Problems! Help me diagnose Please

Lately I have been having problems with wrappers cracking and cigars splitting. I keep my humi at 70% and it is very constant with almost no fluctuation. I like to keep my humidity higher because Colorado is very dry. Just today I took a smoke out and let it sit on my desk for about 3 hours before I smoked it and the sum' bitch split right down the side!

My questions are these:

Should I dry box?
How long should I dry box?
Can I just use an old cigar box with out humidification?
Any other ideas as to why this might be happening?

Thanks all!

Dry box them.
At least a day. If they still split, dry box them longer.
That is one of the preferred methods. the key is no humidification.

How about cranking your humi down to 63 and see what happens? Mine is set at 69 or so with an Oasis, and I've never dry boxed anything to smoke it.

I had a problem with stuff splitting on a vacation trip and a ziploc with a humi pillow in it. I think I should have just left that out. I damaged about 3 outta 12 on that trip:smiley18:

Edit: Mabye a salt test is in order for your hydrometer?

Will

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by denver24

Lately I have been having problems with wrappers cracking and cigars splitting. I keep my humi at 70% and it is very constant with almost no fluctuation. I like to keep my humidity higher because Colorado is very dry. Just today I took a smoke out and let it sit on my desk for about 3 hours before I smoked it and the sum' bitch split right down the side!

My questions are these:

Should I dry box?
How long should I dry box?
Can I just use an old cigar box with out humidification?
Any other ideas as to why this might be happening?

Thanks all!

---

If you're using 70% beads, don't wet them as much. I found that keeping them where half are white and half are clear is max. Then wait until most are white before re-wetting. Then, as they said, dry box before smoking. I transfer them to a small humi with one of the solution type sponges. Only I just use a small amount of distilled water. Probably around 60% or less in there. You don't want to let a cigar dry too much before smoking.

I've calibrated both hygrometers (digital and analog). I think I will try dry boxing for 1 day or so.

DeeDubya, I'm using 70 beads so I will try only wetting half of them.

Thanks for the input!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by denver24

I've calibrated both hygrometers (digital and analog). I think I will try dry boxing for 1 day or so.

DeeDubya, I'm using 70 beads so I will try only wetting half of them.

Thanks for the input!

---

As DeeDubya said, you are only supposed to wet half of them anyway.

Drop your RH to 63-65%. Denver us too dry to take a cigar out of a humi kept at 70% RH and smoke it.

Thanks for the heads up Shelby! It's always good to get a little local knowledge. I think the cigars are getting "shocked when they go from 70 RH to pretty much 0 RH and then are cracking.

It may sound strange, but try running a cigar under a faucet for about a second, foot down, then blot off the excess water with a paper towel..

It sounds like your wrappers are drying out almost immediately in the low ambient Rh.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bigwhiteash

It may sound strange, but try running a cigar under a faucet for about a second, foot down, then blot off the excess water with a paper towel..

It sounds like your wrappers are drying out almost immediately in the low ambient Rh.

---

Yep, folks used to lick a cigar to wet the wrapper before lighting.

Before BWA jumps on this one... JMO it's OK for girls to lick their cigars to wet them. Dudes should run tap water over theirs for a second or two.

70% is definitely too high, especially in a dry environment. In the winter when the humidity is nil, I sometimes have wrapper cracking issues.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by drew_goring

70% is definitely too high, especially in a dry environment. In the winter when the humidity is nil, I sometimes have wrapper cracking issues.

---

What about for a wet environment? Any other southerners who experience high levels of humidity find that they have to store their cigars a bit differently? It's not too bad now, but I know as the summer gets closer, we get some very humid days. Effectively, the humidor will be less humid than it is outside. How will my cigars smoke then?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mrtr33

What about for a wet environment? Any other southerners who experience high levels of humidity find that they have to store their cigars a bit differently? It's not too bad now, but I know as the summer gets closer, we get some very humid days. Effectively, the humidor will be less humid than it is outside. How will my cigars smoke then?

---

Cuba has an average RH of 78%. You can walk around with a cigar in your shirt pocket all day and it will smoke just fine.

It's only when a low RH dries the wrapper quicker than the filler, making it brittle and unable to expand when things get steamy in the boiler room.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mrtr33

What about for a wet environment? Any other southerners who experience high levels of humidity find that they have to store their cigars a bit differently? It's not too bad now, but I know as the summer gets closer, we get some very humid days. Effectively, the humidor will be less humid than it is outside. How will my cigars smoke then?

---

I personally think that 70% is too high and store mine around 65. I think that it is the RH differential that splits cigars, hence me having that issue occasionally in the winter when the ambient humidity is very low. I don't make any changes, I just deal with it the time or 2 that it happens in the winter. The temperature I am guessing also plays a factor in this.

The big thing for people who live in places that experience very high humidity is to ensure that you have a way of taking the humidity out if it gets to be excessive. This is commonly done with beads which both release and absorb moisture.

When I was in Cuba and the RH was extremely high I had no issues with my cigars.

Mark, I'll quit moistening my beads around june, last year they did a nice job of removing excess moisture.

I do keep the A/C running pretty much round the clock during the summer, so indoor ambient stay's lower than outside. Cigars smoked perfectly last summer.

Thanks everyone for the input. It's been strange, moving from one of the driest climates in the nation to one of the most humid. It's just one more thing I have to consider. Appreciate the input.

It's been my experience that the biggest thing that causes cracking or unraveling is the differential between the humidity inside and outside the humidor. If you live in a fairly humid climate it shouldn't make much of a difference whether you store them at 65 or 70%. But in a very dry and hot climate the wrapper can split in a matter of a few minutes. Here in Denver the strong sun seems to aggravate the situation.

I remember reading a paper by the guy who invented the cigar oasis. He determined that once a cigar gets over 65% humidity the wrapper becomes much less porous and at about 67-68% no moisture can pass through the wrapper. I reasoned from his article that a dryer cigar (65% or less) can adapt quicker to a dry environment since it seems to make sense that a more porous wrapper would allow the cigar to breathe and equalize quicker. I equate it to not making slits in the top of a microwaveable pouch. If the steam can't escape the pouch will expand and eventually pop. My own experience seems to bear this out. When I went from 70% to 63-65% (smoking RH) I experienced much fewer problems.

Temperature swings are extremely important as a couple degrees difference can change the RH inside your humidor and your devices usually can't keep up. This is probably why temperature controlled humidors are so popular among serious collectors. A 3 degree F drop can increase the RH about 7% if moisture is not pulled out of the air. Beads are probably the best way to control RH in a non temperature controlled environment, but I have my doubts as to whether they can actually keep up.

I have also read that cuban cigars smoke and taste much better at about 65% where non cubans seem to taste better at a higher humidity. Dry boxing can help, but the inside of the box should be about 50% and the cigar stored at 70% should be given at least 3 days to equalize. I have found that this seems to be true.

As for long term aging conventional wisdom says to store at 70/70 but bring them down to your preferred smoking humidity (usually by dry boxing) before smoking them.

I am no expert, but the above seems to make sense and has worked well for me.

Shelby,

Thanks for all of the info. I currently have a few smokes sitting in a dry box with a hygrometer and a sponge humidifier. It is currently holding at 52% so I am going to give it a few days and the smoke these "sample" cigars to see if I experience the same problems. Thanks!

Dry boxing works. Being in Iraq, I keep my humidors at 75% RH for storing and new shipments I get in, and then move the cigars I want to smoke into a dry box which sits around 50% RH.

I've found going from around 70 degress and 70% RH to 95 degrees and less than 5% RH makes a cigar go "boom".


Kris