the beads, if you need to add RH, you want a bit more distilled water.)

Regarding the condensation -- that certainly wouldn't mean 100% RH. 100% RH would mean that the air has so much water in it that it's completely saturated. You would have apparent fog throughout the humidor if that was true. :) It's likely happening due to a temperature difference between the inside of the humi and the outside. If the temperature fluctuates easily, then that will cause more condensation, as the change in temperature (with outside being cooler than the inside) will cause water to condense.

Either way, with 4 days of seasoning, I bet the humi is ready and you just need beads and a hygro.
 
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