hygrometer spiking after adding cigars

O

OCjoe

Young Chimp
Hello all,

I have been enjoying the posts here for about the past 2 months. I really appreciate all the knowledge.

I started smoking cigars again after about a 5 year break. I recently took my Diamond Crown humidor (100 capacity) out of storage, aired it out for a few days, seasoned it for a week using a small cup water and DC humidification device, re-calibrated the brass hygrometer using the salt test(dead on@75%), added hygrometer to humidor for one full day and it read 68%, added 14 new various Rocky Patel sticks and the hygrometer is registering 82%. I've used only distilled water. Of course I probably could use some technology upgrades(beads, digital hygrometer) but this is what I have to work with for now.

Any ideas why it would spike after adding the cigars?

Thank you in advance!
 
wet stogies perhaps? or ambient humidity is high outside the humi....temp fluctuatons?

check against another hygro to be sure preferably a digital
 
Let the humi sit open with the smokes inside for an hour or so then close her up and let it sit for 24 hours the restabilize. Check it again and if still too high repeat the process. It worked for me when I had the same set up and problem:2
 
Thank you for all the suggestions and help. I re-examined all the sticks and found one to be a bit on the "wet" side; the others seemed perfectly humidified. I'm also gonna try gwc4sc's suggestion since I too live in Southern CA.
 
I'm having the same problem but I think its self inflected. I have a 300 humi with a 70% jar. The brass hygrometer stated 60 so I added another jar. Received a bomb from my brother with a pillow. Added sticks, pillow and another pillow from a shipment and it spiked to 75. Went to B&M and bought digital because sticks felt mushy. Calibrated. and found I was sitting at 85. I've been running with one jar and lid cracked open for 48 hours. Down to 75% and dropping. so:

Did I hurt the sticks?
were the little pillows too much?
Or was it the second jar?

Thanks
 
BigAl_SC said:
I'm having the same problem but I think its self inflected. I have a 300 humi with a 70% jar. The brass hygrometer stated 60 so I added another jar. Received a bomb from my brother with a pillow. Added sticks, pillow and another pillow from a shipment and it spiked to 75. Went to B&M and bought digital because sticks felt mushy. Calibrated. and found I was sitting at 85. I've been running with one jar and lid cracked open for 48 hours. Down to 75% and dropping. so:

Did I hurt the sticks?
were the little pillows too much?
Or was it the second jar?

Thanks
Click to expand...

What you described is precisely what I've witnessed over and over. A lot of us feel inclined to 'chase' the hygrometer. In most cases the actual moisture content in the humi is just fine, however, the RH appears low/high. More often than not this is due to temperature changes. It's simply nothing to worry about if you know how temp and humidity work together. Not saying that temp was the culprit in your case, but what you described leads me to believe that's what it was.

http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/showthread.php?t=168261
 
DonnieW said:
What you described is precisely what I've witnessed over and over. A lot of us feel inclined to 'chase' the hygrometer. In most cases the actual moisture content in the humi is just fine, however, the RH appears low/high. More often than not this is due to temperature changes. It's simply nothing to worry about if you know how temp and humidity work together. Not saying that temp was the culprit in your case, but what you described leads me to believe that's what it was.

http://www.clubstogie.com/vb/showthread.php?t=168261
Click to expand...

And this is where beads come in, right? Not so much as a humidification device but as insurance/control during fluctuations?
 
doc8466 said:
And this is where beads come in, right? Not so much as a humidification device but as insurance/control during fluctuations?
Click to expand...

Absolutely. They won't help keep the reading on the gauge the constant during temp flux (can't beat physics), but they'll keep the moisture in check, you just need to put your trust in them.
 
Thanks Donnie. I figured as much. Using the comparison with insurance, everyone should have it but you hope you don't need it, but if you do, it's there. :)
 
OCjoe said:
Hello all,

I have been enjoying the posts here for about the past 2 months. I really appreciate all the knowledge.

I started smoking cigars again after about a 5 year break. I recently took my Diamond Crown humidor (100 capacity) out of storage, aired it out for a few days, seasoned it for a week using a small cup water and DC humidification device, re-calibrated the brass hygrometer using the salt test(dead on@75%), added hygrometer to humidor for one full day and it read 68%, added 14 new various Rocky Patel sticks and the hygrometer is registering 82%. I've used only distilled water. Of course I probably could use some technology upgrades(beads, digital hygrometer) but this is what I have to work with for now.

Any ideas why it would spike after adding the cigars?

Thank you in advance!
Click to expand...

The change is the result of 1 (or both) of 2 changes that occured when you added the additional cigars. By adding the cigars the overall "empty" space in you humidor was reduced. You didn't say if you had any humidification device in use, but if you did, the less volume after you added the new cigars would cause the RH to increase. Not knowing the volume of the humi or if you had any other cigars in the humidor before adding the Rocky Patels would make it difficult to determine how much you RH would have increased, but by lowering the volume of air, you should expect to see an increase.

The second culprit would be the new cigars themselves, but I seriously doubt any reputable dealer would have stored the sticks in an area damp enough to have caused that degree of an increase.

If your RH remains at 82% for more than a couple of days I would suggest removing your humidification device and leaving the lid open for several hours before re-checking your RH with the lid closed. If it still remains above 75%, repeat the process until you get the RH down to the 65 to 70% range.:ss

F. Prefect
 
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