Rotating Cigars and Humidity

When I first started smoking cigars (collecting may be more accurate) I had lots of questions, not the least being about proper storage. Over the past several months I have come to some conclusions that seem to be supported by the results I have had.

First, rotation. I had seen several questions about rotating cigars in the humidor. At first I thought this referred to moving the sticks around occasionally. What I have found is that it is best to leave them alone. Rotation refers to rotating your stock in the sense that you want to put the new cigars in the back or on the bottom of your humidor and then smoke the older sticks. (Newer and older refers to the amount of time they have been in your posession, not the age of the cigar. Remember, your goal is to properly humidify and stabilize the moisture in the cigar once you receive it.) This gives your newer cigars a chance to stabilize over time to your desired humidity level. I have found that doing this has cut my uneven burn and "plugged" cigars down to almost nothing.

The method I have settled on is to have 2 humidors. I like this because the sticks I put in my go-to humidor are properly humidified when I put them in. Hence the box stays stabilized. I have one that holds 60 cigars and another cabinet that holds 1200. When I get new cigars I separate them into boxes containing like cigars and store them in the cabinet for a minimum of 6-8 weeks. The only time I really open the cabinet is when I add or remove cigars to put into the smaller desktop humidor or the oasis plus starts to run for long periods of time. In addition to the oasis plus humidifier, I have 2 pounds of viper's beads in the cabinet.

When the desktop humi starts to get low I take older sticks (at least 2 months in my cabinet) and replenish it from the cabinet. I have 1 1/2 oz of beads in the desktop which keeps the humidity very constant and allows for a quick recovery when I open the box.

The other thing I have come to realize is that opening the humidors may drop the humidity of the ambient air, but it really doesn't bother the cigars as long as the openings are limited and brief (a couple of minutes with an open lid isn't going to hurt.) Over time the cigars absorb moisture to match the ambient relative humidity. Opening the humidor will replace the air inside of the humidor with outside air quickly (this is what your humidistat shows,) but it really doesn't dry out the cigars, and the humidity device stabilizes the ambient humidity long before the cigars have a chance to start drying out. So the net effect is minimal, but make sure you have an adequate amount of beads or a big enough credo. Bigger is better.

Keep your go-to box between 50-80% full. With cigars stabilized to the proper humidity they help to keep the humidity inside your humi constant and helps to quickly bring up the ambient humidity after you close the humidor by minimizing the empty space that will require recovery.

About the Oasis Plus -- I really like it as a supplemental humidifier and an early warning system. It works best in conjunction with the beads. Just set it to the same humidity level as the beads. I use 65%. The price might be high to some, but when you figure that might be the cost of 4-6 good sticks, that is cheap insurance going forward when you consider what you have invested in cigars.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info shelby07!! I have a question for you.

I have noticed over the past few days that my humi is fluctuating between 67 and 70 rh daily. In the mornings and overnight it is on the low end, but during the day as the room heats up, it goes up to 70. The humi is not in direct sunlight, but is in a room with southern exposure so it is a relatively warm room during the day.

I only have one humi, 100 ct (photo's in the pics of your humidor thread) and use a cooler for what overflow that I have. I just recently bought a digital hygrometer with a "base" station that will handle up to 3 transmitters. I use the base to monitor the rooms temp and rh, and the transmitter is in the humi. When I can I will pick up another transmitter for the cooler.

But anyway, is this type of fluctuation to be expected, or should I be concerned? The actual room is about 51 rh, and seems to stay pretty constant. I don't understand where the up/down movement inside the humi is coming from. I use a credo style humidifier with 50/50 PG solution and when I recharge it I usually put some dry cedar blocks in to keep it from spiking too high.

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Originally Posted by ashauler

Thanks for the info shelby07!! I have a question for you.

I have noticed over the past few days that my humi is fluctuating between 67 and 70 rh daily. In the mornings and overnight it is on the low end, but during the day as the room heats up, it goes up to 70. The humi is not in direct sunlight, but is in a room with southern exposure so it is a relatively warm room during the day.

I only have one humi, 100 ct (photo's in the pics of your humidor thread) and use a cooler for what overflow that I have. I just recently bought a digital hygrometer with a "base" station that will handle up to 3 transmitters. I use the base to monitor the rooms temp and rh, and the transmitter is in the humi. When I can I will pick up another transmitter for the cooler.

But anyway, is this type of fluctuation to be expected, or should I be concerned? The actual room is about 51 rh, and seems to stay pretty constant. I don't understand where the up/down movement inside the humi is coming from. I use a credo style humidifier with 50/50 PG solution and when I recharge it I usually put some dry cedar blocks in to keep it from spiking too high.

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This is actually very understandable. We usually measure outdoor temperature but rarely pay attention to outdoor humidity. Just as the temperature inside the humidor changes with the outside air, so does the humidity. The major contributor to the humidity in the air is heating. During the day the sun heats the earth which causes evaporation and the humidity goes up. At night the earth cools so the humidity drops.

Remember a couple of things. One, the humidor is designed to seal, but it also is designed to exchange a small amount of air so the gasses don't build up. This is the reason you have to open up a coolidor occasionally but you don't need to worry about a humidor. Second, the humidification device doesn't correct immediately, it works slowly over time. Third, your humidistat doesn't record the amount of moisture in the cigar (which is what you are really concerned with) but it records the amount of moisture in the ambient air inside of the humidor.

So at night, humidity drops. The humidor does a great job of keeping the inside contained, but the inside humidity is still affected by the ambient humidity outside of the humidor. As the outside humidity drops perhaps as much as 20-30 points I would expect that the humidity inside of the humidor would also drop somewhat. But the fluctuation of a few percentage points inside the humidor over a 24 hour period is not going to change the relative moisture inside the cigars enough to worry about.

Wow, very helpful information. Thanks Shelby!